1. 1 L.I. Dreyer, 2 S. Dreyer, The effect of a 10-week exercise training program on some physiological, psychological and biochemical markers of health 1. Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. 2. Bachelor of Human Performance, Universal Collège of Learning, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Introduction Results Method Baseline physiological assessments were made of resting heart rate and resting blood pressure, aerobic fitness and body composition. Psychological wellness were assessed using validated measures of Stress Symptoms, Emotional Burnout, negative/positive affect, and Job Stress. Fasting (8 hours) total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose levels were taken. The experimental group (N=50) received a 10-week training program. The control group did not receive any exercise intervention. Various studies have reported psychological distress, low job satisfaction, high levels of job stress and job insecurity amongst staff at tertiary institutions. Psychological distress as a precursor of cardiac risk, cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular reactivity has received much attention recently. Little information is available on the relationships between psychological health, fitness and cardiac risk profiles of academic staff. Such information could provide some insight on the intricate relationships between psychological health and markers of physiological distress (like blood pressure reactivity), coronary risk and cardiovascular fitness. Conclusions Table 2: Pre- and post-exercise psychological and biochemistry profiles. Table 3: Pre and post physiological, morphological, psychological and biochemistry profiles of individuals in the experimental group (n=18) with multiple CAD risk factors. Table 1. Pre- and post-intervention physiological and morphological profiles of the experimental and control groups. VariablesGroupsPrePostp Resting Heart Rate (RHR)ECEC 72.0 ±12.1 69.7 ±12.8 66.8 ±6.7 70.2 ± 8.1 0.00001 0.76 Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP)ECEC 128.6 ±11.7 126.7 ±9.9 122.7 ±10.9 126.7 ±10.9 0.00001 0.58 Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP)ECEC 78.3 ±8.4 80.1 ±10.8 76.6 ±7.9 81.5 ±7.4 0.07 0.33 Pulse Pressure (PP)ECEC 50.3 ±11.7 45.9 ±6.9 46.1 ±8.8 45.3 ±6.9 0.004 0.72 Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP)ECEC 95.1 ±7.9 95.4 ±9.9 91.9 ±8.0 96.5 ±8.1 0.0001 0.29 Cardiovascular fitness (VO 2 peak )ECEC 30.4 ±7.0 32.1 ±9.3 35.2 ±9.4 32.7 ±8.1 0.0001 0.46 Systolic Blood Pressure reactivity during last stage of fitness test ECEC 182.4 ±21.4 180.8 ±15.6 176.9 ±18.1 181.7 ±19.3 0.04 0.85 Percentage body fat (%BF)ECEC 21.5 ±8.7 18.9 ±5.9 19.6 ±8.1 19.5 ±6.4 0.0001 0.30 Body Weight (BW)ECEC 79.8 ±17.5 70.1 ±11.6 78.8 ±16.6 70.2 ±12.4 0.0001 0.59 VariablesGroupsPrePostp Stress symptoms (SS)ECEC 12.2 ±6.9 13.9 ±10.0 10.2 ±70.2 13.4 ± 9.8 0.002 0.73 Job stress (JobS)ECEC 1.53 ±0.26 1.65 ±0.32 1.47 ±0.23 1.59 ±0.32 0.009 0.14 Emotional burnout (EWB)ECEC 2.99 ±0.63 2.82 ±0.98 2.69 ±0.71 2.79 ±0.99 0.0001 0.77 Positive/negative AffectECEC 20.69 ±10.9 23.95 ±1.6 24.8 ±10.0 23.21 ±13.4 0.0001 0.56 Total cholesterol (TC)ECEC 5.17 ± 0.97 5.58 ± 0.95 4.98 ± 0.83 5.49 ± 0.82 0.035 0.41 Glucose (GLU)ECEC 4.75 ± 0.85 4.63 ± 0.37 4.61 ± 0.66 4.52 ± 0.95 0.12 0.13 TriglyceridesECEC 1.46 ± 0.65 1.43 ± 0.72 1.34 ±0.88 1.48 ±0.82 0.07 0.26 HDL-cholesterolECEC 1.64 ±0.45 1.68 ±0.38 1.76 ±0.47 1.71 ±0.49 0.0001 0.12 LDL-cholesterolECEC 2.92 ±0.88 2.87 ±0.74 2.59 ±0.73 2.76 ±0.68 0.0007 0.19 TC/HDL-ratioECEC 3.15 ±1.06 3.32 ±0.74 2.82 ±0.87 3.19 ±0.75 0.0001 0.09 The 10-week exercise training program had a statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) positive effect on SBP, PP, MAP, peak VO 2 and SBP reactivity, in the experimental group. The small magnitude of effect on the morphological variables is to be expected considering the short duration (10-weeks) of the exercise training program. VariablesPrePostp Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP)136.7 ±10.9127.9 ±11.90.032 Pulse Pressure (PP)56.2 ±12.947.8 ± 8.50.011 Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP)99.2 ± 8.695.9 ± 9.30.33 Percentage Body Fat (%BF)25.8 ± 10.123.3 ± 10.00.006 Body Weight (BW)97.9 ± 13.895.3 ± 13.30.001 VO 2peak 28.5 ± 5.734.6 ± 7.40.0001 Stress symptoms (SS)12.4 ± 7.99.5 ± 7.720.034 Emotional burnout (EWB)3.03 ± 0.632.78 ± 0.670.017 Total cholesterol (TC)5.57 ± 0.905.12 ± 0.820.016 HDL-cholesterol1.47 ± 0.351.57 ± 0.390.042 LDL-cholesterol3.38 ± 0.842.70 ± 0.660.001 TC/HDL-ratio3.95 ± 1.183.42 ± 1.170.004 The exercise program had a positive effect on all of the measured biochemistry variables (Table 2). In the case of TC, HDL-C, LDL-C and the TC/HDL-ratio the changes were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). The program also had a positive effect on some psychological constructs. In the case of positive/negative affect, stress symptoms, job stress and emotional burnout the effects were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). The SBP, % body fat, TC, HDL-C, TC/HDL-ratio and the MAP values of individuals with pre-exercise emotional burnout improved significantly (p ≤ 0.05). The amount of respondents in the experimental group with 3 or more CAD risk factors were reduced from 29.4% at the pre-intervention stage to 11.5% at re-assessment. Specifically, the SBP, PP, MAP, %BF, BW, stress symptoms, emotional burnout, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, TC/HDL-ratio and VO 2peak values of the group with multiple risk factors improved significantly (p ≤ 0.05). It is debatable whether any other form of intervention like medication or psychological therapy could produce such a comprehensive overall effect, within 10-weeks The the physiological, psychological, morphological and biochemistry CAD risk profiles of the respondents improved significantly (p ≤ 0.05). The CAD risk profiles of individuals with emotional burnout improved statistically significantly (p ≤ 0.05). The amount of individuals with more than 3 CAD risk factors was markedly reduced. The exercise program had a statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) positive effect on the CAD risk profiles of individuals with multiple risk factors. The psychological health of staff with high levels of job stress and emotional exhaustion improved statistically significantly (p ≤ 0.05). The exercise program seem to have negated and reduced the negative impact of the work environment on the coronary risk profiles of tertiary institution staff members in psychological distress.