Workplace sexual harassment associated with higher risk for CVD, type 2 diabetes
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Key takeaways:
- Nearly 5% of Swedish working adults reported exposure to workplace sexual harassment.
- Frequent exposure and sexual harassment from superiors and co-workers carried a higher risk for cardiometabolic diseases.
Exposure to workplace sexual harassment was associated with elevated risk for developing CVD and type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
“Previous studies have reported workplace sexual harassment as a risk factor for several chronic conditions and health outcomes,” Prakash K.C., PhD, MPH, faculty member in the unit of health sciences at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland, and colleagues wrote. “However, despite a conceptual link between lifetime bullying and sexual violence with diabetes and CVD and of workplace sexual harassment with cardiovascular health, substantial gaps of evidence exist.”
Researchers of the cohort study tracked the cardiometabolic outcomes of 88,904 Swedish adults (52% women; mean age, 43.2 years) aged 16 to 64 years who participated in the Swedish Work Environment Survey from 1995 to 2015. The researchers collected 989,512 person-years of data on the study population, and the mean follow-up was 11 years.
Overall, 4.8% (n = 4,300) of respondents reported exposure to workplace sexual harassment in the preceding 12 months, with a larger proportion of women than men reporting sexual harassment (7.5% vs. 1.9%). Additionally, 1.5% reported sexual harassment from superiors or co-workers, and 3.8% reported sexual harassment from other people, including patients, clients, passengers and students.
Those exposed to workplace sexual harassment were more likely to be women, unmarried and younger than those who were unexposed. A higher proportion of participants born outside Sweden reported sexual harassment exposure compared with those born in Sweden (5.8% vs. 4.7%).
At follow-up, 4,218 (4.7%) of participants were diagnosed with CVD at a rate of 4.3 cases per 1,000 person-years, and 3,624 (4%) were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at a rate of 3.6 cases per 1,000 person-years.
In an adjusted analysis, workplace sexual harassment was associated with a greater risk for CVD (HR = 1.25; 95% CI, 1.03-1.51) and type 2 diabetes (HR = 1.45; 95% CI, 1.21-1.73).
The risk for CVD appeared more pronounced among respondents who were exposed to sexual harassment by superiors and co-workers (HR = 1.57; 95% CI, 1.15-2.15), whereas the risk when looking at sexual harassment from other people did not meet statistical significance. However, the risk for type 2 diabetes persisted whether it was by superiors and co-workers (HR = 1.85; 95% CI, 1.39-2.46) or other people (HR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.13-1.7).
Also, an exposure-response analysis showed more frequent exposure to workplace sexual harassment also increased the risk for developing CVD (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 0.95-1.54) and type 2 diabetes (HR = 1.72; 95% CI, 1.3-2.28), whereas risks associated with occasional exposure did not meet significance.
“This study supports prospective association between workplace sexual harassment and increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases,” the researchers wrote. “Given the importance of this association from the public health point of view, future research is warranted to clarify the causality and mechanisms behind these associations considering the severity of sexual harassment at the workplace.”
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