Effort-reward and overcommitment at work and psychiatric symptoms in healthcare professionals: The mediation role of allostatic load.

Background: Despite decades of advancement to support interventions for managing work-related stress, mental health issues have significantly escalated among healthcare professionals. Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and overcommitment in the workplace are linked to several psychiatric disorders. However, the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated whether ERI and overcommitment among healthcare professionals were linked to Allostatic Load (AL) and whether AL mediates the relationship between ERI, overcommitment and mental health issues. Methods: One hundred forty-two nursing workers (n = 142; 90.1 % female, mean age: 39.5 ± 9.6) were randomly recruited from a university hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and applied the ERI scale that assesses work effort, reward, and overcommitment. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Self-Report Questionnaire for psychiatric symptoms (SRQ-20) evaluated the mental health outcomes. Ten neuroendocrine, metabolic, immunologic and cardiovascular biomarkers were analyzed, and values were transformed into an AL index using clinical reference cutoffs. Results: Linear regression adjusted for covariates showed that higher scores for overcommitment were associated with higher AL indexes, which in turn were associated with higher SRQ-20, but not with PSS and DBI scores. As expected, higher scores for effort, lower for reward, and higher ERI were associated with higher scores for PSS, SRQ-20, and DBI, but not with AL index. Direct effect estimates showed that overcommitment was directly associated with higher SRQ-20 scores, and indirectly via AL. Conclusion: Our study reveals that overcommitment, rather than ERI, was linked to increased AL in healthcare workers. Additionally, AL mediates the relationship between overcommitment and higher psychiatric symptoms, highlighting a key mechanism by which work stress can lead to mental health problems. Individual's responses to high work demands need to be considered when designing predictive models and interventions for mental health issues.

The Relationship of Family and School Environments with Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Among Jordanian Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: Depression, anxiety, and stress are highly prevalent among adolescents. The role of impaired family and school environments in adolescents' depression, anxiety, and stress in Jordan has yet to be established. Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the association of family and school environments with the depression, anxiety, and stress of adolescents in Jordan. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational survey was used. A sample of 220 adolescents aged 12-18 years completed the study. Data were collected about family and school environments and adolescents' depression, anxiety, and stress. Results: School climate had a strong significant relationship with both general family functioning (r = .53, p < 0.01) and family process (r = .58, p < 0.01). General family functioning and school climate were uniquely associated with stress, anxiety, and depression (Β = -.280 or higher), p < 0.05, controlling for demographics. Conclusion: The general family functioning and overall school climate were shown to play important role in adolescents' depression, anxiety, and stress. School nurses and psychiatric nurses may want to respond to the needs of adolescents with depression, anxiety, and stress through campaigns, lectures, and conferences and encourage them to access professional psychological counseling.

The Relationship Between Workplace Bullying and Positive Mental Health Among Registered Nurses.

BACKGROUND: Workplace bullying is a highly prevalent occupational burden in health care settings. It is associated with various negative consequences in nurses, but its unique relationship with nurses' positive mental health (PMH) has yet to be established. AIM: The purpose of this study was to examine the unique relationship between bullying at the workplace and positive mental health among registered nurses. METHOD: A descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional design was used. A sample of 231 registered nurses was recruited from two governmental hospitals, two private hospitals, and two teaching hospitals. Self-reported data were obtained about nurses' demographic variables, their experience of bullying at the workplace, and their perceived positive mental health. RESULTS: About 73.6% of the participants were exposed to workplace bullying. Regarding the positive mental health subscales, the spirituality subscale had the highest mean score (M = 4.93, SD = 1.11), while the global affect had the lowest mean score (M = 3.55, SD = 1.17). Factors associated with the total PMH or at least one of its subscales were gender, experience, working shift, type of hospital, and the position of the participant. There was a significant negative relationship between bullying at the workplace and positive mental health (r = -.16, p < .05). After controlling participants' characteristics, workplace bullying accounted for significant variance in PMH. CONCLUSION: Regardless of the nurses' characteristics, bullying at the workplace has a negative impact on nurses' mental health and well-being.

Health Related Quality of Life Among Patients With Multiple Sclerosis: The Role of Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness.

BACKGROUND: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is associated with poor quality of life (QOL). Individuals suffering from MS must make multiple adjustments as their condition changes. To date, little is known about the role of psychosocial adjustment in improving QOL of patients with MS. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between psychosocial adjustment and HRQOL controlling for demographic variables among patients with MS. METHODS: This study used a descriptive-correlational design. A sample of 160 patients from two hospitals participated in the study. Self-reported data were collected using the demographic survey, Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life (MSQoL-54) tool and Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale-Self Report (PAIS-SR). RESULTS: Participants reported poor QOL and difficulty with psychosocial adjustment. The QOL and psychosocial adjustment were correlated with various demographic variables. After controlling for demographic variables, psychosocial adjustment explained a large variance in the mental health composite of QOL (r square change = 44%) and the physical health composite of QOL = (r square change = 38%). CONCLUSION: Psychosocial care could play a vital role in improving quality of life among MS patients.

Monitoring of heparin concentration in serum by Raman spectroscopy within hollow core photonic crystal fiber.

The feasibility of using hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) in conjunction with Raman spectroscopy has been explored for real time monitoring of heparin concentration in serum. Heparin is an important blood anti-coagulant whose precise monitoring and controlling in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and dialysis is of utmost importance. Our method of heparin monitoring offers a novel alternative to existing clinical procedures in terms of accuracy, response time and sample volume. The optical design configuration simply involves a 785-nm laser diode whose light is coupled into HC-PCF filled with heparin-serum mixtures. By non-selectively filling HC-PCF, a strong modal field overlap is obtained. Consequently, an enhanced Raman signal (>90 times) is obtained from various heparin-serum mixtures filled HC-PCFs compared to its bulk counterpart (cuvette). The present scheme has the potential to serve as a 'generic biosensing tool' for diagnosing a wide range of biological samples.