| Title | Building Resilience in an Urban Police Department. | ||
| Author | Ramey, Sandra L; Perkhounkova, Yelena; Hein, Maria; Chung, Sophia; Franke, Warren D; Anderson, Amanda A | ||
| Journal | J Occup Environ Med | Publication Year/Month | 2016-Aug |
| PMID | 27414008 | PMCID | -N/A- |
| Affiliation | 1.University of Iowa, College of Nursing, Iowa City, Iowa (Drs Ramey and Perkhounkova, Ms Hein), University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, Iowa (Dr Ramey), University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea (Dr Chung), and Iowa State University, Department of Kinesiology, Ames, Iowa (Dr Franke and Ms Anderson). | ||
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to examine a resilience training intervention that impacts autonomic responses to stress and improves cardiovascular risk, psychological, and physiological outcomes in police. METHODS: Officers [(n = 38) 22 to 54 years] modified emotional and physical responses to stress using self-regulation. Measurements include psychological and physiological measures [eg, heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, C-reactive protein)] obtained at three time intervals. RESULTS: Age was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with changes on several measures of psychological stress (eg, critical incident stress, emotional vitality, and depression). Associations were found between coherence and improved HbA1c (r = -0.66, P < 0.001) and stress due to organizational pressures (r = -0.44, P = 0.03). Improvements in sympathetic and parasympathetic contributors of HRV were significant (P < 0.03). CONCLUSION: A stress-resilience intervention improves certain responses to job stress with greater benefits for younger participants.