Stress effects on food handler attention in a public hospital in Recife-PE, Brazil

Abstract

Production of meals in Food and Nutrition Units (FNU) requires human labor performance in order to attend demand. Stress is one of the factors responsible for alterations in the health of these professionals. Reduced attention is one of the negative effects caused by stress.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate attention in Food Handlers (FH).Methods67 professionals were evaluated, subdivided into FH with less than 5 years in the profession, who were included as the control group (Control, n=29), and FH with more than 5 years in the profession (FH>5, n=38). Lipp’s Inventory of Stress Symptoms for adults (LISS), the digit symbol, d2, forward digit span, backward digit span and paced auditory serial addition tests were applied. The data found on the LISS were analysed by Fisher’s Exact and Chi-Square tests and individual attention tests were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney test, with data expressed as Median (Minimum and Maximum) with p<0.05. A total of 73.68% of FH>5 presented stress versus 13.79% of Control. Also, 57.89% of FH>5 with stress presented physical symptoms and 15.79% psychological symptoms. In the Control, 9.68% presented physical symptoms.Results73.68% of FH>5 with stress and 17.24% of the Control were in the resistance phase. Regarding attention, the FH>5 presented reduced focused attention (32.5±2.9), auditory attention (7.25±0.4) and resistance to interference (4.67±1.1), compared to their respective controls (43.88±1.39), (8.63±0.38), (9.25±1.16), p<0.05.Discussion and ConclusionsThe activity of food handling can cause stress and attention level reduction after 5 years.

Treatment of Depression with Quantitative Electroencephalography(QEEG) of the TQ-7 Neuro-feedback System Increases the Level of Attention of Patients

“…Another emotional state that might be trained is related to deficient restorative sleep due to lack of control of physical relaxation in the sensory-motor areas C3, Cz and C4. Training would increase the sensory-motor rhythm (12-16 Hz) and inhibit high Beta (23-38 Hz) as well as prioritize an increase in beta waves (13-21 Hz) and reductions in Delta (2-4 Hz), Theta (4-8 Hz) and Alpha waves (8)(9)(10)(11)(12) in the Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, F7, F8, Fz and Cz regions with the ultimate aim of increasing the level of concentration and attention. The attention theory of Mateer and Mapou (1996) [9,10,19,20] guided this study.…”

“…The Digit Symbol test requires the subject to pair symbols with their respective numbers from 1 to 9 within 1 minute and 30 seconds. Whereas in the d2 test, the individual should cross out the letter d when it has one or two lines above or below it on a specific form of 14 lines with 47 letters on each including distractors [9]. Attention capacity/encoding refers to the situation where the individual can capture and store data in order to process them mentally while resisting external interference [11].…”

“…In this test, in addition to retaining information in the memory, the subject must also mentally manipulate this information; the subject remembers the sequence, reverses the order, and says the new order out loud. The Paced Auditory Serial Addition test (PASAT) is a test that evaluates the mental capacity of the subject to process information as well as to resist divided attention [9]. This resistance to external interference is the third sector that should be evaluated to verify attention capacity.…”

“…The subject must remember the last number spoken and discard the sum of the previous two numbers. This test demands that the person is able to mentally process information and, at the same time, resist interference [9,19].…”

“…Even though there are several theories related to the functioning of attention in the literature, Mateer & Mapou proposed a model that integrates all the previously proposed theories [9]. They established that attention is divided into two cognitive factors:…”