The functional state of the body in workers engaged in mining in the Arctic zone

Introduction. The functional state and adaptive potential in workers employed at mining enterprises in the Arctic territories are influenced both harmful environmental factors and specific climatic conditions, age and work experience in contact with harmful working conditions. Assessing the impact of work experience on the health in employees to reduce occupational risks and prospects for preserving and strengthening the health of workers at mining enterprises remains an extremely relevant and timely task.

Materials and methods. A cross-sectional study of workers was based on a mining and processing plant for the extraction of loparite ore in the Murmansk region. Two hundred one male employee participated in the study. Cardiohemodynamic and somatometric indices were evaluated, on the basis of which integrative indices for assessing functional changes were calculated. The subjects were ranked into groups by work time and age.

Results. The analysis of somatometric indices, depending on work experience, revealed significant intergroup differences in body mass index, index of physical changes, blood pressure and heart rate. The analysis of heart rate variability showed that with an increase in work experience, there is a unidirectional, negative change in time indices and the wave structure of the heart rhythm towards suppressing the activity of the autonomous regulation circuit with an increased contribution of sympathetic influences on the heart rate.

Limitations. Difficult access to medical information and employees’ fears of participating in the study due to fear of dismissal for health reasons.

Conclusion. With an increase in work experience, negative changes in the functional state of the body of mining workers in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation are comprehensively manifested (overweight, an increase in the index of functional changes, an increase in blood pressure). The increased influence of sympathetic influences on the heart rhythm, with the suppression of self-regulation processes, is reflected in the tension of regulatory mechanisms leading to a decrease in adaptive potential and the development of a premorbid state.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was carried out in compliance with the norms and rules of biomedical ethics presented in the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association on Ethical Principles of Medical Research (2013). The conclusion of the Ethics Committee at the hospital of the Federal Research Centre “Kola Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the possibility of conducting research No. 163 from 2013 was received.

Contribution:
Martynova A.A. – the concept and design of the study, the collection of material and data processing, statistical processing, writing the text;
Pryanichnikov S.V. – material collection and data processing, text writing, statistical processing, editing, article design.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: May 3, 2024 / Accepted: June 19, 2024 / Published: September 10, 2024