Psychophysiological Stress Assessment Among On-Duty Firefighters.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Psychophysiology
• Emergency Services Research

Background:

• Firefighting is a high-stress occupation impacting health and performance.
• Quantitative stress evaluations in firefighters are scarce.
• Existing research often overlooks objective physiological stress markers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an ambulatory assessment protocol for evaluating firefighter stress.
• To investigate stress perceptions, symptoms, and physiological reactions in real-world conditions.
• To compare self-reported stress with objective physiological measures.

Main Methods:

• Continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) and actigraphy monitoring of 6 firefighters over two shifts using VitalJacket®.
• Collection of psychological data (stressful events, symptoms, appraisal) via an android application.
• Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) metrics from 130 hours of ECG data.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in HRV metrics (AVNN, RMSSD, pNN50, LF/HF) during stressful events versus non-events (p<0.05).
• Increased stress symptoms from shift start to end, but low self-perceived stress during events (3.22/10).
• Strong negative correlations between stress symptoms and time-domain ECG measures (AVNN, SDNN, pNN50).

Conclusions:

• Self-reports alone may underestimate firefighter stress levels.
• Ambulatory physiological monitoring combined with self-reports provides a more comprehensive assessment of occupational stress.
• Future research should focus on stress impact and interventions for firefighter well-being.