استرس کار و سندرم متابولیکی در رادیولوژیست: اولین شواهد  Work stress and metabolic syndrome in radiologists: first evidence

Discussion Our study demonstrated that radiologists with higher stress levels run a fourfold to sixfold greater risk of being affected by metabolic syndrome than radiologists with lower levels of stress. All work stress measurements were able to predict the presence of metabolic syndrome components in a linear way. To our knowledge, this was the first study to take this category of workers into consideration to examine the association between stress and metabolic diseases. Introduction The literature contains ample scientific evidence of the association between work stress and the risk of cardiovascular disease [1, 2]. The Whitehall II study demonstrated that socioeconomic and familial risk factors that are present prior to employment are less important than occupational stress in the onset of cardiovascular disease [3]. Metabolic factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and obesity are some important ways in which stress manifests itself. For this reason, researchers have recently recognized the need to clarify the relationship between stress and metabolic syndrome. In fact, it is thought that the latter together with life styles accounts for approximately one-third of the effect of stress on the risk of cardiovascular disease [4]. Radiologists can be exposed to considerable environmental pressure [5, 6] that may lead to a prolonged state of occupational stress [7] and a reduction in job satisfaction [8]. Comparison with other healthcare workers has shown that occupational stress is particularly high among radiologists [9]. Consequently we need to consider whether occupational stress in radiologists may be related to metabolic syndrome, or to its components. Our cross-sectional study is a first attempt to address this issue.