Men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one, than those who let their frustration show, a Swedish study has found.
The study by the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University followed 2,755 employed men who had not suffered any heart attacks from 1992 to 2003.
At the end of the study, 47 participants had either suffered an attack, or died from heart disease, and many of those had been found to be "covertly coping" with unfair treatment at work.
"After adjustment for age, socioeconomic factors, risk behaviors, job strain and biological risk factors at baseline, there was a close-response relationship between covert coping and the risk of incident myocardial infarction or cardiac death," the study's authors wrote.
Covert coping was listed as "letting thing pass without saying anything" and "going away" despite feelings of being hard done by colleagues or bosses.
Men who often used these coping techniques had a two to fivefold higher risk of developing heart disease than those who were more confrontational at work, the study showed.
The researchers said they could not answer the question of what might be a particularly healthy coping strategy at work, but listed open coping behavior when experiencing unfair treatment or facing a conflict as "protesting directly," "talking to the person right away," "yelling at the person right away" or "speaking to the person later when things have calmed down."
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
瑞典一项研究发现，在工作中受到不公正待遇时忍气吞声的男性职员患心脏病或死于该疾病的几率比公开表达不满的人高五倍。
斯德哥尔摩大学压力研究所开展的此项研究对2755名男性职员进行了跟踪调查。这些职员在1992年至2003年间无心脏病史。
但在研究结束时，有47名受访者患上心脏病或死于该疾病。其中很多人在工作中受到不公正待遇时“忍气吞声”。
研究人员在报告中写道：“研究对年龄、社会经济因素、风险行为、工作压力和生理风险因素进行基线调整后发现，在工作中忍气吞声与继发性心肌梗塞以及心源性猝死的患病风险之间存在紧密联系。”
“忍气吞声”指的是尽管感觉自己受到了同事或老板的不公正待遇，但却“把事情闷在心里”或“径自走开”。
研究显示，在受到不公正待遇时经常选择这种处理方式的男性职员患心脏病的风险比敢于公开表达不满的人高二至五倍。
研究人员称，至于在工作中受到不公正待遇或遇到冲突时具体采用哪种健康的应对策略这一问题，他们也无法回答，但列举出了几种公开的应对方式，例如“直接抗议”、“立刻说出自己的不满”、“冲对方大喊大叫”或者“事后再与对方交涉”。
该研究在《流行病学与公众健康》期刊上发表。

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