Factors associated with psychological distress of workers in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.

BACKGROUND: The work of church employees contains many elements causing symptoms of stress and anxiety. They can lead into psychological distress and possibly indicate the beginning of a more serious psychological state. Women seem to be more disposed to psychological stress than men. We investigated factors contributing to psychological distress among women and men in four professions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). METHODS: A link to an electronic survey was sent to the members of respective trade unions of four professions of the ELCF, and we got responses from pastors (n = 241), church musicians (n = 92), diaconal workers (n = 85) and youth workers (n = 56). Psychological distress was assessed using the Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5; cut-off value ≤ 52 indicating severe distress). We used logistic regression to examine sociodemographic, health-related, and work-related factors that could potentially be associated with psychological distress. RESULTS: We found severe psychological distress in all profession groups. Gender differences were scarce. Loneliness was the most important factor associated with psychological distress in both men and women (OR 14.01; 95% CI 2.68-73.25 and OR 7.84; 3.44-17.88, respectively), and among pastors and church musicians (OR 8.10; 2.83-23.16 and OR 24.36; 2.78-213.72, respectively). High mental strain of work was associated with distress in women (OR 2.45; 1.01-5.97). Good work satisfaction was a protective factor for men and women (OR 0.06; 95% CI 0.01-0.40 and OR 0.61; 0.18-0.40, respectively) and for pastors and church musicians (OR 0.22; 0.08-0.73 and OR 0.06; 0.01-0.43, respectively). For women, additional protective factors were being a pastor (OR 0.26; 0.07-0.95), or youth worker (OR 0.08; 0.01-0.48), and good self-reported health (OR 0.38; 0.18-0.82). CONCLUSION: Even though we found some protective factors, the share of workers with severe distress was higher in all profession groups of the ELCF than in the general population. Loneliness was the strongest stressor among both genders and high mental strain among women. The result may reflect unconscious mental strain or subordination to the prevailing working conditions. More attention should be paid to the mental wellbeing and work conditions of church employees.

Causes of Death of Professional Musicians in the Classical Genre.

OBJECTIVE: Music practice and listening have been reported to have favorable effects on human health, but empirical data are largely missing about these effects. To obtain more information about the effect of exposure to music from early childhood, we examined the causes of death of professional musicians in the classical genre. METHODS: We used standardized mortality ratios (SMR) for Finnish performing artists (n=5,780) and church musicians (n=22,368) during 1981-2016. We examined deaths from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and neurodegenerative and alcohol-related diseases. The diagnoses were based on the ICD-10, with data obtained from Statistics of Finland. RESULTS: Overall, SMR for all-cause mortality was 0.59 (95% CI 0.57-0.61) for church musicians and 0.75 (95% CI 0.70-0.80) for performing artists, suggesting a protective effect of music for health. In contrast, we found increased mortality in alcohol-related diseases among female performing artists (SMR 1.85, 95% CI 1.06-2.95) and in neurodegenerative diseases among male performing artists (1.46, 95% CI 1.13-1.84). Additionally, we found higher SMRs for female than male church musicians for cancers (SMRfemales 0.90, 95% CI 0.83-0.97; SMRmales 0.60, 95% CI 0.54-0.67) and cardiovascular diseases (SMRfemales 0.75, 95% CI 0.68-0.82; SMRmales 0.58, 95% CI 0.54-0.64). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the causes of death in performers differ from those in church musicians. Performing artists are not protected from neurodegenerative diseases or alcohol-related deaths. The findings call for further study on the life-long effects of music in musicians.

Health and Well-Being of Church Musicians during the COVID-19 Pandemic-Experiences of Health and Work-Related Distress from Musicians of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland.

Earlier research has revealed contrasting gender results in standardized mortality ratios (SMR) for cancers and cardiovascular diseases of Finnish church musicians compared with the general population. In order to better understand the SMRs, our study examined gender differences in health and work-related experiences of church musicians with special focus on experienced stress and burnout on the one hand, and work engagement and mental well-being on the other. The data were collected by a questionnaire including both standardized measures and open-ended questions. Statistical methods (mostly χ2 tests) were used for examining gender differences in the measures, and the open-ended questions were analyzed using theory-driven content analysis. The two sets of data complemented each other. Analyses of the standardized measures showed that church musicians have more burnout and distress than the general population but the results were not gendered. However, the open-ended questions revealed clearly higher distress in females than in males. Based on the contrast between the measures and the open-ended questions, we raise the question about how well females who have distressing work can recognize the stress factors and change them, especially if distress becomes a "normal state".

Music-performance regulates microRNAs in professional musicians.

Musical training and performance require precise integration of multisensory and motor centres of the human brain and can be regarded as an epigenetic modifier of brain functions. Numerous studies have identified structural and functional differences between the brains of musicians and non-musicians and superior cognitive functions in musicians. Recently, music-listening and performance has also been shown to affect the regulation of several genes, many of which were identified in songbird singing. MicroRNAs affect gene regulation and studying their expression may give new insights into the epigenetic effect of music. Here, we studied the effect of 2 hours of classical music-performance on the peripheral blood microRNA expressions in professional musicians with respect to a control activity without music for the same duration. As detecting transcriptomic changes in the functional human brain remains a challenge for geneticists, we used peripheral blood to study music-performance induced microRNA changes and interpreted the results in terms of potential effects on brain function, based on the current knowledge about the microRNA function in blood and brain. We identified significant (FDR <0.05) up-regulation of five microRNAs; hsa-miR-3909, hsa-miR-30d-5p, hsa-miR-92a-3p, hsa-miR-222-3p and hsa-miR-30a-5p; and down-regulation of two microRNAs; hsa-miR-6803-3p and hsa-miR-1249-3p. hsa-miR-222-3p and hsa-miR-92a-3p putatively target FOXP2, which was found down-regulated by microRNA regulation in songbird singing. miR-30d and miR-222 corroborate microRNA response observed in zebra finch song-listening/learning. miR-222 is induced by ERK cascade, which is important for memory formation, motor neuron functions and neuronal plasticity. miR-222 is also activated by FOSL1, an immediate early gene from the FOS family of transcriptional regulators which are activated by auditory-motor stimuli. miR-222 and miR-92 promote neurite outgrowth by negatively regulating the neuronal growth inhibitor, PTEN, and by activating CREB expression and phosphorylation. The up-regulation of microRNAs previously found to be regulators of auditory and nervous system functions (miR-30d, miR-92a and miR-222) is indicative of the sensory perception processes associated with music-performance. Akt signalling pathway which has roles in cell survival, cell differentiation, activation of CREB signalling and dopamine transmission was one of the functions regulated by the up-regulated microRNAs; in accordance with functions identified from songbird learning. The up-regulated microRNAs were also found to be regulators of apoptosis, suggesting repression of apoptotic mechanisms in connection with music-performance. Furthermore, comparative analyses of the target genes of differentially expressed microRNAs with that of the song-responsive microRNAs in songbirds suggest convergent regulatory mechanisms underlying auditory perception.

Creative Activities in Music--A Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis.

Creative activities in music represent a complex cognitive function of the human brain, whose biological basis is largely unknown. In order to elucidate the biological background of creative activities in music we performed genome-wide linkage and linkage disequilibrium (LD) scans in musically experienced individuals characterised for self-reported composing, arranging and non-music related creativity. The participants consisted of 474 individuals from 79 families, and 103 sporadic individuals. We found promising evidence for linkage at 16p12.1-q12.1 for arranging (LOD 2.75, 120 cases), 4q22.1 for composing (LOD 2.15, 103 cases) and Xp11.23 for non-music related creativity (LOD 2.50, 259 cases). Surprisingly, statistically significant evidence for linkage was found for the opposite phenotype of creative activity in music (neither composing nor arranging; NCNA) at 18q21 (LOD 3.09, 149 cases), which contains cadherin genes like CDH7 and CDH19. The locus at 4q22.1 overlaps the previously identified region of musical aptitude, music perception and performance giving further support for this region as a candidate region for broad range of music-related traits. The other regions at 18q21 and 16p12.1-q12.1 are also adjacent to the previously identified loci with musical aptitude. Pathway analysis of the genes suggestively associated with composing suggested an overrepresentation of the cerebellar long-term depression pathway (LTD), which is a cellular model for synaptic plasticity. The LTD also includes cadherins and AMPA receptors, whose component GSG1L was linked to arranging. These results suggest that molecular pathways linked to memory and learning via LTD affect music-related creative behaviour. Musical creativity is a complex phenotype where a common background with musicality and intelligence has been proposed. Here, we implicate genetic regions affecting music-related creative behaviour, which also include genes with neuropsychiatric associations. We also propose a common genetic background for music-related creative behaviour and musical abilities at chromosome 4.

The effect of music performance on the transcriptome of professional musicians.

Music performance by professional musicians involves a wide-spectrum of cognitive and multi-sensory motor skills, whose biological basis is unknown. Several neuroscientific studies have demonstrated that the brains of professional musicians and non-musicians differ structurally and functionally and that musical training enhances cognition. However, the molecules and molecular mechanisms involved in music performance remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the effect of music performance on the genome-wide peripheral blood transcriptome of professional musicians by analyzing the transcriptional responses after a 2-hr concert performance and after a 'music-free' control session. The up-regulated genes were found to affect dopaminergic neurotransmission, motor behavior, neuronal plasticity, and neurocognitive functions including learning and memory. Particularly, candidate genes such as SNCA, FOS and DUSP1 that are involved in song perception and production in songbirds, were identified, suggesting an evolutionary conservation in biological processes related to sound perception/production. Additionally, modulation of genes related to calcium ion homeostasis, iron ion homeostasis, glutathione metabolism, and several neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases implied that music performance may affect the biological pathways that are otherwise essential for the proper maintenance of neuronal function and survival. For the first time, this study provides evidence for the candidate genes and molecular mechanisms underlying music performance.