Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Work stress, smoking status and smoking intensity: an observational study of 46 190 employees

Kouvonen, Anne; Kivim�ki, Mika; Virtanen, Marianna; Pentti, Jaana; Vahtera, Jussi

Work stress, smoking status and smoking intensity: an observational study of 46 190 employees Thumbnail


Authors

Anne Kouvonen

Mika Kivim�ki

Marianna Virtanen

Jaana Pentti

Jussi Vahtera



Abstract

Study objective: To examine the relationship between work stress, as indicated by the job strain model and the effort-reward imbalance model, and smoking.
Setting: Ten municipalities and 21 hospitals in Finland.
Design and Participants: Binary logistic regression models for the prevalence of smoking were related to survey responses of 37 309 female and 8881 male Finnish public sector employees aged 17-65. Separate multinomial logistic regression models were calculated for smoking intensity for 8130 smokers. In addition, binary logistic regression models for ex-smoking were fitted among 16 277 former and current smokers. In all analyses, adjustments were made for age, basic education, occupational status, type of employment and marital status.
Main results: Respondents with high effort-reward imbalance or lower rewards were more likely to be smokers. Among smokers, an increased likelihood of higher intensity of smoking was associated with higher job strain and higher effort-reward imbalance and their components such as low job control and low rewards. Smoking intensity was also higher in active jobs in women, in passive jobs and among employees with low effort expenditure. Among former and current smokers, high job strain, high effort-reward imbalance and high job demands were associated with a higher likelihood of being a current smoker. Lower effort was associated with a higher likelihood of ex-smoking.
Conclusions: This evidence suggests an association between work stress and smoking and implies that smoking cessation programs may benefit from the taking into account the modification of stressful features of work environment.
Key words: effort-reward imbalance; job strain; smoking.
Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SES, socioeconomic status

Citation

Kouvonen, A., Kivimäki, M., Virtanen, M., Pentti, J., & Vahtera, J. (2005). Work stress, smoking status and smoking intensity: an observational study of 46 190 employees. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(1),

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2005
Deposit Date Jan 24, 2008
Publicly Available Date Jan 24, 2008
Journal Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Print ISSN 0143-005X
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 59
Issue 1
Keywords effort-reward imbalance, job strain, smoking
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1020052
Publisher URL http://jech.bmj.com/

Files





Downloadable Citations