Self-rated recovery from work stress and allostatic load in women

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between self-rated recovery from work stress and biologic dysregulation in terms of allostatic load (AL) and individual biomarkers, respectively, in healthy women within the public health care sector.MethodsTwo hundred forty-one women completed self-ratings of recovery and took part in a standardized medical examination, which provided individual biomarkers that were used to compute AL.ResultsCluster analysis of self-rated recovery resulted in three cluster profiles, including (1) recovered women (n=108), (2) nonrecovered women (n=51), and (3) fatigued women (n=82). Sequential logistic regression analysis showed that the fatigued profile had an increased risk for high AL. In contrast, there was no significant difference in individual biomarkers between recovery profiles.ConclusionsThe findings establish an association between biologic processes and self-rated recovery from work stress, thus supporting the hypothesis that insufficient recovery may result in high AL.