Scientific Evidence on How to Reduce Stress

Work Environment for Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare professionals are susceptible to workplace, job or occupational stress. Many healthcare professionals have high expectations from others and may not have enough time, skills or social support to do their jobs.

This can lead to severe distress, burnout or physical illness.

And the stress and burnout can be costly as well, as quality health care services can no longer be provided and affected health care workers may take sick leave and even change jobs.

The studies are.

The study examined 7188 participants from 58 studies.

Interventions were categorized as cognitive-behavioral training, mental and physical relaxation, or organizational change.

Cognitive-behavioral interventions

Six studies found that cognitive-behavioral training reduced stress by about 13% when compared to no intervention, when measured over follow-up periods ranging from less than a month to up to two years.

It is unclear whether this reduction is significant for people with stress.

When cognitive behavioral training was combined with relaxation, the results were similar.However, in the three studies, stress levels after the cognitive-behavioral training course were the same compared to the other trainings, which focused on the content of care rather than stress management.

Mental and Physical Relaxation Interventions

Seventeen studies found that both mental and physical relaxation resulted in a 23% reduction in stress levels compared to no intervention.

Organizational interventions

Changes in working conditions in 20 studies, improved support or mentoring in 6 studies, changes in care content in 4 studies, and changes in communication skills in 1 study.Improved communication skills in one study, and improved work schedules in two studies.

Shorter or interrupted work schedules reduced stress levels in two studies, but there was no clear benefit from any of the other organizational interventions.

Ruotsalainen JH, Verbeek JH, MarinéA, Serra C. Prevention of Occupational Stress in Health Care Workers Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015, No. 4. Number: CD002892. doi: 10.1002 / 14651858.CD002892.pub5.

Stress on fathers

Since providing psychological interventions to fathers can be expected to improve their psychological health, some studies have examined the effects of interventions.

The study included

We included 48 studies that involved 4937 participants and targeted three types of programs: behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and multimodal.

A group-based parenting program examined statistically significant short-term improvements in depression, anxiety, stress, anger, guilt, trustworthiness, and satisfaction with the partner relationship.

At the six-month follow-up, only stress and self-confidence remained statistically significant; at one year, they were not.

There was no evidence of an effect on self-esteem (SMD -0.01, 95% CI -0.45 to 0.42). There were no reports of aggression or adverse effects.

The limited data, with a clear focus on paternal outcomes, indicate a statistically significant short-term improvement in paternal stress.Data from other outcomes could not be combined, and individual study results were inconclusive regarding effects on depressive symptoms, confidence, or partner satisfaction.

Conclusion.

The results of this review support the use of parenting programs to improve the short-term psychosocial health of parents. Further input may be needed to ensure that these results are maintained. Further research is needed that explicitly addresses the interests of fathers and examines the comparative effectiveness of different types of programs and the mechanisms by which such programs produce improvements in parental psychosocial functioning.

Barlow J, Smailagic N, Khuband N, Roloff V, Bennett C. A group-based parent training programme to improve parental psychosocial health. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 5. Art. No.: CD002020. doi: 10.1002 / 14651858.CD002020.pub4.

Massage to relieve stress in nurses.

Research

A total of 10 articles met the selection criteria, including aromatherapy (n = 4), massage (n = 4), and aromatherapy massage (n = 2).

Most studies reported that aromatherapy and massage had beneficial effects on nurses' stress.One study showed that aromatherapy massage with musical interventions had no effect on nurses' stress.

However, the number of studies is limited and the risk of bias is high or unclear.

Conclusion.

This review found that the evidence does not sufficiently demonstrate that aromatherapy, massage, and aromatherapy massage are effective in reducing work-related stress in nurses. High quality research needs to be conducted to examine the impact of these interventions on the stress levels of future nurses. Additionally, there is a need to integrate outcome measures of stress levels in order to develop more appropriate tools than those currently in use.

Li H 1, Zhao M 2, Shi Y 1, Xing Z 1, Li Y 1, Wang S 1, Ying J 1, Zhang M 1, Sun J 1.

Results of Measuring the Effectiveness of Yoga

The study included

Healthy women with no prior yoga experience were recruited and data from 24 participants followed during 12 weeks of yoga training were analyzed.

Somatization and psychological symptoms were assessed using the Mood State Profile (POMS) and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) questionnaires before and after the 12-week yoga training.

Urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), biopyrin, and

Cortisol levels were measured as stress-related biomarkers.

Wilcoxon's signed rank test was used to compare the stress-related biomarkers and questionnaire scores before and after 12 weeks of yoga training.

Results showed that all negative subscale scores from somatization, anxiety, depression, and hostility from the POMS and SCL-90-R (tension - anxiety, depression, anger - hostility, fatigue, and confusion) were significantly reduced after 12 weeks of yoga training.

Contrary to the researcher's expectation, urinary 8-OHdG levels after 12 weeks of yoga training showed a significant increase compared to that before starting yoga training.No significant changes in urinary biopyrin and cortisol levels were observed after 12 weeks of yoga training.

Yoga training may reduce somatization scores and scores associated with mental health indicators such as anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue.

Our findings suggest that yoga can improve somatization and mental health status and can influence the prevention of psychosomatic symptoms in healthy women.

Yoshihara K, Hiramoto T, Oka T, Kubo C, Sudo N. Effects of 12 weeks of yoga training on somatization, psychological symptoms, and stress-related biomarkers in healthy women. Biopsychosoc Med. 2014; 8(1):1 Published January 3, 2014 doi: 10.1186 / 1751-0759-8-1

Natural Environment

Research.

A number of studies have shown that visiting green spaces and being exposed to the natural environment can reduce psychological stress.

Many questions remain regarding the impact of the natural environment on stress levels."Are activities that engage in the natural environment more or less beneficial in reducing stress than activities that take place in a more urban setting?

This study examined this question in terms of "levels of nature.

Data on stress levels were collected from three different environments.

One is a wilderness-like feature.

The second is a city park

The third is an urban built environment (indoor exercise facility)

Data were generated using biophysical markers (cortisol and amylase) and psychological measures in pre- and post-visit formats.

The results suggest that visiting natural environments may be beneficial in reducing both physical and psychological stress levels.

Ewert A, Chang Y. Levels of Nature and Stress Response. Behav Sci (Basel). 2018;8(5):49. published 2018 May 17. doi:10.3390/bs8050049