NEW YORK (UPI) -- A U.S. review of the literature on job stress and blood pressure found little evidence that day-to-day work woes affect chronic blood pressure.

"It's long been a cherished notion that job stress contributes to hypertension," says Dr. Samuel J. Mann of Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a hypertension specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

"It's time to set the record straight -- when you realize that doctors may be advising patients to quit or change jobs to help them avoid hypertension, it's clear that this misconception can have life-altering effects."

Mann analyzed data from 48 studies on job stress and blood pressure published in English-language journals from 1982 to 2004 involving 100,000 people.

The study, published in Current Hypertension Reviews, found that most studies found no relationship between job stress and blood pressure and that findings were very weak in most of the studies that did report a relationship.

Mann says clashes at work can raise blood pressure over minutes or hours, but long-term hypertension isn't caused by job stress, although ongoing difficulties at work can contribute to coronary artery disease.