Associations of technological work demands with burnout and depressive symptoms – findings from two cross-sectional studies

Introduction: The development of new communication technologies (i.e., email, smartphone, internet) has led to diminishing boundaries between work and private life, but little is known on how this might be related to workforce health. It is hypothesized that ubiquitous working and permanent availability might represent a specific form of work-related stress. As other forms of psychosocial demands, technological work demands (TWD) might propose a potential risk for health. However up till now, epidemiological evidence on such associations is lacking. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the associations of high TWD with burnout and depressive symptoms in two independent study populations.

Methods: We drew on data from two cross-sectional studies. Study 1 was conducted in 2013 in a large pharmaceutical company (n = 1632), while study 2 represents data from a large industrial cohort in an airplane manufactory (data collected 2009 – 2011, n = 4888). TWD was assessed by a validated questionnaire, comprising three items covering perceived information overload, spillover into private life, and job success linked to permanent availability, rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The mean TWD score was classified into tertiles. Depressive Symptoms were measured in study 1 with the 7-item depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; cut-off ≥ 11), and in study 2 by the 5 items of the Mental Health inventory (MHI-5; cut-off highest 20%). Burnout was defined in the highest third of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (study 1) or the Maastricht Vital Exhaustion questionnaire (study 2). Associations between TWD and mental health outcomes were estimated by logistic regression models (multivariate odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals). All models were adjusted for gender, age, alcohol intake, smoking behavior, marital status, physical activity, job position and BMI.

Results: Analyses revealed a dose-response relationship between TWD and burnout. In both studies, compared to persons in the lowest TWD tertile, persons in the middle tertile and highest TWD tertile were on higher odds for reporting burnout (middle tertile: ORs ≥ 1.5; highest tertile: ORs ≥ 2.0). A similar pattern emerged regarding depressive symptoms (middle tertile ORs ≥ 1.1; highest tertile ORs ≥ 2.0).

Conclusion: This study has shown associations of TWD with mental health. These associations were independent of lifestyle factors and socioeconomic status and were robust for burnout and depressive symptoms in both study populations. Investigating newer developments of work-related demands might present opportunities to identify new ways to improve workforce health and design effective interventions.