Personalized Stress Management With Application of Portable Devices in Occupational Populations

Huazhong University of Science and Technology400 enrolled

Overview

Hospital setting is a stressful environment to the hospital staff due to work shifts, high level of responsibility, stressful challenging situations, as well as work and emotional pressures. The rate of burnout among hospital staff is high, as well as the risk of depression and suicide. The association between chronic work stress in hospital and the development of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular complications and cancer is well established. However, it is actually not easy for the hospital staff to establish a healthier life habit and stress management skills by themselves due to the busy work schedule and the lack of persistence of building up new habits. We hypothesized that conduction of the personalized stress management coaching with the assistance of portable device could be beneficial for the hospital staff to adopt a few healthy behaviors for daily practice, which could reduce stress and the related consequences. The current study will be conducted in two separate hospitals from Wuhan (China) with different intervention strategies and conduction teams. Each institution will recruit 200 participants and complete the full set of biographic information collections at recruitment. Clinical score evaluations, biosample collections as well as 24 h Holter monitoring will be both collected at the recruitment and after 3-month intervention phase. Tongji hospital will receive the active stress-management intervention; the health educator will group the participants together and provide on a weekly basis: stress knowledge and stress-related hazards online, stress management necessities and skills. Meanwhile, weekly data of exercises, cardiac health and sleep condition generated from HUAWEI portable devices will be summarized and sent to the participants together with personalized suggestions and encouragement by trained nurses. Participants from Tongji hospital will be involved in a social network to share their experience and gain insight from the discussions. Finally, they will also complete an electronic diary that covers elements of daily life and stress management activity. The Control institution will be Wuhan No1 hospital, the participants will receive minimum information regarding stress and stress management; they will not receive personalized intervention and will not be involved in group chat. They will be asked to fill in a simplified questionnaire biweekly. The outcome parameters will be the stress relief evaluated by clinical forms and questionnaires, heart rate variability (HRV) parameters, and the establishments of healthier life habits. The current study design would propose a novel strategic stress management plan for the hospital administrates in order to improve the hospital staff health.

Study Type

Interventions

The basic interventionBEHAVIORAL

The participants will receive a paper-printed booklet introducing stress and stress management strategies, regular exercise, deep breathing and mediation, etc, as well as a HUAWEI portable device at the recruitment. During the following 3-month intervention phase, there is not informational materials, portable device data feedback, online group discussion or interpersonal communications with the participants. The participants will only need to fill in a simplified questionnaire biweekly.

The personalized interventionsBEHAVIORAL

The participants will receive a paper-printed booklet introducing stress and stress management strategies and a HUAWEI portable device at the recruitment. A neurologist will be the health educator to host an online group for free communications. The typical stress-relieving methods and the strategies of using portable device will be explained by providing small videos, online article links and nursing coaching in person. The health educator will give regular knowledge educations about the stress hazards, stress management necessities and skills on weekly basis. The weekly data of HUAWEI portable devices will be sent to the participants along with personalized suggestions by trained nurses. At certain occasions, gifts and rewards will be sent out for encouragement and keeping attachment to the program. The participants will be required to fill in the weekly questionnaires online for feedback.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 25 YearsMax age: 55 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Working as night-shift staff in Tongji hospital * Need to keep this position for at least 6 months (no plan to leave) * Selection will ensure a good balance of age and gender * Willing to participate in the study and sign the consent form Exclusion Criteria: * Planning to leave the hospital or the units for any reason * Not a good medical condition or context for reliable follow-up * Having a serious medical condition (for instance cancer, stroke) * Living in a special life context that is source of stress

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change of the frequency of applications of stress-relieving strategies compared to the baseline

The frequency of applications of stress-relieving strategies, including daily physical activity, deep slow breathing activity, relaxation or mindfulness meditation, which would be conducted by the participants voluntarily, will be summarized on weekly basis.

Time frame: Baseline (The first week of participating the program) , endpoint time point (The last week of participating the program), and every week between these 2 time points during the 3-month intervention

Change of the Chinese version of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS score) for evaluation of stress compared to the baseline

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS score) assess the extent of feeling of nervousness and loss of control, including 14 questions. For each question, "1" for "Never", "2" for "Once in a while", "3" for "Sometimes", "4" for "Often", "5" for "Always". The total score is between 14-70.A higher score indicates a higher level of perceived stress.