Bertilsson Johan, Niehorster Diederick C, Fredriksson Peter Jan, Dahl Mats, Granér Simon, Fredriksson Ola, Mårtensson Johan Magnus, Magnusson Måns, Fransson Per-Anders, Nyström Marcus
Police Region South, Swedish Police Authority, Malmö, Sweden.
Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Front Psychol. 2019 Jul 4;10:1562. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01562. eCollection 2019.
Police work may include performing repeated tasks under the influence of psychological stress, which can affect perceptual, cognitive and motor performance. However, it is largely unknown how repeatedly performing stressful tasks physically affect police officers in terms of heart rate and pupil diameter properties. Psychological stress is commonly assessed by monitoring the changes in these biomarkers. Heart rate and pupil diameter was measured in 12 male police officers when performing a sequence of four stressful tasks, each lasting between 20 and 130 s. The participants were first placed in a dimly illuminated anteroom before allowed to enter a brightly lit room where a scenario was played out. After each task was performed, the participants returned to the anteroom for about 30 s before performing the next sequential task. Performing a repeated sequence of stressful tasks caused a significant increase in heart rate ( = 0.005). The heart rate started to increase already before entering the scenario room and was significantly larger just after starting the task than just before starting the task ( < 0.001). This pattern was more marked during the first tasks ( < 0.001). Issuance of a verbal "abort" command which terminated the tasks led to a significant increase of heart rate ( = 0.002), especially when performing the first tasks ( = 0.002). The pupil diameter changed significantly during the repeated tasks during all phases but in a complex pattern where the pupil diameter reached a minimum during task 2 followed by an increase during tasks 3 and 4 ( ≤ 0.020). During the initial tasks, the pupil size ( = 0.014) increased significantly. The results suggest that being repeatedly exposed to stressful tasks can produce in itself an escalation of psychological stress, this even prior to being exposed to the task. However, the characteristics of both the heart rate and pupil diameter were complex, thus, the findings highlight the importance of studying the effects and dynamics of different stress-generating factors. Monitoring heart rate was found useful to screen for stress responses, and thus, to be a vehicle for indication if and when rotation of deployed personnel is necessary to avoid sustained high stress exposures.
警察工作可能包括在心理压力的影响下执行重复性任务，这会影响感知、认知和运动表现。然而，就心率和瞳孔直径特性而言，反复执行压力任务对警察身体的影响在很大程度上尚不明确。心理压力通常通过监测这些生物标志物的变化来评估。在12名男性警察执行一系列四项压力任务时测量了他们的心率和瞳孔直径，每项任务持续20至130秒。参与者首先被安置在光线昏暗的前厅，然后进入一个光线明亮的房间，在那里上演一个场景。每项任务完成后，参与者回到前厅约30秒，然后再执行下一项连续任务。执行一系列重复性压力任务会导致心率显著增加（P = 0.005）。在进入场景房间之前心率就已经开始增加，并且在任务刚开始时比任务开始前显著更高（P < 0.001）。这种模式在最初的任务中更为明显（P < 0.001）。发出终止任务的口头“中止”命令会导致心率显著增加（P = 0.002），尤其是在执行最初任务时（P = 0.002）。在所有阶段的重复任务过程中，瞳孔直径都有显著变化，但呈现出一种复杂的模式，其中瞳孔直径在任务2期间达到最小值，随后在任务3和4期间增加（P ≤ 0.020）。在最初的任务中，瞳孔大小（P = 0.014）显著增加。结果表明，反复暴露于压力任务本身会导致心理压力升级，甚至在接触任务之前就会如此。然而，心率和瞳孔直径的特征都很复杂，因此，这些发现凸显了研究不同压力产生因素的影响和动态变化的重要性。发现监测心率有助于筛查压力反应，因此，可作为一种指示工具，用于判断是否以及何时需要轮换部署人员，以避免持续暴露于高压力环境。
