Association between perceived stress and cardio-metabolic risk factors: preliminary results of NURSE (Nursing Unacquainted Related Stress Etiologies) study.

Objective: Stress is known as a conventional risk factor of cardiovascular disease. Nurses work in stressful environment and could be one of the target populations to be assessed for cardio metabolic risk factor. This study aimed to identify the association between perceived stress and cardio-metabolic risk factors in nurses who are prone for various metabolic diseases.

Method: In this cross-sectional study, nurses from five different educational hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Science attended the study. A self-administered questionnaire as well as Perceived Stress scale were completed. All anthropometric indices and blood pressure were measured. After 10-12 hours of fasting, venous blood samples were taken and level of total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood sugar and insulin level were determined. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and a p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: In total 273 nurses were recruited in this study. The mean age of participants was 35.01 ± 0.399 years old. The mean of perceived stress was 15.55 ± 5.04 with the minimum of 3 and maximum of 30. There was no significant association between perceived stress and cardio-metabolic risk factors. Results showed that there was a negative association between perceived stress and insulin level only in nurses who worked rotationally (β = - 0.195,  = 0.048). This association remained significant after adjustment for age and sex (β = - 0.181,  = 0.041).

Conclusion: Finding of the current study showed that negative association between perceived stress and insulin level and there is no significant association between stress and cardio-metabolic risk factors in nurses.