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Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals

BACKGROUND: Stress is globally recognised as a risk factor impacting workers’ health and workplace safety. Women healthcare professionals are at risk for considerable stress given the demanding nature of their jobs and current working conditions. This study assessed levels of stress among women heal...

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Autores principales: Bani-Issa, Wegdan, Radwan, Hadia, Al Marzooq, Farah, Al Awar, Shamsa, Al-Shujairi, Arwa M, Samsudin, Ab Rani, Khasawneh, Wafa, Albluwi, Najla
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7008192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32103972
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S229396
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author Bani-Issa, Wegdan
Radwan, Hadia
Al Marzooq, Farah
Al Awar, Shamsa
Al-Shujairi, Arwa M
Samsudin, Ab Rani
Khasawneh, Wafa
Albluwi, Najla
author_facet Bani-Issa, Wegdan
Radwan, Hadia
Al Marzooq, Farah
Al Awar, Shamsa
Al-Shujairi, Arwa M
Samsudin, Ab Rani
Khasawneh, Wafa
Albluwi, Najla
author_sort Bani-Issa, Wegdan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Stress is globally recognised as a risk factor impacting workers’ health and workplace safety. Women healthcare professionals are at risk for considerable stress given the demanding nature of their jobs and current working conditions. This study assessed levels of stress among women healthcare professionals using measures of their cortisol levels, subjective stress and quality of sleep. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 335 apparently healthy adult women healthcare professionals working in the United Arab Emirates. Participants provided morning and bedtime saliva samples for analysis of their cortisol levels. The Perceived Stress Scale, Stress Symptoms Scale, Brief Coping Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to assess perceived stress level, symptoms of stress, stress-coping strategies and sleep quality, respectively. RESULTS: In total, 121 (36.15%) women had impaired morning cortisol levels (below the normal range of 0.094–1.551 µg/dL) and 48 (14.3%) had impaired bedtime cortisol levels (above 0.359 µg/dL). Around 57% of women reported moderate levels of perceived stress, with the most frequently reported stress symptoms being heart rate and back/neck pain. Poor sleep quality was reported by around 60% of participating women. No significant association was found between cortisol and psychosocial measurements of stress or sleep quality. However, night shift and longer shift duration (more than 8 hrs) were significantly associated with impaired morning and bedtime cortisol levels (P ≥ 0.05). Impaired cortisol levels were strongly dependent on using adaptive coping strategies such as active coping, acceptance and seeking emotional support (P ≥ 0.05). CONCLUSION: Evaluating cortisol levels and subjective stress could help to identify groups with impaired response to stress and elevated cortisol levels. Our findings support the need to examine shift work patterns and stress coping strategies in women healthcare professionals to promote their health and productivity and maintain workplace safety.
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spelling pubmed-70081922020-02-26 Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals Bani-Issa, Wegdan Radwan, Hadia Al Marzooq, Farah Al Awar, Shamsa Al-Shujairi, Arwa M Samsudin, Ab Rani Khasawneh, Wafa Albluwi, Najla J Multidiscip Healthc Original Research BACKGROUND: Stress is globally recognised as a risk factor impacting workers’ health and workplace safety. Women healthcare professionals are at risk for considerable stress given the demanding nature of their jobs and current working conditions. This study assessed levels of stress among women healthcare professionals using measures of their cortisol levels, subjective stress and quality of sleep. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 335 apparently healthy adult women healthcare professionals working in the United Arab Emirates. Participants provided morning and bedtime saliva samples for analysis of their cortisol levels. The Perceived Stress Scale, Stress Symptoms Scale, Brief Coping Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to assess perceived stress level, symptoms of stress, stress-coping strategies and sleep quality, respectively. RESULTS: In total, 121 (36.15%) women had impaired morning cortisol levels (below the normal range of 0.094–1.551 µg/dL) and 48 (14.3%) had impaired bedtime cortisol levels (above 0.359 µg/dL). Around 57% of women reported moderate levels of perceived stress, with the most frequently reported stress symptoms being heart rate and back/neck pain. Poor sleep quality was reported by around 60% of participating women. No significant association was found between cortisol and psychosocial measurements of stress or sleep quality. However, night shift and longer shift duration (more than 8 hrs) were significantly associated with impaired morning and bedtime cortisol levels (P ≥ 0.05). Impaired cortisol levels were strongly dependent on using adaptive coping strategies such as active coping, acceptance and seeking emotional support (P ≥ 0.05). CONCLUSION: Evaluating cortisol levels and subjective stress could help to identify groups with impaired response to stress and elevated cortisol levels. Our findings support the need to examine shift work patterns and stress coping strategies in women healthcare professionals to promote their health and productivity and maintain workplace safety. Dove 2020-02-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7008192/ /pubmed/32103972 http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S229396 Text en © 2020 Bani-Issa et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php).
spellingShingle Original Research
Bani-Issa, Wegdan
Radwan, Hadia
Al Marzooq, Farah
Al Awar, Shamsa
Al-Shujairi, Arwa M
Samsudin, Ab Rani
Khasawneh, Wafa
Albluwi, Najla
Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals
title Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals
title_full Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals
title_fullStr Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals
title_full_unstemmed Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals
title_short Salivary Cortisol, Subjective Stress and Quality of Sleep Among Female Healthcare Professionals
title_sort salivary cortisol, subjective stress and quality of sleep among female healthcare professionals
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7008192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32103972
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S229396
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