Scand J Work Environ Health
July 2023
Objective: This study aimed to systematically review the effectiveness of organizational-level interventions in improving the psychosocial work environment and workers' health and retention.
Methods: We conducted an overview of systematic reviews on organizational-level interventions published between 2000 and 2020. We systematically searched academic databases, screened reference lists, and contacted experts, yielding 27 736 records.
After cognitively demanding work, individuals tend to be less physically active. However, the psychological mechanisms underlying this effect have not been thoroughly tested. The aim of this article was to experimentally investigate the impact of cognitive work demands on subsequent physical activity behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch suggests that cognitive fatigue has a negative impact on physical activity participation. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect are yet unclear. Using an effort-based decision-making paradigm, we examined whether individuals weigh physical effort-costs more strongly when they are cognitively or physically fatigued.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt Arch Occup Environ Health
March 2022
Objective: Demanding psychosocial work characteristics, such as high job demands, can have a detrimental impact on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), with adverse consequences for employee health and well-being. However, the mechanisms and moderators of this crossover effect are still largely unknown. We therefore aimed to identify and test potential mediating and moderating factors from within and outside the work environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost people experience the feeling of mental fatigue on a daily basis. Previous research shows that mental fatigue impacts information processing and decision making. However, the proximal causes of mental fatigue are not yet well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNowadays, many people take short breaks with their smartphone at work. The decision whether to continue working or to take a smartphone break is a so-called labour versus leisure decision. Motivational models predict that people are more likely to switch from labour (work) to leisure (smartphone) the more fatigue or boredom they experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this research, we attempt to understand a common real-life labor/leisure decision, i.e., to perform cognitive work or to interact with one's smartphone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople have a strong tendency to attend to reward cues, even if these cues are irrelevant to their current goal or their current task. When reward cues are goal-irrelevant, their presence may impair cognitive performance. In this meta-analysis, we quantitatively examined the rapidly growing literature on the impact of reward-related distractors on cognitive performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite an elevated recovery need, research indicates that athletes often exhibit relatively poor sleep. Timing and consolidation of sleep is driven by the circadian system, which requires periodic light-dark exposure for stable entrainment to the 24-hour day, but is often disturbed due to underexposure to light in the morning (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerformance capacity in athletes depends on the ability to recover from past exercise. While evidence suggests that athletic performance decreases following (partial) sleep deprivation and increases following sleep extension, it is unclear to which extent natural variation in sleep impacts performance. Sleep quantity and, for the first time, sleep stages were assessed among 98 elite athletes on three non-consecutive nights within a 7-day monitoring period, along with performance tests that were taken on standardized times each following morning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent theories suggest that negative effects of fatigue on performance are determined by perception of effort and motivation rather than being directly caused by reaching physiological limits. In the current experiment, the influence of motivation on fatigue-induced decrements in soccer performance was experimentally investigated. Sixty amateur soccer players performed a validated soccer-passing test before and after a fatigue protocol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleep is crucial for recovery and skill acquisition in athletes. Paradoxically, athletes often encounter difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep, while having sufficient sleep opportunity. Blue (short-wavelength) light as emitted by electronic screens is considered a potential sleep thief, as it suppresses habitual melatonin secretion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Burnout constitutes a health risk, and interventions are needed to reduce it. The aim of this study was to synthesize evidence regarding the relationship between physical activity and burnout by conducting a systematic review of longitudinal and intervention studies.
Methods: A literature search resulted in the identification of a final set of ten studies: four longitudinal and six intervention studies.
Objectives: Sleep is essential for recovery and performance in elite athletes. While it is generally assumed that exercise benefits sleep, high training load may jeopardize sleep and hence limit adequate recovery. To examine this, the current study assessed objective sleep quantity and sleep stage distributions in elite athletes and calculated their association with perceived training load.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe examined how process factors were related to the development of various indicators of well-being during the course of an exercise randomized controlled trial aimed at reducing fatigue among university students. We investigated (a) whether actual exposure to the exercise sessions was related to differences in students' trajectories of well-being, (b) the minimally required exposure to exercise needed before well-being started to differ between the intervention and control condition, and (c) whether exercise experiences (enjoyment and detachment) were related to differences in well-being trajectories. University students with high levels of fatigue were randomly allocated to a 6-week exercise intervention (n = 50) or wait list (n = 49).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to: (i) gain more insight into the relationship between being on-call and sleep and (ii) investigate the role of stress in this relationship. Data were collected by means of an experimental field study with a within-subject design (two conditions, random order). Ninety-six students participated during two consecutive nights: a reference night and a simulated on-call night without an actual call.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScand J Work Environ Health
July 2017
Objectives The present study evaluated the efficacy of an exercise intervention to reduce work-related fatigue (emotional exhaustion, overall fatigue, and need for recovery). The effects of exercise on self-efficacy, sleep, work ability, cognitive functioning and aerobic fitness (secondary outcomes) were also investigated. Methods Employees with high levels of work-related fatigue were randomly assigned to either a 6-week exercise intervention (EI; N=49) or a wait-list control group (WLC; N=47).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleep is essential for recovery and performance in elite athletes. While actigraphy-based studies revealed suboptimal sleep in athletes, information on their subjective experience of sleep is scarce. Relatively unexplored is also the extent to which athletes' sleep is adversely affected by environmental conditions and daytime behaviours, that is sleep hygiene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScand J Work Environ Health
September 2016
New ways of working (NWW) is a type of work organization that is characterized by temporal and spatial flexibility, often combined with extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and performance-based management. In a three-wave intervention study, we examined the effects of NWW on both the organization of work (changes in control over time and place of work; working hours and work location; and other key job characteristics), and on employees' outcomes (work-nonwork balance; health and well-being; and job-related outcomes). We applied a quasi-experimental design within a large Dutch financial company (N = 2,912).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many university students experience high levels of study-related fatigue. This high prevalence, and the negative impact of fatigue on health and academic performance, call for prevention and reduction of these symptoms. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate to what extent an exercise intervention is effective in reducing three indicators of study-related fatigue (emotional exhaustion, overall fatigue, and need for recovery).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose was to reexamine cognitive performance and cortisol levels of initial clinical burnout patients, non-clinical burnout individuals, and healthy controls. After 1.5-years of the initial measurement, clinical burnout patients showed a reduction of burnout symptoms and general physical and psychological complaints, but these were still elevated compared with controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of the current study is to evaluate the efficacy of an exercise intervention to reduce work-related fatigue. Exercise is a potentially effective intervention strategy to reduce work-related fatigue, since it may enhance employees' ability to cope with work stress and it helps to detach from work. However, based on available research, no clear causal inferences regarding its efficacy can be made.
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