Abstract
Purpose
Job stress has proven to be a relevant cause of stress for adults, but its effect on the development of metabolic alterations in individuals with obesity is still poorly explored. We aimed to investigate the association between job stress and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) phenotype in participants with obesity at the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) baseline assessment.
Methods
This study analyzed data collected at the baseline examination between 2008 and 2010. A total of 2371 individuals with obesity were included. Two metabolic phenotypes were characterized based on the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey criteria. The job stress scale was based on the Brazilian version of the Swedish Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire. The association between job stress domains and MUO phenotype was assessed by binary logistic models.
Results
In our sample, 1297 (54.7%) participants were women, mean age was 49.6 ± 7.1 years and 1696 (71.5%) had MUO. Low skill discretion was associated with MUO after adjustment for age, sex and race. However, in fully-adjusted models, the MUO phenotype was not associated with high job demand (odds ratio [OR] = 1.05; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 0.82–1.35), low skill discretion (OR = 1.26; 95%CI 0.95–1.68), low decision authority (OR = 0.94; 95%CI 0.70–1.25) nor low social support (OR = 0.93; 95%CI 0.71–1.20).
Conclusion
We found a significant association between low skill discretion and an adverse metabolic profile in models adjusted for age, sex and race. No associations were significant between job stress domains and the metabolic profile of individuals with obesity in full models.
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Funding
The ELSA-Brasil baseline study was supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (Science and Technology Department) and the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos and CNPq National Research Council) (Grants 01 06 0010.00 RS, 01 06 0212.00 BA, 01 06 0300.00 ES, 01 06 0278.00 MG, 01 06 0115.00 SP, 01 06 0071.00 RJ). The funding sources had no role in study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report nor in the decision to submit the article for publication. LI received a scholarship grant from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Grant number 2016/24183-5.
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LI: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing original draft. BHT: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing original draft. RHG: conceptualization, investigation, writing (review and editing), supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. MJMF: conceptualization, investigation, writing (review and editing), supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. ACP: methodology, investigation, writing (review and editing). MFSD: conceptualization, investigation, writing (review and editing). PAL: conceptualization, investigation, writing (review and editing), supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. IMB: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing (review and editing), supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. ISS: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing original draft writing (review and editing), supervision.
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Imbiriba, L., Tess, B.H., Griep, R.H. et al. Metabolic status is not associated with job stress in individuals with obesity: the ELSA-Brasil baseline. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 94, 639–646 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01613-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01613-7