Work Stress is Associated with Diabetes and Prediabetes: Cross-Sectional Results from the MIPH Industrial Cohort Studies

Diabetes is rapidly rising globally, and the relation of psychosocial stress in workplace to diabetes and prediabetes is not well investigated. The aim of the study was to examine the association of work stress with diabetes and prediabetes in a sample of German industrial workers. In this cross-sectional survey of an occupational cohort (n = 2,674, 77 % male), work stress was measured by the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Questionnaire. Diabetic status, i.e., diabetes and prediabetes, were diagnosed by glycated hemoglobin A1c criterion or fasting plasma glucose criterion supplemented by self-reports. The overall prevalence rates of diabetes and prediabetes were 3.5 and 42.2 %, respectively. Using ordinal logistic regression with adjustment for potential confounding factors, high ERI at work was associated with diabetes-related ordinal variable (odds ratio [OR], 1.27; 95 % confidence interval [95 % CI], 1.02-1.58) and prediabetes-related ordinal variable (OR, 1.26; 95 % CI, 1.01-1.58) in men, whereas the associations in women were somewhat less pronounced and did not reach statistical significance. The findings indicate that work stress in terms of ERI is associated with diabetes and prediabetes in German industrial male workers. If supported by prospective evidence, results point to a new approach towards primary prevention of diabetes.