Stress assessment in acute care department nurses by measuring interleukin-8.
BACKGROUND
Cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-8, have been shown to be related to depressive symptoms or inflammatory diseases and may be useful as stress biomarkers.


OBJECTIVE
This study was to assess whether urinary IL-8 levels were reliable indicators of stress among acute care department (AD) nurses.


METHODS
A total of 118 nurses participated in the study. Urinary IL-8 levels of 49 AD nurses were compared with levels of a control group of 69 chronic care department (CD) nurses.


RESULTS
The urinary IL-8 levels of AD nurses, who reported a higher level of professional stress, were higher than the levels of CD nurses (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Measurement of urinary IL-8 may be an appropriate biomarker for stress assessment in nurses.
Fukuda
H
H
Department of Specialised Nursing, Oita University of Nursing and Health Science, Oita, Japan. fukuda@oita-nhs.ac.jp
Ichinose
T
T
Kusama
T
T
Sakurai
R
R
Anndow
K
K
Akiyoshi
N
N
D000208:Acute Disease / Q000451:nursing*; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000652:urine; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000451:nursing*; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000652:urine; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000652:urine*; D007564:Japan; D008875:Middle Aged; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance
D015415:Biomarkers; D016209:Interleukin-8; D003404:Creatinine; D006854:Hydrocortisone