IntroductionThe effort - reward imbalance model is an important predictor of work stress and consequently of alterations in cardiovascular health, so in the last 10 years important evidence and studies have been found regarding the subject; The scientific publications have focused on establishing a relationship between psychosocial factors in the work and consequences on health giving importance to the biological factors, mainly the cardiovascular ones.ObjectiveWe evaluated the evidence between reward effort imbalance and cardiovascular alterations in workers.MethodologyA review of the literature in main databases such as pubmed, ovid and electronic journals, in English - Spanish language during the last 10 years, using search words such as imbalance reward effort, cardiovascular alterations, workers.ResultsStrong evidence was found between the imbalance reward effort with cardiovascular disease in workers, mainly with alterations in blood pressure in the most exposed workers, as well as a higher ratio in women than men who increased with age. It was shown that after having suffered an acute coronary event, workers who continued to be exposed to high stress loads were more likely to develop recurrent coronary heart disease.Overcommitment (PR 1.91, 95% CI 1.35-2.69) and reward effort imbalance (PR 2.47, 95% CI 1.62-3.75) were associated with risk of hypertension after Adjust the confounding variables. We found association between reward effort imbalance and arterial hypertension (OR 1.53-3.71 95% CI). High ERI and low reward were associated with recurrent coronary disease (RR = 1.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.99-3.08 and HR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1 , 16-2.71). There was a gender interaction that showed stronger effects among women (HR respectively adjusted for high ERI and low reward: HR = 3.95, 95% CI = 0.93 - 16.79, and HR = 9.53, 95% CI = 1.15-78.68).Conclusions We found a relationship between imbalance reward effort with cardiovascular disease, mainly with alterations in blood pressure and coronary events.
