MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION IN MALE AND FEMALE DOMINATED OCCUPATIONS

The aim of the study was to investigate whether workers in jobs domina ted by the opposite sex have an increased risk of myocardial infarctio n (MI). A case-referent study was carried out to estimate the relative risk of first MI in different occupational groups. The study base com prised all men and women in five counties in the middle of Sweden duri ng 1976-84. Cases of MI were identified from both hospital discharge r ecords and death records. Information on occupation was obtained from two consecutive censuses. Primary health related selection was analyse d for men with data from the physical examination of conscripts to com pulsory military service in 1969-70 combined with data from the census es of 1970-90 and data on early retirement in 1971-92. Increased risk of MI was found among both women (relative risk (RR) 1.41, 95% confide nce interval (95% CI) 1.15 to 1.73) and men (1.21, 1.10 to 1.32) in bl ue collar jobs where men predominate, and among men with white collar jobs (1.26, 1.09 to 1.45) where women predominate. However, the increa sed risk among men in white collar jobs was probably due to negative h ealth selection into these occupations. These results do not support t he notion that being of the sexual minority in an occupation is in its elf an important risk factor for MI.