Abstract
Physical activity (PA) and exercise are often used as tools to reduce stress and therefore the risk for developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Meanwhile, heart rate variability (HRV) has been utilized to assess both stress and PA or exercise influences. The objective of the present review was to examine the current literature in regards to workplace stress, PA/exercise and HRV to encourage further studies. We considered original articles from known databases (PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge) over the last 10 years that examined these important factors. A total of seven studies were identified with workplace stress strongly associated with reduced HRV in workers. Longitudinal workplace PA interventions may provide a means to improve worker stress levels and potentially cardiovascular risk with mechanisms still to be clarified. Future studies are recommended to identify the impact of PA, exercise, and fitness on stress levels and HRV in workers and their subsequent influence on cardiovascular health.
Highlights
The adaptive process by which an organism maintains homeostasis is known as allostasis with variable allostatic loads commonly experienced by humans (McEwen and Seeman, 1999; Frodl and O’Keane, 2012)
These studies examined autonomic function via heart rate variability (HRV) for job stress evaluation, studies included a variety of analyses, different scheduling of R-R recordings, and various populations that make comparisons difficult
Based upon the current few studies of Physical activity (PA) and stress, and equivocal relationships between stress and cardiovascular health in workers, we encourage more studies involving varying PA and exercise interventions in the workplace to better examine the benefits of PA and exercise on both stress and HRV
Summary
The adaptive process by which an organism maintains homeostasis is known as allostasis with variable allostatic loads commonly experienced by humans (McEwen and Seeman, 1999; Frodl and O’Keane, 2012). When exposure to chronic stress becomes excessive, the allostatic load experienced may promote important alterations in stress sensitive systems that are intimately linked to the pathophysiology of many diseases (Juster et al, 2010). Stress experienced by a person at their place of employment or work has been suggested to substantially increase their CVD risk (Yarnell, 2008; Thayer et al, 2010) with the risk of coronary heart disease being increased by 50% among workers (Kivimaki et al, 2006). Development of healthy workplaces and practices may provide important environments that combat chronic stress and its consequent adverse contribution to the increasing work-related development of disease (Taylor et al, 1997)
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