The mental health disorder you’re most likely to have could depend on your job, say scientists
YOUR choice of job can reveal several things about you – from your interests, to your education and aspects of your personality.
Now, scientists say it may also shed light on your mental health, indicating your risk for a variety of conditions.
Scientists at the JJ Peters VA Medical Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found a link between conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, depression and schizophrenia, and certain jobs.
They suggested that genes raising the risk of these disorders – which they described as “tiny genetic signals” – may be able to predict which field or profession someone ends up in, from tech to art, healthcare or teaching.
Lead author of the study Georgios Voloudakis told Medical Xpress: “We were inspired to examine whether certain genetic variants that increase the risk of developing these disorders might also offer potential benefits in specific contexts – a “trade-off” that could help explain why these common variants persist in populations.”
Analysing data from over 400,000 Brits and Americans, researchers claimed that having certain health disorders may make people more likely to pursue certain career paths.
They only used data from people aged 30 or older in order “to capture a reasonably settled career path”.
Their analysis – published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour – linked ADHD to a number of different professions, with cleaners, chefs and waiters, factory workers, builders, police officers, bus and train drivers and hairdressers all at higher risk of the condition.
People working with computers – such a computer technicians – were more likely to be genetically predisposed to autism and had a lower risk of being diagnosed with depression and ADHD.
Meanwhile, teachers and lawyers were more likely to develop anorexia, and people in social work were more likely to have genetic traits of depression.
And according to researcher’s analysis, people working in art and design had a higher genetic predisposition towards anorexia, bipolar disorder, autism and schizophrenia.
Being genetically predisposed to a condition doesn’t necessarily mean you will get it in your lifetime.
Though it’s thought that some mental health disorders do run in families and your genes can make you more vulnerable to developing them, they may only emerge as a result of your environment – for example, if they’re triggered by life events.
Dr Vouloudakis added: “In addition to looking at potential advantages, we also wanted to explore any disadvantages or barriers that individuals with a higher genetic predisposition to neuropsychiatric traits might face.”
Researchers found that people certain genetic predispositions were less likely to go into certain industries.
For example, people genetically predisposed to ADHD were less likely to pursue careers in architecture, tech, business, education, law or healthcare.
“We found that some ADHD-related associations are significantly mediated by educational attainment – a key driver of career pathways,” the lead author said.
This might indicate that people had struggled in school rather than that they’d made a point of avoiding certain professions, he explained.
Jobs upping your risk of dementia
Research suggests that people working jobs that require high levels of physical activity could be at greater risk of dementia and cognitive impairment.
People toiling at physically exhausting jobs for long periods of time could be at greater risk of the brain robbing disease, a study by the Norwegian National Centre of Ageing and Health, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and the Butler Columbia Aging Center found.
Authors gave examples of physically demanding jobs, including:
- Salespeople – retail and other
- Nursing assistants
- Care assistants
- Crop farmers
- Animal producers
“Consistently working in an occupation with intermediate or high occupational physical activity was linked to an increased risk of cognitive impairment, indicating the importance of developing strategies for individuals in physically demanding occupations to prevent cognitive impairment,” the study authors wrote.
Read more on the study here.
“This implies that systemic biases in education can disproportionately affect individuals with a higher genetic predisposition for ADHD, even if they never receive an actual diagnosis.”
While researchers were able to find weak but statistically significant links between certain professions and mental health disorders, they said the affect genetic predispositions had on people’s career choice was actually rather small.
They estimated that “genetic signals” accounted for only about 0.5 per cent of what might influence someone to go into a particular industry, with factors like age, sex and education playing a larger role.
Dr Vouloudakis said: “Our findings emphasise that demographic and social factors far outweigh genetic predisposition when it comes to occupational outcomes.
“Even if these effects are small, because we studied so many people, we could reliably detect them.
He noted: “These findings don’t mean we can predict someone’s job based on their genetics.
“Rather, they highlight subtle group-level trends. On average, people with a higher (predispositions) for certain traits might be slightly more likely to end up in certain jobs.”
The research team intends to continue their work by looking at how genetic variations linked to mental health conditions may influence other aspects of health and behaviour.