Autonomic Nervous System Activity and Workplace Stressors--a Systematic Review

Aim: This systematic review evaluates and summarizes the evidence of the association between psychosocial work environment as indicated by several work-stress models such as Job-Demand-Control (JDC), Effort-Reward-Imbalance (ERI), or Organizational Justice (OJ) and autonomic nervous system (ANS) function as indexed by heart rate variability (HRV).

Method: We conducted a systematic literature search following the PRISMA-Statement in eleven databases including Medline, Web of Science and PsycINFO to address medical as well as psychological aspects of the relation between psychosocial work-stress models and HRV.

Results: We identified 19 publications with a total of 8382 employees from ten countries reporting data from the years 1976-2008. Overall, nine of all studies report a negative and significant association between vagally-mediated HRV and measures of stress at work, while eight of all studies report a negative and significant association to mixed sympathetic and parasympathetic measures of HRV.

Conclusions: This systematic review provides evidence that adverse psychosocial work conditions are negatively associated with ANS function as indexed by HRV.