Increasing workplace flexibility associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease

Increasing workplace flexibility may lower certain employees’ risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Penn State University. In workplaces that implemented interventions designed to reduce conflict between employees’ work and their personal/family lives, researchers observed that employees at higher baseline cardiometabolic risk, particularly older employees, experienced a reduction in their risk for cardiovascular disease equivalent to between five and 10-years of age-related cardiometabolic changes.

The study was published on November 8 in The American Journal of Public Health. It is among the first studies to assess whether changes to the work environment can affect cardiometabolic risk.