Abstract
The present research focused on a sample of Spanish male and female nurses to determine whether psychological variables are related to occupational stress and cortisol. Spanish male (n = 98) and female (n = 98) nurses, matched in diverse sociodemographic variables, completed measures of occupational stress, cortisol 8 am (8 h), and cortisol 8 pm (20 h), and psychological variables. Multivariable regression analyses revealed different patterns of association among the variables when analyzing subjective and (occupational stress) objective indicators (cortisol at 8 h and cortisol at 20 h). In male nurses, higher stress is related to worse self-perceived health, worse mental health, less cortisol measured at 8 h, and more morningness. For the female nurses, higher stress is related to being younger, worse self-perceived health, and less job satisfaction. The only similarities found in the target variables and the measures of stress studied in the groups of males and females are worse self-perceived health and worse mental health associated with more occupational stress.
Highlights
The relations between objective measures and subjective measures of occupational stress and their corresponding impact on health are still unclear
More stress is expected to relate to higher plasma cortisol, Harris, Ursin, Murison, and Eriksen [5] found no significant relations between cortisol and job stress, concluding that only decision authority and coffee were significantly related to cortisol levels in the evening
The goal of this study was to analyze the relations between occupational stress, cortisol and psychological variables and gender differences in a sample of male and female nurses
Summary
The relations between objective measures (cortisol) and subjective measures of occupational stress and their corresponding impact on health are still unclear. Piazza, and Stawski [2] find in both sexes an increase in the levels of morning cortisol with age, and of other inter- and intra-individual variables that daily modify the levels of this hormone. The studies carried out by Kajantie and Phillips [3] and Deane, Chummun, and Prashad [4] with male and female nurses describe how levels of cortisol increase with age, and conclude that the waking response to cortisol is higher in morningness individuals, independently of sex and of the woman’s menstrual phase. More stress is expected to relate to higher plasma cortisol, Harris, Ursin, Murison, and Eriksen [5] found no significant relations between cortisol and job stress, concluding that only decision authority and coffee were significantly related to cortisol levels in the evening. The inverse relation, that is, low waking levels of cortisol related to high levels of chronic stress and chronic fatigue in general population has been reported [6] as well as high burnout scores in manual workers [7], professional nursing staff [5] [8] and professional teaching staff [9]
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