Study explores most common risk factor for job-related stress

Ljubljana, Slovenia — Work intensity is the most commonly identified risk factor for daily stress on the job, European researchers have concluded after conducting a research review.

The researchers looked at 41 studies that assessed “stress exposures as work environment risk factors and stress outcomes,” as measured by questionnaires and other detection methods. They found that work intensity, which encompasses deadlines and other time pressures and job demands, was the risk factor most often measured.

“While chronic workplace stress is known to be associated with health-related outcomes like mental (issues) and cardiovascular diseases, research about day-to-day occupational stress is limited,” write the researchers, who call for more research “combining self-perceived stress exposures and outcomes with physiological” measurements.

The study was published online Feb. 5 in BMC Public Health.