Assessment of exhaustion and related risk factors in employees in the manufacturing industry - a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: Vital exhaustion, a construct overlapping with burnout, is an independent risk factor for adverse health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease. We aimed to assess vital exhaustion in employees in the manufacturing industry and identify work characteristics associated with exhaustion. Methods: Cross-sectional study. A stratified, representative random sample of employees from a manufacturing plant for airplane parts and assemblies was invited (n=647), of whom 537 employees (83% accrual) volunteered to participate. Scores obtained by the nine-item Shortened Maastricht Exhaustion Questionnaire were compared with the mental and physical summary scales of the SF-12 General Health Survey and to a list of 20 health complaints. Pathogenic and salutogenic work characteristics were assessed by the self-reported 52-item, 13-subscale SALSA questionnaire. Results: Vital exhaustion correlated with the mental summary score of the SF-12 and the number of health complaints and was positively associated with age. Exhaustion was not associated with gender, position (socio-economic status) or being on a wage (paid per completed item up to a contracted amount) or salary (payment as fixed monthly income). The instrument identified departments with high levels of exhaustion. Of the observed variance in exhaustion, 29% was explained by age, department, and five work characteristics: High levels of exhaustion (score >10) were related to excessive workload or qualitative demands (scoring in the highest quartile; OR adj 7.5; 95% CI 2.4-23), to adverse physical work conditions (OR adj 6.9; 95% CI 2.2-21), to adverse coworker behavior (OR adj 4.8; 95% CI 1.4-16), to qualification potential (OR adj 0.32; 95% CI 0.11-0.97), and to social support by co-workers (OR adj 0.34; 95% CI 0.13-0.99), respectively. Conclusions: The nine-item instrument allows rapid screening of employees for selfreported levels of exhaustion. Besides physical work conditions and workload, absence or presence of social support by co-workers is strongly associated with exhaustion.

Síndrome de Burnout en el personal de enfermería de un hospital de Madrid

“…En segundo lugar y en relación con el tema que nos atañe, debemos resaltar que en la actualidad nos encontramos con una bibliografía llena de aportaciones referentes a la importancia del síndrome de Burnout en las profesiones sanitarias (médicos/as, enfermeros/as, auxiliares) 10,12,[26][27][28][29][30] . A pesar de ello, sigue existiendo gran disparidad de resultados en cuanto a las prevalencias del Burnout en general y de cada uno de sus tres componentes en particular.…”

“…Otro punto en el que coincidimos con los expertos en el tema es en el papel que juegan los factores «estresantes» laborales 30,35 . La mayoría de los profesionales encuestados manifestaban claramente la existencia de conflictos en relación con estos factores, que pueden ser los responsables mayoritarios de su insatisfacción 5,23,32,33,36 .…”

Overcommitment to work is associated with vital exhaustion

“…Our group has previously suggested that vital exhaustion should be considered as an indicator of the breakdown of adaptation to a chronically stressful working environment. However, the question as to what extent an individual's intrinsic disposition contributes to the risk of exhaustion was left unanswered in our previous work (Schnorpfeil et al 2002).…”

“…Excess fatigue and feelings of general malaise are among the most prevalent precursors of myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death (Appels and Mulder 1988;Cole et al 1999;Kop et al 1994). Vital exhaustion is also associated with depression (Kopp et al 1998;Raikkonen et al 1996;van Diest and Appels 1991), type-D personality (Denollet 2000;Schmidt Pedersen and Middel 2001), and with perceived work stress (Schnorpfeil et al 2002). Our group has previously suggested that vital exhaustion should be considered as an indicator of the breakdown of adaptation to a chronically stressful working environment.…”

Reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity of monocyte interleukin-6 release in male employees with high plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor-α

“…The study was part of a larger project as previously reported (Schnorpfeil et al, 2002). The ethic committee of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, has formally approved the study protocol.…”