A RANKING OF OCCUPATIONS BASED ON THE BLOOD PRESSURES OF INCUMBENTS IN THE NATIONAL-HEALTH AND NUTRITION EXAMINATION SURVEY-I

Data were drawn from a subsample of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I, 1971 to 1975, consisting of persons 25 years of age and older who stated they were employed in one of roughly 400 US Census three-digit occupations (n = 8130). Occupations with fewer than five persons were excluded from the analysis. Diastolic and systolic blood pressures were calculated for each of 244 occupations, simultaneously adjusting for age, gender, and body mass in an analysis of covariance model. A disproportionately high number of craft, operative, laboring, and farming jobs have incumbents with higher than average blood pressures, and a disproportionately low number of professional, managerial, and clerical jobs have incumbents with higher than average blood pressures. Jobs whose incumbents have especially high blood pressures include bartenders and dry cleaning operatives. Whether jobs cause high blood pressure or persons with high blood pressure choose those particular jobs remains unknown.