This study reports a randomized controlled trial of the effect of a job crafting intervention program on work performance and job crafting (as secondary outcomes) among Japanese employees.
...Participants who satisfied the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 138) or a control group (n = 143). Outcomes were measured at baseline and at 3-month and 6-month follow-up in both groups.
For the whole sample, the job crafting intervention program showed a nonsignificant effect on work performance and job crafting. However, the program showed a significant effect on these outcomes among younger participants (under 36years old).
The job crafting intervention program may not be sufficiently effective to improve work performance and job crafting for the whole sample of participants. However, it may be efficacious for younger workers.
The current randomized controlled trial investigated the effectiveness of a job crafting intervention program on work engagement as the primary outcome and job crafting as the secondary outcome among ...Japanese employees.
Participants who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to an intervention group (
= 138) or a control group (
= 143). The job crafting intervention program provided only to the intervention group consisted of two 120-minute group sessions with e-mail or letter follow-up. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and at 3-month and 6-month follow-up in both groups.
In the total sample, the job crafting intervention program showed a non-significant effect on work engagement at both 3-month and 6-month follow-up. Also, job crafting did not improve significantly. However, the program showed a significant intervention effect on work engagement (
= 0.04) with small effect size (Cohen's
= 0.33 at 3-month follow-up) of workers in a lower job crafting subgroup.
The job crafting intervention program may not be sufficiently effective to improve work engagement and job crafting for the entire sample of participants. However, it may be effective for workers in lower job crafting subcategories.
UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/), identifier UMIN000026668.
Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the association of the recognition of the importance and the effectiveness of clinical practice guidelines with the use of them among ...doctors in charge of medical education.Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted on doctors in charge of medical education at Tokyo Women's Medical University. Multiple logistic regression adjusted for sex, age, and position was used to assess the association between the recognition and use of clinical practice guidelines for education among the participants.Results: Data from 89 respondents (response rate: 72.4%) were analyzed. The odds ratios (ORs) for using the guidelines in lectures (OR = 4.19, p < 0.05) and clinical clerkships (OR = 4.26, p < 0.05) were significantly greater among doctors who thought that "clinical practice guidelines are important in medical education" compared with those who did not. The OR for using the guidelines in clinical clerkships was also significantly greater among doctors who thought that "clinical practice guidelines are effective in medical education" compared with those who did not (OR = 6.46, p < 0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that doctors who recognize the importance and effectiveness of clinical practice guidelines tend to use them more frequently in medical education.
Although the eudemonic perspective seems to be a promising in considering vocational identity among working population, well-being at work has been discussed primarily in terms of subjective/hedonic ...well-being. This study aimed to develop a new tool to measure eudemonic well-being at work (The University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health TOMH well-being 24 scale)and investigate its validity in a collectivist culture. Two online surveys were conducted with a total of 1,760 workers in Japan. We created 89 potential items from existing scales. An exploratory factor analysis indicated eight factors for the dimensions of measurement. After item selection based on item response theory, the factor structure with three items from each of the eight dimensions indicated an excellent fit for another sample. Cronbach’s α and intra-class coefficients ranged from 0.671 to 0.845. The scores of the tool were more strongly associated with subjective well-being in the work context rather than well-being in general. In addition, the participants in the group demonstrating a higher risk for mental illness and a more stressful work environment indicated significantly lower scores, even after adjusting for general eudemonic well-being. The new measurement may be useful both for academic and practical applications for measuring eudemonic well-being at work, independent from general eudemonic well-being.
Abstract
There are growing concerns on stress among nurses in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in South-East Asia. It is important to improve mental health among nurses in these countries. ...The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of two types of newly developed smartphone-based stress management programs in improving depressive and anxiety symptoms among hospital nurses in Vietnam. This study was a three-arm (including two intervention groups and one control group) randomized trial. Participants were recruited from nurses in a large general hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. Two types (free-choice and fixed sequential order) of smartphone-based stress management programs were developed. Participants were randomly allocated to Program A (a free-choice, multimodule stress management), Program B (a fixed-order, internet cognitive behavioral therapy, iCBT), or a control group (treatment as usual). The depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured by using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales at baseline, 3-, and 7-month follow-up surveys. 951 participants were randomly allocated to each of the three groups. Program B showed a statistically significant effect on improving depressive symptoms at 3-month (p = 0.048), but not at 7-month (p = 0.92); Cohen’s d was − 0.18 (95% CI − 0.34 to − 0.02) and 0.03 (95% CI − 1.00 to 1.05), respectively. Program A failed to show a significant intervention effect on any of the outcomes at 3- or 7-month follow-up (p > 0.05). Despite the small effect size, the present fixed-order iCBT program seems effective in improving depression of hospital nurses in Vietnam. A public health impact of the intervention can be scalable, when considering its accessibility and minimal cost.
Trial registration number: The study protocol is registered at the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMINCTR; ID = UMIN000033139). Registered date of the protocol is 1st Jul. 2018.
https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000037796
Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health issues experienced by workers. Although organizational intervention has been extensively evaluated as a primary prevention of depression and ...anxiety, the corresponding scientific evidence remains limited because of the lack of cluster randomized controlled trials (cRCT) and failure to detect organizational-level effects. Therefore, the present study aims to assess the preventive effects of four types of interventions on depression and anxiety among workers in an open, five-arm, parallel-group cRCT.
Overall, 140 worksites and 18,200 nested employees will be recruited from September 2023. The eligible worksites will be randomly assigned to each of the five arms, and programs will be offered for 6-12 months. The five arms are 1) psychoeducation for workers, 2) psychoeducation for supervisors, 3) work environment improvement, 4) physical activity promotion, and 5) active control. The primary outcomes of interest are depression and anxiety. We will also assess psychosocial factors at work, work engagement, health-related quality of life, well-being, economic outcomes, physiological outcomes of health checkups, cortisol levels extracted from fingernails, and indices representing the process and implementation outcomes, including program completion rates. Follow-up surveys will be conducted at 6, 12, and 18 months from baseline, and the primary endpoint is set at the 6-month follow-up. Repeated-measures multi-level mixed modeling will be used to evaluate the effect of each intervention compared with the control.
The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Kitasato University Medical Ethics Organization (C22-082). The results and findings of this study will be published in a scientific journal and disseminated to companies that participate in the study.
UMIN000050949.
Team job crafting, which refers to designing the task, relational, and cognitive aspects of a job, is thought to be beneficial for nurses working in the ward. There are no scales to assess team job ...crafting among nurses. This study aimed to develop and examine the reliability and validity of a scale to measure team job crafting. Based on literature reviews and interviews, potential items were created. A total of 293 nurses working on 19 wards in two hospitals in Japan were asked to complete a questionnaire twice. A series of exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were conducted to select the final items. For convergent validity, multilevel correlations were calculated. Cronbach's α and intra‐class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated for reliability. A total of 190 participants responded to the baseline survey and 152 responded to the retest. The EFAs yielded a three‐factor structure comprising 13 items. The three factors are task crafting considering the team's growth, cognitive crafting for members' respect and reflection of meaningfulness of work, and relational crafting for smooth information sharing. Cronbach's α ranged from .810 to .831, and test–retest ICCs ranged from 0.571 to 0.710. At the individual level, team job crafting had small‐to‐moderate correlations with individual levels of job crafting, job control, supervisor support, co‐worker support, job satisfaction, workplace social capital, and work engagement. The ICC of the team job crafting scores of 0.125 indicated meaningful variation across wards. At the ward‐level, nonsignificant but strong correlations were found with workplace social capital, job satisfaction, and psychological distress. This scale showed acceptable levels of reliability and validity. It would be useful in monitoring and improving team job crafting to increase team members' well‐being and performance.
This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to improve subjective well-being (SWB), including evaluative, hedonic, and eudemonic ...well-being, and the mental component of quality of life (QOL) of working population.
A literature search was conducted, using PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and PsycARTICLES. Eligible studies included those that were RCTs of any intervention, conducted among healthy workers, measured SWB as a primary outcome, and original articles in English. Study characteristics, intervention, outcomes, and results on SWB outcomes were extracted by the investigators independently. After a brief narrative summarizing and classifying the contents of the interventions, the included outcomes were categorized into each aspect of SWB (evaluative, hedonic, and eudemonic well-being, and the mental component of QOL). Finally, the characteristics of the effective interventions for increasing each aspect were summarized, and the pooled effect of interventions on SWB was investigated by a meta-analysis. Publication bias was investigated by drawing a funnel plot and conducting Egger's test.
From the 5,450 articles found, 39 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. The interventions included in this review were classified into six categories (physical activity, ergonomics, psychological, environmental, multicomponent intervention, and others). The meta-analysis from 31 studies showed that the pooled effect of included interventions on SWB was significantly positive (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.51; standard error (SE) = 0.10). A funnel plot showed there were extremely large or small SMDs, and Egger's test was significant. Thus, we conducted sensitivity analysis, excluding these extreme SMDs, and confirmed that the estimated pooled effect was also significantly positive. Subgroup analyses for separate types of interventions showed the effects of psychological interventions (e.g., mindfulness, cognitive behavioral based approach, and other psychological interventions) were also significantly positive.
The current study revealed the effectiveness of interventions for increasing SWB. Specifically, psychological interventions (e.g., mindfulness, cognitive behavioral based approach, and other psychological interventions) may be useful for improving SWB.
Participatory organizational interventions offer an effective way to promote occupational safety and health. Despite an increasing number of studies, a common definition of participatory ...organizational interventions has yet to be established. Therefore, we aimed to form a definition using the following process. First, we developed a tentative draft definition of organizational interventions and participatory elements, based on the relevant literature. The tentative definition was revised in several rounds of an extensive discussion by the authors. This resulted in the draft definition. We asked 15 selected international experts in occupational safety and health to review and comment on the draft definition. We carefully reviewed their comments, and formulated our final proposed definition. To summarize the key points of the final version of the definition, organizational interventions are planned actions that primarily directly target working conditions with the aim of promoting and maintaining of the highest degree of physical, mental, and social well‐being of workers in all occupations. In addition, as participatory elements of organizational interventions in the final definition, ideally, all workers participate in every step of the intervention, while participating in part of the steps of the intervention in some cases. Furthermore, in principle, all workers participate in each step of intervention, while it is also acceptable that only elected representatives among workers participate in the intervention.
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