Abstract:
Jockeys work in high-risk environments that rely heavily on attention- and decision-making to perform well and safely. Workplace stress literature has often overlooked the impact of stress on cognition, and designs that include physiological measures are rare. This study assessed the prospective concurrent relationships between workplace stress, depression symptoms and low-grade inflammation with cognitive performance among professional jockeys. Professional jockeys (N = 35, Mage = 32.29) provided information on workplace stress and depression symptoms, with serum levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-10, TNFα) and cytokine balance (IL-6: IL-10, TNFα: IL-10) quantified with SIMOA, and cognitive performance with CogSport computer-based testing battery. These measures were repeated after a twelve-month interval. Increased workplace stress between testing intervals was associated to an increased cytokine imbalance (β = 0.447, p = .015) after controlling for age and gender. Increases in cytokine imbalance occurred in unison with decreases in attention (β = 0.516, p = .002), decision-making (β = 0.452, p = .009) and working memory (β = 0.492, p = .004). These preliminary findings suggest the underlying mechanisms linking workplace stress and reduced cognitive performance may be influenced by measures of low-grade inflammation and specifically a cytokine imbalance. Our findings suggest a measure of cytokine balance may explain the heterogenous findings in previous studies that have focussed solely on the association of workplace stress with pro-inflammatory cytokines. Future work is needed however, to provide a broader evidence-base for our claims to better inform designs to intervene in the higher workplace stress-poorer cognition relationship.
摘要:
骑师在高度依赖注意力和决策的高风险环境中工作,以良好和安全地执行。工作场所压力文献往往忽视了压力对认知的影响,包括生理措施的设计很少见。这项研究评估了工作场所压力之间的前瞻性并发关系,职业骑师的抑郁症状和低度炎症与认知表现。专业骑师(N=35,Mage=32.29)提供了有关工作场所压力和抑郁症状的信息,用SIMOA定量血清炎性细胞因子(IL-6,IL-10,TNFα)和细胞因子平衡(IL-6:IL-10,TNFα:IL-10),以及基于CogSport计算机的测试电池的认知表现。在12个月的间隔后重复这些测量。在控制年龄和性别后,测试间隔之间的工作场所压力增加与细胞因子失衡增加相关(β=0.447,p=0.015)。细胞因子失衡的增加与注意力的减少一致(β=0.516,p=0.002),决策(β=0.452,p=.009)和工作记忆(β=0.492,p=.004)。这些初步发现表明,将工作场所压力与认知能力降低联系起来的潜在机制可能受到低度炎症,特别是细胞因子失衡的影响。我们的发现表明,细胞因子平衡的量度可以解释先前研究中的异质性发现,这些发现仅集中在工作场所压力与促炎细胞因子的关联上。然而,未来的工作是需要的,为我们的主张提供更广泛的证据基础,以更好地告知干预工作场所压力较高-认知较差关系的设计。