Philippine E-Journals

Comparison Of Cortisol Level and WBC Count Among Male Tricycle Drivers in Batangas City

Faith Angela Seva | Angel Gledelle D Medrano | Marielle B Plandez

 

Abstract:

An association between cortisol and white blood cell (WBC) and its significant relationship with the subjects' demographic profiles have been previously observed. The researchers came up with this study to determine whether there is a significant difference between the cortisol levels of an individual working in day shift and night shift since there might be an abnormal change in the immune complex of the certain worker and also to determine the relationship of cortisol level and WBC count in terms of the demographic profiles of the subjects. They correlated the levels of cortisol and WBC among male tricycle drivers aged 20-50 working in different shifts and with normal health status in selected tricycle terminals in Batangas City. Covariate includes age, shifts, body mass index (BMI), total serum cortisol and WBC count. Blood was extracted thrice with 10 days interval among the subjects to monitor the levels of their Cortisol and WBC count. Results showed that there is a decreased level of WBC on the 1st collection but then normalizes on the 2nd and 3rd collection while results on Cortisol test showed different levels between two groups proving that there is a significant difference between day shift and night shift. Based on the results, there is only a small percentage that the cortisol level is correlated with WBC Count, affirming that there are lots of other factors that may contribute to the level of cortisol of a specific individual. Also, a insignificant relationship was proven between age and BMI to Cortisol and WBC count. However, it is also demonstrated that shift is significant with Cortisol level but not with WBC count.