Burnout Syndrome on Teachers and its Relation to Nutrition: An Integrative Review

Background:

Teaching is considered as one of the most stressful professions that can lead to repercussions on physical and mental health, as well as on professional performance. Among the most common psychiatric conditions in teachers, there is Burnout Syndrome (BS) that is considered a disease of physical and mental exhaustion. One of the measures to mitigate this condition is to change eating habits, seeking an improvement in the quality of life and mental health. Therefore, the objective of this integrative review was to evaluate the relationship between the promotion of healthy eating habits and BS in teachers.

Methods:

A comprehensive literature search was conducted to include articles published using Medline / Pubmed, Lilacs / Bireme and Google Scholar, and the descriptors: burnout syndrome, nutrition and food education, depression and quality of life, teacher, and mental health, with an emphasis in the last ten years.

Results:

Thirty-seven studies were included. These studies suggest that approaches on health nutrition habits may improve BS and mental health. Furthermore, deficient intake of magnesium, zinc, vitamins D, C, E and of the B complex, tryptophan, calcium, iron, omega 3, probiotics, and polyphenols may contribute to arousal or worsening of BS symptoms. However, no experimental studies that evaluated the association between eating patterns and BS in teachers were found.

Conclusion:

Although there were no experimental studies on teachers, other studies suggested a positive association between healthy nutrition habits and improvement of mental health and BS prevention and/or treatment. The behavioral approach to change eating habits can contribute to more effective outcomes.

A workplace health promotion application of the Precede-Proceed model in a regional and remote mining company in Whyalla, South Australia

Purpose

– Workplace health promotion enables the dissemination of health-related information to a large portion of society and provides a vehicle for translating results of efficacy studies to effective lifestyle interventions under less controlled real-world conditions. To achieve effectiveness there needs to be a systematic approach to the design, implementation, and evaluation of workplace health promotion interventions. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a workplace programme in a mining and steel making town in regional South Australia.

Design/methodology/approach

– The Precede-Proceed model (PPM) was used as a framework to design the development, implementation, and evaluation of the programme.

Findings

– Quality of life issues and antecedents of modifiable behavioural and environmental factors to be targeted by interventions were identified. Relevant socio-behavioural theories were used to guide intervention development and evaluation. An intervention programme was planned to enable the delivery of educational and skills-development strategies by peers within structured organisational work units.

Originality/value

– This research utilises the PPM to develop, implement, and evaluate intervention strategies targeting the development of diabetes and cardiometabolic risk in a remotely located workplace population. Novel to this approach is the utilisation of the entire PPM in the research; the multiple baseline, interrupted time series design of the study; and its application in a workplace environment noted for increased health risk factors, within a community at high risk of development of type 2 diabetes.