This most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes a significant study on “Cardiovascular Health Status by Occupational Group,” which broke down the jobs that are most likely to cause heart attacks.
Community and social services employees topped the list—those who work in this field have a 14.6 percent chance of having a heart attack. Transportation and material moving employees came in second (14.3 percent) with architecture and engineering employees in third (11.6 percent). Journalists and other media professionals fortunately rank near the bottom of the list.
“The workplace is a viable and necessary site for carrying out cardiovascular health interventions, and attention to work conditions as a risk factor for CVD warrants further consideration,” the study reads.
“We’re not quite sure what this means, but the transportation and architecture groups in particular would make for an interesting study in the future because of the high prevalence of non-ideal scores,” lead author Taylor Shockey told the Observer.
Below, we list the 10 jobs most likely to cause cardiac arrest, according to the CDC study:
1. Community and social services: 14.6 percent
2. Transportation and material moving: 14.3 percent
3. Architecture and engineering: 11.6 percent
4. Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance: 11.5 percent
5. Personal care and service: 10.8 percent
6. Office and administrative support: 9.9 percent
7. Management: 9.7 percent
8. Construction and extraction/Computer and mathematical (tied): 9.4 percent
9. Education, training and library: 9.3 percent
10. Installation, maintenance and repair: 9.2 percent
The study was conducted using data from 21 states which utilized a telephone health survey of about 66,000 respondents and used the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Simple Seven” cardiovascular health metrics as a benchmark.
