PERCEIVED STRESS AND HEPATIC PARAMETERS

Introduction: The aim of the study is to evaluate work-related subjective stress in agroup of employees, of both sexes, operating in the healthcare and welfare, throughthe administration of a questionnaire (HSE "Indicator Tool"), specifically developedand officially validated, and to analyze any possible correlations between stress levelstaken from the questionnaire scores and the concentrations of three main hepaticparameters (GOT, GPT, GGT).Materials and Methods: We studied a final sample of 232 subjects (143 males and89 females) operating in the health and welfare sector. For research purposes duringthe medical examination each subject underwent the HSE indicator tool, a collection ofinformation about relevant clinical and medical history and a venous blood sample forthe assay of GOT, GPT and GGT.All questionnaires were analyzed using special software provided by the HSE. Theresults obtained from the questionnaires were statistically compared with the bloodconcentrations of hepatic parameters.Results: The dimensions found to be critical, associated with a stressful condition(yellow area) or a highly stressful condition (red area), are: managers support,colleagues support, quality of relationships and changes. The Pearson’s correlationshowed a statistically significant negative correlation (p <0.05) between the meanvalues of all the critical dimensions and the concentrations of the hepatic parameters,both on the total sample and after subdivision by gender. These results wereconfirmed in the multiple linear regression analysis, which indicated that the criticaldimensions are the main significant variables contributing to the liver parametersalterations.Discussion: Preliminary results indicate that a critical perception of stress at workcan be statistically associated with increases in mean concentrations of GOT, GPT andGGT in a working asymptomatic population. These results provide a starting point forfuture studies on this topic, to a greater definition of the link between stress and liverinjury, to confirm the effects on the parameters of liver injury (GOT, GPT, GGT) and toinvestigate possible correlations with the cholestasis parameters (bilirubin, alkalinephosphatase) and serum albumin.