Heart rate variability and neurocognitive performance in blue- and white-collar workers: Implications for cardiac risks
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2022
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The 21st century has seen a significant and ever-growing focus on performance and productivity within the workforce. The literature has shown that attenuated cognitive ability is not only associated with reductions in performance but also with increased risk of cardiovascular disease as indicated by heart rate variability (HRV) (Hansen et al., 2003, Forte et al., 2019). The present research investigated the links between HRV and neurocognitive performance in blue- and white-collar workers.
Data was obtained from n = 101 participants aged between 19-61 years comprising of n = 48 white-collar workers (male: n = 25, female: n = 23) and n = 53 blue-collar workers (male: n = 42, female: n = 11). The experimental protocol commenced with three blood pressure (BP) recordings, a questionnaire battery to obtain demographic and lifestyle data, as well as to determine eligibility of inclusion into the study, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 60). HRV data was obtained using a 3-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) during baseline (10 minutes) and then during multiple neurocognitive tasks designed to assess working memory and attention function. These tasks are part of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and included the following tasks: the spatial working memory (SWM), attention switching task (AST), rapid visual processing (RVP), and the spatial span (SSP). Three final post-study BP recordings were obtained to complete the experiment.
Higher parasympathetic activity was significantly associated to less errors made by the white-collar workers in the SWM task (r = -0.30, p = 0.04). The blue-collar workers also showed a relationship between higher parasympathetic activity and enhanced performance, namely, superior ability to detect sequences (r = 0.28, p = 0.04) during the RVP task. Interestingly, increased parasympathetic dominance was also linked to more errors made by the white-collar workers (r = -0.31, p = 0.04) during the AST. The blue-collar workers also showed increased parasympathetic dominance was correlated to a slower reaction time (r = -0.28, p = 0.048) during the RVP task. Moreover, blue-collar workers showed lower indices of HRV.
The initial findings of the present research indicate that white-collar workers perform better on neurocognitive tasks, however, higher LF HRV (p = 0.02) and lower HF HRV (p = 0.03) in white-collar workers indicates higher susceptibility to cardiovascular disease (CVD) as compared to blue-collar workers. These preliminary findings demonstrate the importance of considering the effect of occupation on both neurocognitive performance and cardiovascular disease.
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