Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Review Article
  • Published:

Occupational and environmental influences on hypertension

Abstract

In this review I try to summarize concisely available information on common effectors on blood pressure, occupational, and environmental ones, which are sometimes overlooked, so that clinicians involved in caring for patients with hypertension may have somewhat better vision of what our patients are exposed to.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Leiba A, Baur DM, Kales SN. Exercise-induced hypertension among healthy firefighters-a comparison between two different definitions. J Am Soc Hypertens. 2013;7:40–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rosenthal T, Alter A. Occupational stress and hypertension. J Am Soc Hypertens. 2012;6:2–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Osório C, Probert T, Jones E, Young AH, Robbins I. Adapting to stress: understanding the neurobiology of resilience. Behav Med. 2017;43:307–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Childs E, de Wit H. Regular exercise is associated with emotional resilience to acute stress in healthy adults. Front Physiol. 2014;5:161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Stessman J, Cohen A, Hammerman-Rozenberg R, Bursztyn M, Azoulay D, Maaravi Y, et al. Holocaust survivors in old age: the Jerusalem Longitudinal Study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2008;56:470–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Landsbergis PA, Diez-Roux AV, Fujishiro K, Baron S, Kaufman JD, Meyer JD, et al. Job strain, occupational category, systolic blood pressure, and hypertension prevalence: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. J Occup Environ Med. 2015;57:1178–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Melamed S, Fried Y, Froom P. The interactive effect of chronic exposure to noise and job complexity on changes in blood pressure and job satisfaction: a longitudinal study of industrial employees. J Occup Health Psychol. 2001;6:182–95.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Melamed S, Kristal-Boneh E, Harari G, Froom P, Ribak J. Variation in the ambulatory blood pressure response to daily work load-the moderating role of job control. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1998;24:190–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Landsbergis PA, Dobson M, Koutsouras G, Schnall P. Job strain and ambulatory blood pressure: meta-analysis and systematic review. Am J Public Health. 2013;103:e61–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Boucher P, Gilbert-Ouimet M, Trudel X, Duchaine CD, Milot A, Brisson C. Masked hypertension and effort reward imbalance at work among 2369 white-collar workers. J Hum Hypertens. 2017;31:620–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Kivimäki M, Pentti J, Ferrie JE, Batty GD, Nyberg ST, Jokela M, et al. IPD-Work consortium.Work stress and risk of death in men and women with and without cardiometabolic disease: a multicohort study. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2018;6:705–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Green MS, Schwartz K, Harari G, Najenson T. Industrial noise exposure and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate. J Occup Med. 1991;33:879–83.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Cayir A, Barrow TM, Wang H, Liu H, Li C, Ding N, et al. Occupational noise exposure is associated with hypertension in China: Results from project ELEFANT. PLoS ONE. 2018;13:e0209041. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209041.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Fu W, Wang C, Zou L, Liu Q, Gan Y, Yan S, et al. Association between exposure to noise and risk of hypertension: a meta-analysis of observational epidemiological studies. J Hypertens. 2017;35:2358–66.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Rojek M, Rajzer MW, Wojciechowska W, Drożdż T, Skalski P, Pizoń T, et al. Relationship among long-term aircraft noise exposure, blood pressure profile, and arterial stiffness. J Hypertens. 2019;37:1350–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Daiber A, Kröller-Schön S, Frenis K, Oelze M, Kalinovic S, Vujacic-Mirski K, et al. Environmental noise induces the release of stress hormones and inflammatory signaling molecules leading to oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction-Signatures of the internal exposome. Biofactors. 2019;45:495–506.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Pamporaki C, Bursztyn M, Reimann M, Ziemssen T, Bornstein SR, Sweep FC, et al. Seasonal variation in plasma free normetanephrine concentrations: implications for biochemical diagnosis of pheochromocytoma. Eur J Endocrinol. 2014;170:349–57.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Kristal-Boneh E, Harari G, Green MS, Ribak J. Seasonal changes in ambulatory blood pressure in employees under different indoor temperatures. Occup Environ Med. 1995;52:715–21.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Kristal-Boneh E, Harari G, Green MS. Seasonal change in 24-hour blood pressure and heart rate is greater among smokers than nonsmokers. Hypertension. 1997;30:436–41.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Modesti PA, Morabito M, Massetti L, Rapi S, Orlandini S, Mancia G, et al. Seasonal blood pressure changes: an independent relationship with temperature and daylight hours. Hypertension. 2013;61:908–14.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Di Pilla M, Bruno RM, Stea F, Massetti L, Taddei S, Ghiadoni L, et al. Impact of seasonality and air pollutants on carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity and wave reflection in hypertensive patients. PLoS ONE. 2017;12:e0172550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hanazawa T, Asayama K, Watabe D, Tanabe A, Satoh M, Inoue R, et al. HOMED BP (hypertension objective treatment based on measurement by electrical devices of blood pressure) investigators. Association between amplitude of seasonal variation in self-measured home blood pressure and cardiovascular outcomes: HOMED-BP (Hypertension Objective Treatment Based on Measurement By Electrical Devices of Blood Pressure) Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7:e008509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Yang BY, Qian Z, Howard SW, Vaughn MG, Fan SJ, Liu KK, et al. Global association between ambient air pollution and blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Environ Pollut. 2018;235:576–88.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Perez CM, Hazari MS, Farraj AK. Role of autonomic reflex arcs in cardiovascular responses to air pollution exposure. Cardiovasc Toxicol. 2015;15:69–78.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Bellavia A, Urch B, Speck M, Brook RD, Scott JA, Albetti B, et al. DNA hypomethylation, ambient particulate matter, and increased blood pressure: findings from controlled human exposure experiments. J Am Heart Assoc. 2013;2:e000212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Miller MR, Newby DE. Air pollution and cardiovascular disease: car sick. Cardiovasc Res. 2019. pii: cvz228. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz228.

  27. Zhang M, Mueller NT, Wang H, Hong X, Appel LJ, Wang X. Maternal exposure to ambient particulate matter ≤2.5 μm during pregnancy and the risk for high blood pressure in childhood. Hypertension. 2018;72:194–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Brook RD, Rajagopalan S, Pope CA, Brook JR, Bhatnagar A, Diez-Roux AV, et al. American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; Council on the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease; Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism. Particulate matter air pollution and cardiovascular disease: an update to the scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2010;121:2331–78.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Parati G, Agostoni P, Basnyat B, Bilo G, Brugger H, Coca A, et al. Clinical recommendations for high altitude exposure of individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions: a joint statement by the European Society of Cardiology, the Council on Hypertension of the European Society of Cardiology, the European Society of Hypertension, the International Society of Mountain Medicine, the Italian Society of Hypertension and the Italian Society of Mountain Medicine. Eur Heart J. 2018;39:1546–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Green MS, Peled I. Differences in the prevalence of hypertension by ethnic origin and age at immigration in a cohort of 5146 Israelis. Am J Epidemiol. 1992;135:1237–50.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Peled A, Gordon B, Twig G, Grossman E, Matani D, Derazne E, et al. Hypertension and childhood migration: a nationwide study of 2.7 million adolescents. J Hypertens. 2019;37:702–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Rosenthal T. The effect of migration on hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors: a review. J Am Soc Hypertens. 2014;8:171–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Bursztyn M, Raz I. Blood pressure, glucose, insulin and lipids of young Ethiopian recent immigrants to Israel and in those resident for 2 years. J Hypertens. 1993;11:455–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Reuven Y, Dreiher J, Shvartzman P. The prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and obesity among immigrants from East Africa and the former Soviet Union: a retrospective comparative 30-year cohort study. Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2016;15:74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Bennet L, Nilsson PM. Country of birth modifies the associations of body mass and hemoglobin A1c with office blood pressure in Middle Eastern immigrants and native Swedes. J Hypertens. 2014;32:2362–70.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Lepoutre-Lussey C, Plouin PF, Steichen O. Cardiovascular risk factors in hypertensive patients born in Northern Africa and living in France. Blood Press. 2010;19:75–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Moran A, Diez Roux AV, Jackson SA, Kramer H, Manolio TA, Shragers S. Acculturation is associated with hypertension in a multi ethnic sample. Am J Hypertens. 2017;20:354–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Bursztyn.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bursztyn, M. Occupational and environmental influences on hypertension. J Hum Hypertens 34, 202–206 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-0302-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-0302-z

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links