Previous research of possible links between work-related stress and cancer in the human body has brought only vague conclusions. Now, however, a study showed that there is no direct link between job stress and colon, lung, breast or prostate cancer. That is at least according to the scientists from an international consortium focused on individual-participant-data analysis in working populations (IPD-Work Consortium) led by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the University College London.
The researchers assessed psychological stress using the "job strain" validated measure. The measure was divided into four categories - high (high demands, low control), active (high demands, high control), passive (low demands, low control) and low (low demands and high control).
A meta-analysis of data from 12 studies involving 116,000 people aged 17 to 70 years from Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and the UK showed that, in 90% of the cases, the cause of cancer is in environmental exposure, including smoking or ultraviolet radiation but not stress. Stress can only lead the working population to a higher consumption of alcohol and tobacco or to obesity, which already are important factors for the development of cancer. By itself, however, stress does not influence the development of cancer.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal and is also available online on this site.
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