Stress levels and heart rate variability (HRV) in police personnel

Stress is inherent in uniform services. Police officers experience frequent and ongoing stressors in their work.

The objective of this study was to correlate between stress levels and heart rate variability in police personnel.

This was a cross-sectional study involving 150 police personnel of same cadre and age group. The study was conducted to measure different aspects of stress using various validated questionnaire such as stress indicators questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Operational Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op). The correlation between Heart Rate Variability [High Frequency (HF), Low Frequency (LF), and HF to LF ratio] and stress levels was observed by measuring the HRV and then comparing it with the stress levels that were calculated by the results of questionnaire.

The study's result showed that the majority (more than50%) of subjects were under high stress and all the subjects were under high stress due to their occupation that is police job. Subjects with less stress showed more of parasympathetic activity that is HF was high whereas subjects with more stress showed more of sympathetic activity that is increased value of LF.

The physical, environmental, occupational, personality traits are related to the level of stress in Police Personnel.