Stress and oxidative DNA damage in workers with heavy workloads

The purpose of this study was to investigate how subjective, or objective physical workload was associated with several kinds of psychobiological parameters including cancer risk in nonsmoking and nondrinking workers. Subjective workload was significantly correlated to the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) scores (r = 0.39, p < 0.05), and the serum cortisol levels (r = 0.37, p < 0.05), respectively. In turn, long working hours as a measure of objective workload were negatively associated with social support (r = -0.38, p < 0.05), and positively correlated with 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) levels (r = 0.39, p < 0.05) as a measure of carcinogenicity. Therefore, perceived workload, or long working hours appear to have different impacts on workers' health.