Leaders who embrace on-job learning and listen to employees have more resilient teams
June 10, 2021
Science Daily/Rice University
Leaders who encourage their employees to learn on the job and speak up with ideas and suggestions for change have teams that are more effective and resilient in the face of unexpected situations, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Windsor.
"A Resource Model of Team Resilience Capacity and Learning" will appear in a special issue of Group & Organization Management. Authors Kyle Brykman, an assistant professor at the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor, and Danielle King, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice, studied what makes employees more resilient and fosters learning in the workplace. The researchers specifically examined the interactions of 48 teams from five Canadian technology startups.
"Understanding what organizations can do to help employees become more resilient is the focus our work in my Working Resilience Research Laboratory," King said. "This research project offered an opportunity to uncover the important role of leadership and employee voice in the resilience process."
Brykman and King found that teams that were more effective and resilient if their bosses encourage employees to take risks, make suggestions and learn from the process. Creating a work environment centered around learning and open communication is helpful as teams grow and take on new tasks, King said. Leaders must reinforce this workplace culture with positive language that signals openness and a focus on their development, she said.
"Knowing that you have a leader who is focused on learning and not just on performance outcomes is critical," King said. "It's also important for them to be intentional about communicating this regularly to employees, as it can make all the difference in building more resilient teams. Leaders need to verbally reward a learning mindset. For example, when a boss responds to an employee who makes an on-the-job error by saying, 'Great, now you can learn from this experience,' rather than berating them for making a mistake, it makes a big difference."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210610173947.htm
Early bird or night owl? Study links shift worker sleep to 'chronotype'
Sleep styles may hold the key to designing better work schedules
June 1, 2021
Science Daily/McGill University
Getting enough sleep can be a real challenge for shift workers affecting their overall health. But what role does being an early bird or night owl play in getting good rest? Researchers from McGill University find a link between chronotype and amount of sleep shift workers can get with their irregular schedules.
"Some people seem to be hardwired to sleep early, while others tend to sleep late. This preference, called chronotype, is modulated by our circadian system -- each person's unique internal timekeeper," says lead author Diane B. Boivin, a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University.
Their study published in Sleep is the first to examine the relationship between chronotype and sleep behaviour in shift workers during morning, evening, and night shifts. To investigate this relationship, the researchers tracked 74 police officers as they worked their usual shifts. For close to a month, the officers wore a watch-like device, allowing researchers to measure their sleep.
Not all shifts created equal
"Our results suggest that the effect of chronotype on sleep duration and napping behavior depends on the shift type. On average early risers sleep 1.1 hours longer on morning shifts, while night owls sleep two hours longer on evening shifts," says co-author Laura Kervezee, a former Postdoctoral Fellow at The Douglas Research Centre affiliated with McGill University.
The power of naps
While shift workers take naps to reduce the effect of their irregular schedules on their sleep, the researchers found this behaviour was more prominent during night shifts in early risers. Generally, early risers slept less after night shifts compared to night owls -- but they also took more naps prior to their night shifts, so their total daily sleep was similar.
The findings could help design strategies to improve sleep in workers with atypical schedules, the researchers say. Such strategies could include work schedules that consider chronobiological principles.
"People involved in shift work experience an increased risk of sleep disturbances and fragmented sleep periods. Since sleep is essential for optimal performance, health, and well-being, it's important to develop strategies to get better rest," says Boivin, who is also the Director of the Centre for Study and Treatment of Circadian Rhythms at The Douglas Research Centre.
As next steps, the researchers hope to study the impact of chronotype and shift work on other health outcomes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210601135727.htm
Drivers with shift work sleep disorder 3x more likely to be in crash
May 13, 2021
Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia
People who work nontraditional work hours, such as 11 p.m.-7 a.m., or the "graveyard" shift, are more likely than people with traditional daytime work schedules to develop a chronic medical condition -- shift work sleep disorder -- that disrupts their sleep. According to researchers at the University of Missouri, people who develop this condition are also three times more likely to be involved in a vehicle accident.
"This discovery has many major implications, including the need to identify engineering counter-measures to help prevent these crashes from happening," said Praveen Edara, department chair and professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Such measures can include the availability of highway rest areas, roadside and in-vehicle messaging to improve a driver's attention, and how to encourage drivers who may have a late-night work shift to take other modes of transportation, including public transit or ride-share services."
Edara, one of the authors on the study, said the analysis was based on data collected from a real-world driving study for the second Strategic Highway Research Program established by the U.S. Congress.
As the demand for 24/7 business operations has increased in recent years to meet customer needs during all hours of the day and across multiple time zones, the traditional work day -- once defined as 9 a.m.-5 p.m. -- has shifted for many people to include evening and night shifts, causing sleeping difficulties and leading to shift work sleep disorder. Edara said he was surprised to see shift work sleep disorder increase the risk of a traffic crash by nearly 300%, as compared to both sleep apnea and insomnia, which both increased the risk of a crash by approximately 30%.
Edara said previous studies have shown sleep disorders increase the risk for a traffic crash, but the majority of these studies were conducted in a controlled environment, such as a laboratory driving simulator. He believes this real-world data now validates those efforts.
"In the past, researchers have studied sleep disorders primarily in a controlled environment, using test-tracks and driving simulators," Edara said. "Our study goes a step further by using actual observed crash and near-crash data from approximately 2,000 events occurring in six U.S. states. We've known for a while now that sleep disorders increase crash risk, but here we are able to quantify that risk using real world crash data while accounting for confounding variables such as roadway and traffic characteristics."
Edara said some of the limitations of their study include not having data for fatal crashes, and no formal measurement to define drowsiness.
Putting a spotlight onto a national problem
In the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, is the federal agency that investigates major traffic accidents. Each year, they issue an annual "most wanted list" of safety improvements, and their 2019-2020 list includes "screening and treating obstructive sleep apnea" among the top 10 topic areas.
Edara said he hopes that by showing how big of a risk there is for traffic crashes caused by excessive daytime sleepiness, the researchers can help draw additional attention toward finding ways to keep people safe behind the wheel, including taking the driver out of the equation with ride-sharing options and automated vehicles. He said the ideal next step in this research would be to partner with medical professionals who have expertise in this area to better understand why this is happening.
"We want to partner with public health and medical professionals whose expertise is in sleep-related research to better understand why this is happening," Edara said. "That will also allow us to explore what kind of countermeasures we can develop and test to improve the overall safety of these drivers and the other motorists around them."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210513142334.htm
Salad or cheeseburger? Your co-workers shape your food choices
April 22, 2021
Science Daily/Massachusetts General Hospital
Employees' cafeteria purchases -- both healthy and unhealthy foods -- were influenced by their co-workers' food choices, found a large, two-year study of hospital employees. The study made innovative use of cash register data to gain insights into how individuals' social networks shape their health behavior. The research suggests we might structure future efforts aimed at improving population health by capitalizing on how one person's behavior influences another.
The foods people buy at a workplace cafeteria may not always be chosen to satisfy an individual craving or taste for a particular food. When co-workers are eating together, individuals are more likely to select foods that are as healthy -- or unhealthy -- as the food selections on their fellow employees' trays. "We found that individuals tend to mirror the food choices of others in their social circles, which may explain one way obesity spreads through social networks," says Douglas Levy, PhD, an investigator at the Mongan Institute Health Policy Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and first author of new research published in Nature Human Behaviour. Levy and his co-investigators discovered that individuals' eating patterns can be shaped even by casual acquaintances, evidence that corroborates several multi-decade observational studies showing the influence of people's social ties on weight gain, alcohol consumption and eating behavior.
Previous research on social influence upon food choice had been primarily limited to highly controlled settings like studies of college students eating a single meal together, making it difficult to generalize findings to other age groups and to real-world environments. The study by Levy and his co-authors examined the cumulative social influence of food choices among approximately 6,000 MGH employees of diverse ages and socioeconomic status as they ate at the hospital system's seven cafeterias over two years. The healthfulness of employees' food purchases was determined using the hospital cafeterias' "traffic light" labeling system designating all food and beverages as green (healthy), yellow (less healthy) or red (unhealthy).
MGH employees may use their ID cards to pay at the hospitals' cafeterias, which allowed the researchers to collect data on individuals' specific food purchases, and when and where they purchased the food. The researchers inferred the participants' social networks by examining how many minutes apart two people made food purchases, how often those two people ate at the same time over many weeks, and whether two people visited a different cafeteria at the same time. "Two people who make purchases within two minutes of each other, for example, are more likely to know each other than those who make purchases 30 minutes apart," says Levy. And to validate the social network model, the researchers surveyed more than 1,000 employees, asking them to confirm the names of the people the investigators had identified as their dining partners.
"A novel aspect of our study was to combine complementary types of data and to borrow tools from social network analysis to examine how the eating behaviors of a large group of employees were socially connected over a long period of time," says co-author Mark Pachucki, PhD, associate professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Based on cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments of three million encounters between pairs of employees making cafeteria purchases together, the researchers found that food purchases by people who were connected to each other were consistently more alike than they were different. "The effect size was a bit stronger for healthy foods than for unhealthy foods," says Levy.
A key component of the research was to determine whether social networks truly influence eating behavior, or whether people with similar lifestyles and food preferences are more likely to become friends and eat together, a phenomenon known as homophily. "We controlled for characteristics that people had in common and analyzed the data from numerous perspectives, consistently finding results that supported social influence rather than homophily explanations," says Levy.
Why do people who are socially connected choose similar foods? Peer pressure is one explanation. "People may change their behavior to cement the relationship with someone in their social circle," says Levy. Co-workers may also implicitly or explicitly give each other license to choose unhealthy foods or exert pressure to make a healthier choice.
The study's findings have several broader implications for public health interventions to prevent obesity. One option may be to target pairs of people making food choices and offer two-for-one sales on salads and other healthful foods but no discounts on cheeseburgers. Another approach might be to have an influential person in a particular social circle model more healthful food choices, which will affect others in the network. The research also demonstrates to policymakers that an intervention that improves healthy eating in a particular group will also be of value to individuals socially connected to that group.
"As we emerge from the pandemic and transition back to in-person work, we have an opportunity to eat together in a more healthful way than we did before," says Pachucki. "If your eating habits shape how your co-workers eat -- even just a little -- then changing your food choices for the better might benefit your co-workers as well."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210422150341.htm
Shift-work causes negative impacts on health, affects men and women differently
April 21, 2021
Science Daily/University of Waterloo
Shift-work and irregular work schedules can cause several health-related issues and affect our defence against infection, according to new research from the University of Waterloo.
These health-related issues occur because the body's natural clock, called the circadian clock, can be disrupted by inconsistent changes in the sleep-wake schedule and feeding patterns often caused by shift work. To study this, researchers at Waterloo developed a mathematical model to look at how a disruption in the circadian clock affects the immune system in fighting off illness.
"Because our immune system is affected by the circadian clock, our ability to mount an immune response changes during the day," said Anita Layton, professor of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Pharmacy and Biology at Waterloo. "How likely are you to fight off an infection that occurs in the morning than midday? The answer depends on whether you are a man or a woman, and whether you are among quarter of the modern-day labour force that has an irregular work schedule."
The researchers created new computational models, separately for men and women, which simulate the interplay between the circadian clock and the immune system. The model is composed of the core clock genes, their related proteins, and the regulatory mechanism of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators. By adjusting the clock, the models can simulate male and female shift-workers.
The results of these computer simulations conclude that the immune response varies with the time of infection. Model simulation suggests that the time before we go to bed is the "worst" time to get an infection. That is the period of the day when our body is least prepared to produce the pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators needed during an infection. Just as importantly, an individual's sex impacts the severity of the infection.
"Shift work likely affects men and women differently," said Stéphanie Abo, a PhD candidate in Waterloo's Department of Applied Mathematics. "Compared to females, the immune system in males is more prone to overactivation, which can increase their chances of sepsis following an ill-timed infection."
The study, Modeling the circadian regulation of the immune system: sexually dimorphic effects of shift work, authored by Waterloo's Faculty of Mathematics' Layton and Abo, was recently published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210421082937.htm
Heart health of shift workers linked to body clock
April 16, 2021
Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology
Working hours that deviate from an individual's natural body clock are associated with greater cardiovascular risk, according to research presented at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2021, an online scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
"Our study found that for each hour the work schedule was out of sync with an employee's body clock, the risk of heart disease got worse," said study author Dr. Sara Gamboa Madeira of the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
At least 20% of European employees work atypical hours or shifts,2 and growing scientific evidence associates these with deleterious cardiovascular outcomes.3 A number of explanations have been proposed, including sleep disruption and unhealthy behaviours. This study focused on the role of circadian misalignment, which is the difference between the "social clock" (e.g. work schedules) and the individual "biological clock."
Dr. Gamboa Madeira explained: "We all have an internal biological clock which ranges from morning types (larks), who feel alert and productive in the early morning and sleepy in the evening, to late types (owls), for whom the opposite is true -- with most of the population falling in between. Circadian misalignment occurs when there is a mismatch between what your body wants (e.g. to fall asleep at 10pm) and what your social obligations impose on you (e.g. work until midnight)."
The study included 301 blue collar workers, all performing manual picking activity in the distribution warehouses of a retail company in Portugal. Staff always worked either early morning (6am-3pm), late evening (3pm-midnight), or night (9pm-6am) shifts. Participants completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic factors (age, sex, education), occupational factors (work schedule, seniority), and lifestyle factors and had their blood pressure and cholesterol measured.
The Munich ChronoType Questionnaire was used to assess sleep duration, and to estimate each individual's internal biological clock (also called chronotype). It was also used to quantify the amount of circadian misalignment (i.e. the mismatch between an individual's biological clock and working hours) -- referred to as social jetlag. Participants were divided into three groups according to hours of social jetlag: 2 hours or less, 2-4 hours, 4 hours or more.
The researchers used the European relative risk SCORE chart which incorporates smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol to calculate relative cardiovascular risk. Relative risk ranges from 1 (non-smoker with healthy blood pressure and cholesterol) to 12 (smoker with very high blood pressure and cholesterol). In this study, a relative risk of 3 or more was considered "high cardiovascular risk." The researchers then investigated the association between social jetlag and high cardiovascular risk.
The average age of participants was 33 years and 56% were men. Just over half (51%) were smokers, 49% had high cholesterol, and 10% had hypertension. One in five (20%) were classified as high cardiovascular risk. Some 40% had a short sleep duration on workdays (6 hours or less). The average social jetlag was nearly 2 hours. In most workers (59%), social jetlag was 2 hours or less, while for 33% of staff it was 2-4 hours, and in 8% it was 4 hours or more.
A higher level of social jetlag was significantly associated with greater odds of being in the high cardiovascular risk group. The odds of being classified high cardiovascular risk increased by 31% for each additional hour of social jetlag, even after adjusting for sociodemographic, occupational, lifestyle, and sleep characteristics and body mass index.
Dr. Gamboa Madeira said: "These results add to the growing evidence that circadian misalignment may explain, at least in part, the association found between shift work and detrimental health outcomes. The findings suggest that staff with atypical work schedules may need closer monitoring for heart health. Longitudinal studies are needed to investigate whether late chronotypes cope better with late/night shifts and earlier chronotypes to early morning schedules, both psychologically and physiologically."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210416091053.htm
How can remote workers best manage work-home conflict?
Remote work expert offers best practices based on more than 20 years of research
April 7, 2021
Science Daily/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
What are the secrets to maintaining a productive home office? Run a white-noise machine to mask household clatter, make sure your noisy neighbors know your work schedule, and resist the temptation to check work-related technology after logging off at the end of the workday. These are some of the tips that Timothy D. Golden, a professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has gleaned through more than two decades of research.
More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of remote workers are still struggling to find an efficient work-life balance. In an article recently published in Organizational Dynamics, Golden offered these workers and their managers research-based solutions and best practices for addressing and managing common issues that impede success while working from home.
"A key challenge most people face when they work from home is how to effectively navigate the boundaries between their work life and home life, all while continuing to be efficient and productive in their job," said Golden, a leading expert on remote work. "The need to be able to adeptly manage the boundaries between work and family is absolutely critical today."
There are two types of remote workers: "segmentors" work best by keeping a rigid distinction between their personal life and job, while "integrators" are at ease mixing together their work and home responsibilities. To work successfully at home, Golden said, individuals of both types must erect and maintain boundaries to match their desired comfort level.
In the article, Golden identified four areas -- physical, behavioral, temporal, and communication -- that must be considered in order for employees and managers to successfully set and manage boundaries between work and home life.
Among other tactics, Golden recommended setting allowable limits on household noise, starting and ending your day at consistent and regular times, and -- importantly -- having expectation-setting conversations with family members or those living in the home.
He also identified common pitfalls that cause boundaries created by remote workers to crumble, including being unpredictable in routines and avoiding confronting boundary violators.
"You're in a different physical and mental space when you're working remotely or in the home domain," Golden said. "Communication becomes particularly crucial when you're immersed in the home environment to balance everything successfully."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210407143828.htm
Late night snacks may hurt your workplace performance
April 7, 2021
Science Daily/North Carolina State University
A recent study finds that unhealthy eating behaviors at night can make people less helpful and more withdrawn the next day at work.
"For the first time, we have shown that healthy eating immediately affects our workplace behaviors and performance," says Seonghee "Sophia" Cho, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. "It is relatively well established that other health-related behaviors, such as sleep and exercise, affect our work. But nobody had looked at the short-term effects of unhealthy eating."
Fundamentally, the researchers had two questions: Does unhealthy eating behavior affect you at work the next day? And, if so, why?
For the study, researchers had 97 full-time employees in the United States answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 consecutive workdays. Before work on each day, study participants answered questions related to their physical and emotional well-being. At the end of each workday, participants answered questions about what they did at work. In the evening, before bed, participants answered questions about their eating and drinking behaviors after work.
In the context of the study, researchers defined "unhealthy eating" as instances when study participants felt they'd eaten too much junk food; when participants felt they'd had too much to eat or drink; or when participants reporting having too many late-night snacks.
The researchers found that, when people engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors, they were more likely to report having physical problems the next morning. Problems included headaches, stomachaches and diarrhea. In addition, when people reported unhealthy eating behaviors, they were also more likely to report emotional strains the next morning -- such as feeling guilty or ashamed about their diet choices. Those physical and emotional strains associated with unhealthy eating were, in turn, related to changes in how people behaved at work throughout the day.
Essentially, when people reported physical or emotional strains associated with unhealthy eating, they were also more likely to report declines in "helping behavior" and increases in "withdrawal behavior." Helping behavior at work refers to helping colleagues and going the extra mile when you don't have to, such as assisting a co-worker with a task that is not your responsibility. Withdrawal behavior refers to avoiding work-related situations, even though you're at your workplace.
The researchers also found that people who were emotionally stable -- meaning people who are better able to cope with stress because they're less emotionally volatile -- suffered fewer adverse effects from unhealthy eating. Not only were emotionally stable people less likely to have physical or emotional strains after unhealthy eating, their workplace behaviors were also less likely to change even when they reported physical or emotional strains.
"The big takeaway here is that we now know unhealthy eating can have almost immediate effects on workplace performance," Cho says. "However, we can also say that there is no single 'healthy' diet, and healthy eating isn't just about nutritional content. It may be influenced by an individual's dietary needs, or even by when and how they're eating, instead of what they're eating.
"Companies can help to address healthy eating by paying more attention to the dietary needs and preferences of their employees and helping to address those needs, such as through on-site dining options. This can affect both the physical and mental health of their employees -- and, by extension, their on-the-job performance."
The researchers also pointed to a variety of research questions that could be addressed moving forward.
"One confounding variable is that the way our questions were phrased, we may be capturing both unhealthy eating behaviors and unhealthy drinking behaviors related to alcohol," Cho says.
"That's something we will want to tease out moving forward. And while we focused on evening diet, it would be interesting to look at what people are eating at other times of day. Are there specific elements of diet that affect behavioral outcomes -- such as sugar or caffeine content? Can there be positive effects of unhealthy eating, such as when people eat comfort foods to help cope with stress? This promises to be a rich field of study."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210407135755.htm
Tired at the office? Take a quick break; your work will benefit
March 16, 2021
Science Daily/North Carolina State University
Recent research shows that people are more likely to take "microbreaks" at work on days when they're tired -- but that's not a bad thing. The researchers found microbreaks seem to help tired employees bounce back from their morning fatigue and engage with their work better over the course of the day.
At issue are microbreaks, which are short, voluntary and impromptu respites in the workday. Microbreaks include discretionary activities such as having a snack, chatting with a colleague, stretching or working on a crossword puzzle.
"A microbreak is, by definition, short," says Sophia Cho, co-author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. "But a five-minute break can be golden if you take it at the right time. Our study shows that it is in a company's best interest to give employees autonomy in terms of taking microbreaks when they are needed -- it helps employees effectively manage their energy and engage in their work throughout the day."
The new paper is based on two studies that explored issues related to microbreaks in the workday. Specifically, the studies were aimed at improving our understanding of how people boost or maintain their energy levels throughout the day in order to engage with work even when they start the day already exhausted. The studies also examined which factors might play a role in determining whether people took microbreaks, or what they did during those microbreaks.
The first study surveyed 98 workers in the United States. Study participants were asked to fill out two surveys per day for 10 consecutive workdays. The surveys were completed in the morning and at the end of workday. The second study included 222 workers in South Korea. This study had participants complete three surveys per day for five workdays. Study participants completed the surveys in the morning, after lunch and at the end of the workday.
Survey questions in both studies were aimed at collecting data about each study participant's sleep quality, levels of fatigue, as well as their engagement with their work and their experiences at the workplace that day. In the studies, the researchers analyzed the survey data with statistical tools to examine day-to-day fluctuations in sleep quality, fatigue, work behavior and engagement in varying types of microbreaks.
The results were straightforward: on days that people were already fatigued when they arrived at work, they tended to take microbreaks more frequently. And taking microbreaks helped them maintain their energy level. This, in turn, helped them meet work demands and engage with work better.
"Basically, microbreaks help you manage your energy resources over the course of the day -- and that's particularly beneficial on days when you're tired," Cho says.
In addition, the researchers found that people were more likely to take microbreaks if they felt their employer cared about the health and well-being of its workers.
"When people think their employer cares about their health, they feel more empowered to freely make decisions about when to take microbreaks and what type of microbreaks to take," Cho says. "And that is ultimately good for both the employer and the employee."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210316132124.htm
Insights on how night shift work increases cancer risk
March 8, 2021
Science Daily/Washington State University
New clues as to why night shift workers are at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer are presented in a new study conducted at Washington State University Health Sciences Spokane.
Published online in the Journal of Pineal Research, the study involved a controlled laboratory experiment that used healthy volunteers who were on simulated night shift or day shift schedules. Findings from the study suggest that night shifts disrupt natural 24-hour rhythms in the activity of certain cancer-related genes, making night shift workers more vulnerable to damage to their DNA while at the same time causing the body's DNA repair mechanisms to be mistimed to deal with that damage.
Though more research still needs to be done, these discoveries could someday be used to help prevent and treat cancer in night shift workers.
"There has been mounting evidence that cancer is more prevalent in night shift workers, which led the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer to classify night shift work as a probable carcinogenic," said co-corresponding author Shobhan Gaddameedhi, an associate professor formerly with the WSU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and now with North Carolina State University's Biological Sciences Department and Center for Human Health and the Environment. "However, it has been unclear why night shift work elevates cancer risk, which our study sought to address."
Studying the rhythms in cancer-related genes
As part of a partnership between the WSU Sleep and Performance Research Center and the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Gaddameedhi and other WSU scientists worked with bioinformatics experts at PNNL to study the potential involvement of the biological clock, the body's built-in mechanism that keeps us on a 24-hour night and day cycle. Though there is a central biological clock in the brain, nearly every cell in the body also has its own built-in clock. This cellular clock involves genes known as clock genes that are rhythmic in their expression, meaning their activity levels vary with the time of day or night. The researchers hypothesized that the expression of genes associated with cancer might be rhythmic, too, and that night shift work might disrupt the rhythmicity of these genes.
To test this, they conducted a simulated shift work experiment that had 14 participants spend seven days inside the sleep laboratory at WSU Health Sciences Spokane. Half of them completed a three-day simulated night shift schedule, while the other half were on a three-day simulated day shift schedule. After completing their simulated shifts, all participants were kept in a constant routine protocol that is used to study humans' internally generated biological rhythms independent of any external influences. As part of the protocol, they were kept awake for 24 hours in a semi-reclined posture under constant light exposure and room temperature and were given identical snacks every hour. Every three hours a blood sample was drawn.
Analyses of white blood cells taken from the blood samples showed that the rhythms of many of the cancer-related genes were different in the night shift condition compared to the day shift condition. Notably, genes related to DNA repair that showed distinct rhythms in the day shift condition lost their rhythmicity in the night shift condition.
The researchers then looked at what the consequences of the changes in the expression of cancer-related genes might be. They found that white blood cells isolated from the blood of night shift participants showed more evidence of DNA damage than those of day shift participants. What's more, after the researchers exposed isolated white blood cells to ionizing radiation at two different times of day, cells that were radiated in the evening showed increased DNA damage in the night shift condition as compared to the day shift condition. This meant that white blood cells from night shift participants were more vulnerable to external damage from radiation, a known risk factor for DNA damage and cancer.
"Taken together, these findings suggest that night shift schedules throw off the timing of expression of cancer-related genes in a way that reduces the effectiveness of the body's DNA repair processes when they are most needed," said co-corresponding author Jason McDermott, a computational scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Biological Sciences Division.
Potential for improved prevention, treatment
The researchers' next step is to conduct the same experiment with real-world shift workers who have been consistently on day or night shifts for many years to determine whether in night workers the unrepaired DNA damage builds up over time, which could ultimately increase the risk of cancer. If what happens in real-world shift workers is consistent with the current findings, this work could eventually be used to develop prevention strategies and drugs that could address the mistiming of DNA repair processes. It could also be the basis for strategies to optimize the timing of cancer therapy so that treatment is administered when effectiveness is greatest and side effects are minimal, a procedure called chronotherapy that would need to be fine-tuned to the internal rhythms of night workers.
"Night shift workers face considerable health disparities, ranging from increased risks of metabolic and cardiovascular disease to mental health disorders and cancer," said co-senior author Hans Van Dongen, a professor in the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and director of the WSU Sleep and Performance Research Center. "It is high time that we find diagnosis and treatment solutions for this underserved group of essential workers so that the medical community can address their unique health challenges."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210308091744.htm
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Leisure physical activity is linked with health benefits but work activity is not
April 8, 2021
Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology
The first large study showing that leisure time physical activity and occupational physical activity have opposite, and independent, associations with cardiovascular disease risk and longevity is published today in European Heart Journal, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
"We adjusted for multiple factors in our analysis, indicating that the relationships were not explained by lifestyle, health conditions or socioeconomic status," said study author Professor Andreas Holtermann of the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends physical activity during both recreation and work to improve health.* Previous studies have suggested that occupational activity is related to an increased risk for heart disease and mortality but have been too small to fully explain whether this was due to the manual work or because employees had unhealthy lifestyles or low socioeconomic status (e.g. low level of education).
This study included 104,046 women and men aged 20-100 years from the Copenhagen General Population Study with baseline measurements in 2003-2014. Participants completed questionnaires about activity during leisure and employment and were categorised as low, moderate, high, or very high activity for each.
During a median follow-up of 10 years, there were 9,846 (9.5%) deaths from all causes and 7,913 (7.6%) major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, defined as fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal and non-fatal stroke, and other coronary death).
Compared to low leisure time physical activity, after adjustment for age, sex, lifestyle, health, and education, moderate, high, and very high activity were associated with 26%, 41%, and 40% reduced risks of early death, respectively. In contrast, compared to low work activity, high and very high activity were associated with 13% and 27% increased risks of death, respectively.
Similarly, after adjustments, compared to low leisure activity, moderate, high, and very high levels of leisure activity were associated with 14%, 23%, and 15% reduced risks of MACE, respectively. Compared to low work activity, high and very high levels were associated with 15% and 35% increased risks of MACE, respectively.
Professor Holtermann said: "Many people with manual jobs believe they get fit and healthy by their physical activity at work and therefore can relax when they get home. Unfortunately, our results suggest that this is not the case. And while these workers could benefit from leisure physical activity, after walking 10,000 steps while cleaning or standing seven hours in a production line, people tend to feel tired so that's a barrier."
While the study did not investigate the reasons for the opposite associations for occupational and leisure time physical activity, Professor Holtermann said: "A brisk 30-minute walk will benefit your health by raising your heart rate and improving your cardiorespiratory fitness, while work activity often does not sufficiently increase heart rate to improve fitness. In addition, work involving lifting for several hours a day increases blood pressure for many hours, which is linked with heart disease risk, while short bursts of intense physical activity during leisure raises blood pressure only briefly."
Professor Holtermann's vision is to re-organise occupational activity so that it mimics the beneficial aspects of leisure exercise. Several approaches are being piloted, such as rotating between workstations on a production line so that employees do a "healthy mixture" of sitting, standing, and lifting during a shift. In another study, childcare workers play games together with children, instead of observing, so that both get their heart rate up and increase fitness. "We are trying to vary the tasks, give recovery time, or raise heart rate so there is a fitness and health benefit," he said.
Professor Holtermann concluded: "Societies need adults with sufficient health and fitness to work longer since the retirement age is increasing. We need to find ways to make active work good for health."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210408212952.htm
Stress from work and social interactions put women at higher coronary heart disease risk
April 9, 2021
Science Daily/Drexel University
Psychosocial stress -- typically resulting from difficulty coping with challenging environments -- may work synergistically to put women at significantly higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, according to a study by researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health, recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The study specifically suggests that the effects of job strain and social strain -- the negative aspect of social relationships -- on women is a powerful one-two punch. Together they are associated with a 21% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. Job strain occurs when a woman has inadequate power in the workplace to respond to the job's demands and expectations.
The study also found that high-stress life events, such as a spouse's death, divorce/separation or physical or verbal abuse, as well as social strain, were each independently linked with a 12% and 9% higher risk of coronary heart disease, respectively.
The Drexel study used data from a nationally representative sample of 80,825 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, which tracked participants from 1991 to 2015, to find better methods of preventing cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis in women. In the current follow-up study, Drexel researchers evaluated the effect of psychosocial stress from job strain, stressful life events and social strain (through a survey), and associations among these forms of stress, on coronary heart disease.
Nearly 5% of the women developed coronary heart disease during the 14-year, seven-month study. Adjusting for age, time at a job, and socioeconomic characteristics, high-stress life events were associated with a 12% increased coronary heart disease risk, and high social strain was associated with a 9% increased risk of coronary heart disease. Work strain was not independently associated with coronary heart disease.
Coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, occurs with the heart's arteries become narrow and cannot bring sufficient oxygenated blood to the heart. The latest work builds on earlier studies linking psychosocial stress to coronary heart disease by finding out how job strain and social strain work together to compound disease risk.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted ongoing stresses for women in balancing paid work and social stressors. We know from other studies that work strain may play a role in developing CHD, but now we can better pinpoint the combined impact of stress at work and at home on these poor health outcomes," said senior author Yvonne Michael, ScD, SM, an associate professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health. "My hope is that these findings are a call for better methods of monitoring stress in the workplace and remind us of the dual-burden working women face as a result of their unpaid work as caregivers at home ."
The study's authors say that future studies should look at the effects of shift work on coronary heart disease and explore the effects of job demands according to gender.
"Our findings are a critical reminder to women, and those who care about them, that the threat of stress to human health should not go ignored," said lead author Conglong Wang, PhD, a recent Dornsife graduate who conducted the research while at Drexel. "This is particularly pertinent during the stressors caused by a pandemic."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210409124746.htm
Benefits of team building exercises jeopardized if not truly voluntary
February 25, 2021
Science Daily/University of Sydney
Zoom dress up parties, tug-of-war, 'trust falls' and escape rooms -- team building exercises have become the go-to tool for managers trying to increase organisational and team rapport and productivity, but unfortunately many employees resent compulsory bonding and often regard these exercises as the bane of their workplace existence.
A paper published this week by University of Sydney School of Project Management researchers in the Journal of Social Networkshas found participants have mixed feelings about team-building interventions, with the research revealing ethical implications in forcing employees to take part.
"Since publishing our previous research on team-building exercises, many workers told us that they despise team building activities and see them as a waste of time, so we decided to look in more depth at what's behind this," said the paper's lead researcher, Dr Petr Matous, who in 2019 published research with Dr Julien Pollack that argued spending time developing relationships with people you aren't close to is more effective than general team-bonding exercises.
"Almost every day at work, workers are subjected to interventions that are implicitly or explicitly designed to change our networks of working relationships," said Dr Matous.
"Teams are formed, merged and restructured, staff are relocated and office spaces are redesigned. We are expected to participate in drinks after work and team building events. All this is done with the aim of improving workplace effectiveness, efficiency, collaboration and cohesion -- but does any of this work?" said Dr Matous.
The study found that team-building exercises which focused on the sharing of, and intervening into personal attitudes and relationships between team members may be considered too heavy-handed and intrusive, although the researchers say some degree of openness and vulnerability is often necessary to make deep, effective connections with colleagues.
"Among the participants we interviewed, some were against team building exercises because they felt they were implicitly compulsory and did not welcome management's interest in their lives beyond their direct work performance."
"Many people do not want to be forced into having fun or making friends, especially not on top of their busy jobs or in stressful, dysfunctional environments where team building is typically called for," said Associate Professor Julien Pollack, Interim Director of the John Grill Institute of Project Leadership.
"These activities often feel implicitly mandatory. People can feel that management is being too nosy or trying to control their life too much.
"We recommend an approach where people can opt out of team building discreetly, by conducting team-building only among selected pairs of individuals who can choose whether or not to proceed with strengthening their relationship. Their choice would not be visible to management.
"An important point is to target the right relationships, and we can do that by analytically identifying critical links in collaboration and communication networks among employees.
The researchers said there are numerous schools of thought that propose differing psychological methods for strengthening relationships.
In this study the researchers chose a self-disclosure approach where participants were guided through a series of questions that allowed them to increasingly disclose personal information and values. The method is well-tested and has been shown to increase interpersonal closeness, however, to be successful it must be voluntary.
"With caution, many relational methods to improve teams and organisations can be borrowed from other fields. The question is how to apply them effectively to strengthen an entire collective, which is more than just the sum of individual relationships, and that's where analysing methods using network science makes the main contribution," said Dr Matous.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225143709.htm
Depressed and out of work? Therapy may help you find a job
Treatment also helps workers be more effective, study finds
February 22, 2021
Science Daily/Ohio State University
If depression is making it more difficult for some unemployed people to land a job, one type of therapy may help, research suggests.
In a new study, 41% of unemployed or underemployed people undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) found a new job or went from part- to full-time work by the end of the 16-week treatment for depression.
Those who had a job but found it difficult to focus on and accomplish work tasks because of depression said the treatment helped to significantly reduce these problems.
"For the most part, researchers have focused on showing that therapy relieves symptoms of depression," said Daniel Strunk, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.
"But reducing symptoms isn't the only goal people have when they start CBT. Many are hoping to find a job or improve their productivity at their current job. Here we found that therapy can help people achieve these goals, as well."
Strunk conducted the study with Iony Ezawa and Graham Bartels, who were graduate students at Ohio State when the study was conducted. The research was published online this month in the journal Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
This study involved 126 people who participated in a 16-week course of CBT at the Ohio State Depression Treatment and Research Clinic.
CBT teaches coping skills that help patients counteract and modify their negative beliefs, Strunk said.
"It works on the idea that people with depression invariably hold these overly negative views of themselves and their futures," he said.
"For example, if an unemployed patient doesn't get one job they interviewed for, they may think 'no one is ever going to hire me.'"
In this study, 27 patients were seeking to improve their employment status (land a job or go from part- to full-time) at the beginning of treatment. Eleven of them (41%) had succeeded by the end of the 16 weeks.
"It is hard to say exactly how good this success rate is since we don't know how many would have gotten jobs without the treatment," Strunk said.
"But the findings were encouraging and suggest that the CBT is having an impact."
CBT had a clear impact for those who had jobs and reported at the beginning of the treatment that depression was hurting their effectiveness.
"Working patients reported at the end of treatment that they were much more successful at concentrating and accomplishing tasks at their jobs," he said.
Findings showed that one way CBT had this effect was by reducing patients' "negative cognitive style," or the extent to which patients view negative events in overly pessimistic ways, according to Strunk.
"CBT helps patients overcome these views by teaching them that the experience of depression is not their fault and that they can take steps to improve their concentration and accomplish work more successfully even when experiencing depressive symptoms," Strunk said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210222164224.htm
Bosses need appreciation, too
Study shows supervisors who feel appreciated have better outlook at work
December 10, 2020
Science Daily/University of Central Florida
'Tis the season to be grateful, even for your boss, according to a recent University of Central Florida study that suggests when supervisors feel appreciated, it gives them a boost of energy and optimism. In the end, that's good for employees and the organization's bottom line.
"Based on theory, we knew feeling appreciated by another person sends a strong signal that you are positively regarded, and feelings of positive regard evoke a sense of vigor -- or high energy," said Maureen Ambrose, the Gordon J. Barnett Professor of Business Ethics and a UCF Pegasus Professor. "This is important because research indicates when people possess higher levels of resources, in this case, energy, they are better able to maintain a positive outlook and engage in positive behaviors at work. We know when supervisors have feelings of depletion -- or low energy -- negative things happen. For example, when bosses have low energy, they engage in more abusive supervision, creating worse workplaces for their employees,"
Ambrose teamed up with Clemson professor and UCF alumna Susan Sheridan to examine feelings of appreciation and emotional expressions in the workplace. Typically, research in this area has focused solely on the downward influence of supervisors on their employees.
"Our study also found that feeling appreciated by employees was positively related, via energy, to supervisors' psychological well-being. Psychological well-being can buffer individuals from the negative effects of job stress," Ambrose said.
Lessening job stress on employees can have a significant impact on a business's bottom line. The American Institute of Stress estimates that job stress cos U.S. industry more than $300 billion a year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and medical, legal and insurance costs.
The study asked supervisors to respond to surveys twice a day for 10 consecutive workdays. Each day participants recorded how much they felt appreciated by their subordinates, how energetic they felt and how it affected them personally (sense of optimism and life satisfaction) and professionally (job satisfaction).
"On days supervisors felt more appreciated, they had more energy, and this translated into higher levels of optimism, life satisfaction, job satisfaction and helping," says Sheridan, who earned her doctorate at UCF and is now an assistant professor of leadership at Clemson. "This was interesting because our field hasn't connected feeling appreciated to higher energy, and we typically look at how supervisors can boost the resources of subordinates -- not the other way around."
The study found that the external validation from feeling appreciated is especially powerful for those supervisors who lack a strong sense of validation from within.
Ambrose and Sheridan say they hope this research sparks a deeper examination into the role of gratitude and appreciation in the workplace and how employees influence supervisors.
"Anyone who has managed people knows how influential the relationships with subordinates can be," Ambrose said. "Taking this upwards perspective may help us better understand supervisors' lived experiences at work and why they do the things they do."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201210145714.htm
Making the best decision: Math shows diverse thinkers equal better results
November 16, 2020
Science Daily/Florida State University
Whether it is ants forming a trail or individuals crossing the street, the exchange of information is key in making everyday decisions. But new Florida State University research shows that the group decision-making process may work best when members process information a bit differently.
Bhargav Karamched, assistant professor of mathematics, and a team of researchers published a new study today that tackles how groups make decisions and the dynamics that make for fast and accurate decision making. He found that networks that consisted of both impulsive and deliberate individuals made, on average, quicker and better decisions than a group with homogenous thinkers.
"In groups with impulsive and deliberate individuals, the first decision is made quickly by an impulsive individual who needs little evidence to make a choice," Karamched said. "But, even when wrong, this fast decision can reveal the correct options to everyone else. This is not the case in homogenous groups."
The paper is published in Physical Review Letters.
Researchers noted in the paper that the exchange of information is crucial in a variety of biological and social functions. But Karamched said although information sharing in networks has been studied quite a bit, very little work has been done on how individuals in a network should integrate information from their peers with their own private evidence accumulation. Most of the studies, both theoretical and experimental, have focused on how isolated individuals optimally gather evidence to make a choice.
"This work was motivated by that," Karamched said. "How should individuals optimally accumulate evidence they see for themselves with evidence they obtain from their peers to make the best possible decisions?"
Krešimir Josi?, Moores Professor of Mathematics, Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston and senior author of the study, noted that the process works best when individuals in a group make the most of their varied backgrounds to collect the necessary materials and knowledge to make a final decision.
"Collective social decision making is valuable if all individuals have access to different types of information," Josi? said.
Karamched used mathematical modeling to reach his conclusion but said there is plenty of room for follow-up research.
Karamched said that his model assumes that evidence accrued by one individual is independent of evidence collected by another member of the group. If a group of individuals is trying to make a decision based on information that is available to everyone, additional modeling would need to account for how correlations in the information affects collective decision-making.
"For example, to choose between voting Republican or Democrat in an election, the information available to everyone is common and not specifically made for one individual," he said. "Including correlations will require developing novel techniques to analyze models we develop."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201116161222.htm
Burnout can exacerbate work stress, further promoting a vicious circle
November 10, 2020
Science Daily/Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Work stress and burnout are mutually reinforcing / Surprisingly, the effect of work stress on burnout is much smaller than the effect of burnout on work stress.
Stress and overload in the workplace are increasing worldwide and are often considered a cause of burnout. Indeed, a new study shows that work stress and burnout are mutually reinforcing. However, contrary to popular belief, burnout has a much greater impact on work stress than vice versa. "This means that the more severe a person's burnout becomes, the more stressed they will feel at work, such as being under time pressure, for example," said Professor Christian Dormann of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Employees suffering from burnout should be timely provided with adequate support in order to break the vicious circle between work stress and burnout.
Symptoms of burnout include exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced performance. "The most important burnout symptom is the feeling of total exhaustion -- to the extent that it cannot be remedied by normal recovery phases of an evening, a weekend, or even a vacation," said Dormann. "To protect themselves from further exhaustion, some try to build a psychological distance to their work, that is, they alienate themselves from their work as well as the people associated with it and become more cynical," added Dr. Christina Guthier. She conducted the study as part of her doctoral thesis in Dormann's research group and was awarded with the dissertation prize of the Alfred Teves Foundation in 2020. The study has recently been published in Psychological Bulletin.
For the joint publication with Professor Christian Dormann and Professor Manuel Völkle of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Christina Guthier evaluated 48 longitudinal studies of burnout and work stress comprising 26,319 participants. The average age in the initial survey was about 42 years, 44 percent of the respondents were men. The longitudinal studies from 1986 to 2019 came from various countries, including predominantly European countries as well as Israel, the USA, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, China, and Taiwan.
Stopping the downward spiral and reducing the effect of burnout on work stress
The results challenge, or at least relativize, the common perception that work stress is the driving force behind burnout. "Burnout can be triggered by a work situation, but that is not always the case," Dormann pointed out. Once burnout begins, it develops only very gradually, building up slowly over time. Ultimately it leads to work being increasingly perceived as stressful: The amount of work is too much, time is too short, and work stress is too great. "When exhausted, the ability to cope with stress usually decreases. As a result, even smaller tasks can be perceived as significantly more strenuous," explained Guthier, the first author of the article. "We expected an effect of burnout on work stress; the strength of the effect was very surprising," she noted. The effect of burnout on perceived work stress can be somewhat mitigated if employees have more control over their own work and receive support from colleagues or superiors.
According to Dormann, a new research area is emerging on the basis of this unique data because the strong boomerang effect of burnout on work stress has not yet been investigated. Key questions that need to be addressed are: how can the effects of burnout on perceived work stress be reduced and how can the development of this vicious circle be prevented? Dormann and Guthier suggest that the place to start is with management behavior. Employees should have the opportunity to give feedback on their work stress at any time and be appreciated. Last but not least, proper recovery could also help to stop the downward spiral.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201110112522.htm
Emergency care doctors not getting sufficient 'down time'
November 2, 2020
Science Daily/University of Plymouth
A survey of more than 4,000 UK emergency care doctors has shown that they need more support to recover from work pressures between shifts.
Published today in the BMJ Open, the study highlighted how the doctors' 'need for recovery' was higher than anything recorded in previous studies of a similar nature -- and could be helped by factors such as reducing the number of antisocial shift patterns and improving access to leave.
Led by a newly formed Trainee Emergency Research Network, sponsored by University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHPNT), and with collaboration from the University of Plymouth and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the research asked a total of 4,247 doctors in emergency departments from 112 NHS Trusts around the UK to complete a validated Need for Recovery (NFR) Scale. This 11-item questionnaire assesses how work affects inter-shift recovery, with items compiled to form a score between 0 and 100.
The median average NFR result was 70 -- higher than any scores reported in other professions or populations to date.
In addition, a higher proportion of antisocial working was associated with a higher NFR score, suggesting that any reduction in antisocial shifts could help improve wellbeing.
Known as the TIRED study, it was the largest healthcare study to date of a tool that assesses the need for staff to physically and psychologically recuperate following a period of work. The authors also propose that the use of this tool could identify staff wellbeing issues before they progress to burnout.
The research took place in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, but authors suggest the study findings remain relevant given that pressures on emergency care doctors are only likely to have increased.
Lead author Dr Laura Cottey, Chief Investigator for the Trainee Emergency Research Network study, said: "We all know that emergency care can be a high-pressure environment, but these results provide the evidence of the impact this work demand is having on staff wellbeing. Previous Need for Recovery scores among a variety of population groups were reported between 36 and 44, so for the median score to be 70 among over 4,000 doctors is definitely something that needs to be addressed.
"Among our respondents, we saw that NFR scores were increased by difficulty accessing annual and study leave, as well as an increased proportion of antisocial working -- such as night shifts. Better access to leave and any reduction in antisocial shifts might result in direct improvements in NFR and help protect against the development of burnout."
Co-author Dr Blair Graham, Lecturer in Urgent and Emergency Care at the University of Plymouth and Specialty Registrar in Emergency Medicine at UHPNT, said: "The first step to overcoming any problem is recognising that there is one -- so having these results is a good start. Even if fewer antisocial shifts cannot be achieved, acknowledgement of a problem and the provision of rest facilities may help to mitigate the issue.
"The next step would be for us to carry out the research at different times of year to understand whether the results are seasonal, or affected by other factors. Although this study was conducted prior to COVID-19 arriving in the UK, we believe the findings still need to be taken into account as pressures on emergency care doctors are only likely to have increased during the pandemic."
Professor Gary Minto, Director of Research and Development at UHPNT, said: "Here at University Hospitals Plymouth, our research strategy is that, in addition to our longstanding strength in running clinical trials, we also expand our focus into other areas of social care, health and wellbeing. The TIRED study, which addresses mental health in Emergency Doctors, is a great example. This prominent nationwide study, initiated, led and delivered by doctors in training contains important messages about downtime and shift patterns which are relevant across the UK, particularly as the COVID-19 situation evolves."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201102120031.htm
Researchers identify how night-shift work causes internal clock confusion
Cell secretions during shift changes disrupt body clock alignment and raise risk of health issues
October 22, 2020
Science Daily University of Missouri-Columbia
Night-shift workers face an increased risk of obesity and diabetes, but the underlying reason for that has been a mystery. Now, University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers have found a potential cause for metabolic changes during night-shift work that creates confusion between cells in the body and the central clock in the brain.
"We hypothesized that the messages cells produce and send each other during night work are different than those sent during the day shift," said David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith Endowed Chair of Child Health at the MU School of Medicine. "These messages come via microscopic packages called exosomes. Our study found these packages disrupt the synchronicity of the body's systems during night shifts and cause increased insulin resistance and other health issues."
Gozal and MU collaborator Abdelnaby Khalyfa, PhD, associate professor, studied 14 participants who were assigned to either a simulated day shift or night shift. After the participants spent three days on the simulated shift, researchers drew their blood every 3 hours, extracted the exosomes from the plasma and delivered them into naïve fat cells. The goal was to examine any potential changes to the fat cells and the key genes that affect metabolism. They found that exosomes taken from the night-shift participants reduced insulin sensitivity of the fat cells. They also discovered that those exosomes contained specialized gene regulators called microRNAs that shifted the internal clock of the fat cells.
"The cells in your body do not adjust as quickly as the central clock in the brain to shifts in sleep patterns," Gozal said. "So when night-shift workers abruptly shift back and forth to daytime hours on the weekend, the cells in the body continue to send messages to each other through exosomes that lag behind the central clock. It creates a condition called 'circadian misalignment,' which is associated with an increased risk for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses."
Gozal believes using exosomes taken from the blood as a marker of circadian misalignment could play a key role in identifying treatments to prevent the long-term health complications of night-shift work.
"By sampling the blood of workers at different times of the day and examining their exosomes, we might be able to identify whether they are misaligned," Gozal said. "This could give us a lot of information about which workers are better suited to work night shift. And this discovery raises the possibility of developing personalized less risk-generating shift schedules and also gene-targeted therapeutic approaches to prevent the long-term health complications of night-shift work. "
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201022123116.htm
People's life goals relate to their personality type
September 16, 2020
Science Daily/University of California - Davis
In the first research of its kind, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests that for the most part, people formulate goals consistent with their personality traits -- and an individual's goals are related to how their personality subsequently changes over time.
The study surveyed more than 500 students when they started college, each year during college, and 20 years later on their goals related to being creative, having a successful career, having a family, being wealthy, or being active in religion or politics. The goals of these UC Berkeley students -- about half were still responding after two decades -- remained relatively stable over time, though there were some notable changes.
"This study was a unique opportunity to examine how individuals' personalities and major life goals were related to each other across two decades of life," said Olivia E. Atherton, the lead author of the study and former doctoral student in psychology at UC Davis. "We found that, in many ways, one's personality shapes the types of life goals that are valued, and as a result of pursuing those goals, personality changes."
Successful people stress goals
Various enormously successful people, such as Albert Einstein, have noted the importance of goals, researchers said. Einstein once said, for example: "If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things." The personality characteristics he possessed were likely the driving force behind the types of goals he aimed to achieve, researchers said.
"Einstein's tendency to be creative, curious, and intellectual likely fueled his scientific goals, as well as his more aesthetic goals, such as his passion for playing the violin," the study authors wrote.
The study, "Stability and Change in Personality Traits and Major Life Goals from College to Midlife," was published in late August in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Besides Atherton, co-authors include Richard Robins, a professor of psychology who is director of the UC Davis Personality, Self and Emotion Lab; as well as Emily Grijalva, University of Buffalo; and Brent W. Roberts, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
The personality traits examined in the present study are termed the "Big Five" in psychology. They are neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. These five traits broadly capture most of the ways in which people differ from one another, and they are related to a wide range of important life outcomes.
Researchers examined these traits, along with aesthetic goals (wanting to be creative and artistic); economic goals (wanting to have a successful career and be wealthy); family/relationship goals (wanting to be married and have children); hedonistic goals (wanting to have fun and experience pleasure); political goals (wanting to have influence in public affairs); religious goals (wanting to participate in religious institutions); and social goals (wanting to help others in need).
." .. We found that, on average, individuals increased in agreeableness and conscientiousness, decreased in neuroticism, and showed little change in openness to experience and extraversion from age 18 to 40," researchers said.
Some goals become less relevant
They also found that people place less importance on all goals over time, suggesting that individuals winnow the goals they value with age, presumably because they are achieving milestones associated with those goals and thus, the goals become less important as a result.
"By identifying their own personal strengths and limitations, middle-aged adults may place less importance on certain major life goals because some goals may no longer be viewed as self-relevant," researchers said.
The authors did find that personality traits are related to major life goal development over time. For example, individuals who become more agreeable, kind and compassionate, also tend to place more emphasis on social and family/relationship goals over time. And, individuals who become more responsible, organized and self-controlled tend to value more economic and family goals.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200916135605.htm