Psychophysiological biomarkers of workplace stressors

Abstract

Workplace stressors are associated with greater coronary heart disease risk, although there is debate over the psychophysiological consequences of work stress. This study builds on recent reviews and examines the literature linking work stress with sympatho-adrenal biomarkers (plasma catecholamines and heart rate variability) and HPA axis biomarkers-the post-morning profile of cortisol.Methods-Relevant studies using appropriate search terms were searched using the bibliographic databases PubMed, Embase, Biosys and Toxline. Four studies on plasma catecholamines, ten studies on heart rate variability, and sixteen studies on post-morning cortisol were reviewed.Results-In the majority of studies that examined the association of HRV and work stress, greater reports of work stress is associated with lower heart rate variability. The findings for plasma catecholamines and cortisol secretion are less clear cut and suffer from poorer quality of studies in general.Conclusion-There is evidence that work stress is related to elevated stress responses in terms of sympatho-adrenal and HPA axis biomarkers. Keywords work stress; catecholamines; HPA axis; neuro-endocrine; cortisol Psychophysiological biomarkers of workplace stressors and healthExposure to workplace stressors (or "work stress") increases the risk of heart disease. A recent systematic review concluded that there was moderate evidence that adverse psychosocial working conditions are a risk factor for ischaemic heart disease among men. (Eller et al. 2009) A meta-analysis estimated that there was an average 50% excess risk for CHD among employees with work stress. The mechanisms leading from exposure to workplace stressors to CHD are hypothesised to be indirect effects through unhealthy behaviours (such as smoking, unhealthy dietary patterns, lack of exercise), as well as direct effects on neuro-endocrine stress responses. (Chandola et al. 2008) Activation of these pathways can be quantified using psychophysiological stress biomarkers. However, there is some debate on whether such daily life stressors are associated with elevated Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptNeurosci Biobehav Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 September 1. (Gersten, 2008) especially as many studies report no significant associations and a few report a decreased stress response with work stress. Neuroendocrine pathways linking stress to diseaseStressful stimuli serve to activate neural, neuroendocrine and endocrine pathways. Short term biological responses to stressful stimuli can be ada...

Description of a large-scale study design to assess work-stress-disease associations for cardiovascular disease

“…However, generally these studies do not include an ordering hypothesis of several links in the exposure-disease chain. A recent review on psycho-physiological biomarkers of workplace stressors distinguished results from studies on plasma catecholamines, separate studies on heart rate variability and yet other studies on postmorning cortisol [24]. Most studies fail to include various levels of physiological deregulation.…”

“…Measures pool. On the whole, the measurement of physiological biomarkers of work stress tends to be limited to small focused studies rather than large scale epidemiological cohorts [24]. Studies including 24-hour ECG recordings are particularly based on rather small selected samples of less than 200 subjects [26,27,29,34], although recently a few studies have been published with findings based on ambulatory ECG monitoring in samples of approximately 600 persons [31,37].…”

Can high psychological job demands, low decision latitude, and high job strain predict disability pensions? A 12-year follow-up of middle-aged Swedish workers

“…Poor health may thus constitute the intermediate step in the pathway from work stress to disability for those who are healthy at the outset. It has been hypothesised that on-the-job stress may lead to poor health in at least two ways: indirectly by boosting such behaviours as smoking or lack of exercise (Smith et al 2008); and directly by neuroendocrine stress responses (Chandola et al 2010). …”

Work stress and the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease events: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Several explanations have been proposed to account for the observed association. On one hand, distinct stressphysiological processes may be triggered by recurrent exposure to an adverse psychosocial work environment, with harmful effects on a compromised myocardium, such as excessive activation of the autonomic nervous system and the neuro-endocrine stress axis of the body [38,39]. For instance, a decreased heart rate variability, a marker of sympathetic overdrive, and increased levels of cortisol secretion, a marker of a dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenocortical stress axis, were observed to precede major adverse cardiovascular events in CHD patients [40,41].…”