TY - JOUR
T1 - Occupational Burnout Is Linked with Inefficient Executive Functioning, Elevated Average Heart Rate, and Decreased Physical Activity in Daily Life - Initial Evidence from Teaching Professionals
AU - Pihlaja, Mia
AU - Tuominen, Pipsa P.A.
AU - Peräkylä, Jari
AU - Hartikainen, Kaisa M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from the European Social Fund’s (ESF) Programme for Sustainable Growth and Jobs 2014–2020 Finnish structural fund (Sustainable Brain Health, S21966) and financially partly supported by the Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Tampere University Hospital.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/12/16
Y1 - 2022/12/16
N2 - Burnout is becoming a global pandemic jeopardizing brain health, with a huge impact on quality of life, available workforce, and the economy. Knowledge of the impact of burnout on cognition, physiology, and physical activity (PA) in daily life allows for an improved understanding of the health consequences and everyday ramifications of burnout. Twenty-eight volunteers participated in a three-day recording of daily physiology and PA, including heart rate (HR) and daily steps, with a wearable device. They filled in questionnaires screening for burnout (BBI-15), depression (BDI), and executive functions (EFs) in daily life (BRIEF-A). The subjects with burnout had more challenges in EFs, higher average HRs and lower numbers of steps in daily life than those without it. The BBI-15 scores correlated positively with the BDI scores and BRIEF-A indices and negatively with the awake HR variability (HRV) and daily steps. The metacognition index correlated negatively with the HRV. In conclusion, burnout is linked with compromised EFs along with alterations in cardiac physiology and PA in daily life. Such alterations may be easily detected with wearable devices, opening possibilities for novel biomarkers of burnout and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We suggest that physical activity and heart and brain health are intimately intertwined and that burnout interacts with each of them bidirectionally.
AB - Burnout is becoming a global pandemic jeopardizing brain health, with a huge impact on quality of life, available workforce, and the economy. Knowledge of the impact of burnout on cognition, physiology, and physical activity (PA) in daily life allows for an improved understanding of the health consequences and everyday ramifications of burnout. Twenty-eight volunteers participated in a three-day recording of daily physiology and PA, including heart rate (HR) and daily steps, with a wearable device. They filled in questionnaires screening for burnout (BBI-15), depression (BDI), and executive functions (EFs) in daily life (BRIEF-A). The subjects with burnout had more challenges in EFs, higher average HRs and lower numbers of steps in daily life than those without it. The BBI-15 scores correlated positively with the BDI scores and BRIEF-A indices and negatively with the awake HR variability (HRV) and daily steps. The metacognition index correlated negatively with the HRV. In conclusion, burnout is linked with compromised EFs along with alterations in cardiac physiology and PA in daily life. Such alterations may be easily detected with wearable devices, opening possibilities for novel biomarkers of burnout and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We suggest that physical activity and heart and brain health are intimately intertwined and that burnout interacts with each of them bidirectionally.
KW - biomarkers
KW - brain health
KW - burnout
KW - depression
KW - executive functions
KW - heart rate
KW - heart rate variability
KW - physical activity
KW - physiology
KW - wearable devices
U2 - 10.3390/brainsci12121723
DO - 10.3390/brainsci12121723
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85144686075
SN - 2076-3425
VL - 12
JO - Brain Sciences
JF - Brain Sciences
IS - 12
M1 - 1723
ER -
