Arbeitsstress, sozialer Stress und Schlafqualitat: Differentielle Effekte unter Berücksichtigung von Alter, Besorgnisneigung und Gesundheit [Work stress, social stress, and sleep quality: differential effects in consideration of age, worry disposition, and health]

Cross-sectional analyses of data from 309 subjects test two hypotheses: (1) Sleep disorders are related to social stress, not work stress, and (2) the personality trait “worry disposition” reveals a direct as well as an indirect, i.e. stress-mediated, effect on sleep disorders. A negative association of sleep quality to social stress, but not work stress is found after controlling for effects of worry, age, and illness frequency. This finding is confirmed by the findings of a subsequent path analysis. A subsequent longitudinal study tests hypothesis (3): Social stress causes impairments in sleep quality. Seventy-six subjects received handheld-computers to measure sleep quality and stress in different domains on two subsequent days. A cross-lagged panel analysis reveals associations of social stress at the first day to sleep quality at the second day, but no reversed relation. Findings point to the relevance of worry disposition and social stress in explaining sleep disorders.An 309 Probanden werden in einer Querschnittsuntersuchung zwei Hypothesen überprüft: (1) Schlafstörungen hängen mit sozialem Stress zusammen, nicht mit Arbeitsstress und (2) das Personmerkmal Besorgnisneigung hat sowohl einen direkten als auch einen indirekten, über Stress vermittelten, Effekt auf Schlafstörungen. Nach statistischer Kontrolle der Variablen Besorgnisneigung, Alter und Krankheitshäufigkeit findet sich neben anderen Ergebnissen ein negativer Zusammenhang von Schlafqualität mit sozialem Stress, nicht aber mit Arbeitsstress. Dieser Befund kann in einer anschließenden Pfadanalyse bestätigt werden. In einer Längsschnittuntersuchung wird dann Hypothese (3) überprüft: Sozialer Stress verursacht Beeinträchtigungen der Schlafzufriedenheit. 76 Versuchsteilnehmern wurden Handheld-Computer ausgehändigt, die an zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen Schlafzufriedenheit und verschiedene Arten der Beanspruchung erfassten. Eine crossed-lagged Panel Analyse zeigt einen Zusammenhang von sozialem Stress am ersten Tag mit Schlafzufriedenheit am zweiten Tag, aber keinen umgekehrten Zusammenhang. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf die Bedeutung von Besorgnisneigung und sozialem Stress für die Erklärung von Schlafstörungen hin

Zur Bestimmung von Alterseffekten bei der subjektiven Beurteilung des Schlafes [Controlling for confounding factors in studies of age-effects on self-reported sleep parameters]

Self-report data on sleep in elderly persons are influenced by age-dependent, age-associated, and age-independent factors. This study seeks to test the effects of the age-independent factors chronic stress, personality, and health behavior on subjective measures of sleep. A first analysis tests age effects on sleep quality and feeling recreated after sleep in four samples (N = 958) and reveals lower sleep quality in the elderly, although they feel more recreated after sleep. A second analysis on a subsample of 277 subjects identifies and selects age-independent variables that have to be controlled for, if age-effects on sleep shall be assessed precisely: Perceived stress, personality factors, and health status variables. Finally, a third analysis on the same subsample tests the influence of these variables on age-sleep associations by successively partialling out their variance from the simple correlation between age and sleep parameters. Controlling these variables results in stronger associations of age with sleep quality and weaker associations of age with sleep-related recreation. The discussion clarifies the reasons why elderly persons feel more recreated in the morning even though they report lower sleep quality.Zusammenfassung: Selbstauskunftsdaten zum Schlaf älterer Menschen werden von altersabhängigen, altersassoziierten und altersunabhängigen Faktoren beeinflusst. Diese Faktoren werden einleitend hinsichtlich ihrer Relevanz zur Bestimmung von Alterseffekten auf den Schlaf diskutiert. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die Effekte der altersunabhängigen Faktoren chronischer Stress, Persönlichkeit und Gesundheitsverhalten auf den Zusammenhang zwischen Alter und subjektiver Beurteilung des Schlafes, d.h. Schlafqualität (SQ) und Gefühl des Erholtseins durch den Schlaf (GES), zu prüfen. In einer ersten Analyse wird für vier Stichproben (N = 958) geprüft, wie stark SQ und GES zusammenhängen und ob die Alterseffekte bei der SQ bzw. dem GES unterschiedlich ausfallen. Es zeigt sich, dass die berichtete SQ bei älteren Menschen zwar niedriger ist, sie sich dennoch am Morgen erholter fühlen. In einer zweiten Analyse (N = 277) werden Variablen identifiziert und ausgewählt, die zur Bestimmung von Alterseffekten auf die SQ kontrolliert werden sollten. In einer dritten Analyse wird abschließend die Beziehung zwischen Alter und Schlafparametern unter Kontrolle dieser Faktoren geprüft. Ohne Berücksichtigung konfundierender Faktoren wird der Alterseffekt auf die SQ stichprobenbedingt erheblich unterschätzt und auf das GES überschätzt. Die positive Korrelation zwischen Alter und GES nimmt bei Kontrolle konfundierender Variablen stark ab. Die Ergebnisse dieser Analysen werden ausführlich diskutiert

Trait anxiety moderates the impact of performance pressure on salivary cortisol in everyday life.

Stress and negative affective states are associated with cortisol in everyday life. However, it remains unclear what types of stressors and which affective states yield these associations, and the effect of trait anxiety is unknown. This study investigates the associations of specific task-related stressors and negative affective states in everyday life with salivary cortisol, and explores the mediating and moderating role of state negative affect and trait anxiety, respectively.Salivary cortisol, subjective stress, and state negative affect were measured three times a day on 2 days in 71 participants in everyday life, using a handheld computer to collect self-reports and time stamps and an electronic device to monitor saliva sampling compliance. Stress measures comprised the experience of performance pressure and failure during daily tasks; measures of negative affect comprised worn-out, tense, unhappy, and angry. Effects were tested using multilevel fixed-occasion models.Momentary performance under pressure was related to higher momentary cortisol measures, while mean task failure was related to lower daily cortisol concentrations. The association of performance pressure with cortisol varied between subjects, and this variation was explained by trait anxiety, yielding stronger associations in participants scoring high on trait anxiety. No evidence was found for a mediating role of state negative affect.These results describe the well-documented associations of everyday stressors and affect with salivary cortisol more precisely, suggesting that performance pressure is a significant condition related to short-term changes in cortisol. Subjects scoring high on trait anxiety seem to process stress-relevant information in a way that amplifies the association of performance pressure with reactions of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis

The effect of stress on core and peripheral body temperature in humans

<p>Even though there are indications that stress influences body temperature in humans, no study has systematically investigated the effects of stress on core and peripheral body temperature. The present study therefore aimed to investigate the effects of acute psychosocial stress on body temperature using different readout measurements. In two independent studies, male and female participants were exposed to a standardized laboratory stress task (the Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) or a non-stressful control task. Core temperature (intestinal and temporal artery) and peripheral temperature (facial and body skin temperature) were measured. Compared to the control condition, stress exposure decreased intestinal temperature but did not affect temporal artery temperature. Stress exposure resulted in changes in skin temperature that followed a gradient-like pattern, with decreases at distal skin locations such as the fingertip and finger base and unchanged skin temperature at proximal regions such as the infraclavicular area. Stress-induced effects on facial temperature displayed a sex-specific pattern, with decreased nasal skin temperature in females and increased cheek temperature in males. In conclusion, the amplitude and direction of stress-induced temperature changes depend on the site of temperature measurement in humans. This precludes a direct translation of the preclinical stress-induced hyperthermia paradigm, in which core temperature uniformly rises in response to stress to the human situation. Nevertheless, the effects of stress result in consistent temperature changes. Therefore, the present study supports the inclusion of body temperature as a physiological readout parameter of stress in future studies.</p>

Evaluation of Dexterity in Insulin-Treated Patients with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

BACKGROUND: Daily routine for insulin-treated patients with diabetes mellitus requires correct performance of self-monitoring of blood glucose and insulin injections several times a day. Dexterity skills may play an important role in the performance efficacy of these procedures. METHODS: We collected data of insulin-treated (>10 years) patients with different age ranges [healthy controls, 14 female/11 male, age (mean ± standard deviation) 55 ± 7 years; type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients, 12/13, 45 ± 9 years, disease duration 23.9 ± 6.5 years; T2DM patients, 8/17, 64 ± 6 years, 16.2 ± 6.9 years; T2DM patients (>70 years of age), 9/16, 75 ± 4 years, 19.7 ± 7.0 years]. After assessment of neuropathy (temperature, pain, and vibration perception), the patients participated in two dexterity test batteries [Jebsen–Taylor hand-function test (JHFT) and motoric performance series (MPS)]. RESULTS: Patients with type 2 diabetes showed disturbed vibration perception as compared to the other groups. The dexterity results were influenced by age to a large extent. Older T2DM patients performed worst in the majority of the subtests (e.g., JHFT, writing nondominant hand: control, 40.8 ± 11.7 s; T1DM, 46.3 ± 50.9 s, not significant versus control; old T2DM, 68.1 ± 29.5 s, p < .05; young T2DM, 52.5 ± 26.2 s, p < .05). Patients with type 1 diabetes showed similar JHFT and MPS results than the 10-year-older control subjects and performed outside of the age-dependent normal reference range. CONCLUSIONS: Manual skills and dexterity differed between the groups, and age-corrected reduced skills were common in both T1DM and T2DM patients in this study. Our findings underline the importance of considering dexterity and manual skills when designing medical devices for patients with diabetes mellitus