Overcommitment but not effort-reward imbalance relates to stress-induced coagulation changes in teachers

Abstract

Background: Stress-related hypercoagulability might link job stress with atherosclerosis. Purpose: This paper aims to study whether overcommitment, effort-reward imbalance, and the overcommitment by effort-reward imbalance interaction relate to an exaggerated procoagulant stress response. Methods: We assessed job stress in 52 healthy teachers (49∈±∈8 years, 63% women) at study entry and, after a mean follow-up of 21∈±∈4 months, when they underwent an acute psychosocial stressor and had coagulation measures determined in plasma. In order to increase the reliability of job stress measures, entry and follow-up scores of overcommitment and of effort-reward imbalance were added up to total scores. Results: During recovery from stress, elevated overcommitment correlated with D-dimer increase and with smaller fibrinogen decrease. In contrast, overcommitment was not associated with coagulation changes from pre-stress to immediately post-stress. Effort-reward imbalance and the interaction between overcommitment and effort-reward imbalance did not correlate with stress-induced changes in coagulation measures. Conclusions: Overcommitment predicted acute stress-induced hypercoagulability, particularly during the recovery period. © 2009 The Society of Behavioral Medicine.