More autonomy in workplace corresponds to lower blood pressure
Employees with the highest level of job control – such as the ability to make work-related decisions on their own – are less likely to have high blood pressure than those with lower levels of control, according to a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and its university partners.
The researchers found that the association occurred in many different job areas, including management/professional, sales/office, and production. However, in the case of healthcare support workers (for example, home health aides, nursing assistants, dental assistants, medical transcriptionists, pharmacy aides, and phlebotomists), the pattern reversed; high job control correlated with a greater risk for high blood pressure.