Occupational stress of anesthesia: Effects on aging

Abstract

Background: Anesthesiology has been identified as a stressful specialty. Chronic psychological stress may lead to biological aging and skin aging.

Study objective: The primary outcome was to measure physical health and emotional well-being. Secondary outcomes include skin aging analysis, telomere shortening in anesthetists.

Design: This is a prospective observational study.

Settings: University of Alexandria.

Patients: Study was carried out on 366 ASA I-II physicians 30-50yr.

Interventions: Physicians were categorized into two equal groups, Group A (183) were anesthesia physicians and Group B (183) were physicians in less stressful specialties (laboratory specialties). Subgroup analysis was performed comparing 10years' intervals from (30-40) and from (40-50).

Measurements: Physical health and emotional well-being were evaluated. All physicians were exposed to validated assessment scales for the upper face and the lower face for skin aging analysis. Blood sampling were drowned from all physicians during their working hours for analysis of telomere length, markers of oxidative stress.

Results: The two studied groups showed comparable demographic data and years of work. Physical health score and emotional health score showed higher values in Group A than Group B. Upper and lower face aesthetic unit summary score showed higher values in Group A than Group B. Telomere (TTAGGG) repeats for terminal restriction fragments (TRF) of Group A individuals revealed a significant decrease of TRF compared to Group B (p=0.001*).

Conclusion: Biological and skin aging is evident in anesthetists who are chronically exposed to occupational stress, with obvious shorter telomere length, higher lower and upper face scores, and free radicals.

Keywords: Anesthetists; Occupational stress; Skin aging; Telomere.