Background Knowledge about the impact of occupational exposures, such as work stress, on the risk of atrial fibrillation is limited. The present study aims to investigate the association between job strain, a measure of work stress, and atrial fibrillation.

Design Prospective cohort study design and fixed-effect meta-analysis.

Methods Data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) was utilised for the main analysis, combining self-reported data on work stress at baseline with follow-up data on atrial fibrillation from nationwide registers. Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted to pool the results from the present study with results from two similar previously published studies.

Results Based on SLOSH data, job strain was associated with an almost 50% increased risk of atrial fibrillation (hazard ratio 1.48, 95% CI 1.00-2.18) after adjustment for age, sex and education. Further adjustment for smoking, physical activity, body mass index and hypertension did not alter the estimated risk. The meta-analysis of the present and two previously published studies showed a consistent pattern, with job strain being associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation in all three studies. The estimated pooled hazard ratio was 1.37 (95% CI 1.13-1.67).

Conclusion The results highlight that occupational exposures, such as work stress, may be important risk factors for incident atrial fibrillation.