EMPOWER researcher Carlota de Miquel, from Fundació Sant Joan de Déu (FSJD) team, participated in the 36th ECNP Congress 2023 held 7-10 October in Barcelona, Spain, where she presented the baseline characteristics of an RCT from the project’s local users.
The abstract Mental health, physical health, and psychosocial risk factors in employees of four European countries was co authored by researchers Ellen Vorstenbosch, Christina M. van der Feltz-Cornelis, Jenny Sweetman, Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen, Marjo Sinokki, Dorota Merecz-Kot, Kaja Staszewska, Edyta Klimzcak and Beatriz Olaya, coordinator of the platform.
The well-being of employees is greatly affected by the substantial influence of work stress, anxiety, and depression. Indeed, approximately 40% of cases of occupational diseases can be attributed to prevalent mental conditions. In the context of a randomized control trial of an e-Mental Health intervention for employees (EMPOWER), we aim to present the baseline characteristics of employees of four different countries, regarding their mental health, physical health, and psychosocial risk factors.
453 employees were recruited from different organisations in four European countries: Spain, Finland, United Kingdom (UK) and Poland. In terms of the psychosocial risk factors, 64.24% of the employees reported having too much work to do, 54.97% reported a need to adapt to continual changes and 40.84% reported poor communication within the organisation.
Our participants showed mild mental health and physical health symptoms across the different administered scales. Moreover, different patterns were found across countries. Additionally, employees seem to report high workload, a continuous need to adapt to changes and poor organisational communication. The results of this study identify the specific susceptibility of European employees and emphasize the significance of implementing social and income policies personalised for the individual country needs.
The annual ECNP Congress is Europe’s premier scientific meeting for disease-oriented brain research, annually attracting more than 5,000 psychiatrists, neuroscientists, neurologists and psychologists from around the world.