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Zentralblatt
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Work-related behaviour, stress processing and strain response in the context of cardio-circulatory risk
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Irina Böckelmann, Beate Peter, Eberhard Alexander Pfister, Institut für Arbeitsmedizin der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Magdeburg, Germany
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Summary: While working conditions are currently undergoing radical changes, growing importance is being devoted to stress management in the development of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to find correlations between psychological and cardiological parameters possibly contributing to new onset of cardiovascular disease at which preventive measures could be directed. Psychological screening and work-physiological methods (analysis of heart rate variability – HRV – determined by Lorenz plot analysis of 24-h ECGs) were used to investigate work-related stress.
163 volunteers (112 men and 51 women), all Magdeburg University employees, between 32 and 64 years of age, participated in this study. In addition to the above procedures, the study design also included an occupationalmedical status examination and a 24-hour ECG recording. Study participants were assigned to one of four distinct work-related behaviour groups on the basis of 11 categories of the AVEM questionnaire: G (commitment, resistance, well-being), S (carefulness), A (self-overexertion) and B (overexertion and resignation).
The AVEM patterns differed significantly with regard to major work- and lifestyle factors. This also applied to stress management (SVF questionnaire) with regard to ”negative strategies“, ”resignation“ and ”avoidance tendency“. However, expected correlations between psychological categories from the AVEM and SVF and the heart rate variability characteristics (Lorenz parameters) could not be confirmed statistically. Therefore work-physiological and HRV-parameters are relatively independent markers for cardiovascular risk. However, the conditions described by these parameters form part of the personal resources of an employee, which any occupational specialist in the field of heart-circulation disease prevention should include in his repertoire.
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Zentralblatt 09/2005; http://www.haefner-verlag.de |
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