Occupational stress is associated with insulin resistance and incident type 2 diabetes: A prospective cohort study of functional community

Background: To exploit the association of occupational stress with the development of insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a Chinese population-based cohort.

Methods: A total of 6109 participants from a functional community cohort in Beijing were enrolled in 2015 and followed up until 2021. Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) were used to evaluate occupational stress.

Results: At baseline, increase values of all five scales of COPSOQ and total COPSOQ were significantly associated with IR. During an average 5.63 y follow-up, 732 individuals developed T2D. Increasing in values of "Demands at work", "Insecurity at work", "Job satisfaction" and total COPSOQ were significantly associated with incident T2D (P < 0.01). Mediation analysis showed that subjectively perceived occupational stress promoted T2D mainly by affecting plasma cortisol and the mediation effects of HOMA-IR, SBP, DBP, TG, Urea and UA were significant on the association between cortisol and incident T2D, with proportion mediated of 37.1%, 8.12%, 2.02%, 2.94%, 2.35% and 2.70%.

Conclusion: Occupational stress was independently associated with the development of IR and T2D. IR, BP, TG, Urea and UA all partly mediated the association between occupational stress and incident T2D.