Objective: To investigate the occurrence of psychosocial, clinical and behavioural risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among reindeer herding and non-reindeer herding Sami. The results on psychosocial risk factors are presented here.

Materials and Methods: A cohort of 611 Swedish Sami (276 men and 335 women) was constructed from national population registers and compared with a twice as large control population of non-Sami, matched by age, gender and area of residency. Information on quality of life, social support and Karasek and Theorell`s job-strain indices was obtained from a database containing information from a regional CVD-preventive program. The data was collected from the period of 1990–2001.

Results: The Sami people reported lower quality of life and higher demand and intellectual discretion at work than the non-Sami. The Sami women, the reindeer herding as well as the non-reindeer herding, had lower scores on intellectual discretion and social support at work compared with the Sami men.

Conclusions: Regarding the psychosocial risk factors investigated here it seems that the Sami women are at higher risk than the Sami men.