Almost half of all working Americans report they are highly concerned about job-related stress, and reports from workers in other industrial countries echo this cry, with all too serious health consequences. High stress on the job generates greater risk of coronary heart disease, scores of studies have shown. Immune disorders, back pain, and mental and emotional strain are other clearly demonstrated risks. Although individuals can and should take steps to reduce and cope with the stress in their lives, solutions also must be found within the health care system, by employers and by those who set social policy. Workers in similar jobs in the United States, Japan, and Canada report similar levels of stress from the psychological demands and decision-making latitudes of their jobs, the amount of social support they receive at work, and their level of job insecurity.
Women tend to experience job strain differently from men, for many reasons.
One is that many of their jobs involve actions that must be repeated precisely every few seconds, as in cookie factories and clothing manufacturers. He is currently with the Danish National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety, on sabbatical from the Department of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Many American scientists were associating job stress with Type A behavior at that time. Other stress researchers were using a single dimensional model that said that workloads and environmental demands led to high stress. The model has two dimensions.