Investigating Teacher Health with Non-invasive Biomarkers: Lessons from a Field Trial

Authors' Affiliations

Trystan Innes, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN Amanda M.S. Frasier, University School, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

Location

D.P. Culp Center Ballroom

Start Date

4-5-2024 9:00 AM

End Date

4-5-2024 11:30 AM

Poster Number

37

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Chad Frasier

Faculty Sponsor's Department

Biomedical Sciences

Classification of First Author

Clinical Doctoral Student

Competition Type

Competitive

Type

Poster Presentation

Presentation Category

Health

Abstract or Artist's Statement

In a recent TN Education Association survey, educators demonstrated extremely high levels of stress, anxiety, and health concerns. Only 8% of respondents stated feeling hopeful at work, and 61% were unlikely to remain teachers in 3 years. Teacher turnover gives both economic losses for schools and educational losses for students . These negative effects are more pronounced in minority, special education, and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Teachers concerned about their health are more likely to leave the profession, increasing educational costs. This field trial explores the question, “How could the collection of non-invasive biomarkers help improve teaching conditions and retain teachers?” and examines the relationship between perceptions of health and minimally invasive biomarkers, particularly Heart Rate Variability. HRV is a measure approximating autonomic nervous system output and is accessible to the public through wearable devices. In phase 1, teachers at a single school completed a survey of demographics and items focused on perceptions of health, stress, and performance gathered from the Teacher Stress Inventory, Effort-Reward Imbalance, and the NIOSH Worker’s surveys. After, participants could enter Phase 2, biomarker collection. Data was collected at three time points: a self-identified normal day, a self-identified high stress day, and a break day during summer vacation. Each day, participants responded to the WHO-5 questionnaire, gauging quality of life in the previous two weeks. Self-perceived cardiovascular manifestations such as heart racing or shallow breathing are significantly correlated with measures of professional distress and effort-reward imbalance. Importantly, we found that the differences observed between timepoints were not significant: participants' average HR remained constant on working and non-working days (std 0.6-3.2 bpm). However, during the summer, the evening HR was typically lower than on teaching days. This suggests that during the school year, teachers relax less, even when not teaching. Analysis of the LF/HF ratio revealed similar results. Stress values were also higher on “high-stress” days and lowered during the evening across all time-points in all participants. The “length of longest word” is a measure of the variability of the variability (entropy measure) and its changes have also been associated with health outcomes. In our participants, the LOLW was decreased during the 2 “working” timepoints compared to the summer timepoint. Baevsky's stress index was also found to be higher during the work day. Interestingly, there weren’t differences between the normal vs. high-stress days. Taken together, our biomarker data demonstrate that several easily measurable biomarkers may correspond to mental stress. Future studies tracking these parameters over time and in larger populations may yield important results about stress recovery.

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Apr 5th, 9:00 AM Apr 5th, 11:30 AM

Investigating Teacher Health with Non-invasive Biomarkers: Lessons from a Field Trial

D.P. Culp Center Ballroom

In a recent TN Education Association survey, educators demonstrated extremely high levels of stress, anxiety, and health concerns. Only 8% of respondents stated feeling hopeful at work, and 61% were unlikely to remain teachers in 3 years. Teacher turnover gives both economic losses for schools and educational losses for students . These negative effects are more pronounced in minority, special education, and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Teachers concerned about their health are more likely to leave the profession, increasing educational costs. This field trial explores the question, “How could the collection of non-invasive biomarkers help improve teaching conditions and retain teachers?” and examines the relationship between perceptions of health and minimally invasive biomarkers, particularly Heart Rate Variability. HRV is a measure approximating autonomic nervous system output and is accessible to the public through wearable devices. In phase 1, teachers at a single school completed a survey of demographics and items focused on perceptions of health, stress, and performance gathered from the Teacher Stress Inventory, Effort-Reward Imbalance, and the NIOSH Worker’s surveys. After, participants could enter Phase 2, biomarker collection. Data was collected at three time points: a self-identified normal day, a self-identified high stress day, and a break day during summer vacation. Each day, participants responded to the WHO-5 questionnaire, gauging quality of life in the previous two weeks. Self-perceived cardiovascular manifestations such as heart racing or shallow breathing are significantly correlated with measures of professional distress and effort-reward imbalance. Importantly, we found that the differences observed between timepoints were not significant: participants' average HR remained constant on working and non-working days (std 0.6-3.2 bpm). However, during the summer, the evening HR was typically lower than on teaching days. This suggests that during the school year, teachers relax less, even when not teaching. Analysis of the LF/HF ratio revealed similar results. Stress values were also higher on “high-stress” days and lowered during the evening across all time-points in all participants. The “length of longest word” is a measure of the variability of the variability (entropy measure) and its changes have also been associated with health outcomes. In our participants, the LOLW was decreased during the 2 “working” timepoints compared to the summer timepoint. Baevsky's stress index was also found to be higher during the work day. Interestingly, there weren’t differences between the normal vs. high-stress days. Taken together, our biomarker data demonstrate that several easily measurable biomarkers may correspond to mental stress. Future studies tracking these parameters over time and in larger populations may yield important results about stress recovery.