Justice at work and cardiovascular mortality: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Objectives: Previous studies have suggested that the extent to which employees are treated with justice at the workplace contributes to their health. We examined whether justice at work predicted incidence of deaths from cardiovascular disease.

Methods: Participants were 804 factory workers whose mortality data were collected from the Finnish national mortality register (73 deaths; mean follow-up, 25.6 years). Justice perceptions of the participants were measured using a postal survey at baseline year 1973.

Results: Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for conventional risk factors and other psychosocial factors at work showed that employees reporting high justice at work had a 45% lower risk of cardiovascular death than their counterparts experiencing low or intermediate justice (P=.05).

Conclusions: Justice at work, fair decision-making procedures, and managerial skills are important factors in an effort to develop healthy and well-functioning workplaces.