BMI but Not Other Cardiometabolic Risks Associated with WTFC: Findings from the WFHN

Emily O'Donnell, Harvard University
Maria Glymour, University of California, San Francisco and Harvard University
Laura Kubzansky, Harvard University

Introduction: Work and family conflict is increasingly pervasive in today’s workforce and is associated with worse cardiovascular health. The current analyses investigate the effects of work-to-family conflict (WTFC) on a variety of cardiovascular risk factors, Methods: Among 1,524 employees working in the extended care setting, we estimated multilevel linear regression models to test whether WTFC was related to cardiovascular risk factors at baseline and over time. Results: WTFC was associated with BMI at baseline (ß=0.53, p=0.02), and the rate of change in BMI over time increased with rising levels of WTFC (ß=0.08, p=0.001). Higher levels of WTFC were associated with lower HDL cholesterol averaged across waves (ß=-0.32, p=0.01, CI=(-0.57, -0.08)) but not with other outcomes. Conclusion: WTFC may be associated with BMI in the cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. We speculate that behavioral outcomes are more closely linked to interrole conflict than biological markers.