Job strain, occupational category, and hypertension prevalence: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Objective—To assess associations of occupational categories and job characteristics with prevalent hypertension. Methods—We analyzed 2,517 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) participants, working 20+ hours per week, in 2002–4. Results—Higher job decision latitude was associated with a lower prevalence of hypertension, prevalence ratio (PR)=0.78 (95% CI 0.66–0.91) for the top vs. bottom quartile of job decision latitude. However, associations differed by occupation: decision latitude was associated with a Corresponding author: Paul Landsbergis, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, MSC 43, School of Public Health, SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11203, [email protected], Telephone: 718-270-1075, Fax: 718-221-5154. Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicting interests to report. Disclosure of funding: MESA is supported by contracts N01-HC-95159 through N01-HC-95169 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Occupational coding was supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NORA FY08 CRN SLB8). Joel Kaufman was supported by NIEHS (K24ES013195). HHS Public Access Author manuscript J Occup Environ Med. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 November 01. Published in final edited form as: J Occup Environ Med. 2015 November ; 57(11): 1178–1184. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000000533. A uhor M anscript