Work stress linked to increased risk of heart attack, says study

A new study has linked an increased risk of heart attack with work stress.

Stress at work mixed with a feeling of little control increased someone's risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 23 percent said researchers from the British Heart Foundation.

"Our findings indicate that job strain is associated with a small but consistent increased risk of experiencing a first coronary heart disease event, such as a heart attack," said co-author Mika Kivimaki, of the University College London, reported BBC.

The study authors reviewed 13 existing studies in a meta-analysis covering 200,000 people.

It looked at European workers for an average of 7.5 years.

More from GlobalPost: Can stress and depression shrink your brain?

The results didn't change with gender, age or socioeconomic status,

Though smoking and lack of exercise were still more deadly to the heart, work stress also posed significant risk.

The New York Daily News said that researchers found that "job strain" was more common in lower-skilled workers than professionals.

“Job strain is composed of two things,” Professor Kivimaki told the Daily News.

“One, you have lots of demands, a heavy work load. The other is how much control you have over that. Stress is more common in lower positions than among those who are on the top, who have more authority and control.”

The study was published in the Lancet medical journal.

More from GlobalPost: Stressed-out men like fuller-figured women: study