Whether specialists in hospitals, supermarket employees, craftsmen or hygiene staff – many employees are physically demanding in their job. You’re on your feet all day, carrying, lifting and clearing. Are these people healthier than hobby athletes with an office job because of their permanent activity? No, according to a Danish study.
According to the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen (Denmark), physical work even has a bad effect on blood pressure and health. “Many people with manual jobs think that being physically active at work keeps them fit and healthy and therefore allows them to relax at home. Unfortunately, our results say that this is not the case,” summarizes study leader Prof. Andreas Holtermann.
tracking the movement
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, involved 104,046 subjects between the ages of 20 and 100. The participant data comes from a Danish population survey between 2003 and 2014. The participants had to answer questionnaires about their activity in their free time and during their working hours. Based on this, they were classified as “low”, “moderate”, “high” or “very high” in both categories.
Ten years later, 9,846 people (9.5 percent) had died. For 7,913, “major adverse cardiovascular events” were the cause of death. Examples include heart attacks and strokes.
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Anyone who moves a lot at work…
…has a higher risk of death
The risk of death among workers with high levels of physical activity was 13 percent higher compared to those with low levels of occupational activity. When the activity was very high, the risk of death was even 27 percent higher, the researchers found out in their analysis. They also included factors such as age, gender, lifestyle, health and education in their calculations.
While a lot of occupational exercise has a negative impact on mortality, leisure activity does not. Those who exercise moderately in their free time have a 26 percent lower risk of death compared to people who do not exercise in their free time. The risk was even 41 percent lower with high activity and 40 percent lower with very high activity.
…has a higher risk of cardiovascular disease
Compared to low-activity workers, high-activity workers had a 15 percent higher risk of experiencing a «major cardiovascular adverse event.» For those with a very high level of professional activity, the risk even increased to 35 percent. «These workers would benefit from physical activity in their free time after they have already covered 10,000 steps while cleaning or stood on the assembly line for seven hours,» reports study leader Prof. Holtermann in a press release. But these people often felt too tired after work to be active in their free time.
In this respect too, amateur athletes with an office job have an advantage. Those who exercise moderately in their free time reduce their risk of cardiovascular diseases by 14 percent compared to inactivity. With high activity even by 23 percent, with very high activity by 15 percent.
…often raises his blood pressure for hours
According to Holtermann, a brisk 30-minute walk promotes health because it «increases heart rate and improves cardiorespiratory fitness.» In the case of professional activity, on the other hand, the pulse would not be raised sufficiently to improve fitness. If you also lift things for hours during physical work, your blood pressure will increase for many hours. «This is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, while short bursts of strenuous, recreational physical activity raise blood pressure only briefly.»
Also interesting: At what values do we speak of high blood pressure?
New working methods should help
Holtermann wishes to reorganize the professional activity so that it offers similar positive aspects as leisure activities. There are already corresponding pilot projects. For example, rotating the different workstations on an assembly line so that workers go through a “healthy mix” of sitting, standing and lifting during a shift.
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«We try to vary the tasks and give recovery time or raise the heart rate so that there are fitness and health benefits,» says Holtermann. Society needs adults who are sufficiently healthy and fit to work longer hours as retirement ages continue to rise. «We need to find ways to make physical work healthier.»