Job Characteristics and Serum Lipid Profile in Japanese Rural Workers: The Jichi Medical School Cohort Study

To observe the association between adverse psychosocial job characteristics, measured by the Karasek job demand-control questionnaire, and a lipid profile, cross-sectional analyses were performed for a Japanese rural working population. The study population comprised 3,333 male and 3,596 female actively employed workers, aged 65 years and under. Among men, higher psychological demands were associated with high total cholesterol levels, with an adjusted difference from the top to bottom tertiles of 3.3 mg/dl (F = 3.03; p = 0.048). High demands were also positively associated with the total/HDL cholesterol ratio (F = 3.94; p = 0.020). Neither job control nor job strain (the ratio of demands to control) was associated with any of the lipid levels in either gender. A psychologically demanding job may be associated with an unfavorable lipid profile, but the impact of job strain on atherogenic lipids is negligible.