Perspectives on Differences in Perceived External Stress : A Study of Women and Men with Coronary Heart Disease

• Focuses on diiversities among women and men rare, and few studies have focused on gender differences in psychosocial factors and coronary heart disease. The present study is one of a series in which a wide range of psychosocial factors will be analysed with a focus on women. We compared women with men as regards the impact of educational level and occupational position on differences in perceived external stress. A questionnaire (The Stress Profile) was answered by 538 rehabilitation paricipants (97 women, 441 men), and a reference group (5308 women, 5177 men), aged 40-65 years. Generally, women reported a higher value of perceived external stress than men. Most interesting, however, are the patterns of differences that emerged when women and men were compared in different subgroups. Women with upper secondary school education and women in white-collar positions reported significantly higher levels of perceived external stress than men in the respective groups. When using common multivariate methods and adjusting for gender a great deal of information can be lost, and adjusting for gender makes it more difficult to find the true effect of exposures. It is only by regarding women and men separately that it is possible to link their very different working conditions and experience of stress to different health effects and vice versa.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Coronary heart disease

Diversity

Gender

Psychosocial stress

Psychology

Psykologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)