Workplace bullying associated with a higher risk of diabetes, says study

Being the victim of bullying or violence in the workplace could mean your risk of developing type 2 diabetes is up to 46 per cent higher, a study has said.

Around nine per cent of participants reported they had been bullied in the past year, and this group was more likely to develop diabetes later in life.

New research says bullying is a “severe social stressor”, and this has an impact on metabolism, appetite and weight in various ways that make diabetes more likely.

Understanding the wider health impacts of workplace stress is particularly important as a report earlier this year showed a third of UK workers are experiencing anxiety, depression or stress.

The study was led by researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and followed the health of 46,000 people aged 45 to 60 who were not initially diabetic.

Nine per cent reported bullying in the past year around 12 per cent said they experienced violence or threats, typically from people outside their organisation like customers or patients.

Bullying included a range of “unkind or negative behaviour from colleagues”, unfair criticism, humiliating work tasks and also feelings of isolation.

In follow-ups with these participants 1,223 went on to develop type 2 diabetes – this was a 46 per cent higher likelihood than the general population.

The study controlled for other factors that could impact diabetes risk, but statisticians said this “can never be perfect” so it was important to note this was one association in a complex field.

The study, published in the journal Diabetologia, pulled data from several long-running population studies in Denmark, Sweden and Finland and also asked about violence in the workplace.

Amongst the 12 per cent of participants who said they were experiencing threatened or actual physical violence, 930 individuals went on to develop type 2 diabetes, roughly 26 per cent higher than the rest of the population.

“Being bullied is regarded as a severe social stressor that may activate the stress response and lead to a range of downstream biological processes that may contribute towards the risk of diabetes”, the paper said.

Previous studies have shown bullying leads to measurable increases in stress hormones which affect things like heart rate and metabolic function; there are also pathways which impact appetite regulation.

The authors concluded: “There is a moderate and robust association between workplace bullying, violence and the development of type 2 diabetes.”

Professor Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics, at the Open University, said the study was “carefully conducted” but said that a causative link would be hard to demonstrate even with a more in-depth experiment.

“It’s important to understand that an observational study like this cannot establish beyond doubt that it is the bullying or violence that causes people to develop diabetes,” he said.

“It’s possible, for instance, that people may have some characteristic that makes it more likely they will be bullied, and also, independently, makes it more likely that they will develop type 2 diabetes.”

Both mental health and diabetes care are major pressure points in the health service.

Cash-strapped NHS mental health services are struggling to meet this growing demand, with leading charities warning the Government the sector is in “crisis”.

While diabetes, and its complications including amputations and nerve damage, accounts for around one tenth of the NHS’s £120bn annual budget.

The bulk of that spending is on the rapidly growing levels of type 2 diabetes which is caused by obesity and is largely preventable and can go into complete remission with weight loss.