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Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students

Aims: The impact of the extent of mentally demanding work on the next-day’s strain is largely unknown, as existing studies generally investigate consequences of extended versus normal workdays. The present study sought to fill this gap by investigating how short work periods of mentally demanding ac...

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Autores principales: Blasche, Gerhard, Khanaqa, Tav A. K., Wagner-Menghin, Michaela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10298359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37372792
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11121674
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author Blasche, Gerhard
Khanaqa, Tav A. K.
Wagner-Menghin, Michaela
author_facet Blasche, Gerhard
Khanaqa, Tav A. K.
Wagner-Menghin, Michaela
author_sort Blasche, Gerhard
collection PubMed
description Aims: The impact of the extent of mentally demanding work on the next-day’s strain is largely unknown, as existing studies generally investigate consequences of extended versus normal workdays. The present study sought to fill this gap by investigating how short work periods of mentally demanding academic work impact strain reactions in medical students preparing for an exam, using days of no work as reference category. Method: The observational design involved students repeatedly self-reporting fatigue, vigor, distress, and the preceding day’s study duration. Hours of nocturnal sleep, attending paid work and compulsory classes, gender, and proximity to the exam were controls in the linear model (generalized estimating equations). Forty-nine students provided 411 self-reports (M = 8.6, SD = 7.0 self-reports/student). Results: Engaging in mentally demanding work was associated with increased distress and work periods > 4 h with increased fatigue. Distress, vigor loss, and fatigue increased in proximity to the exam. Conclusion: Despite students’ high control of their schedule, even short periods of mentally highly demanding work may impair next-day’s well-being when task motivation is high. Freelancers and students might require health-promoting scheduling of work and leisure to avoid an accumulation of strain.
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spelling pubmed-102983592023-06-28 Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students Blasche, Gerhard Khanaqa, Tav A. K. Wagner-Menghin, Michaela Healthcare (Basel) Article Aims: The impact of the extent of mentally demanding work on the next-day’s strain is largely unknown, as existing studies generally investigate consequences of extended versus normal workdays. The present study sought to fill this gap by investigating how short work periods of mentally demanding academic work impact strain reactions in medical students preparing for an exam, using days of no work as reference category. Method: The observational design involved students repeatedly self-reporting fatigue, vigor, distress, and the preceding day’s study duration. Hours of nocturnal sleep, attending paid work and compulsory classes, gender, and proximity to the exam were controls in the linear model (generalized estimating equations). Forty-nine students provided 411 self-reports (M = 8.6, SD = 7.0 self-reports/student). Results: Engaging in mentally demanding work was associated with increased distress and work periods > 4 h with increased fatigue. Distress, vigor loss, and fatigue increased in proximity to the exam. Conclusion: Despite students’ high control of their schedule, even short periods of mentally highly demanding work may impair next-day’s well-being when task motivation is high. Freelancers and students might require health-promoting scheduling of work and leisure to avoid an accumulation of strain. MDPI 2023-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10298359/ /pubmed/37372792 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11121674 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Blasche, Gerhard
Khanaqa, Tav A. K.
Wagner-Menghin, Michaela
Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students
title Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students
title_full Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students
title_fullStr Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students
title_full_unstemmed Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students
title_short Mentally Demanding Work and Strain: Effects of Study Duration on Fatigue, Vigor, and Distress in Undergraduate Medical Students
title_sort mentally demanding work and strain: effects of study duration on fatigue, vigor, and distress in undergraduate medical students
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10298359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37372792
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11121674
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