Occupational stress and cardiovascular reactivity in blue-collar workers

Abstract

This study analyses the influence of chronic occupational stress on cardiovascular reactivity (heart rate [HR] and blood pressure [BPI elevation from baseline to maximal challenge) during a standard mental stress test (modified version of the STROOP colour word interference test). The test was applied to a sample of 190 healthy male blue-collar workers at the end of a regular working day. Our research hypothesis was based on the assumption that sustained autonomic activation due to chronic occupational stress may reduce cardiovascular responsiveness to challenge: workers defined by high level of chronic occupational stress exhibited lower maximal HR and BP elevations under challenge as compared to workers with low levels of stress. Three distinct indicators of occupational stress were derived from structured interviews: 'cumulative workload', 'worsening of job conditions', and 'high demand and low job security'. Statistical analysis, using ANOVA, showed that all main effects of chronic stress were in the expected direction (6 of 9 effects were statistically significant a t the 0.05 level). These effects remained stable after adjusting for age, hypertensive status, physiological baseline level, cigarette smoking, test performance, and individual style of coping. In sutnmary, cardiovascular reactivity under experimental challenge is modulated by an individual's experience of chronic occupational stress.

Associations between two job stress models and measures of salivary cortisol

“…However, the direction of the associations between the two component of the extrinsic part of the Siegrist's model and the neuroendocrine stress response pattern indicates that individuals scoring high in eVort-reward imbalance at work show lower cortisol excretion. This Wnding well agrees to the framework of a two-stage model reactivity (Siegrist and Klein 1990): an initially heightened cortisol stress response results from prolonged stress due to eVort-reward imbalance at early stages; in the long run, as consequence of chronically high work stress, the stress response is no longer heightened but lowered as functional adaptation to excessive stimulation mediated by the downregulation of the regulatory receptors or by means of enhanced tissue sensitivity. The conXicting results previously reported, documenting both hyper and hypo-activity of the HPA axis associated with the components of ERI model, may reXect diVerences in the stress response stage or could be explained as consequence of methodological diVerences between studies (i.e.…”

Job strain, blood pressure and response to uncontrollable stress

“…This is Mean diastolic blood pressure in both men and women (left-hand panel) and heart rate in men and women separately ( [3,26], and that people in highdemand/low-control jobs are particularly sensitive to situations over which they have little behavioral control. The phenomenon of diminished cardiovascular responsivity with high job stress has been reported in two studies from Germany [8,9], and may relate to variations in the perceived controllability of tasks.…”

Occupational stress and cardiovascular disease

“…Although the idea that OS may infl uence blood pressure has existed for some decades, Siegrist and Klein (1990) fi rst demonstrated a co-variation between chronic OS and BP reactivity under challenge. Job strain has been specifi cally linked to BP, although Theorell, Ahlberg-Hulten, Jodko, and Sigala (1993) restricted this to diastolic BP, and then largely in the work setting.…”