Stressful Jobs May Raise Women's Heart Attack Risk, Study Finds

Women who have taxing jobs with little control over their busy days are at higher risk for heart attacks or the need for coronary bypass surgery, new research suggests.

Furthermore, worrying about losing one's job also raised the odds of having cardiovascular disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and higher cholesterol levels -- but not real heart attacks, stroke or death, the researchers said.

The study, presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Chicago, breaks new ground for being one of the first to look at the effect of work-related stress on women's health. Most earlier studies have focused on men and, yes, those studies found that job stress upped males' odds for cardiovascular disease, too.

Women comprise roughly half of the U.S. workforce today, with 70 percent of all women holding some kind of job, said study senior author Dr. Michelle A. Albert, an associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.