Occupational stress and health-related quality of life among public sector bank employees: A cross-sectional study in Mysore, Karnataka, India

Burnout, stress, and their correlates among bank employees of South India: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The banking sector is one of the job sectors that experience high stress, workload, complex interpersonal relationships, and job burnout as it involves interaction with the public and financial responsibilities, which leads to high burnout and stress. The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of burnout and stress among bank employees and to find the associated factors.

METHODS

This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 282 bank employees of Kollam district, Kerala, India. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire related to the socio-demographic and professional details. We used the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) to screen for burnout levels. Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21) to screen for the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among study participants. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with the levels of burnout and stress.

RESULTS

Of 282 study participants, moderate to high levels of burnout were observed in 232 participants (82.2%), and 74 participants (26.2%) had mild to extremely severe levels of stress. Daily average working duration showed an association with higher levels of burnout (adjusted odds ratio [ORAdj]: 2.391; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12-5.10) and stress (ORAdj: 3.37; 95% CI: 1.58-7.16).

CONCLUSIONS

A high prevalence of burnout and stress was observed in the present study. The duration of working hours was associated with both burnout and stress. Therefore, regulating the working hours may help adequately manage stress and burnout, thereby improving the mental health of bank employees.

Perceived Work Stress and Quality of Life Among Bankers in Southwest Nigeria

Work-related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and challenge their ability to cope. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines quality of life (QOL) as individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns. This study aimed to determine the pattern of perceived work stress and its impact on the QOL of bankers in Ado-Ekiti, Southwest Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among three hundred and two bankers in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. The single-stage study obtained data on the socio-demographics, work history, and medical history of respondents with the socio-demographic questionnaire. The perception of work stress by the respondents was assessed with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and the QOL was assessed with the WHO QOL Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF). Fifty-seven (18.9%) had a low perception of stress, 233 (77.1%) had a moderate perception of stress, and 12 (4.0%) had a high perception of stress. In this study, an association was found between perceived work stress and social relationship domain of QOL. This study showed that there is a high prevalence of moderately perceived work stress among bankers. It also showed a significant association between perceived work stress and QOL.

An Investigation into Occupational Related Stress of At-Risk Workers During COVID-19

OBJECTIVES

Nearly all workers and industry sectors have been affected by the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in some form since March 2020. However, the pandemic-related stressors experienced in the workplace may vary from industry to industry and may have disproportionally affected some workers. This study investigates increased stress levels, stressor events, and other perceptions of stress from at-risk workers during COVID-19.

METHODS

An in-depth work-related stress survey that incorporated many aspects of work, life, work-life balance, and the health of employer-employee relationships was developed with a focus on COVID-19-related stressors. The cross-sectional survey was distributed online through professional networks from October to November 2021. The survey results were statically analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) after grouping the industry sectors into the four groups to determine trends within these groupings.

RESULTS

The survey was completed by 670 workers in sectors such as manual labor, business/office service, healthcare, and education. A variety of trends were determined between the occurrence of COVID-19 and work stress which had, in some cases, affected some industry sectors to a larger degree than others. More than 50% of the participants reported experiencing an increased workload since the onset of the pandemic with some sectors, like healthcare, reporting an increased workload more frequently at 80%. Around 55% of respondents believed they could be exposed to COVID-19 in their workplace, ranging from 52% of business/office service workers to 77% of healthcare workers.

CONCLUSIONS

As workplaces navigate past the pandemic, occupational stress should be addressed head-on through workplaces providing expanded resources so as to assure work stress associated with future pandemics are mitigated appropriately. Whether the stressor is associated with irregular shift work or psychosocial aspects (i.e. relying on coworkers), many of these stressors have the possibility to become exacerbated by external factors such as pandemics.

Stressed at Work: Investigating the Relationship between Occupational Stress and Salivary Cortisol Fluctuations

Chronic stress has been associated with a range of health disparities, but examination of occupational stress, especially in the wake of COVID-19, has been minimal for many careers. A novel methodology involving work stress diaries and collection of salivary cortisol was employed to determine correlations between occupations, occupational stressors, and how well these are related to the physiological response to stress exposure, the release of cortisol. While cortisol levels tended to follow typical circadian rhythm based on sampling times, cortisol levels also followed the subjective stress levels listed in the work stress diaries following linear regression analysis using the pooled study population data (p = 0.042). When comparing the stressors between the studied careers, participants who worked in the healthcare industry accounted for one-third of the total participants, but reported nearly half (42%) of the more severe occupational stressors listed in the diaries. Finally, the most commonly listed emotional reactions to exposures listed included feelings of stress, frustration, anger, anxiety, or overwhelm. As the workplace progresses from the pandemic, the opportunity to reduce occupational stress exposures in the workplace is at hand. Companies that work towards minimizing the stress faced by their workforce would have a healthier and more relaxed workforce.

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

Background: This study has assessed health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and psychological distress between public sector professional groups. Methods: Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were administered to healthcare personnel, schoolteachers, and municipality and regional personnel in the region of Western Greece. Mean scores on all SF-36 dimensions and HADS were compared among these professional groups as well as with the Greek national norms to assess if there were significant differences between our study sample and the general population. Results: Healthcare personnel reported significantly lower SF-36 scores than teachers and municipality employees. Women reported poorer HRQoL than men on all SF-36 dimensions. This overall low score for health care workers masks the fact that male health care workers, primarily medical doctors, actually scored better than women, primarily nurses and auxiliary personnel. Average mean scores on all SF-36 dimensions reported by nurses and auxiliary personnel in healthcare were considerably lower than the ones from employees in all other occupational types. The impact on HRQoL observed mainly in vitality, social functioning and mental health was important. Many participants have shown psychological burden and depression. Conclusions: The health inequalities among healthcare employees are significant. This study is important to suggest taking measures for improving the HRQoL of health workers.

Regulatory Fit Demonstrates That Prohibitive Voice Does Not Lead to Low Performance Evaluation

Voice behavior, the extra-role behavior of employees based on their sense of responsibility, plays an important role in organizational development. Research shows that an employee’s voice can have a positive impact on both the quality of decision-making and organizational performance. This study explores the relationship between the prohibitive voice and employees’ safety performance based on the theory of regulatory fit. The study examined 372 employees and their leaders in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China through a questionnaire survey. A moderated model was constructed, and the SPSS-PROCESS was applied to analyze the data. The study results show that prevention regulatory focus fit strengthened the positive association between the prohibitive voice and safety performance evaluation. This study provides a new perspective in understanding leaders’ evaluation of the prohibitive voice and concludes that the prohibitive voice should be encouraged in organizations as it promotes greater adherence to safety measures and helps reduce organizational development risks.

Studying physical and mental health status among hijra, kothi and transgender community in Kolkata, India

Individuals with diverse sexual orientation and gender identities have historically experienced the major share of stigma, discrimination, and marginalization among all the LGTBIQ+ communities in India. Transgender, intersex, or queer individuals are deprived of their basic rights, self-dignity, bodily autonomy, and healthcare leading to significant negative health status. Recent legal reforms such as the decriminalization of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (prohibited same-sex activity) and amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill may improve their health. In this context, the study has the following objectives: 1) to measure the physical and the mental health status of hijra, kothi, and transgender (HKT) individuals using the Short Form 12 (SF-12) questionnaire; 2) understand the variation in their health status by social determinants; and 3) identify spatial patterns of HKTs general, physical, and mental health. Data was collected using a Bengali version of SF-12 (N = 98). We calculated physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) health composite scores and conducted relevant statistical and spatial analysis. Findings revealed that HKT individuals had poor mental health (mean MCS = 42.3) compared to their physical health (mean PCS = 49.0). ANOVA tests showed statistically significant variation of PCS and MCS among HKTs by their age and income. Participants with both poor and good health conditions were evenly distributed in the study area, with no significant spatial clustering. This study was the first attempt to assess the health-related quality of life among the HKT individuals using SF-12, not previously adapted to gender-diverse communities in India. Results clearly indicate that there is a pressing need to address both physical and mental health among gender-diverse communities by not only improving awareness of their healthcare rights but by also removing social and structural barriers to health programs, increasing targeted health interventions, grassroot level activism, and government advocacy.

Health-related quality of life after injury: examining the roles of perceived daily-life stress and injury perceptions

PURPOSE

The present study aimed to examine the effects of injury perceptions and perceived daily stress on health-related quality of life (HRQL) of individuals affected by a physical injury.

METHODS

Two hundred and forty injured individuals completed questionnaires assessing HRQL (Medical Outcome Health Survey short-form 36), perceived daily-life stress (Perceived Stress Scale), and injury perceptions (Brief-InjPQ).

RESULTS

The direct effects of stress on HRQL scores were not moderated by gender. Emotional representation of the injury significantly mediated the links between PSS and all HRQL subscales only among women, but not among men. However, the mediation of the HRQL total score by emotional representations was significant for both genders. In addition, treatment control perceptions of the injury mediated the link between PSS and self-assessed health among men but not women, and injury-self perceptions mediated the link between PSS and physical functioning among men but not women.

CONCLUSION

These findings underscore the importance of perceived daily stress, gender, and injury perceptions as key factors for explaining variance in HRQL following injury. In addition to their conceptual contributions, the findings have clinical implications for treating injured populations.

Impact of residential yoga training on occupational stress and health promotion in principals

BACKGROUND

Occupational stress is known as harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the resources, needs, or capabilities of an employee, leading to poor mental and physical health.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of 1-week residential yoga training program on occupational stress and its subscales among principals.

METHODS

Thirty-three principals with ages 40-59 years completed the assessment. They received yoga training at Kaivalyadham Yoga Institute. All the participants were recruited by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan as part of their on-duty yoga training. At the baseline and after 1 week of yoga training participants were assessed for occupational stress. The yoga intervention was given in the morning and evening for 105 min. Apart from yoga training, all the participants were engaged in lectures based on stress management, yoga for total health, meditation, yoga in school education, and scientific basis of yoga, daily for 3 h.

RESULTS

The principals showed a significant decrease in role overload (P < 0.001), role ambiguity (P < 0.01), role conflict (P < 0.05), under participation (P < 0.001), powerlessness (P < 0.001), intrinsic impoverishment (P < 0.01), law status (P < 0.001), and overall occupational stress (P < 0.001) after 7 days of yoga training intervention. However, there was no significant change in unreasonable group and political pressure (P > 0.05), responsibility for persons (P > 0.05), poor peer relations (P > 0.05), strenuous working conditions (P > 0.05), and unprofitability (P > 0.05) after yoga training intervention.

CONCLUSION

The present study suggests that 1 week of residential yoga training program can improve occupational stress in principals.

Demographic, Life Style and Job-Related Determinants of Quality of Life of Industrial Manufacturing Employees: An Application of Multilevel Latent Class Regression on a Large Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Employees are one of the key elements of an organization and measure the quality of life (QoL) provides reliable assessment of health and wellbeing in this population. This study aimed at investigating the QoL in a large sample of Iranian industrial manufacturing employees and its determinants.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study conducted was in 2015, 3063 people were selected among 16000 Esfahan Seal Company's employees using multistage cluster sampling. QoL was evaluated by EQ-5D questionnaire, mental health by GHQ-12, physical activity by IPAQ, job stress by Effort-Reward Imbalance questionnaire. Self-report questionnaire was used for gathering demographic characteristics. Multilevel latent class regression analysis was used for data analysis using R (3.4.3).

Results

The mean (SD) age of the study participants was 36.74 (7.31), and 91.5% of them were males. The mean (SD) sleep duration was 7.11 (1.17), and 95.4% of the participants had normal mental health. Latent class analysis classified employees into two classes (high (82.4%) and low QoL (17.6%)). Also employees' job categories classified into high and low QoL classes (79.55% and 20.45%, respectively). Latent class regression showed that lower age (OR=0.93; P< 0.0001), being male (OR=1.75; p=0.009), lower levels of education (OR=2.1; P< 0.0001), normal mental health (OR=12.4; P< 0.0001), higher sleep duration (OR=1.2; P< 0.0001) and lower BMI (OR=0.96; P=0.016) were significant predictors of being in high QoL class.

Conclusion

Our study provides data about the QoL of industrial manufacturing employees along with its significant determinants. The findings picture the ways for improving QoL, finally increasing the efficiency and productivity of workforce by directing health policies appropriately.

The Status of Occupational Stress and Its Influence the Quality of Life of Copper-Nickel Miners in Xinjiang, China

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of occupational stress and its influence on the quality of life of copper-nickel miners, in order to provide a theoretical basis for alleviating occupational stress to improve their quality of life. Stratified cluster sampling and a self-administered questionnaire survey were used. The Effort⁻Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire and the SF-36 (36-Item Short Form) health survey scale were administered to all 2000 miners registered with a copper-nickel mining human resources department and who had been on duty for more than one year. In total, 1857 valid questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 92.85%. The percentage of the copper-nickel miners suffering from occupational stress was 42.65%. A statistically significant difference was observed in relation to the prevalence of occupational stress among miners of different genders, ages, education levels, and operating units. The occupational stress detection rate was higher for males than females. Miners aged between 30 and 34 years exhibited the highest level of occupational stress compared to other age groups. Those with a junior college education exhibited the highest rate of occupational stress compared to those with other levels of education. Those working in the smelting unit exhibited the highest rate of occupational stress compared to those working in other operational units. Those classified as experiencing stress (an ERI score >1) had lower quality of life scores than miners classified as not experiencing stress (an ERI score ≤1). The results show that level of education, monthly income, and degree of occupational stress affect quality of life among copper-nickel miners. It was found that older age, lower income, higher education level, and higher degree of occupational stress were factors related to poorer quality of life. Copper-nickel miners have high levels of occupational stress, and occupational stress is a risk factor that can diminish quality of life.

Quality of Life After Intensive Care Unit Discharge in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India: Cost Effectiveness Analyis

Background

Improvements in intensive care in the last few decades have shifted the focus from mortality to quality of life of survivors as a more important outcome measure. Allocation of public resources towards intensive care is an important challenge for healthcare administrators. This challenge is made more arduous in resource limited countries like India. Thus, it is imperative to consider patient centerd outcomes and resource utilisation to guide allocation of funds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life of long-term survivors, and to perform cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis.

Methods

Data was retrieved from the records and included age, gender, admission diagnosis, length of ICU stay and mortality. Costing methodology used was top down approach. Quality of life was assessed by SF 36 scoring which was done with personal interview and telephonically. Cost-effectiveness analysis was done on the basis of years of life added. Cost utility was done by QALY gained.

Results

A total of 1232 adult patients were admitted in the period with 758 (61%) being successfully discharged from ICU with a mortality rate of 39%. Out of 758, we could contact 113 (15%) patients. 86 patients were alive at the time of contact who could fill the forms for quality of life. The patients discharged from ICU had scores almost similar to the general population. Lesser scores were noted in physical functioning and general health perceptions, though this difference was not statistically significant. The life years gained were significantly more in younger patients. The cost per life gained was more in patients aged more than 50 years compared to those who were younger.

Conclusion

The quality of life after survival from ICU is as good as in the general population. The intensive care provided in our ICU is cost effective.

How to cite this article

Mishra SB, Poddar B et al, Quality of Life After Intensive Care Unit Discharge in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India: Cost Effectiveness Analysis. Indian J Crit Care Med 2019;23(3):122-126.

Digitalisation in the banking industry and workers subjective well-being

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how bankers perceive digitalisation relating to their subjective well-being. The paper seeks to further explore how this relation is contingent on the aspect of structural organisation represented by the concept of individualist/collectivist organisational culture.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on the survey distributed to employees of 18 bank offices in the south of Sweden, which 161 employees answered. The analysis of the data was performed by descriptive statistics, principle component analysis, Pearson correlations, multiple linear and moderating multiple linear regression analyses.

Findings

The study indicates that bankers’ experience digitalisation as a four-faceted construct: a tool for information management, and work optimisation, customer relation management and as a change agent. The study suggests that the use of digital tools for work optimisation has a positive relation to the work- related dimensions of subjective well-being as well as a spillover effect on the life balance and life satisfaction dimensions. It also indicates that the information management dimension has a positive relation to the life satisfaction aspect of subjective well-being. Finally, the study found that increasing the degree of collectivist organisation culture has a positive moderating effect on the relation between the use of digital tools for work optimisation and life balance and subjective well-being, respectively.

Originality/value

The study reveals a new way of operationalising digitalisation in banks and is the first study of its type to explore the relationship between digitalisation different facets and banker subjective well-being.

Using the Job Burden-Capital Model of Occupational Stress to Predict Depression and Well-Being among Electronic Manufacturing Service Employees in China

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to identify the association between occupational stress and depression-well-being by proposing a comprehensive and flexible job burden-capital model with its corresponding hypotheses.

METHODS

For this research, 1618 valid samples were gathered from the electronic manufacturing service industry in Hunan Province, China; self-rated questionnaires were administered to participants for data collection after obtaining their written consent. The proposed model was fitted and tested through structural equation model analysis.

RESULTS

Single-factor correlation analysis results indicated that coefficients between all items and dimensions had statistical significance. The final model demonstrated satisfactory global goodness of fit (CMIN/DF = 5.37, AGFI = 0.915, NNFI = 0.945, IFI = 0.952, RMSEA = 0.052). Both the measurement and structural models showed acceptable path loadings. Job burden and capital were directly associated with depression and well-being or indirectly related to them through personality. Multi-group structural equation model analyses indicated general applicability of the proposed model to basic features of such a population. Gender, marriage and education led to differences in the relation between occupational stress and health outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

The job burden-capital model of occupational stress-depression and well-being was found to be more systematic and comprehensive than previous models.