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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research article

Associations of fatigue to work-related stress, mental and physical health in an employed community sample

Authors: D. M. Rose, A. Seidler, M. Nübling, U. Latza, E. Brähler, E. M. Klein, J. Wiltink, M. Michal, S. Nickels, P. S. Wild, J. König, M. Claus, S. Letzel, M. E. Beutel

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

While work-related fatigue has become an issue of concern among European employees, the relationship between fatigue, depression and work-related stressors is far from clear. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine the associations of fatigue with work-related stressors, severe medical disease, health behavior and depression in the working population and (2) to determine the unique impact of work-related stressors on fatigue.

Methods

We used cross-sectional data of N = 7,930 working participants enrolled in the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) from 2007 to 2012 filled out the Personal Burnout Scale (PBS) of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), the PHQ-9, and a list of work-related stressors.

Results

A total of 27.5% reported increased fatigue, esp. women, younger persons with a lower social status and income, smokers, severely medically ill, previously and currently depressed participants. Fatigue was consistently associated with severe medical disease, health behavior and depression, which need to be taken into account as potential confounders when analyzing its relationship to work-related strains. Depression was consistently associated with work-related stressors. However, after statistically partialling out depression, fatigue was still significantly associated with work-related stress.

Conclusions

Fatigue as an indicator of allostatic load is consistently associated with work-related stressors such as work overload after controlling for depression. The brief Personal Burn-out Scale is suitable for assessing work-related fatigue in the general population.
Footnotes
1
defined as the recruitment efficacy proportion, i.e. the number of persons with participation in or appointment for the baseline examination divided by the sum of number of persons with participation in or appointment for the baseline examination plus those with refusal and those who were not contactable
 
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Metadata
Title
Associations of fatigue to work-related stress, mental and physical health in an employed community sample
Authors
D. M. Rose
A. Seidler
M. Nübling
U. Latza
E. Brähler
E. M. Klein
J. Wiltink
M. Michal
S. Nickels
P. S. Wild
J. König
M. Claus
S. Letzel
M. E. Beutel
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1237-y

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