The potential of using hair cortisol to measure chronic stress in occupational healthcare: a scoping review

Objectives: Workplace-based selective prevention of mental health problems currently relies on subjective evaluation of stress complaints. Hair cortisol captures chronic stress responses and could be a promising biomarker for the early identification of mental health problems. The objective was to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art...

Biomarkers of exposure in environment-wide association studies – Opportunities to decode the exposome using human biomonitoring data

Background: The European Union's 7th Framework Programme (EU's FP7) project HEALS – Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large Population Surveys – aims a refinement of the methodology to elucidate the human exposome. Human biomonitoring (HBM) provides a valuable tool for understanding the magnitude of human exposure from all...

Development of a workplace intervention for sick-listed employees with stress-related mental disorders: Intervention Mapping as a useful tool

Background. To date, mental health problems and mental workload have been increasingly related to long-term sick leave and disability. However, there is, as yet, no structured protocol available for the identification and application of an intervention for stress-related mental health problems at the workplace. This paper describes the...

Multilevel grouped regression for analyzing self-reported health in relation to environmental factors: The model and its application

A method for modeling the relationship of polychotomous health ratings with predictors such as area characteristics, the distance to a source of environmental contamination, or exposure to environmental pollutants is presented. The model combines elements of grouped regression and multilevel analysis. The statistical model describes the entire...

Gender and regional differences in perceived job stress across Europe

Background: Over the last 20 years stress at work has been found to be predictive of several conditions such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and non-specific sick leave. The Karasek demand/ control/strain concept has been the most widely used in prospective epidemiological studies. Objectives: To describe distribution in Karasek's...

Measuring health-related quality of life in children: Difficulties and challenges

Stressful work, psychological job strain, and turnover: A 2-year prospective cohort study of truck drivers

Based on a model that combines existing organizational stress theory and job transition theory, this 2-year longitudinal study examined antecedents and consequences of turnover among Dutch truck drivers. For this purpose, self-reported data on stressful work (job demands and control), psychological strain (need for recovery after work and...

Effect of precision demands and mental pressure on muscle activation and hand forces in computer mouse tasks

The objective of the present study was to gain insight into the effects of precision demands and mental pressure on the load of the upper extremity. Two computer mouse tasks were used: an aiming and a tracking task. Upper extremity loading was operationalized as the myo-electric activity of the wrist flexor and extensor and of the trapezius...

The relationships between work characteristics and mental health: Examining normal, reversed and reciprocal relationships in a 4-wave study

This longitudinal study examined the causal relationships between job demands, job control and supervisor support on the one hand and mental health on the other. Whereas we assumed that work characteristics affect mental health, we also examined reversed causal relationships (mental health influences work characteristics). Further, the topic of...

Finger cold-induced vasodilation: A review

Cold-induced vasodilation (CIVD) in the finger tips generally occurs 5-10 min after the start of local cold exposure of the extremities. This phenomenon is believed to reduce the risk of local cold injuries. However, CIVD is almost absent during hypothermia, when survival of the organism takes precedence over the survival of peripheral tissue....

Should baroreflex sensitivity be corrected for heart rate?

Chemicals/CAS: phenylephrine, 532-38-7, 59-42-7, 61-76-7; Cardiotonic Agents; Phenylephrine, 59-42-7

High physical and psychological load at work and sickness absence due to neck pain

Objectives This study investigates the relationship between physical and psychosocial load at work and sickness absence due to neck pain. Methods A prospective cohort study with a follow-up period of 3 years (1994-1998) was performed among a working population. At the beginning of the study, physical load at work was quantified by means of video...

Noise exposure and public health

Exposure to noise constitutes a health risk. There is sufficient scientific evidence that noise exposure can induce hearing impairment, hypertension and ischemic heart disease, annoyance, sleep disturbance, and decreased school performance. For other effects such as changes in the immune system and birth defects, the evidence is limited. Most...

Effects of food on cortisol and mood in vulnerable subjects under controllable and uncontrollable stress

The aim of this study was to investigate whether in stress-prone subjects, carbohydrate-rich, protein-poor food (CR/PP) diminished depressive mood and a cortisol response under controllable as well as uncontrollable laboratory stress. Twenty-two subjects with high stress proneness (HS) and 23 subjects with low stress proneness (LS) participated...

Carbohydrate intake improves cognitive performance of stress-prone individuals under controllable laboratory stress

Cognitive performance has been found to decline after exposure to stress, particularly in stress-prone subjects. The present study investigated whether a carbohydrate-rich, protein-poor (CR/PP) diet, which may enhance cerebral serotonin function in stress-prone subjects due to increases in the available tryptophan, improves the performance of...

Do you think that your health or safety are at risk because of your work? A large European study on psychological and physical work demands

A secondary analysis was performed on a large scale cross-sectional survey (n = 12,500) by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The analysis investigates (1) 'strain', i.e. whether or not employees in 12 European Union (EU) member states considered their health or safety to be at risk because of their...

Comparing the concepts of mental load and stress

This paper delineates mental load and stress as two related concepts that originate from different theoretical frameworks. A proper distinction between the two concepts is important, not only for theory building, but because it may lead also to different interpretations of experimental results, and, conse-quently, to different recommendations in...

Heart rate deceleration after erroneous responses: A phenomenon complicating the use of heart rate variability for assessing mental load

In an eight-choice reaction task, the influence of erroneous responses upon the temporary changes in the level of heart rate (HR) was studied. It was shown that after errors there was a short-term deceleration of the HR-level, while after correct responses an accelerating tendency was found. This phenomenon has to be regarded as an additional...