Relationship between job stress, catecholamine and physical diseases in nurses, Bandar Abbas, Iran

Introduction: Health services personnel, especially nurses, experience high levels of stress in their daily lives. Such stresses can deeply affect their health. This study aimed to examine the relationship between job stress, catecholamine and physical diseases in nurses of Bandar Abbas hospitals. Methods: This study is of descriptive and analytical type carried out on 101 nurses who were selected by cluster sampling technique from hospitals of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. The research instruments consist of two Steinmets job stress questionnaires and Severity of Physical Diseases Scale. Furthermore, to measure levels of catecholamine (epinephrine and norepinephrine) in the body, their main metabolites measurement, i.e. Vanillyl-mandelic acid (VMA) in 24-hour urine were measured using Eliza method and the commercial kits produced by Kavoshyar Company. The results were evaluated using descriptive statistics and Pearson method with SPSS 18 Software. Results: The result showed a significant and positive relationship between job stress with amount of VMA (main metabolite of epinephrine and norepinephrine), number and type of illnesses during the past two years that they have been infected (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, job stress can increase levels of Catecholamine's on general health and its negative effects seem to cause a variety of diseases.