7th ICOH International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases – Varese, Italy – May 3-5, 2017

The 7th ICOH International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases. Bridging the gap between knowledge and preventive interventions at the workplace to reduce cardiovascular diseases. May 3-5, 2017. Varese, Italy

The ICOH Scientific Committee on Cardiology (SCC) in Occupational Health is a committee of researchers, cardiologists, occupational health physicians and public health workers throughout the world concerned about the impact of work and work-related factors on cardiovascular health. The SCC works to link economic globalization to the changing nature of work and its impact on the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and focuses on research, worksite interventions, and public health. The mission is to identify work-related risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, including both the physical and psychosocial work environment, examine the interplay of social class, work and health, to assist in the development of interventions to reduce the burden of unhealthy jobs, and to support public policies that improve working conditions both locally and globally.

The 7th ICOH International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases will be held in Varese, and it follows the previous and highly successful International ICOH conferences, held in Tokyo in 2013, Cracow 2009, Newport Beach in 2005, Dusseldorf 2002, Tel Aviv 1998 and Copenhagen in 1994. This is a special occasion to celebrate the over 30th year of this initiative. The Conference will focus on new scientific evidences and state-of-theart reviews addressing: the identification of work-related risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, related to the physical, chemical and psychosocial work environment; the interplay of social class, work and health; the highlight of effective workplace intervention programs for the prevention of CVD as well as for a safe return-to-work after cardiovascular events; the development of supporting public policies that improve working conditions both locally and
globally. The Conference will then be an excellent opportunity to exchange scientific
evidences and good practices, among occupational physicians, epidemiologists,
cardiologists involved in CVD prevention and rehabilitation, psychologists, sociologists, and policy makers.

The scientific program will be based on keynotes, oral and poster presentations, symposia, and workshops. A special emphasis will be placed on prevention of cardiovascular diseases among working people covering clinical, psychosocial, organizational and social policy approaches. Many are the topics the Conferences wishes to address. So far, among keynotes it is worth to mention: Robert Karasek will report on the JCQ-2 and its utility to investigate job strain and its effects on health in the new economy; Johannes Siegrist will present the new book on “Work Stress and Health in a Globalized Economy”; Nico Dragano and Mika Kivimaki will present new results from the IPD Consortium on the independent and additive effects of ERI and JDC in the prediction of CHD; Tage S Kristensen will review his 30-year experience on workplace interventions and the reduction of CVD risk. Hynek Pikhart and Marco M Ferrario will report on new results on ERI/JCD and CVD/CHD mortality in Eastern European Cohorts and on methodological issues arising when exploring the
association between JCQ and CHD incidence, respectively; Akizumi Tsutsumi will review most recent findings on work environment and strokes; Peter Angerer will present evidences of short-term and long-term effects of work stress interventions; and Andreas Holtermann on the long term effects on CVD risk factors of a worksite RCT aerobic exercise intervention. Other keynotes are foreseen.

Other keynotes are foreseen.

Selected papers and accepted abstracts will be included in the Conference proceedings,
which will be published in a dedicated supplement of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention. It will be a unique opportunity to update our colleagues involved in CVD prevention about the relevance of work related issues, for improving the quality of life of their patients.

There will be pre-Conference workshops, organized by international specialists and opened to a limited number of attendees. For the time being, the first workshop scheduled is Occupational Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Disease: Research Updates and International Collaboration, proposed by Niklas Krause; Andreas Holtermann and Els Clays.

For further information and to register please visit the Conference website at: http://www.icoh-cvd2017varese.it/

Marco M Ferrario, MD
Professor of Occupational Medicine, University of Insubria at Varese
Conference Chair

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