The association between day-to-day stress experiences and work–life interference among office workers in academia: an ecological momentary assessment study

Bolliger, Larissa; Debra, Gillian; Lukan, Junoš; Peeters, Rani; Colman, Elena; Baele, Ellen; Luštrek, Mitja; Bacquer, Dirk De; Clays, Els

doi:10.1007/s00420-022-01915-y

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 30 publications

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“…What is more, its real-world setting (eg, everyday-life social contact) maximizes the ecological validity of pain-related experiences [ 17 ]. Thus, EMA can measure daily-life pain several times a day [ 13 , 45 ], for weeks [ 9 ], or even months [ 46 ] and capture its relation to daily-life experiences such as social contact [ 22 ], work-related stress [ 47 ], physical activity [ 48 ], and countless other potential influences on pain [ 17 ].…”

Section: Use Of Emasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain

Weiß,

Gründahl,

Jachnik

et al. 2024

J Med Internet Res

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Pain is a biopsychosocial phenomenon, resulting from the interplay between physiological and psychological processes and social factors. Given that humans constantly interact with others, the effect of social factors is particularly relevant. Documenting the significance of the social modulation of pain, an increasing number of studies have investigated the effect of social contact on subjective pain intensity and pain-related physiological changes. While evidence suggests that social contact can alleviate pain, contradictory findings indicate an increase in pain intensity and a deterioration of pain coping strategies. This evidence primarily stems from studies examining the effect of social contact on pain within highly controlled laboratory conditions. Moreover, pain assessments often rely on one-time subjective reports of average pain intensity across a predefined period. Ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) can circumvent these problems, as they can capture diverse aspects of behavior and experiences multiple times a day, in real time, with high resolution, and within naturalistic and ecologically valid settings. These multiple measures allow for the examination of fluctuations of pain symptoms throughout the day in relation to affective, cognitive, behavioral, and social factors. In this opinion paper, we review the current state and future relevance of EMA-based social pain research in daily life. Specifically, we examine whether everyday-life social support reduces or enhances pain. The first part of the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the use of EMA in pain research and summarizes the main findings. The review of the relatively limited number of existing EMA studies shows that the association between pain and social contact in everyday life depends on numerous factors, including pain syndromes, temporal dynamics, the nature of social interactions, and characteristics of the interaction partners. In line with laboratory research, there is evidence that everyday-life social contact can alleviate, but also intensify pain, depending on the type of social support. Everyday-life emotional support seems to reduce pain, while extensive solicitous support was found to have opposite effects. Moreover, positive short-term effects of social support can be overshadowed by other symptoms such as fatigue. Overall, gathering and integrating experiences from a patient’s social environment can offer valuable insights. These insights can help interpret dynamics in pain intensity and accompanying symptoms such as depression or fatigue. We conclude that factors determining the reducing versus enhancing effects of social contact on pain need to be investigated more thoroughly. We advocate EMA as the assessment method of the future and highlight open questions that should be addressed in future EMA studies on pain and the potential of ecological momentary interventions for pain treatment.

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Section: Use Of Emasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain

Weiß,

Gründahl,

Jachnik

et al. 2024

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The feasibility and acceptability of using EMA and physiological data to measure day-to-day occupational stress, musculoskeletal pain and mental health

Weale,

Love,

Clays

et al. 2024

BMC Res Notes

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Objectives This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of using EMA questionnaires and physiological data via wristbands to measure day-to-day occupational stress, musculoskeletal pain, and mental health among university employees (N = 23), across 10 work days. Adherence to the study protocol as well as participant experiences (via semi-structured interviews) with the protocol were used to assess feasibility and acceptability of the method. Results Adherence to the study protocol was excellent. Participants wore the wristband for a mean of 9.7 days. Participants completed a mean of 24.5 EMAs (out of 30). Semi-structured interviews with participants revealed that a small number of participants had difficulties uploading data from the wristband. The timing of EMAs was challenging for some participants, resulting in missed EMAs, raising questions about whether EMA frequency and timing could be changed to improve adherence. Some EMA items were difficult to answer due to the nature of participants’ roles and the work undertaken. Overall, the protocol was feasible and acceptable but highlighted future potential changes including using a different physiological data collection tool, reducing the number of EMAs, adjusting EMA timings, and reviewing EMA items.

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The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain (Preprint)

Weiß,

Gründahl,

Jachnik

et al. 2023

Preprint

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UNSTRUCTURED Pain is a biopsychosocial phenomenon, resulting from the interplay between physiological and psychological processes and social factors. Given that humans constantly interact with others, the effect of social factors is particularly relevant. Documenting the significance of the social modulation of pain, an increasing number of studies have investigated the effect of social contact on subjective pain intensity and pain-related physiological changes. While evidence suggests that social contact can alleviate pain, contradictory findings indicate an increase in pain intensity and a deterioration of pain coping strategies. This evidence primarily stems from studies examining the effect of social contact on pain within highly controlled laboratory conditions. Moreover, pain assessments often rely on one-time subjective reports of average pain intensity across a predefined period. Ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) can circumvent these problems, as they can capture diverse aspects of behavior and experiences multiple times a day, in real time, with high resolution, and within naturalistic and ecologically valid settings. These multiple measures allow for the examination of fluctuations of pain symptoms throughout the day in relation to affective, cognitive, behavioral, and social factors. In this opinion paper, we review the current state and future relevance of EMA-based social pain research in daily life. Specifically, we examine whether everyday-life social support reduces or enhances pain. The first part of the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the use of EMA in pain research and summarizes the main findings. The review of the relatively limited number of existing EMA studies shows that the association between pain and social contact in everyday life depends on numerous factors, including pain syndromes, temporal dynamics, the nature of social interactions, and characteristics of the interaction partners. In line with laboratory research, there is evidence that everyday-life social contact can alleviate, but also intensify pain, depending on the type of social support. Everyday-life emotional support seems to reduce pain, while extensive solicitous support was found to have opposite effects. Moreover, positive short-term effects of social support can be overshadowed by other symptoms such as fatigue. Overall, gathering and integrating experiences from a patient’s social environment can offer valuable insights. These insights can help interpret dynamics in pain intensity and accompanying symptoms such as depression or fatigue. We conclude that factors determining the reducing versus enhancing effects of social contact on pain need to be investigated more thoroughly. We advocate EMA as the assessment method of the future and highlight open questions that should be addressed in future EMA studies on pain and the potential of ecological momentary interventions for pain treatment.

show abstract

The association between day-to-day stress experiences and work–life interference among office workers in academia: an ecological momentary assessment study

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain

The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain

The feasibility and acceptability of using EMA and physiological data to measure day-to-day occupational stress, musculoskeletal pain and mental health

The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain (Preprint)

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