| Title | The impact of unemployment on heart rate variability: the evidence from the Czech Republic. | ||
| Author | Jandackova, Vera K; Paulik, Karel; Steptoe, Andrew | ||
| Journal | Biol Psychol | Publication Year/Month | 2012-Oct |
| PMID | 22789730 | PMCID | -N/A- |
| Affiliation | 1.Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava, Syllabova 19, 703 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic. vera.jandackova.11@ucl.ac.uk. | ||
We examined the relationship between unemployment and heart rate variability (HRV) in a region of high unemployment in the Czech Republic. The study involved 21 involuntarily unemployed and 21 employed men and women aged 30-49 years, matched on number of potentially confounding factors, including age, gender, type of job, health related behavior and body mass index. HRV was assessed in response to a modified orthostatic test. Compared with the employed group, unemployed participants had decreased high frequency HRV (p=0.018), lower root mean square of successive differences (p=0.050), and lower total spectral variability (p=0.022). These findings suggest that unemployment is a potential chronic stressor that may lead to suppression of vagal activity. This may be one mechanism linking unemployment with cardiovascular disease risk.