Work addiction risk, stress and well-being at work: testing the mediating role of sleep quality

IntroductionAttention to work addiction risk is growing; however, more studies are needed to explore the possible impact of work addiction risk on various aspects of employees’ work and life domains. Although several studies have considered the antecedents or consequences of work addiction risk, this study particularly focuses on sleep quality as a potential explanatory underlying mechanism in the relation between work addition risk and three outcome variables including stress at home, stress at work and well-being.MethodThe data was collected using an online platform and participants consisted of 188 French employees who were selected using simple random sampling method. Participants responded to the survey including the Work Addiction Risk Test (WART), stress at work, well-being, and sleep quality. The data was analyzed using JASP and SPSS-26 programs.ResultsThe results revealed that there are significant positive relationships between work addiction risk and both stress at home and at work and negative relationships between work addiction risk and both sleep quality and well-being. In addition, the analyses of the mediation paths suggest the significant mediation role of sleep quality for the link between work addition risk and stress at work as well as the link between work addiction risk and well-being.DiscussionGiven the verified mediating role of sleep quality in the relationship between work addiction, stress and wellbeing, it is recommended that organizations and companies pay particular attention to their employees’ sleep quality

Effect of Work-Related Sedentary Time on Overall Health Profile in Active vs. Inactive Office Workers

Objective: While public health strategies are developed to fight sedentary behaviors and promote physical activity, some professional activities, and especially tertiary ones, have been pointed out for their highly sedentary nature. Although workplace physical activity programs are increasingly proposed by companies to their employees in order to increase their physical activity levels, sitting and screen time remain extremely high. The main aim of this work was to compare health indicators between active and inactive tertiary employees with similar high levels of sedentariness. Secondly, we questioned the effects of a 5-month workplace physical activity program on overall health indicators among initially active and inactive tertiary employees.Methods: Anthropometric measurements, body composition (bio-impedance), physical fitness (cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal fitness) and health-related quality of life and perception of health status (self-reported questionnaires) were assessed among 193 active and inactive tertiary employees before (T0) and after a 5-month workplace physical activity intervention (T1), composed of 2 physical sessions per week.Results: Significant improvements were found in performance of push-ups (p < 0.001), back muscle strength (p < 0.001) fat mass (p < 0.01) and waist circumference (p < 0.05) in active compared with inactive employees both at baseline and at the end of the program. Health perception (p < 0.001) was significantly different between groups at T0 but not at T1. However, no significant difference was observed for fat-free mass, BMI, workplace well-being and lower and upper limbs muscle strength. The variations between T0 and T1 demonstrate that, while all the studied parameters progressed positively during the 5-month program, health perception (p < 0.001), back muscle strength (p < 0.05) and BMI (tendency) showed a significantly higher progression in the inactive compared with the active group.Conclusion: Health indicators might not be improved among active tertiary employees compared with inactive ones, which might be due to the high level of sedentariness characterizing their occupational task.Structured on-site physical activity programs can improve health in both initially active and inactive employees

Heart rate variability as a possible predictor of sport performance in junior rhythmic gymnastics

BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability may reveal sensitive information about the athletes’ physiological adaptation when exercising for sport performance. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to demonstrate whether heart rate variability (HRV) measurements were able to predict sport results and determine which type of measurements, at rest or during routines, were relevant in anticipating the performance. METHOD: Ten female gymnasts, aged 11–14 years old, and 16 age-matched non-active adolescents participated in this study. HRV was measured at rest for 10 minutes and throughout the training routines one week prior to competition. Correlations and multivariate analysis determined the parameters predicting performance. Significance was set at p⩽ 0.05. Results: At rest, the gymnasts displayed higher HRV values than controls. At rest, sympathetic parameters correlated with sport results whereas no correlation was observed during routines. The magnitude of the predictive factors highlighted the importance of Ln SD2 (coefficient =−117, 95CI −130 to −106), Ln RMSSD (coefficient =−24.5, 95CI −29.2 to −19.8), Ln pNN50 (coefficient =−10.7, 95CI −11.5 to −9.9), and Ln Total power (coefficient =−2.5, 95CI −13.4 to −11.5). CONCLUSIONS: HRV at rest may predict results in competition, being a complementary tool for coaches

Efficacy of treatments for demodex blepharitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of different treatment for Demodex blepharitis. Parameters studied were mites count, improvement of symptoms and mites’ eradication, stratified on type of treatments and mode of delivery of treatments (local or systemic). Method The PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, Google scholar and Science Direct databases were searched for studies reporting an efficacy of treatments for Demodex blepharitis. Results We included 19 studies (14 observational and 5 randomized clinical trials), for a total of 934 patients, 1741 eyes, and 13 different treatments. For mites count, eradication rate, and symptoms improvement, meta-analysis included fifteen, fourteen and thirteen studies, respectively. The overall effect sizes for efficiency of all treatments, globally, were 1.68 (95CI 1.25 to 2.12), 0.45 (0.26–0.64), and 0.76 (0.59–0.90), respectively. Except usual lid hygiene for mites count, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario ointment (CHEO) for both eradication rate and symptoms, and CHEO, 2% metronidazole ointment, and systemic metronidazole for eradication rate, all treatments were efficient. Stratified meta-analysis did not show significant differences between local and systemic treatments (1.22, 0.83 to 1.60 vs 2.24, 1.30 to 3.18 for mites count; 0.37, 0.21 to 0.54 vs 0.56, 0.06 to 0.99 for eradication rate; and 0.77, 0.58 to 0.92 vs 0.67, 0.25 to 0.98 for symptoms improvement). Conclusion We reported the efficiency of the different treatments of Demodex blepharitis. Because of less systemic side effects, local treatments seem promising molecules in the treatment of Demodex blepharitis

CLASSIFYING HEARTRATE BY CHANGE DETECTION AND WAVELET METHODS FOR EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS

10 pages.Heart Rate Variability (HRV) carries a wealth of information about the physiological state and the behaviour of a living subject. Indeed, the heart rate variation is intrinsically linked to the autonomic nervous system: the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic systems. Thus, any imbalance in these two opposite systems results in a variation of the cardiac frequency modulation. It is also recognized that this alternation between equilibrium and disequilibrium (frequency variability) is an indicator of well being and good health. In other words, decreased heart rate variability is always linked to stress, fatigue and decreased physical performances. The aim of this work is to exploit the heart rate signals to detect situations of stress in different populations: emergency physicians, sportsmen, animal behaviours, etc...This paper introduces a methodological framework for the detection of stress and eventually well being. Our contribution is based on first extracting high and low frequencies energies which are linked to the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic systems. We then detect change points on these energies using the Filtered Derivative with p-value (FDpV) method. Finally, we develop a typology of cardiac activity by distinguishing homogeneous groups or state profiles having a characteristic similarity. We apply our methodology on a real dataset corresponding to an emergency doctor

Urine cytology screening of French workers exposed to occupational urinary tract carcinogens: a prospective cohort study over a 20-year period

Objectives To demonstrate that urine cytology screening can provide relevant epidemiological data for earlier detection of urothelial cancer caused by occupational exposure. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Industries using urothelial carcinogens in France. Urine samples were collected on site, after a work week and were analysed at the University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Participants Participants were workers exposed to urothelial carcinogens. Women and current smokers at time of study recruitment were exclusion criteria. Outcomes Urine cells atypia were ranged into three classes: negative/normal, atypical/suspicious/ dysplasia or positive/malignant. Results We included 2020 workers over a period of 20 years from 1993 to 2013: 606 worked in rubber manufacturing, 692 from metal processing, 245 in chemical industry and 477 in roadwork and building industry. Workers had a mean exposure of 15.2±10.4 years before their first urine cytology screening. There was a mean of 3.4±4.3 urine cytology screenings per worker between 1993 and 2013. 6478 cytology were normal, 462 suspicious and 13 malignant. Suspicious and malignant cytology occurred in 4.8% of workers exposed for 1–10 years, 6.2% for 11–20 years of exposure, 7.6% for 21–30 years and 8.6% for > 30 years (p 30 years of exposure. Using metal processing as reference, the risk of pathological urine cytology results increased for rubber manufacturing (OR=1.32, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.65, p=0.02), with a trend for roadwork and building industry (OR=1.39, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.97, p=0.07) and for chemical industry (OR=1.34, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.93, p=0.11). Conclusions Urine cytology is a useful tool in occupational medicine. We promote new guidelines with an early screening of urothelial cancer by cytology, starting with beginning of exposure

Heart rate variability in hypothyroid patients:a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Hypothyroidism may be associated with changes in the autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system, which may have clinical implications. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the impact of hypothyroidism on HRV. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase and Google Scholar were searched until 20 August 2021 for articles reporting HRV parameters in untreated hypothyroidism and healthy controls. Random-effects meta-analysis were stratified by degree of hypothyroidism for each HRV parameters: RR intervals (or normal to normal-NN intervals), SDNN (standard deviation of RR intervals), RMSSD (square root of the mean difference of successive RR intervals), pNN50 (percentage of RR intervals with >50ms variation), total power (TP), LFnu (low-frequency normalized unit), HFnu (high-frequency), VLF (very low frequency), and LF/HF ratio. RESULTS: We included 17 studies with 11438 patients: 1163 hypothyroid patients and 10275 healthy controls. There was a decrease in SDNN (effect size = -1.27, 95% CI -1.72 to -0.83), RMSSD (-1.66, -2.32 to -1.00), pNN50 (-1.41, -1.98 to -0.84), TP (-1.55, -2.1 to -1.00), HFnu (-1.21, -1.78 to -0.63) with an increase in LFnu (1.14, 0.63 to 1.66) and LF/HF ratio (1.26, 0.71 to 1.81) (p <0.001). HRV alteration increased with severity of hypothyroidism. CONCLUSIONS: Hypothyroidism is associated with a decreased HRV, that may be explained by molecular mechanisms involving catecholamines and by the effect of TSH on HRV. The increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic activity may have clinical implications

Work addiction test questionnaire to assess workaholism: Validation of French version

Background: Work addiction is a significant public health problem with a growing prevalence. The Work Addiction Risk Test (WART) is the gold standard questionnaire to detect workaholism. Objective: The main objective of this study was to validate the French version of the WART. Methods: Questionnaires were proposed to voluntary French workers using the WittyFit software. There were no exclusion criteria. The questionnaire was administered anonymously for initial validity testing and readministered one week later for test-retest reliability. We also assessed the workers’ sociodemographic characteristics, as well as other measurements for external validity, such as stress, well-being, and coaddictions to tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis. Several psychometric properties of the French-WART were explored: acceptability, reliability (internal consistency [Cronbach alpha coefficient] and reproducibility [Lin concordance coefficient]), construct validity (correlation coefficients and principal component analysis), and external validity (correlation coefficients). Results: Among the 1580 workers using WittyFit, 187 (11.83%) agreed to complete the WART questionnaire. Of those, 128 completed the test-retest survey (68.4%). Acceptability found that all respondents had fully completed the questionnaire, with few floor or ceiling effects. Reliability was very good with a Cronbach alpha coefficient at .90 (internal consistency) and Lin concordance coefficient at .90 (95% CI .87-.94] with a difference on the retest of .04 (SD 4.9) (95% CI −9.6 to 9.7) (reproducibility). We identified three main dimensions (construct validity). Relationships between WART and stress and well-being confirmed its external validity. Conclusions: The French version of the WART is a valid and reliable instrument to assess work addiction with satisfactory psychometric properties. Used in occupational medicine, this tool would allow the diagnosis of work addiction and can be easily implemented in current practice

Effects of a short residential thermal spa program to prevent work-related stress/burnout on stress biomarkers: The thermstress proof of concept study

Objective Work-related stress is a public health issue. Stress has multiple physical and psychological consequences, the most serious of which are increased mortality and cardiovascular morbidity. The ThermStress protocol was designed to offer a short residential thermal spa program for work-related stress prevention that is compatible with a professional context. Methods Participants will be 56 male and female workers aged 18 years or above. All participants will undergo a 6-day residential spa program comprising psychological intervention, physical activity, thermal spa treatment, health education, eating disorder therapy and a follow-up. On six occasions, participants’ heart rate variability, cardiac remodelling and function, electrodermal activity, blood markers, anthropometry and body composition, psychology and quality of life will be measured using questionnaires and bone parameters. Results This study protocol reports the planned and ongoing research for this intervention. Discussion The ThermStress protocol has been approved by an institutional ethics committee (ANSM: 2016 A02082 49). It is expected that this proof of concept study will highlight the effect of a short-term specific residential thermal spa program on the prevention of occupational burnout and work-related stress. The findings will be disseminated at several research conferences and in published articles in peer-reviewed journals. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 03536624, 24/05/2018

How to measure sedentary behavior at work?

Background: Prolonged sedentary behavior (SB) is associated with increased risk for chronic conditions. A growing number of the workforce is employed in office setting with high occupational exposure to SB. There is a new focus in assessing, understanding and reducing SB in the workplace. There are many subjective (questionnaires) and objective methods (monitoring with wearable devices) available to determine SB. Therefore, we aimed to provide a global understanding on methods currently used for SB assessment at work.Methods: We carried out a systematic review on methods to measure SB at work. Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for peer-reviewed English-language articles published between 1st January 2000 and 17th March 2019.Results: We included 154 articles: 89 were cross-sectional and 65 were longitudinal studies, for a total of 474,091 participants. SB was assessed by self-reported questionnaires in 91 studies, by wearables devices in also 91 studies, and simultaneously by a questionnaire and wearables devices in 30 studies. Among the 91 studies using wearable devices, 73 studies used only one device, 15 studies used several devices, and three studies used complex physiological systems. Studies exploring SB on a large sample used significantly more only questionnaires and/or one wearable device.Conclusions: Available questionnaires are the most accessible method for studies on large population with a limited budget. For smaller groups, SB at work can be objectively measured with wearable devices (accelerometers, heart-rate monitors, pressure meters, goniometers, electromyography meters, gas-meters) and the results can be associated and compared with a subjective measure (questionnaire). The number of devices worn can increase the accuracy but make the analysis more complex and time consuming