| Summary: | Some immunological biomarkers have been reported to be associated with job stress. This study was conducted to explore an intercorrelation between the psychological components of job stress and various immunological biomarkers among female nurses. To assess monthly and weekly job stress, 41 nurses had repeatedly completed the questionnaires such as the GJSQ, the POMS and the CES-D. Using flow cytometry and radioimmunoassay, the number of white blood cells, lymphocytic proliferation to mitogens, and toxoid were measured. Moreover, the levels of hydrocortisol, IL-b, INF-r, and TNF-a and salivary IgA were eveluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. When the Pearson correlation coefficients between job stress and immunological biomarkers were estimated after adjusting for age and smoking status, Clashes: conflict at work was significantly related to the number of CD4 cells (r = 0.36, p-value < 0.05), CD4 to CD8 ratio (0.35; < 0.05), response to concanavalin A (0.42; < 0.05), and phytohemagglutinin (0.35; < 0.05). Additionally, the level of hydrocortisol was significantly related to seven psychosocial measures; i.e., role conflict (-0.47; < 0.01), role ambiguity (-0.39; < 0.05), clashes at work (-0.38; < 0.05), control & influence at work (0.53; < 0.01), task control (0.55; < 0.001), resources at work (0.35; < 0.05), and skill underutilization (0.43; < 0.05). The results indicate that 1) the psychological job stress is associated with the levels of some immunological biomarkers in nurses; and 2) especially, hydrocortisol shows a remarkable relationship with diverse job stress indicators.
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