Exercise to reduce work-related fatigue among employees: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Exercise to reduce work-related fatigue among employees: a randomized controlled trial by de Vries JD, van Hooff MLM, Geurts SAE, Kompier MAJ This study shows that exercise has the potential to serve as a relatively simple and inexpensive secondary prevention strategy to improve (long-term) well-being among employees experiencing high work-related fatigue. The extent to which the exercise intervention under study caused beneficial effects in work-related fatigue depended on participants' compliance, underlining the challenge of implementing exercise interventions in practice among fatigued employees. Affiliation 337Original article Scand J Work Environ Health. 2017;43(4):337-349. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3634 Exercise to reduce work-related fatigue among employees: a randomized controlled trial Objectives The present study evaluated the efficacy of an exercise intervention to reduce work-related fatigue (emotional exhaustion, overall fatigue, and need for recovery). The effects of exercise on self-efficacy, sleep, work ability, cognitive functioning and aerobic fitness (secondary outcomes) were also investigated.Methods Employees with high levels of work-related fatigue were randomly assigned to either a 6-week exercise intervention (EI; N=49) or a wait-list control group (WLC; N=47). All participants were measured pre-(T0) and post-intervention (T1). EI participants were also measured 6 (T2) and 12 weeks (T3) after the end of the intervention. Analyses were based on intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP). PP analyses only included EI participants (N=31) who completed the intervention and WLC participants (N= 35) who did not increase their exercise level during the wait period.Results Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that, at T1, the EI group reported lower emotional exhaustion and overall fatigue than the WLC group, however, only according to PP analyses. Both according to ITT and PP analyses, EI participants showed higher sleep quality, work ability, and self-reported cognitive functioning at T1 compared to WLC participants. Intervention effects were maintained at T2 and T3. ConclusionsThe exercise intervention had enduring effects on work-related fatigue and broader indicators of employee well-being. This study demonstrates that, in case of work-related fatigue, exercise does constitute a powerful medicine for those who comply with the treatment.

Health Improvement and Recovery Experiences During Vacation of School Teachers: The Benefit of Physical Activity

“…Thereby, exercise was individually tailored to each study participant ("intelligent physical exercise training") in considering physical fitness and work demands (Sjøgaard et al 2016). Another recent RCT showed a low-intensity running intervention was shown to reduce mental fatigue and the benefit was better when participation in running across six weeks was frequent (de Vries et al 2017). Moreover, an indirect positive effect of sports activities can be expected via increased unwinding and recovery experiences (de Bloom et al 2009).…”

Influence of Regular Physical Activity on Mitochondrial Activity and Symptoms of Burnout—An Interventional Pilot Study

“…Likewise, Beck et al [30] showed that, following a physical activity intervention, impaired cognitive performance normalized. de Vries et al [31] showed in their intervention study that in the case of work-related fatigue, exercise does constitute a powerful medicine for those who comply with the treatment. In their systematic review, Naczenski et al [32] analyzed ten intervention studies and concluded that physical activity appears to be an effective means of reducing symptoms of burnout, though the quality of the methodology was not consistently satisfactory.…”

The Association between Energy Balance-Related Behavior and Burn-Out in Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Despite the heterogeneity of populations, assessment methods for both risk of burn-out and physical activity, and physical activity interventions, the vast majority of the experimental studies, including 5 RCTs, concluded that physical activity is effective in reducing the risk of burn-out, suggesting a causal link between both. The experimental studies showed a decrease in burn-out risk ranging from 6.9% to 41.3% [49,[52][53][54][55], a decrease in emotional exhaustion between 10% and 33.4% [47,48,51,56] and a decrease in cynicism of 33.3% and 4% [48,51]. One experimental study by Freitas et al [50], showing a relatively low quality score of 0.63, did not find any significant effect of physical activity on risk of burn-out.…”

“…However, one other study also assessed the effect of physical activity on emotional exhaustion, cynicism and personal accomplishment separately and did not find a significant effect on any dimension [50]. Two of the ten experimental studies assessed the effect of physical activity on emotional exhaustion only and showed a significant improvement in emotional exhaustion (−21.6% and −10%) [47,48].…”

“…Four experimental studies also conducted follow-up measurements, with three studies reporting a decrease in risk of burn-out three and six months after the physical activity intervention [47,53,56]. The fourth study equally showed a decrease after six months and this maintained after 12 months [52].…”