Social support at work, heart rate, and cortisol: A self-monitoring study.

Abstract

This study assessed the influence of work social support on self-monitored heart rate, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol recorded on 3 work days and 2 leisure days from 61 nurses and 32 accountants (40 men, 53 women). Heart rate and blood pressure were higher during the day at work than in the evening or on leisure days. Cortisol was higher on leisure than work days and was lower in the evening than in the day. Low social support at work was associated with elevated heart rate during the daytime and evening of work days, an effect that persisted after controlling for psychological distress, age, sex, smoking, and physical activity. Work social support was not related to cortisol on work days, but on leisure days cortisol was elevated among individuals reporting high social support. There were few differences between men and women, and no important occupational effects.

Work characteristics as predictors of physiological recovery on weekends

“…Field studies using cortisol measures during recovery as a dependent variable are less frequent, and results are mixed (15)(16)(17)(18). Fox et al (19) presented supporting results.…”

Positive Social Interactions and the Human Body at Work: Linking Organizations and Physiology

“…The three studies that reported HR found that perceptions of positive work relationships were significantly correlated with lower HR during the day and evening and, when it was measured, during sleep (Evans & Steptoe, 2001;Rau, Georgiades, Fredrikson, Lemne, & deFaire, 2001;Undé n, Orth-Gomé r, & Elofsson, 1991). None of the studies found a significant relationship between perceptions of positive work relationships and SBP and DBP.…”

Adverse effects of psychosocial work factors on blood pressure: systematic review of studies on demand–control–support and effort–reward imbalance models

“…After a complete review of the full articles, 87 studies were excluded because they: (i) did not measure the psychosocial work factors of the DCS and/or ERI models (N=39) (39-77), (ii) did not individually assess exposure to psychosocial factors (N=3) (78)(79)(80), (iii) comprised a population of high school students (not a working population) (N=1) (81), (iv) included <100 participants (N=13) (82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89)(90)(91)(92)(93); (v) were not written in English or French (N=4) (94)(95)(96)(97), (vi) were not published in a peer-reviewed publication (N=16) (11,(98)(99)(100)(101)(102)(103)(104)(105)(106)(107)(108)(109)(110)(111)(112), (vii) did not measure BP (N=8) (70,(113)(114)(115)(116)(117)(118)(119), or (viii) did not distinctly evaluate exposure to psychosocial work factors (N=3) (120)…”