Cardiovascular health outcomes of mobbing at work: Results of the population-based, five-year follow-up of the Gutenberg health study

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to determine if there is an increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) resulting from workplace mobbing measured with two mobbing instruments in the Gutenberg Health Study. Methods: In this prospective study, we examined working persons younger than 65 years for the presence of mobbing at baseline and at a 5-year follow-up using a single-item and a 5-item instrument. We used multivariate models to investigate the association between mobbing and incident CVD, hypertension, and change in arterial stiffness and further stratified the models by sex. Results: After adjustment for confounders, mobbed workers appeared to have a higher risk of incident CVD than those not mobbed (single-item HR = 1.28, 95% CI 0.73-2.24; 5-item HR = 1.57, 95% CI 0.96-2.54). With the 5-item instrument, men who reported mobbing had a higher risk of incident CVD (HR = 1.77, 95% CI 1.01-3.09), while no association was observed for women (HR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.38-2.91). There was no difference in risks between men and women with the single-item instrument. No association between mobbing and incident hypertension and arterial stiffness was seen. Conclusions: Our results show an indication of an increased risk of incident CVD for those mobbed at baseline when using the whole study population. Differences in risks between men and women when using the five-item instrument may be due to the instrument itself. Still, it is essential to detect or prevent workplace mobbing, and if present, to apply an intervention to halt it in order to minimize its adverse effects on CVD.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number15
JournalJournal of occupational medicine and toxicology
Volume15
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 12 Jun 2020
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-7472-674X/work/142257775

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Arterial stiffness, Bullying, Cardiovascular diseases, Hypertension, Occupational health, Workplace mobbing

Library keywords