Assessment of stress biomarkers associated with perceived stress scale among steel manufacturing workers / Siti Nornajihah Nordin

Over the past decades, salivary biomarker has gained a lot of interest in the detection and assessment of stress (Nater et al., 2005). This study aims to identify salivary biomarkers immunoglobulin A (slgA) and alpha amylase level associated with stress among Steel Manufacturing workers. In addition, this study is also to assess the self­ perceived stress between two different groups, work area (administration vs. production) and smoking status (smoking vs. non-smoking) and its association with the marks scored. All unstimulated saliva samples for assessment of immunoglobulin A (SlgA) and alpha amylase (SAA) were collected in the morning, between 8.30 am and 12.00 pm by using passive drooling technique. The samples were stored in -20°C freezer until further analysis. The p-value for the test of alpha amylase (SAA) between administrative and production showed no difference (p=0.601 ). Meanwhile, the p-value for SAA vs. smoking status is less than 0.05. Thus, there is difference in mean for SAA (p=0.004) between smoking and non-smoking. Higher mean of SAA level was observed in non-smoking workers compared with smoking workers. On the other hand, the p-value for test of immunoglobulin A (SlgA) between administration and production show no differences (p=0.788). In contrast, ..there is significant differences (p=0.000) between SlgA level for smoking and non- smoking workers. Higher mean of SlgA level were observed in non-smoking workers compared with smoking workers. There is no correlation (r=-0.083) between Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and SAA level. Meanwhile positive fair correlation (r= 0.367) were obtained between PSS and SlgA level. These findings suggest that salivary immunoglobulin A can be good biomarkers for stress detection in saliva.