Shift work, decision latitude and ventricular ectopic activity: A study of 24-hour electrocardiograms in Swedish prison personnel

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Abstract
The psychosocial conditions at work (in particular a low level of decision latitude), as well as Shift work, have been shown to be associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease in several epidemiological studies. Similarly, the 24-hour incidence of ventricular ectopic beats has been associated with increased risk. Thus the significance of the psychosocial work environment for ventricular ectopy was examined in a population with a wide range of work conditions—namely Swedish prison personnel. Sixty-six men, 86% of all the men in a stratified sample of employees in four different prisons, were examined. ‘Night work’ was defined as night work during the 24-hour recording period. Decision latitude was measured by means of two questions in a self-administered questionnaire. Job satisfaction and job demands were measured in the same questionnaire by means of six and 14 questions respectively. The dimensions had been constructed on the basis of previous factor analysis. In uvariate analysis, ‘night work’ was the only working condition that was significantly associated with ectopic activity. However, a low level of decision latitude and satisfaction also tended to be (p < 0.10) associated with such activity. In a multivariate analysis, using ‘normalized’ VEB frequency (log VEB + 0.1) as the dependent variable, age and ‘night work’ were the only factors that significantly predicted this measure using job-descriptive variables (demands, satisfaction, type of work, Shift work cycle) and age as independent variables. In a corresponding analysis of the predictive power of a set of lifestyle variables and age, ‘night work’ was again the only factor, besides age, that explained a significant amount of the variance in ectopic activity.