Biological Embedding of Psychosocial Stressors Within a Sample of Canadian Firefighters: An Exploratory Analysis

We wanted to determine whether the biological embedding of perceived psychosocial stress could be observed within a sample of Canadian firefighters.

We collected sociodemographic and general health-related information from 58 firefighters. In addition, measures of work-related and general life psychosocial stress, perceived social support, and physiological parameters thought to reflect the embedding of stress were gathered and analyzed using analysis of variance and linear regression models.

Despite observing a positive relationship between psychosocial stress and allostatic load, the association was not significant; however, age did significantly predict allostatic load ( B = 0.09, P = 0.04). Notably, our participants reported abundant social support that was inversely associated with perceived stress.

Although perceived stress did not significantly affect allostatic load in our sample, high levels of social support may have provided an important countervailing force.