Marital status and cardiovascular risk in French and Swedish automotive industry workers - cross sectional results from the Renault-Volvo Coeur study

Objectives, To compare the coronary risk profiles in a sample of the French and Swedish automotive industry employees who were married/cohabitant. div orced or single (never married). Design. A cross-sectional study comparison from biological and questionnair e data between the French and Swedish samples. Setting. Occupational health departments at Renault (employees from the nor th-west of France) and Volvo (employees from the south-west of Sweden). Subjects. Two random samples of males aged between 45 and 50 years were exa mined in 1993, from Renault 1000, and from Volvo 1000. Main outcome measures. Biological data including cholesterol, blood pressur e as well as the Framingham risk index, Self reported information regarding marital status, smoking, exercise, alcohol habits, and work stress assesse d by the Karasek method, private social support indices, and type A behavio ur according to the Bortner scale, Results, More employees were married/cohabitant and fewer divorced or singl e at Renault, Apart from waist/hip ratio being marginally lower in Swedish single men, compared with married and divorced, no significant difference i n biological cardiac risk factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure or Fra mingham risk index) was seen between the subgroups From any of the two coun tries. Compared with married/cohabitant men, it was shown that in men livin g alone smoking was more prevalent at Renault and Volvo. These men also sho wed less type A behaviour, a lower work control and a lower work support an d fewer close friends. Alcohol consumption was reported in smaller amounts for Volvo employees living alone compared with married or divorced employee s. Married/cohabitant and divorced staff showed similar values regarding al l measured variables when compared within each country, Conclusions. Employees living alone in both France (Renault) and Sweden (Vo lvo) automotive companies seem to have increased nontraditional cardiac ris k factors pertaining to life style and social network compared with married or divorced men, These results, in combination with the finding that more Volvo than Renault employees were living alone, suggest a higher risk for c oronary heart disease amongst Volvo employees. This hypothesis will be eval uated in the 5 and 10 years follow up study.