Job promotions 'reduce the risk of a heart attack'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jun/03/job-promotions-reduce-heart-attack

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Warning: frustrated career paths can seriously damage your health. This is the key finding of a study by two economists examining the relationship between health rates and promotion chances that makes depressing reading for anyone struggling to climb the career ladder.

Michael Anderson, assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London, tracked the employment histories and health outcomes of 4,700 civil servants in the London area.

They found that those civil servants in departments with high rates of promotion were approximately 20% less likely to develop heart disease than their counterparts in departments with low rates of promotion.

The economists observe that the number of promotions within a civil service department is typically determined by funding constraints and past hiring decisions. As a result, they claim that differences in health across departments are likely to be a result of different promotion rates rather than a cause of different promotion rates.

The two note: "Doubling the departmental promotion rate decreases the number of new heart disease cases by approximately 20%. These differences persist even when controlling for the initial prevalence of heart disease, the grade level at which a civil servant joined the service and differences in working environments across departments."

Their study, The Effects of Promotions on Heart Disease: Evidence from Whitehall, to be published in the June edition of the <em>Economic Journal</em>, concludes that the department you work in can significantly affect your chances of developing heart disease. The two claim their findings reinforce a growing body of research that indicates upward mobility and socioeconomic status have important effects on physical health.

Previous studies have documented the close relationship between socio-economic status and health, but establishing cause and effect has proved difficult. Economists are divided over whether higher income generates better health or whether healthier people are able to earn a higher income. The new study suggests that socio-economic factors, notably social status, must be considered in determining health chances.

The work is the latest contribution to an emerging body of evidence that examines the potential health effects of promotions, awards and status. Past studies have found that Oscar-winners outlive runners-up, Nobel laureates outlive nominees who do not win, and baseball players who reach the Hall of Fame outlive those who just miss out.