(Bloomberg Business) — Workplace stress may contribute up to $190 billion in health care expenses and over 120,000 deaths each year, according to a study by researchers at the Harvard Business School and Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

This means that anxiety about employment could be killing more Americans than diabetes, Alzheimer's, or the flu every year. The study, to be published in the journal Management Science, estimates that a lack of health insurance, a heavy workload, and conflicts between work and family are the most financially costly workplace stressors.

Not having insurance, which also can lead to poor treatment, had the largest impact on mortality, contributing to 49,000 deaths per year, followed by unemployment and low control over workplace demands, which together contributed to 65,000 deaths.