Hematological manifestations of occupational stress: A cross sectional study on middle aged bank employees

---

Original Article

Author Details : Aswini Dutt R, Shobith Bangera, Sampritha Chandra

Volume : 3, Issue : 1, Year : 2016

Article Page : 16-20

Suggest article by email

Get Permission

---

Abstract

Background: Stress is ubiquitous in life. Stress when crosses the limits of sanity, can adversely alter a person’s well being. Work related stress has been known to cause many ill-effects on the body. Stress can be observed in all fields of work big or small.
Objectives: The present study was carried out to assess stress levels among working middle-aged males through a questionnaire based analysis and to study the effects of work related/organizational stress exclusively on blood cells.
Methods: Sixty male employees of a Co-operative Bank of a city in South Karnataka, India (35–60 years) were included in the study. Based on the analysis of their job stress levels using a validated self administered Likert Scale questionnaire on work stress, study group was divided into Non-stressed and Stressed. Their Red Blood Cells (RBC), White Blood Cells (WBC), Platelets, Differential Leucocyte counts and Hemoglobin levels were estimated. These parameters were analyzed statistically.
Results: The present study showed a significant fall in the lymphocyte count in the stressed individuals while there being a significant rise in the eosinophil and monocyte count. The total leukocyte count, platelet count and hemoglobin levels showed a fall, but were statistically insignificant.
Conclusions: Stressful conditions can lead to various endocrine derangements. The changes in hormone levels, mainly corticosteroids lead to alterations in blood cell count. These alterations will cause a fall in immunity with increased occurrence of infections.

Keywords: Bank employees, Blood cells, Stress, Corticosteroids, Immunity

How to cite : Aswini Dutt R, Bangera S, Chandra S, Hematological manifestations of occupational stress: A cross sectional study on middle aged bank employees. Indian J Clin Anat Physiol 2016;3(1):16-20

This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.