Stress at work can give women diabetes: Swedish study
14 Feb 2005

STOCKHOLM, Feb 14 (AFP) - Women who experience stress and a lack of control over their situation at work risk developing diabetes, a Swedish researcher conducting a study on the issue said on Monday.
"We have discovered a link between stress, few possibilities to make decisions and little control at work and the development of type 2 diabetes in women," researcher Emilie Agardh at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm told AFP.
She has based her research on data collected from about 5,000 men between 1992 and 1994 and from some 3,000 women between 1996 and 1998.
The subjects were asked to answer questions about their work conditions, their relationships to colleagues, their education, diet and exercise.
Approximately 450 of the men and women studied suffered from type 2 diabetes and especially many of the women suffering from the illness said they felt they had little control at work, according to Agardh.
"We have only found the link between a lack of control at work and diabetes in women. I can't yet explain why this link exists for women and not men. More research is needed," she said.
Type 2 diabetes, also called adult-onset diabetes, is a common form of the illness that develops especially in adults and most often in obese individuals. It is characterized by hyperglycemia due to impaired insulin utilization and production.