Mid-life job stress could raise health problems later in life

A new study has suggested that more mid-life job stress means more health problems during old age.

The research from Finland found that both physical and mental job strain were linked to illness later in life, Fox News reported.

Mental job strain is generally a result of tight deadlines, high demands and having little control over one's work, while physical strain includes sweating, breathlessness and muscle strain.

Lead researcher Mikaela von Bonsdorff explained that occasional feelings of job strain are not necessarily a bad thing, but persistent high job strain has been identified as a health hazard.

The new findings come from a study of more than 5,000 middle-aged Finnish public sector employees who were initially surveyed about stress at work in 1981.The researchers combined that information with data from national hospital records spanning the next 28 years.

It was found that with higher strain in midlife, days in the hospital for both men and women tended to increase, especially for physical strain, but for mental strain, the link was only clear among men.