Background: The development of the Arctic region is connected with extreme and strenuous work conditions and transmeridian shifts. The resulting stress changes the functional state of involved professionals irrespective of their age. Successful performance of job tasks depends on individual adaptation, which is an urgent issue to be studied with modern research methods. Aims: The study was a complex research project on adaptation and changes of cardiovascular and psychophysiological functioning in response to long-term stress associated with rapid climate changes and transmeridian shifts experienced by the participants of the Arctic World Oceanic International Flight Sever Vash. Materials and methods: The participants of Sever Vash expedition, which took place in July and August 2018, were examined. According to the design of the study, they underwent a complex laboratory and instrumental assessment before the start and immediately on the finish. Blood parameters, level of DNA damage in blood cells, cardiovascular parameters (heart rate, brachial and aortic blood pressure (BP), subendocardial blood flow etc.), allostatic load index (ALI), and data of psychophysiological tests with work capacity assessment were analyzed. Results: All participants (7 males, 3969 y.o.) completed the planned route. The actual duration of the flight was 43 days. Comparative pairwise analysis on the finish revealed an increase of total blood protein (p0.000), creatinine (p0.000), bilirubine (p=0.038) and AcAT (p=0.031), and glucose (p0.000) levels, and shifts in peripheral blood parameters, which are typical for the process of adaptation to the Polar conditions and transmeridian shifts. An increase of DNA damage in white blood cells was found. Average values of hemodynamic parameters were in a normal range; heart rate increased (p0.000); mean brachial BP (p=0.003) and systolic aortic BP (p=0.001) decreased. Average values of pulse BP and subendocardial blood flow did not change (p0.05). ALI increased in four pilots; in others, no ALI dynamic was observed. Psychophysiological potential decreased after the flight. The number of errors and omissions of target signal (р0.000) increased, attention span and emotional stability deteriorated. Along with this, the mood parameter increased to a maximum level, and risk tolerance level decreased (р0.001). Conclusions: Working in Arctic conditions is connected with stress factors and leads to multiple and deep changes required for urgent adaptation. Allostatic load index, which is an integral parameter of strained functioning in extreme conditions, can be a marker of individual adaptation. The achieved functional stability of body systems, particularly the cardiovascular system, ensures an acceptable level of work capacity in the considered conditions.
Objective. The work of railway power dispatchers requires high professionalism. Criteria of successful work are health status, level of psychoemotional tension and adaptability, situational functional status. Assessment of significance in providing professional capacity for work and determination of personal psychological characteristics is of special interest. The aim was to analyze the functional state of an organism and personal psychological parameters in railway power dispatchers so as to determine the possibility of their use as criteria for evaluating stress tolerance and capacity for work including gender features. Materials and methods. The studies on express diagnosis of functional state and individual psychological testing using the method of Cettells sixteen-factor personality questionnaire were implemented among 59 power dispatchers (36 men and 23 women; mean age 40.17 1.37years, record of service 13.4 1.3 years) Results. Express testing of functional state showed the presence of chronic fatigue, distress state and other unfavorable changes in the functional state. Statistically significant differences among the errors while implementing the task by men and women (p 0.05) demonstrate the deeper manifestations of professional stress in women power dispatchers. The obtained data regarding psychological characteristics of power dispatchers mainly satisfy the requirements for implementation of their duties including the tension of labor of class 3.2 regarding communicative and intellectual properties as well, but there was detected the risk for changed emotional and regulatory properties of a person connected, probably, with fatigue and overfatigue as manifestations of professional stress that can cause reduction of the capacity for work. Conclusions. There was demonstrated an adequacy of using the methods for assessment of functional state and psychological parameters of a person as additional criteria for estimation of stress tolerance and capacity for work including gender features.
Introduction. Mental health is an integral part of health, and its disorders are fraught with social and economic costs for the individual and society. According to WHO, depression is the most common disease and the leading cause of disability globally; it affects 350 million people. The analysis of new data and concepts on these issues is relevant. The aim of the work is to study the problem of stress at work and mental health disorders with an analysis of the concept of allostasis and allostatic load as an integral indicator of stress. A literature search was conducted through September 2020 using the Scopus (https://www.scopus.com/home.uri) and MedLine/PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed) scientific literature databases. Key search terms included “mental health problems,” “mental health in the workplace,” “working condition,” “anxiety,” “burnout,” and “depression. Full-text articles published in English in journals with DOIs were reviewed. There are considered work-related stressors, also called psychosocial risks. Data on the types and amounts of medico-social damage from mental health disorders in European countries and the United States are presented. The Italian experience in limiting work-related stress is reviewed in detail. There are given examples of legislation to restrict psychosocial risks at work in European countries, as well as patterns of recognition of the connection between mental disorders and work. The biomedical paradigm shift - from homeostasis to allostasis - is analyzed, and allostasis and allostatic load is described as integral indicator of chronic work stress. Despite an abundance of work on anxiety and depression, there is no unity in the literature in understanding the mechanisms and stages of mental health disorders from stress at work. It is not clear what better reflects the effects of chronic work-related stress: allostatic stress or metabolic syndrome. Stress, depression and burnout - what is the relation between them? We can discuss a logical chain: occupational risk factors - fatigue, stress - depression, burnout, health disorder, and occupational deformity. The questions of ICD-11, expected to appear in 2021, and, in particular, burnout syndrome, are outlined. The possibilities of information technologies and the Internet in preventing and treating mental health disorders are considered. Conclusions. The increasing role of stress problems in the life of modern society is noted. The methods of psychosocial risk factors limitation and mental health disorders diagnostics need to be developed. Internet-based programs for the preservation and promotion of mental health (e-MentalHealth) are promising.
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