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Work Stress and Adverse Health Behaviors

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Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health

Part of the book series: Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences ((HDBSOHS))

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the evidence for the relationship of work-related psychosocial stress and adverse health behaviors, including tobacco smoking, drinking alcohol, and the low level of physical activity. There are several ways to measure and operationalize work-related psychosocial stress in research studies, and the measures commonly examined in relation to adverse health behaviors are job strain, effort-reward imbalance, job insecurity, and long working hours. The evidence summarized in this chapter suggests that work-related psychosocial stress co-occurs with smoking, excessive alcohol drinking, obesity, and low levels of physical activity. Longitudinal relationships between some indicators of work-related stress and some adverse health behaviors have also been observed. However, many studies in this area have had heterogeneous findings, and the interpretation of the available evidence is limited by the non-longitudinal study designs and the focus of the research effort in high-income countries.

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Correspondence to Katriina Heikkilä .

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Heikkilä, K. (2020). Work Stress and Adverse Health Behaviors. In: Theorell, T. (eds) Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_29-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_29-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05031-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05031-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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