Objective  The status of occupational stress and sleep quality of petroleum workers in Xinjiang, and their glucocorticoid (GC)concentration were measured to explore the effect of occupational stress on sleep quality and GC level.

  Methods  A questionnaire survey of 1 620 petroleum workers in Xinjiang was conducted using the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI)and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), of whom 172 workers were randomly selected to determine the GC concentration.

  Results  There existed many occupational hazards such as noise and dust in the working environment of oil workers. The incidence of occupational stress was higher among the male, workers engaged in downhole operation, the smokers, and the drinkers(P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic analysis found that different work task, shift work, occupational stress, and drinking behavior were the independent influencing factors of sleep disorders(P < 0.05). Among them, the risk of sleep disorders of workers engaged in downhole operation, oil transportation, and oil extraction was 1.73, 2.49, and 2.41 times higher than drilling workers, respectively (P < 0.05). The incidence of sleep disorders among workers who worked on shifts was 1.80 times than that of those who did not work on shifts (P < 0.05). The incidence of sleep disorders in workers with high occupational stress was 1.92 times higher than that with low occupational stress (P < 0.05).Drinkers were 1.29 times more likely to have sleep disorders than non -drinkers (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in GC concentration among different workers with or without sleep disorders (P < 0.05). Higher occupational stress and higher GC concentration (P < 0.05).

  Conclusions  Oil workers had high occupational stress and poor sleep quality, which was closely related to the nature of their work. Effective measures need to be developed to improve the above problems.