Chicago — Chronic workplace harassment may increase the risk of coronary heart disease, arthritic/rheumatic conditions and migraines, results of a recent University of Illinois Chicago study show.
Researchers surveyed a national representative sample of nearly 5,000 UIC employees in different job categories (faculty, students, clerical/administrative and service/maintenance) seven times between 1997 and 2006, then again in 2020.
Nearly two-thirds of participants (63%) said they’d been harassed on the job, while 47% indicated they had experienced sexual harassment. Of these groups, around a third experienced chronic harassment, which increased the odds of coronary heart disease nearly 3.4 times, arthritic/rheumatic conditions more than 1.6 times and recent migraines more than 1.7 times.
About 43% of the workers reported high blood pressure because of harassment, while nearly 4% suffered a heart attack.
“Occupational health professionals need to be aware of the importance of supporting organizational antiharassment policies to protect the health of their workers,” the researchers write. “Worker health can be protected through strengthening and enforcing organizational and social antiharassment policies and laws.”
The study was published online in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
