Faculty

About:

Dr. Landsbergis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. He holds a PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University and an EdD in Labor Studies from Rutgers University. His research focuses on socioeconomic position, work organization, work stress, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, psychological disorders and musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Landsbergis is a co-editor of "The Workplace and Cardiovascular Disease" (Hanley & Belfus, 2000), the first textbook on this subject, and "Unhealthy Work", to be published in 2008 by Baywood. He is also a co-author of comprehensive reviews of studies on job strain and cardiovascular disease, on new systems of work organization and worker health, and on interventions to reduce job stress and improve health. Dr. Landsbergis was a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on the Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Intervention Effectiveness Research Team, and co-chair of the 4th International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Disease (in 2005). He is a contributing editor of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Area of Study:

Work Organization, Socioeconomic Status, Stress and Health

Dr. Landsbergis combines a research focus on occupational stress and health with expertise in education and training on occupational safety and health and occupational stress. With graduate training in psychology, labor studies and epidemiology, Dr. Landsbergis came to Downstate after two decades of work at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Cornell University Medical College and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Dr. Landsbergis has been the principal investigator of research projects that examined the impact of work organization on a variety of health outcomes, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and psychological disorders.

Dr. Landsbergis is a member of the International Board of the Job Content Questionnaire, and was a member of the National Research Council's Committee on the Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers, and a co-editor of the first textbook on "The Workplace and Cardiovascular Disease". With colleagues at UCLA and UC Irvine, he developed and taught new courses on Occupational Health Psychology and Occupational Cardiology, and helped to develop a website on occupational stress and social epidemiology: www.workhealth.org. Dr. Landsbergis was co-chair of the 4th International Conference on the Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases, sponsored by the International Congress of Occupational Health (ICOH), Los Angeles, California, March 9-11, 2005.

Research interests

The epidemiologic study of occupational stress, work organization, psychosocial factors, socioeconomic status, cardiovascular disease and the changing nature of work - including current trends such as downsizing, outsourcing, restructuring, part-time and temporary work, and increasing work hours and job demands.

The measurement of blood pressure while employees are working as a biological marker of stress. 'While working" blood pressure measurements help to identify individuals with masked hypertension, a potentially large group of individuals with normal clinic blood pressure but elevated blood pressure at work.

Other research interests include occupational health psychology, occupational health and safety, occupational epidemiology, ergonomics, social epidemiology and health disparities.

Selected Recent Publications

Complete references and link to NCBI abstracts.

Landsbergis PA. The changing organization of work and the safety and health of working people. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2003;45(1):61-72.

Landsbergis PA, Schnall PL, Pickering TG, Warren K, Schwartz JE. Life course exposure to job strain and ambulatory blood pressure among men. American Journal of Epidemiology 2003;157(11):998-1006.

Landsbergis PA, Schnall PL, Pickering TG, Warren K, Schwartz JE. Is the effect of job strain on blood pressure greater for men with lower socioeconomic status? Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health 2003;29(3):206-215.

LaMontagne AD, Keegel T, Louie AM, Ostry A, Landsbergis PA. A systematic review of the job stress intervention evaluation literature: 1990-2005. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 2007;13(3) 268-280.

Fang S, Herbert R, Dropkin J, Triola D, Landsbergis PA. Workers' compensation experiences of computer users with musculoskeletal disorders. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 2007;50:512-8.

Landsbergis PA, Schnall P, Schwartz J, Baker D, Belkic K, Pickering T. Working conditions and masked (hidden) hypertension: Insights into the global epidemic of hypertension. Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health Suppl 2008;(6):41-51.

Schnall PS, Belkic K, Landsbergis PA, Baker D (eds.). The workplace and cardiovascular disease. Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews 2000;15(1).

Schnall P, Rosskam E, Dobson M, Gordon D, Landsbergis PA, Baker D (eds.) Unhealthy Work: Causes, Consequences and Cures. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing (in press).