The Nation - News from Aug. 1, 1988

Men whose jobs combine high psychological demands with little control over their work face two to three times the risk of heart attack than other male workers do, a new study said. Cooks, waiters, computer operators, gas station attendants and some assembly line workers were among the high-risk jobs found in the analysis of nearly 5,000 men. But employers may be able to redesign high-risk jobs to lower heart attack risk and improve productivity, said Robert Karasek, an associate professor at USC. The findings will be reported in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Executive and professional jobs were not considered high-strain because they include a lot of control.