Top

International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health

Published in:

01-02-2011 | Original Article

The perception of work stressors is related to reduced parasympathetic activity

Authors: Els Clays, Dirk De Bacquer, Vincent Crasset, France Kittel, Patrick de Smet, Marcel Kornitzer, Robert Karasek, Guy De Backer

Published in: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health | Issue 2/2011

Abstract

Purpose

The aim was to examine the perception of work stressors in relation to ambulatory measures of heart rate variability (HRV).

Methods

Results are based on a sample of 653 healthy male workers aged 40–55 from the Belgian Physical Fitness Study conducted in 1976–1978. Data were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires and bio-clinical examinations. An index of physical and psychosocial work stressors containing five items was constructed based on the job stress questionnaire. Data on HRV were collected by means of 24-h ambulatory ECG recordings on a working day. Both time and frequency domain measures of HRV were calculated. Associations between work stressors and HRV measures were assessed by means of correlations, multiple linear regression analysis and analysis of (co)variance.

Results

The work stressor index was significantly associated with lower pNN50 (the percentage of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals >50 ms), lower high frequency power and a higher ratio of low frequency over high frequency power. Very similar results were obtained after adjusting for age, language, occupation, smoking, body mass index, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and leisure time physical activity. No significant associations were found with SDNN (the standard deviation of all normal RR intervals) and low frequency power.

Conclusions

The perception of work stressors was related to reduced parasympathetic activity in a sample of 653 healthy male workers. These findings support the idea that particularly the parasympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system is related to work stress.

Belkic K, Landsbergis P, Schnall P, Baker D, Theorell T, Siegrist J, Peter R, Karasek R (2000) Psychosocial factors: review of the empirical data among men. Occup Med 15:24–46

Belkic K, Landsbergis P, Schnall P, Baker D (2004) Is job strain a major source of cardiovascular disease risk? Scand J Work Environ Health 30:85–128

Britton A, Hemingway H (2004) Heart rate variability in healthy populations: correlates and consequences. In: Malik M, Camm AJ (eds) Dynamic electrocardiography. Futura, Blackwell Publishing, New York, pp 90–111CrossRef

Brotman DJ, Golden SH, Wittstein IS (2007) The cardiovascular toll of stress. Lancet 370:1089–1100CrossRef

Chandola T, Britton A, Brunner E, Hemingway H, Malik M, Kumari M, Badrick E, Kivimaki M, Marmot M (2008) Work stress and coronary heart disease: what are the mechanisms? Eur Heart J 29:640–648CrossRef

Chida Y, Steptoe A (2009) Cortisol awakening response and psychosocial factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Biol Psychol 80:265–278CrossRef

Collins SM, Karasek RA, Costas K (2005) Job strain and autonomic indices of cardiovascular disease risk. Am J Ind Med 48:182–193CrossRef

Dekker JM, Schouten EG, Klootwijk P, Pool J, Swenne CA, Kromhout D (1997) Heart rate variability from short electrocardiographic recordings predicts mortality from all causes in middle-aged and elderly men—The zutphen study. Am J Epidemiol 145:899–908

Hall M, Vasko R, Buysse D, Ombao H, Chen QX, Cashmere JD, Kupfer D, Thayer JF (2004) Acute stress affects heart rate variability during sleep. Psychosom Med 66:56–62CrossRef

Hemingway H, Marmot M (1999) Evidence based cardiology: psychosocial factors in the aetiology and prognosis of coronary heart disease. Systematic review of prospective cohort studies. BMJ 318:1460–1467

Hemingway H, Shipley M, Brunner E, Britton A, Malik M, Marmot M (2005) Does autonomic function link social position to coronary risk? The Whitehall II study. Circulation 111:3071–3077CrossRef

Hintsanen M, Elovainio M, Puttonen S, Kivimäki M, Koskinen T, Raitakari O, Keltikangas-Järvinen L (2007) Effort-reward imbalance, heart rate, and heart rate variability: the cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study. Int J Behav Med 14:202–212CrossRef

Isowa T, Ohira H, Murashima S (2006) Immune, endocrine and cardiovascular responses to controllable and uncontrollable acute stress. Biol Psychol 71:202–213CrossRef

Kageyama T, Nishikido N, Kobayashi T, Kurokawa Y, Kaneko T, Kabuto M (1998) Self-reported sleep quality, job stress, and daytime autonomic activities assessed in terms of short-term heart rate variability among male white-collar workers. Ind Health 36:263–272CrossRef

Kang MG, Koh SB, Cha BS, Park JK, Woo JM, Chang SJ (2004) Association between job stress on heart rate variability and metabolic syndrome in shipyard male workers. Yonsei Med J 45:838–846

Karasek R (2008) Low social control and physiological deregulation—the stress-disequilibrium theory, towards a new demand-control model. Scand J Work Environ Health Suppl 6:117–135

Karasek R, Theorell T (1990) Healthy work. Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. Basic Books, New York

Karasek R, Theorell T (2000) The demand-control-support model and CVD. Occup Med 15:78–83

Kittel F, Kornitzer M, Dramaix M (1980) Coronary heart-disease and job stress in 2 cohorts of bank clerks. Psychother Psychosom 34:110–123CrossRef

Kittel F, Kornitzer M, Debacker G, Dramaix M, Sobolski J, Degre S, Denolin H (1983) Type-A in relation to job-stress, social and bioclinical variables—the Belgian physical-fitness study. J Human Stress 9:37–45

Kivimaki M, Virtanen M, Elovainio M, Kouvonen A, Vaananen A, Vahtera J (2006) Work stress in the etiology of coronary heart disease–a meta-analysis. Scand J Work Environ Health 32:431–442

Kleiger RE, Miller JP, Bigger JT, Moss AJ (1987) Decreased heart-rate-variability and its association with increased mortality after acute myocardial-infarction. Am J Cardiol 59:256–262CrossRef

Kornitzer M, de Smet P, Sans S, Dramaix M, Boulenguez C, De Backer G, Ferrario M, Houtman I, Isacsson SO, Ostergren PO, Peres I, Pelfrene E, Romon M, Rosengren A, Cesana G, Wilhelmsen M (2006) Job stress and major coronary events: results from the job stress, absenteeism and coronary heart disease in Europe study. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 13:695–704CrossRef

Liao DP, Cai JW, Rosamond WD, Barnes RW, Hutchinson RG, Whitsel EA, Rautaharju P, Heiss G (1997) Cardiac autonomic function and incident coronary heart disease: a population-based case-cohort study—The ARIC study. Am J Epidemiol 145:696–706

Riese H, Van Doomen LJP, Houtman ILD, de Geus EJC (2004) Job strain in relation to ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability among female nurses. Scand J Work Environ Health 30:477–485

Schnall PL, Landsbergis PA, Baker D (1994) Job strain and cardiovascular disease. Annu Rev Public Health 15:381–411CrossRef

Siegrist J (2001) A theory of occupational stress. In: Dunham J (ed) Stress in the workplace. Whurr Publishers, London, pp 52–66

Sobolski J, Debacker G, Degre S, Kornitzer M, Denolin H (1981) Physical-activity, physical-fitness and cardiovascular-diseases—design of a prospective epidemiologic-study. Cardiology 67:38–51CrossRef

Sobolski J, Kornitzer M, Debacker G, Dramaix M, Abramowicz M, Degre S, Denolin H (1987) Protection against ischemic-heart-disease in the belgian physical-fitness study—physical-fitness rather than physical-activity? Am J Epidemiol 125:601–610

Steptoe A, Feldman RJ, Kunz S, Owen N, Willemsen G, Marmot M (2002) Stress responsivity and socioeconomic status—a mechanism for increased cardiovascular disease risk? Eur Heart J 23:1757–1763CrossRef

Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (1996) Heart rate variability—standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use. Circulation 93:1043–1065

Taylor HL, Jacobs DR, Schucker B, Knudsen J, Leon AS, Debacker G (1978) Questionnaire for the assessment of leisure-time physical activities. J Chronic Diseases 31:741–755CrossRef

Thayer JF, Brosschot JF (2005) Psychosomatics and psychopathology: looking up and down from the brain. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30:1050–1058CrossRef

Togo F, Takahashi M (2009) Heart rate variability in occupational health—a systematic review. Ind Health 47:589–602CrossRef

Tsuji H, Venditti FJ, Manders ES, Evans JC, Larson MG, Feldman CL, Levy D (1994) Reduced heart-rate-variability and mortality risk in an elderly cohort—the Framingham heart-study. Circulation 90:878–883

van Amelsvoort LGPM, Schouten EG, Maan AC, Swenne CA, Kok FJ (2000) Occupational determinants of heart rate variability. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 73:255–262CrossRef

Vrijkotte TGM, van Doornen LJP, de Geus EJC (2000) Effects of work stress on ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability. Hypertension 35:880–886

Title: The perception of work stressors is related to reduced parasympathetic activity
Authors: Els Clays
Dirk De Bacquer
Vincent Crasset
France Kittel
Patrick de Smet
Marcel Kornitzer
Robert Karasek
Guy De Backer
Publication date: 01-02-2011
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Published in: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health / Issue 2/2011
Print ISSN: 0340-0131
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1246
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-010-0537-z

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

The perception of work stressors is related to reduced parasympathetic activity

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 2/2011

An engineering intervention resulting in improvement in lung function and change in urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine among foundry workers in Taiwan

Effects of occupational exposures and smoking on lung function in tile factory workers

Testing for cattle allergy: modified diagnostic cutoff levels improve sensitivity in symptomatic claw trimmers

Cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese and nickel concentrations in blood of women in non-polluted areas in Japan, as determined by inductively coupled plasma-sector field-mass spectrometry

Odor identification ability and self-reported upper respiratory symptoms in workers at the post-9/11 World Trade Center site

Development of life satisfaction in young physicians: results of the prospective SwissMedCareer Study