According to the scientists, a workplace interference program can considerably decrease the symptoms of stress on the heart.
Stress in the workplace is one of several factors that are able to increase the risk of heart attack.
In research published this week in Hypertension, scientists examined the effects of a stress-reduction intervention program in employees who faced layoffs - a considerable stress-inducer.
How the research was carried out
The partakers of the study included 91 office workers at a DuPont subsidiary in Italy that was reducing its labor force by ten per cent and a control group of 79 healthy volunteers who worked outside of the company and reported no work-related stress.
At the outset of the research, the participants were evaluated by a clinical psychologist and filled in a self-administered questionnaire to evaluate their general stress, tiredness and bodily stress-related symptoms. Moreover, they underwent a single lead electrocardiogram (ECG), assessing the autonomic nervous system (ANS), a system that adjusts and modifies bodily functions as a reaction to stress.
The employees under stress had considerably higher levels of stress and tiredness than the controls, and reported more stress-related symptoms including: difficult sleep, pounding of the heart, and gastrointestinal problems. Additionally, the stressed workers’ ECGs suggested that their heart rhythm was demonstrating signs of stress.
"This is characteristic for the stressed persons - they are facing psychological pressure, however they do not want to hear about psychologists due to the fact that they are feeling real, clinical symptoms," senior author of the research, Massimo Pagani, a professor of medicine at the University of Milan in Italy, said in a prepared statement.
After the baseline evaluation, the DuPont employees were invited to sign up for a weekly, one-hour stress management session concentrating on relaxation and stress-related coping skills or a passive program that provided articles and monthly e-mails concerning the techniques of decreasing the levels of stress. Twenty-six workers signed up for the stress-management sessions, and 25 registered for the passive program.
Obvious benefits to program
Before the programs started, the autonomic measures (ECG and arterial pressure) were similar in both intervention groups, however, after twelve months, the stress-management program induced a considerable, tiny reduction in arterial pressure and clear changes in ECG-derived stress indicators.
"Our research provides a potential model for the evaluation of work-related stress at an individual level, and indicates that stress management programs may be implemented at the worksite," Pagani added.
