Psychosomatic Medicine 30:72-86 (1968)
© 1968 American Psychosomatic Society

Occupational Stress, Law School Hierarchy, and Coronary Artery Disease in Cleveland Attorneys

¹ Coronary Prevention Program of The Jewish Community Center, and the School of Medicine, Western Reserve University, and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, O.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis which relates the prevalence of coronary artery disease to degrees of stress within an occupation. Detailed questionnaires were mailed to 3954 attorneys in Cleveland and Detroit. Prevalence of coronary disease in the 2342 responders was compared with stress ranks of legal specialties and with the quality of the law school attended, as rated independently by a law school professor. In the age group 40-69 years, stressranked specialties demonstrated slight differences which were not significant.

A hierarchy of 4 school groups was established with Group I (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, Michigan) the highest. Coronary prevalence rates in ages 24-59 were compared. School Group I (0.86%) was significantly lower than School Group III (2.88%) (p < 0.05), but not significantly lower than School Group IV (2.21%) (p > 0.10).

Coronary prevalence rates were related to law school quality, but not to stressranks of legal specialties, tending to support the social class hypothesis.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. Schubert and S. I. Miller Social Class and Psychiatric Diagnosis: Differential Findings in a Lower-Class Sample International Journal of Social Psychiatry, June 1, 1978; 24(2): 117 - 124.