An Allostatic Load Measurement Model in Industrial Production Processes for Work-Related Stress Risk Assessment

The current European regulatory framework for work health and safety has identified work-related stress as one of the risksto be considered and to be managed properly. In particular, the new legislation has implemented interest in the topic of “work-related stress”.The proposed paper aims to offer theoretical principles and operational information about how to assess work-related stress risk. The study proceeds from the assumption that the danger is due to the human being. Consequently, that certain "event" depends on the combined disposition of the industrial process to which the subject is assigned and, above all by the intrinsically individual characteristicsof the human resources be considered. The paper meant to be a contribution to the identification of methodologies applicable to theassessment of work-related stress in the workplaces for the identification of shared diagnostic paths in the field of psychosocial risk. Inthis context, the allostatic load of the subject under examination can measure, monitor, and observe the resilienceor the risk in developing a mood disorder, depressive, anxiety, psychosomatic or somatoform (overt or potential) through vital signs andpersonality of the subject. It is a way to observe the consequences (stress) of factors that seem unrelated to each other andallows us to relate a series of behavioral profiles that are correlated by known pathophysiological links with industrial processes, both in terms of probability of occurrence and consequences that is the severity of the impact. The proposed procedure based on a semi-quantitative approach considers a four-dimensional domain that will allow the definition ofa risk matrix based on an objective indicator of assessment risk. This model will tell us the tendency to develop a somatoform or psychosomatic as well as mood, depressive or anxiety disorder, relative to a specific activity and, considering the different hazards present in the company; it will be possible to reconstruct the overall level of risk held by the plant under examination.