World Heart Day: Heart health linked to occupation, Bupa study finds

'The age on your birth certificate may say one thing, but your heart age could be saying something quite different'

People’s hearts are ageing 'faster than their owners' (Getty/ Adam Berry / Stringer)

People’s hearts are ageing "faster than their owners", according to a worrying new study by Bupa.

The global health and care company released results from a survey of over 8,000 consumers who had undergone a heart age check, which calculates the user’s heart age based on personal health details like blood pressure, family medical history and lifestyle risk factors.

Among the respondents, occupation was reported to affect the average difference between physical age and heart age.

The jobs with the best heart health

• Medicine
• Teaching
• Accountancy, banking and finance
• IT and information services
• Retail and sales

Jobs with the worst heart health

• Manual labour
• Transport and logistics
• Property and construction
• Charity work
• Energy and utilities

The industries pioneering health and wellbeing initiatives were found to have better heart health among their employees. The most meaningful improvement to heart age was through healthy eating options, where respondents saw an average heart age decrease of one year.

Johanna Ralston, CEO of the World Heart Federation commented: "The age on your birth certificate may say one thing, but your heart age could be saying something quite different. We urge employers to put a focus on creating heart-healthy environments to help their employees bring down their 'heart age'.”

Dr. Fiona Adshead, Chief Wellbeing and Public Health Officer at Bupa, added: “If current trends continue, by 2030 more than 23 million people will die annually from cardiovascular disease[2], yet this research shows that there is huge potential for employers to help improve their employees’ health – not only reaping the benefits of a healthy workforce, but also tackling the heart disease epidemic facing the world.