HONG KONG - A JAPANESE study conducted over 11 years has found that job stress can significantly increase the risk of stroke in men.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, involved 3,190 men and 3,363 women, aged 65 and younger. They were first interviewed between 1992 and 1995 and were then monitored over the next 11 years.

They came from a variety of occupational backgrounds and included managers, professionals, technicians, clerks, salespeople, farmers, craftsmen and labourers, and were classified into four groups:

* low job demand and high job control - low strain

* high job demand and high job control - active job

* low job demand and low job control - passive job

* high job demand and low job control - high strain

Over the course of the next 11 years, 147 strokes occurred - to 91 men and 56 women.

'Men with high strain jobs had a more than two-fold higher risk of total stroke than did men with low-strain jobs,' the Japanese researchers wrote.

However, while women in high-strain jobs appeared to have a higher risk of stroke than women with low-strain jobs, the difference was not statistically significant. -- REUTERS