CONCENTRATIONS OF SODIUM, POTASSIUM AND CORTISOL IN SALIVA, AND SELF-REPORTED CHRONIC WORK STRESS FACTORS

One hundred and fifteen electronics factory employees completed questi onnaires relevant to work stress, and gave unstimulated saliva samples . As previously found, Perceived Coping Incapacity correlated very sig nificantly with self-reported emotional upset and psychosomatic compla ints. Salivary [Na+] correlated significantly with Perceived Coping In capacity (rho = -0.30, p<0.01), and also with emotional upset (rho = - 0.19, p<0.05). Raised [K+] tended to be associated with reduced fatigu e (rho = -0.21, p < 0.05) and lower self-medication (rho = -0.21, p < 0.05) together with a greater perceived personal work responsibility ( rho = 0.19, p < 0.05) - all consistent with the perception of work dem ands as positive challenges rather than stressors, Self-reported fatig ue and emotional upset at work gave higher correlations with [K+] and [Na+] than either did on its own. Salivary [cortisol] was uncorrelated with self-reported work stress indices, and with [K+] and [Na+].