A pilot study on the association between job stress and repeated measures of immunological biomarkers in female nurses

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hurrell, Joseph J. Jr. ; Kang, Daehee ; Kim H ; Kim SY ; Lee KM ; Trout, Douglas B. ; Yoon HS ; Yoon K
• Description:
  OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the immunosuppressive effects of job stress in female nurses, an 8-month longitudinal study was conducted at a major university hospital. METHODS: Four groups of ten subjects each were constructed to represent high versus low objective stress and high versus low subjective stress based on their responses to a job stress questionnaire and objective stress ratings of the hospital's work units. Number of white blood cells (i.e., T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells), and lymphocytic proliferation to mitogens (concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin, and pokeweed) and toxoid (tetanus) were measured by flow cytometry and radioimmunoassay. Serum levels of hydrocortisol, IL-1β, IFN-gamma, and TNF-a, and salivary IgA were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance controlling for age and smoking. RESULTS: The level of white blood cells was lower among high objective stress group (median: 7,170/m(3); range: 5,386-10,057) compared with that among low objective stress group (8,063; 5,888-9,875) (P = 0.03), however, no other cellular blood variables were found to be significant. In terms of humoral immuno-biomarkers, the level of TNF-a was moderately lower among high objective stress group (1.7 ng/ml; 0.3-2.7) compared with that among low objective stress group (2.2; 0.5-3.5) (P = 0.07), whereas the level of total sIgA was significantly higher among higher objective stress group (72.9 end-point titer/mg/ml/min; 14.4-153.4) compared with that among low objective stress group (44.8; 9.9-123.8) (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: The results of the study suggest that psychological job stress affects the levels of some immunological biomarkers in female nurses. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biomarkers Blood Health Personnel Hematologic Tests Immune System Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological Women
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Job Stress Biomarker Blood-analysis Blood-cells Blood-samples Health-care-personnel Humans Immune Immune-system-disorders Immunologic-disorders Job-stress Medical-personnel Nurse Nurses Nursing Occupational-health-nursing Repeated Measures Stress

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• ISSN:
  0340-0131
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  83
• Issue:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037750
• Citation:
  Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2010 Oct; 83(7):779-789
• Contact Point Address:
  D. Kang, Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yongon-Dong Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, Korea
• Email:
  dhkang@snu.ac.kr
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:12ef90ffb938f95a856ee2117362d232f13122a436ecc74511e62bdb7da76c422f364cea3957e88166d9783901dff3982aa44be4358595f216d26a1e714e0d44
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191736/cdc_191736_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 255.42 KB ]