Korean J Fam Pract 2020; 10(4): 266-272  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2020.10.4.266
Association between Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Stress in Each Occupational Group of Korean Workers: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014–2016
Sun Young An1, Ha Jin Kim1, Si Nae Kang1, Jong Koo Lee1,2,*
1Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital; 2Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Jong Koo Lee
Tel: +82-2-3668-7350, Fax: +82-2-766-1185
E-mail: kcdc7000@gmail.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4833-1178
Received: June 5, 2019; Revised: May 20, 2020; Accepted: June 12, 2020; Published online: August 20, 2020.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: Chronic stress at work is known to be associated with the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Recent studies have evaluated stress and its association with metabolic syndrome in specific occupational groups. In the present study, we examined the relationship between stress and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome in each occupational group.
Methods: The present study examined 7,460 Korean workers, aged 20–65 years, whose data were collected from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted between 2014 and 2016. The information on usual stress awareness was self-reported, and the biochemical profile of the blood was conducted. The chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to investigate the relationship between stress and metabolic syndrome in each occupational group.
Results: The metabolic syndrome was prevalent in 26.3% of the study subjects. In the function-related job groups, the individuals with high stress levels showed a significantly higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome (odds ratio, 1.625; 95% confidence interval, 1.042–2.534) than those with low stress levels. An increasing trend was observed, which suggested the increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome across increasing stress levels in a stratified analysis in many occupational groups, specifically in function-related, viz., manager and expert, office worker, service worker, and simple laborer (P for trend <0.001) groups.
Conclusion: The stress levels were significantly correlated with the risk of developing metabolic syndrome in function-related job groups. A difference between dose-response association of stress levels and metabolic syndrome existed in each occupational group.
Keywords: Metabolic Syndrome; Work; Occupations
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