Job Insecurity Is Associated with Slightly Elevated Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

Job insecurity is associated with psychological distress, adverse physical symptoms, and poor self-rated health. But, whether job insecurity is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) is unclear. Researchers analyzed data from 174,000 working adults who were participating in 17 prospective studies in the U.S. and Europe. Participants were free of CHD at baseline. Job insecurity was assessed using a global question regarding level of insecurity in the current job or with questions regarding fear of layoff or unemployment; answers were dichotomized as high versus low job insecurity. Incident CHD was ascertained from hospital records or death registries.

During mean follow-up of nearly 10 years, 1900 incident CHD-related events (e.g., myoc…