Identification and Assessment of Adverse Occupational Health Risks Among Public Safety Personnel: A Biopsychosocial Investigation of Stress Biomarkers in Naturalistic Settings

Chronic occupational stress is one of the most significant contributors to adverse health and performance outcomes among public safety personnel (PSP). This dissertation builds upon prior research on the allostatic load (AL) model of stress and health, investigating PSP’s occupational stress, health, and performance in naturalistic settings from a biopsychosocial perspective across three components: a) AL from occupational stressors and adverse health outcomes (study 1–2), b) the impact of subclinical health outcomes on occupational performance (study 3), and c) the exploration of an emerging cardiac metric to address current biomarker literature gaps and confounds (study 4). Study 1 examined occupational stress subcomponents and their association with mental health; findings revealed that organizational in contrast to operational stress was the strongest occupational subcomponent associated with adverse mental health risk. Building upon prior research, study 2 added an objective stress biomarker (i.e., diurnal cortisol) to investigate occupational factors related to physical health; findings indicated that as operational risk increased, dysregulated neuroendocrine function was more pronounced. Study 3 combined biopsychosocial variables of stress and AL (e.g., occupational stress, mental health symptoms, cortisol) to investigate potential associations with a timely and urgent behavioural outcome among PSP — lethal force decision-making; findings revealed that dysregulated neuroendocrine function (when including outlier data) increased the odds of lethal force decision-making errors. Together, study 2 and 3’s findings demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of AL neuroendocrine biomarkers among PSP in naturalistic settings. Building on that knowledge, study 4 investigated an emerging cardiac biomarker (heart rate fragmentation — HRF) that may better capture AL. Study 4 found that HRF can detect acute psychological stress in both healthy individuals and those with probable mental health (pMH) symptoms; while pMH and healthy individuals did not differ in baseline HRF, exploratory analyses revealed that pMH individuals had significantly blunted HRF stress reactivity. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates significantly prevalent health and performance risks associated with acute and occupational stress in otherwise healthy, nonclinical adults. A further novel contribution, is the introduction of an emerging cardiac biomarker with promise for detecting AL risk among PSP; knowledge may inform future occupational interventions and policy for adverse health prevention.

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Chan, Jennifer

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Andersen, Judith

• Allostatic Load
• Cortisol
• Heart Rate Fragmentation
• Mental Health
• Public Safety Personnel
• Stress

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/130184

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/130184