Working in the Office and Smart Working Differently Impact on the Cardiac Autonomic Control

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the working settings of millions of office employees. Recently, the study of the cardiac autonomic control profile (CACP) has been suggested as an early screening tool in occupational medicine. In this study we describe the CACP in relation to different working conditions. Seventeen healthy office active employees (age: $38\pm 7\ yrs,\ 9/8$ males/females) were studied, by means of electrocardiogram 24-hour Holter monitoring, while alternating working at home (SMART) and in the office (OFFICE), respectively. The beat-to-beat series of the time distance between two consecutive R-wave peaks was extracted during the 24 hours. Parametric power spectral analysis was iterated over the RR series during daytime (DAY) and nighttime (NIGHT). The degree of perceived stress, as measured via the visual analogue scale, was higher in OFFICE. During NIGHT the variance of the RR series was higher in SMART than in OFFICE situation. A similar tendency was observed for the absolute power of RR series in high frequency band. We conclude that the expected circadian rhythm of the vagal control is more evident in the SMART situation than in the OFFICE condition and the perceived stress is lower, with beneficial effects for the cardiovascular system and for the overall status of the entire organism.