Differences in the autonomic nervous system stress status of urban and rural school teachers

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze differences in the autonomic stress status between rural and urban school teachers. We analyzed the autonomic modulation in 25 pre-school and primary school teachers (40±7.8 years) from a city school (n:11) and rural school (n:14) by the heart rate variability analysis. Rural school teachers presented significative higher values in RMSSD, pNN50 and SD1 heart rate variability variables than city teachers, related with better autonomic control. Working place location is a variable that affects the psychophysiological stress response in education professionals, since city school teachers presented a higher sympathetic modulation, showing a lower heart rate variability, than rural school teachers.

Keywords: Autonomic Modulation; Education; Heart rate variability; School; Stress; teachers.