Premium
Police work stressors and cardiac vagal control
Author(s) -
Andrew Michael E.,
Violanti John M.,
Gu Ja K.,
Fekedulegn Desta,
Li Shengqiao,
Hartley Tara A.,
Charles Luenda E.,
Mnatsakanova Anna,
Miller Diane B.,
Burchfiel Cecil M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.22996
Subject(s) - stressor , quartile , medicine , heart rate variability , heart rate , psychology , demography , blood pressure , clinical psychology , confidence interval , sociology
Objectives This study examines relationships between the frequency and intensity of police work stressors and cardiac vagal control, estimated using the high frequency component of heart rate variability (HRV). METHODS This is a cross‐sectional study of 360 officers from the Buffalo New York Police Department. Police stress was measured using the Spielberger police stress survey, which includes exposure indices created as the product of the self‐evaluation of how stressful certain events were and the self‐reported frequency with which they occurred. Vagal control was estimated using the high frequency component of resting HRV calculated in units of milliseconds squared and reported in natural log scale. Associations between police work stressors and vagal control were examined using linear regression for significance testing and analysis of covariance for descriptive purposes, stratified by gender, and adjusted for age and race/ethnicity. RESULTS There were no significant associations between police work stressor exposure indices and vagal control among men. Among women, the inverse associations between the lack of support stressor exposure and vagal control were statistically significant in adjusted models for indices of exposure over the past year (lowest stressor quartile: M = 5.57, 95% CI 5.07 to 6.08, and highest stressor quartile: M = 5.02, 95% CI 4.54 to 5.51, test of association from continuous linear regression of vagal control on lack of support stressor β = −0.273, P = .04). CONCLUSIONS This study supports an inverse association between lack of organizational support and vagal control among female but not male police officers.