Personal anxiety and its associations with stress at work in an open urban population

Psychoemotional stress in the workplace can adversely affect women's cardiovascular health. Due to the highest prevalence of personal anxiety (PA) among females, the problem under study has turned out to be particularly in demand not only for the populations of Europe and the world, but also for regional female populations.

Objective. To determine the associations between the high level of PA and stress at work in an open urban female population.

Subjects and methods. A cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted on a representative sample of 1000 women aged 25–64 years, which had been formed from the voting lists of Tyumen citizens. The levels of PA and stress at work were determined using the standard WHO MONICA-MOPSY questionnaire.

Results. The open female population of a medium-urbanized city of Western Siberia showed a substantial prevalence of PA, while the level of the latter reaches its maximum in the fifth decade of life. The following causes of stress at work over the past 12 months were identified to include the need to do additional work (in more than one-third of respondents); a high responsibility in the workplace (in >50%); the lack of proper rest after a working day (in ~40%). The higher level of PA was associated with stress at work due to increased responsibility and with the lack of opportunities for rest after a working day.

Conclusion. Thus, the findings indicate the most vulnerable groups of women with a high level of psychosocial risk factors, which can serve as a scientific basis for the formation of comprehensive preventive programs to lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases in the female populations of medium-urbanized cities of Western Siberia.