致命職業病: 工作壓力大易患心臟病

Americans work longer hours, take fewer vacations, and retire later than employees in most other industrialized countries, so it figures that many of us are prime candidates for job burnout -- the physical and cognitive exhaustion that comes from too much stress at work over a long period of time.

發人羣。職業倦怠是指長期工作壓力造成的身心疲憊。

Even so, when researchers at the business and medical schools at Tel Aviv University teamed up to see if they could find a link between job burnout and heart disease, they got a surprise: The most disenchanted employees developed heart problems at a 79% higher rate than their less-stressed peers.

以色列特拉維夫大學（Tel Aviv University）商學院和醫學院的研究人員展開合作，試圖弄清楚職業倦怠和心臟病之間有無關聯。結果，他們有了驚人的發現：壓力大的員工患心臟病的機率比壓力小的員工高出79%。

"This is alarming and much more extreme than we expected, " says Sharon Toker, who led the study, which was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. The findings suggest that job burnout is "a stronger predictor of coronary heart disease than many other known risk factors, including blood lipid levels, physical activity, and smoking.

領導這項研究的沙龍•托克說：“這個發現令人震驚，遠遠超過了我們的預料。”這項研究成果發表在《心身醫學》（Psychosomatic Medicine）雜誌上。研究結果顯示，職業倦怠是“非常強烈的冠心病指標，超過了其他的已知風險因素，包括血脂水平、身體活動和吸菸等”。

"Some of the factors that contribute to burnout are common experiences in the workplace, including high stress, a heavy workload, a lack of control over job situations, a lack of emotional support, and long work hours, " she adds. "These things lead to wear and tear, which will eventually weaken the body."

“造成職業倦怠的某些因素在職場中很常見，包括壓力大、工作重、缺乏對工作進展的控制、缺乏情緒支持和工作時間長，”她說。“這些東西會導致筋疲力竭，最終損害身體健康。”

Earlier research had shown that job burnout can lead to a range of health problems, including obesity, insomnia, and anxiety. For this study, to analyze whether staying too long in a job that makes you miserable could be connected to developing coronary heart disease (CHD) -- the buildup of plaque in the arteries that causes angina and heart attacks -- researchers tracked a population of 8, 838 "apparently healthy" employed men and women for three-and-a-half years. Each participant was "measured for burnout levels" and examined for symptoms of heart disease. The study controlled for other risk factors such as sex, age, family history of heart disease, and smoking.

先前的研究已經表明，職業倦怠會導致很多健康問題，包括肥胖、失眠和焦慮等。在這項研究中，爲了分析職業倦怠是否與冠心病（也就是冠狀動脈斑塊積聚導致心絞痛和心臟病發作）有關，研究人員對“看起來健康”的8,838名男女僱員進行了爲期三年半的跟蹤調查，衡量了每個參與者的“倦怠水平”，還檢查了他們的心臟病症狀。這項研究同時還考慮了其他的風險因素，例如性別、年齡、心臟病家族史和吸菸與否等。

"During the follow-up period, 93 new cases of CHD were identified, " the report says. "Burnout was associated with a 40% increased risk ... But the 20% of participants with the highest burnout scores had a 79% increased risk."

“跟蹤調查期間，93個新的冠心病病例得到確診，”研究報告寫道。“職業倦怠使患病風險提高了40%……倦怠水平最高的那20%參與者的患病風險更是高出了79%。”

"These results are valuable for preventive medicine, " Toker notes. "Health care providers who know that their patients are experiencing high levels of stress at work can monitor them closely for signs of coronary heart disease as well."

“這些研究結果對預防醫學很有價值，”托克指出。“如果醫療機構知道他們的病人承受着很大的工作壓力，他們可以仔細監測病人是否有冠心病症狀。”

Let's say that you -- like 92% of employees surveyed in a recent poll from consultant Right Management -- have been more stressed out at work over the past five years than you were before the recession. How can you tell whether you're headed for a serious case of burnout? The Tel Aviv University study posed these five questions, asking participants to answer with "never, " "sometimes, " "often, " or "always":

睿仕管理顧問公司（Right Management）最近進行的調查顯示，92%的受訪員工在過去五年裏的工作壓力大於經濟衰退之前。怎麼才能知道他們是否患上了職業倦怠？特拉維夫大學的這項研究讓參與者用“從不”、“有時”、“經常”或“總是”來回答以下這五個問題：

1. How often are you tired and lacking energy to go to work in the morning?

1. 早晨上班時你是否覺得疲倦和無精打采嗎？

2. How often do you feel physically drained, as if your batteries were dead?

2. 你是否覺得精疲力竭，就好像電池沒電了？

3. How often is your thinking process sluggish or your concentration impaired?

3. 你的思維是否緩慢，或者注意力不集中？

4. How often do you struggle to think over complex problems at work?

4. 你是否難以認真思考工作中的複雜問題？

5. How often do you feel emotionally detached from coworkers or customers, and unable to respond to their needs?

5. 你是否覺得在感情上跟同事或客戶很疏離，無法迴應他們的需求？

Two or more responses of "often" or "always" are a red flag. Toker notes that time-tested stress reducers like exercise and more sleep could help. Looking for a different job might help even more.

如果“經常”或“總是”的回答高於兩次，就是個危險的信號。托克指出，經過時間驗證的減壓方法可以提供幫助，比如加強鍛鍊、增加睡眠等。但是，換份工作或許更管用。