Men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one, than those who let their frustration show, a Swedish study has found.

    The study by the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University followed 2,755 employed men who had not suffered any heart attacks from 1992 to 2003.

    At the end of the study, 47 participants had either suffered an attack, or died from heart disease, and many of those had been found to be "covertly coping" with unfair treatment at work.

    "After adjustment for age, socioeconomic factors, risk behaviors, job strain and biological risk factors at baseline, there was a close-response relationship between covert coping and the risk of incident myocardial infarction or cardiac death," the study's authors wrote.

    Covert coping was listed as "letting thing pass without saying anything" and "going away" despite feelings of being hard done by colleagues or bosses.

    Men who often used these coping techniques had a two to fivefold higher risk of developing heart disease than those who were more confrontational at work, the study showed.

    The researchers said they could not answer the question of what might be a particularly healthy coping strategy at work, but listed open coping behavior when experiencing unfair treatment or facing a conflict as "protesting directly," "talking to the person right away," "yelling at the person right away" or "speaking to the person later when things have calmed down."

    The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

    瑞典一項研究發現，在工作中受到不公正待遇時忍氣吞聲的男性職員患心臟病或死于該疾病的幾率比公開表達不滿的人高五倍。

    斯德哥爾摩大學壓力研究所開展的此項研究對2755名男性職員進行了跟蹤調查。這些職員在1992年至2003年間無心臟病史。

    但在研究結束時，有47名受訪者患上心臟病或死于該疾病。其中很多人在工作中受到不公正待遇時"忍氣吞聲".

    研究人員在報告中寫道："研究對年齡、社會經濟因素、風險行為、工作壓力和生理風險因素進行基線調整后發現，在工作中忍氣吞聲與繼發性心肌梗塞以及心源性猝死的患病風險之間存在緊密聯系。"

    "忍氣吞聲"指的是盡管感覺自己受到了同事或老板的不公正待遇，但卻"把事情悶在心里"或"徑自走開".

    研究顯示，在受到不公正待遇時經常選擇這種處理方式的男性職員患心臟病的風險比敢于公開表達不滿的人高二至五倍。

    研究人員稱，至于在工作中受到不公正待遇或遇到沖突時具體采用哪種健康的應對策略這一問題，他們也無法回答，但列舉出了幾種公開的應對方式，例如"直接抗議"、"立刻說出自己的不滿"、"沖對方大喊大叫"或者"事后再與對方交涉".

    該研究在《流行病學與公眾健康》期刊上發表。