Interhormonal Correlations at Professional Risk Staffs

Abstract

Background: To adapt quickly to changes in the environment, significant functional changes occur in the human body exposed to various negative factors (including extreme occupational stress). The endocrine system, with the activation of the sympathoadrenal and pituitary-adrenocortical axis, plays an important role in this process. The aim of our investigation was to study the features of interhormonal relationships between the sympathoadrenal and pituitary-adrenocortical axis and the thyroid and gonadal hormones among professional, at-risk staff. Materials and Methods: A total of 156 police officers stationed in the Archangelsk region were examined. Depending on their professional activity, 3 groups were formed. Group 1 included 48 police officers who were sent to the conflict regions to maintain law enforcement – combatants. Group 2 included 52 duty officers who had never been in a territory with military conflict. Group 3 was formed from 56 students of the Police Training Center. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was calculated to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. Results: Among the studied groups of police officers, we found that the severity of interhormonal correlation depended on the intensity of professional activity. The highest number of significant interhormonal correlations was registered in the group of combatants, and these correlations were recorded between the hormones of all parts of the endocrine system: pituitarysympathoadrenal and thyroid-gonad hormones. Conclusion: The revealed multiple significant intersystem hormonal correlations among combatants, as compared with duty and student policemen, indicate that the functional intensity of the endocrine system is due to the extreme state of the professional environment.

Keywords

• professional risk
• interhormonal relationships
• adaptation