Saliva test to show workers at risk of burnout

A simple saliva test can show within hours whether someone on the job is overly stressed and at risk of burnout, News24 reports researchers said. Measuring levels of the anti-stress hormone cortisol at different times of the day more accurately reveals stress levels than more complicated measures, including blood tests, they reported. In experiments, scientists compared healthy workers with burnout patients diagnosed by psychologists. ‘People who were identified as having a high level of work-related stress had noticeably higher cortisol values at midday and also in the evening,’ the study said. ‘This means that we can use these markets for preventively identifying people who are at greater risk of burnout.’ The results were nearly ‘100 percent accurate’, the researchers said. The report says workplace stress is increasingly recognised as a widespread and costly problem.