Psychological Distress and Health-Related Quality of Life in Public Sector Personnel

Incentive policy for the comprehensive development of young medical talents: an evolutionary game study

Introduction

Currently in China, there is a lack of well-defined and viable incentive mechanisms at the governmental and hospital levels to support the development of young medical talents, thereby hindering their growth Existing studies primarily investigate the current state and trajectory of incentives, yet they inadequately address the distinctive characteristics of various stakeholders involved in medical talent incentive processes, particularly the lack of research on incentive mechanisms with Chinese attributes.

Methods

This study adopts evolutionary game theory to investigate the dynamics of replication and the strategies for achieving evolutionary stability in the comprehensive development of young medical talents, considering both scenarios with and without supportive policies.

Results

In the absence of any supportive policy measures, the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) point is O(0,0), the unstable equilibrium point is C(1,1), and the saddle points are A(0,1), B(1,0). The initial state of the system is at the unstable equilibrium point C(1,1), which means that the young medical talents and medical institutions adopt a combination of strategies (actively seeking comprehensive development and taking incentive measures). Under the scenario with supportive policies, the ESS point is C(1,1), the unstable equilibrium point is O(0,0), and the saddle points are A(0,1), B(1,0). The initial state of the system is at the unstable equilibrium point O(0,0), which means that young medical talents and medical institutions adopt (N,N) strategy combinations (inactively seeking comprehensive development, implementing no incentive measure).

Discussion

(1) Government incentives play a crucial role in motivating young medical talents to seek comprehensive development. (2) The level of government incentive support for young medical talents should exceed the cost increment of individual efforts. Additionally, the policy support provided by the government to medical institutions should surpass the incentive support offered by these institutions to young medical talents. This will enhance the motivation and encouragement efforts of medical institutions in actively promoting comprehensive development among young medical talents. (3) With the backing of certain government incentive policies, medical institutions implementing incentive measures and young medical talents actively seeking comprehensive development will establish a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion.

Quality of Life Among Postgraduate Medical Residents in Oman: A Cross-sectional Survey

Objectives

To assess the quality of life (QoL) of medical residents enrolled in the various postgraduate programs of the Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB).

Methods

The data for this cross-sectional study was collected from January to June 2022. All postgraduate residents who were enrolled in all 19 OMSB training programs were targeted. An online English version of the validated 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to assess the participants' self-reported QoL.

Results

The participants were 425 OMSB residents (mean age = 29.6±2.2 years), of whom 289 (68.0%) were female, 259 (60.9%) were married, and 295 (69.4%) were enrolled in medical specialties. Overall, female residents reported significantly poorer QoL than male residents in all subscales of SF-36 (p =0.001). Married residents reported lower bodily pain scores than unmarried residents (p =0.005), although the latter endorsed better physical functioning, general health, and mental health. Residents in laboratory specialties had higher scores than those in medical and surgical specialties in most QoL dimensions including physical health, role functioning, energy/fatigue, emotional well-being, bodily pain, and general health (p ≤ 0.003). Psychiatry residents reported the lowest overall QoL.

Conclusions

Postgraduate medical residents in Oman reported significant variations in QoL based on specialization, gender, and marital status. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to tackle health inequalities and improve the QoL of this population.

Depression and health-related quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes attending tertiary level hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and depression are closely linked. People with T2DM are at increased risk of developing depression and vice versa. T2DM and depression comorbid conditions adversely affect Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and management of T2DM. In this study, we assessed depression and HRQOL among patients with T2DM in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in two tertiary-level hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data were collected from 318 patients with T2DM. A set of standard tools, PHQ-9 (for assessing depression) and EuroQol-5D-5L (for assessing the HRQOL), were used. Statistical analyses, including Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney), and Spearman's correlation coefficient tests, were performed using SPSS (v.20).

RESULTS

The majority of the patients (58%) were females, with a mean age (standard deviation) of 52 ± 10 years, and 74% of patients lived in urban areas. The prevalence of depression was 62% (PHQ-9 score ≥ 5). Over three-quarters (76%) reported problems in the anxiety/ depression dimension of EQ-5D, followed by pain/discomfort (74%), mobility (40%), self-care (36%), and usual activities (33%). The depression and T2DM comorbid condition were associated with all the five dimensions of EQ-5D (χ2 statistics with df = 1 was 52.33, 51.13, 52.67, 21.61, 7.92 for mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/ depression dimensions respectively, p- < 0.01). The mean EQ-5D index (0.53 vs. 0.75) and the mean EQ-5D VAS (65 vs. 76) both showed lower values in T2DM patients with depression compared to T2DM patients without depression (Wilcoxon test, p- < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the majority of the patients with T2DM had comorbid conditions, and the HRQOL was negatively affected by comorbid depression in T2DM patients. This suggests the importance of timely screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of comorbid depression in T2DM patients to improve overall health and QOL.

Depression and quality of life among Afghan healthcare workers: A cross-sectional survey study

BACKGROUND

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 280 million individuals worldwide suffer from depression. One occupational group that is more prone to mental health issues is healthcare workers (HCWs). However, very little is known about the mental health of HCWs in Afghanistan. Therefore, the present study examined depression, quality of life (QOL), and related factors among Afghan HCWs.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was administered in June 2022 among healthcare workers (N = 299) in the Herat province of Afghanistan. The survey examined depression, its risk factors and predictors among HCWs.

RESULTS

Of the 299 participants, 73.6% of them reported depression symptoms. Low monthly income, working in a private hospital, and being a cigarette smoker were some of the main variables associated with depression symptoms among Afghan HCWs. Multiple regression analysis indicated that field of work (aOR = 3.774, p = 0.0048), monthly income (aOR = 0.746, p = 0.0088), job type (aOR = 8.970, p < 0.0001), cigarette smoking (aOR = 2.955, p = 0.0069), a bad event happening during the past month (aOR = 2.433, p = 0.0157), physical domain of quality of life (aOR = 0.966, p = 0.0186), and psychological domain of quality of life (aOR = 0.950, p = 0.0005) were significantly associated with depression symptoms.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of depression symptoms is high among healthcare workers in the Herat province of Afghanistan. One of the variables found to have a major impact on the prevalence of depression was their monthly income. Considering its impact on quality of life and the overall quality of healthcare services, the government should implement regular screening for depression, psychological counselling services, and psychiatric treatment for vulnerable healthcare workers.

Effects of Changes in Environmental Color Chroma on Heart Rate Variability and Stress by Gender

With increasing time spent indoors during the coronavirus disease pandemic, occupants are increasingly affected by indoor space environmental factors. Environmental color stimulates human vision and affects stress levels. This study investigated how changing environmental color chroma affected heart rate variability (HRV) and stress. The HRV of nine males and fifteen females was measured during exposure to 12 color stimuli with changes in chroma under green/blue hues and high/low-value conditions, and a stress assessment was performed. The effect of chroma on the HRV of males and females was verified, but the interaction effect between chroma and gender was not. ln(LF) and RMSSD were valid parameters. ln(LF) of males and females decreased as chroma increased under the green hue and low-value conditions; RMSSD was reduced as chroma increased in the blue hue and low-value conditions. ln(LF) decreased as chroma increased under blue hue and high-value conditions in males. Color–stress evaluation revealed that the higher chroma under high-value conditions, the more positive the stress emotion, and the lower the chroma under low-value conditions, the more negative the stress emotion. As chroma increased under low-value conditions, color is a stress factor; for men, this effect was more evident in the blue hue.

Effects on Heart Rate Variability of Stress Level Responses to the Properties of Indoor Environmental Colors: A Preliminary Study

Color is the most potent stimulating factor affecting human vision, and the environmental color of an indoor space is a spatial component that affects the environmental stress level. As one of the methods of assessing the physiological response of the autonomic nervous system that influences stress, heart rate variability (HRV) has been utilized as a tool for measuring the user’s stress response in color environments. This study aims to identify the effects of the changes of hue, brightness, and saturation in environmental colors on the HRV of two groups with different stress levels—the stress potential group (n = 15) and the healthy group (n = 12)—based on their stress level indicated by the Psychosocial Well-being Index (PWI). The ln(LF), ln(HF), and RMSSD values collected during the subjects’ exposure to 12 environments colors of red and yellow with adjusted saturation and brightness, were statistically analyzed using t-test and two-way ANOVA. The results show that the HRV values in the two groups did not significantly vary in response to the changes in hue, brightness and saturation. The two groups’ stress factors distinguished according to the stress levels by the PWI scale affected the In(LF) parameter, which demonstrates that the PWI index can be utilized as a reliable scale for measuring stress levels. The ultra-short HRV measurement record and the use of a sole In(LF) parameter for stress assessment are regarded as the limitations of this study.