Chronic stress in the workplace is becoming a very important problem in Canada, both in terms of health and economics. Although previous studies have used psychological questionnaires to assess stress in workers, we now know that these psychological questionnaires are of little help in trying to understand how stress 'gets under the skin' in workers, contributing to physical and mental health problems. In recent years, biomarkers of stress in saliva and blood have been developed and various studies have shown their efficacy at predicting physical and mental health problems in humans. However, to this day, no study has assessed factors that could differentially contribute to chronic stress in men and women in the workforce. Clearly, today's men and women in the workforce are faced with different challenges related to gender role and gender identity. These factors, along with biological differences in sex steroids in men and women could render them differentially vulnerable to the effects of chronic stress.

The main goal of this study is to thus perform the first Sex and Gender-Based study of chronic stress in men and women in the workforce.

In order to disentangle the effects of sex ( biological factors; sex steroids in men and women ) and gender ( gender role and identity ) on chronic stress in workers, we will measure biomarkers of basal, reactive and chronic stress in samples of saliva and blood in a population of 360 workers from a large hospital in the Montreal, Quebec region, and we will measure sex factors ( sex hormones ) and gender role and identity with various validated questionnaires.

By combining these sex and gender-based measures with factors associated with workplace ( job content, resources, etc. ) and family ( parental role, financial strain, etc. ) stress, we will provide the first set of scientific data determining the role of biological and psychosocial factors in contributing to chronic stress in men and women from the Canadian workforce.