Sociodemographic and occupational risk factors associated with the development of different burnout types: the cross-sectional University of Zaragoza study

BACKGROUND: Three different burnout types have been described: The "frenetic" type describes involved and ambitious subjects who sacrifice their health and personal lives for their jobs; the "underchallenged" type describes indifferent and bored workers who fail to find personal development in their jobs, and the "worn-out" in type describes neglectful subjects who feel they have little control over results and whose efforts go unacknowledged. The study aimed to describe the possible associations between burnout types and general sociodemographic and occupational characteristics. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out on a multi-occupational sample of randomly selected university employees (n = 409). The presence of burnout types was assessed by means of the "Burnout Clinical Subtype Questionnaire (BCSQ-36)", and the degree of association between variables was assessed using an adjusted odds ratio (OR) obtained from multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: Individuals working more than 40 hours per week presented with the greatest risk for "frenetic" burnout compared to those working fewer than 35 hours (adjusted OR = 5.69; 95% CI = 2.52-12.82; p < 0.001). Administration and service personnel presented the greatest risk of "underchallenged" burnout compared to teaching and research staff (adjusted OR = 2.85; 95% CI = 1.16-7.01; p = 0.023). Employees with more than sixteen years of service in the organisation presented the greatest risk of "worn-out" burnout compared to those with less than four years of service (adjusted OR = 4.56; 95% CI = 1.47-14.16; p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to our knowledge that suggests the existence of associations between the different burnout subtypes (classified according to the degree of dedication to work) and the different sociodemographic and occupational characteristics that are congruent with the definition of each of the subtypes. These results are consistent with the clinical profile definitions of burnout syndrome. In addition, they assist the recognition of distinct profiles and reinforce the idea of differential characterisation of the syndrome for more effective treatment.

Inventory and perspectives of chronic disease management programs in Switzerland: an exploratory survey.

OBJECTIVE: To describe chronic disease management programs active in Switzerland in 2007, using an exploratory survey. METHODS: We searched the internet (Swiss official websites and Swiss web-pages, using Google), a medical electronic database (Medline), reference lists of pertinent articles, and contacted key informants. Programs met our operational definition of chronic disease management if their interventions targeted a chronic disease, included a multidisciplinary team (>/=2 healthcare professionals), lasted at least six months, and had already been implemented and were active in December 2007. We developed an extraction grid and collected data pertaining to eight domains (patient population, intervention recipient, intervention content, delivery personnel, method of communication, intensity and complexity, environment, clinical outcomes). RESULTS: We identified seven programs fulfilling our operational definition of chronic disease management. Programs targeted patients with diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, obesity, psychosis and breast cancer. Interventions were multifaceted; all included education and half considered planned follow-ups. The recipients of the interventions were patients, and healthcare professionals involved were physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists and case managers of various backgrounds. CONCLUSIONS: In Switzerland, a country with universal healthcare insurance coverage and little incentive to develop new healthcare strategies, chronic disease management programs are scarce. For future developments, appropriate evaluations of existing programs, involvement of all healthcare stakeholders, strong leadership and political will are, at least, desirable.

Adaptation en français et en allemand d'une échelle de pression des pairs pour jeunes adultes : le Peer Pressure Inventory [Adaptation of a peer pressure scale in French and German: the Peer Pressure Inventory].

BACKGROUND: Peer pressure is regarded as an important determinant of substance use, sexual behavior and juvenile delinquency. However, few peer pressure scales are validated, especially in French or German. Little is known about the factor structure of such scales or the kind of scale needed: some scales takes into account both peer pressure to do and peer pressure not to do, while others consider only peer pressure to do. The aim of the present study was to adapt French and German versions of the Peer Pressure Inventory, which is one of the most widely used scales in this field. We considered its factor structure and concurrent validity. METHODS: Five thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven young Swiss men filled in a questionnaire on peer pressure, substance use, and other variables (conformity, involvement) in a cohort study. RESULTS: We identified a four-factor structure, with the three factors of the initial Peer Pressure Inventory (involvement, conformity, misconduct) and adding a new one (relationship with girls). A non-valued scale (from no peer pressure to peer pressure to do only) showed stronger psychometric qualities than a valued scale (from peer pressure not to do to peer pressure to do). Concurrent validity was also good. Each behavior or attitude was significantly associated with peer pressure. CONCLUSION: Peer pressure seems to be a multidimensional concept. In this study, peer pressure to do showed the strongest influence on participants. Indeed, peer pressure not to do did not add anything useful. Only peer pressure to do affected young Swiss men's behaviors and attitudes and was reliable.

Validation of the antenatal perceived stress inventory

This article presents the Antenatal Perceived Stress Inventory. The originality of this scale is to assess the impact of events experienced during pregnancy on the stress perceived by mothers. Scale validation was performed using data from 150 French-speaking nulliparous mothers and collected between 36 and 39 weeks of gestation (T1), and between 2 days (T2) and 6 weeks postpartum (T3). Factor analysis revealed a hierarchical three-factor structure that closely fit the data, including medical and obstetric risks/fetal health (F1), psychosocial changes (F2), and the prospect of childbirth (F3). The Antenatal Perceived Stress Inventory is a valid French prenatal stress scale with good psychometric properties.

Stress, coping and presenteeism in nurses assisting critical and potentially critical patients

Objective to verify the associations between stress, Coping and Presenteeism in nurses operating on direct assistance to critical and potentially critical patients. Method this is a descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative study, conducted between March and April 2010 with 129 hospital nurses. The Inventory of stress in nurses, Occupational and Coping Questionnaire Range of Limitations at Work were used. For the analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, correlation coefficient of Pearson and Spearman, Chi-square and T-test were applied. Results it was observed that 66.7% of the nurses showed low stress, 87.6% use control strategies for coping stress and 4.84% had decrease in productivity. Direct and meaningful relationships between stress and lost productivity were found. Conclusion stress interferes with the daily life of nurses and impacts on productivity. Although the inability to test associations, the control strategy can minimize the stress, which consequently contributes to better productivity of nurses in the care of critical patients and potentially critical.


Portuguese validation of the Symptom Inventory of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Objective To analyze the reliability and validity of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the instrument for symptom assessment, titled MD Anderson Symptom Inventory - core. Method A cross-sectional study with 268 cancer patients in outpatient treatment, in the municipality of Ijuí, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Results The Cronbach’s alpha for the MDASI general, symptoms and interferences was respectively (0.857), (0.784) and (0.794). The factor analysis showed adequacy of the data (0.792). In total, were identified four factors of the principal components related to the symptoms. Factor I: sleep problems, distress (upset), difficulties in remembering things and sadness. Factor II: dizziness, nausea, lack of appetite and vomiting. Factor III: drowsiness, dry mouth, numbness and tingling. Factor IV: pain, fatigue and shortness of breath. A single factor was revealed in the component of interferences with life (0.780), with prevalence of activity in general (59.7%), work (54.9%) and walking (49.3%). Conclusion The Brazilian version of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory - core showed adequate psychometric properties in the studied population.

Multi-period vendor managed inventory systems

In this paper we develop two models for an inventory system in which the distributormanages the inventory at the retailers location. These type of systems correspondto the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) systems described ib the literature. Thesesystems are very common in many different types of industries, such as retailingand manufacturing, although assuming different characteristics.The objective of our model is to minimize total inventory cost for the distributorin a multi-period multi-retailer setting. The inventory system includes holdingand stock-out costs and we study the case whre an additional fixed setup cost ischarged per delivery.We construct a numerical experiment to analyze the model bahavior and observe theimpact of the characteristics of the model on the solutions.

Inventory-routing model, for a multi-period problem with stochastic and deterministic demand

The need for integration in the supply chain management leads us to considerthe coordination of two logistic planning functions: transportation andinventory. The coordination of these activities can be an extremely importantsource of competitive advantage in the supply chain management. The battle forcost reduction can pass through the equilibrium of transportation versusinventory managing costs. In this work, we study the specific case of aninventory-routing problem for a week planning period with different types ofdemand. A heuristic methodology, based on the Iterated Local Search, isproposed to solve the Multi-Period Inventory Routing Problem with stochasticand deterministic demand.

Cómo prevenir el burnout: diferentes definiciones e interpretaciones

¿Es posible anticiparse a la aparición del burnout? ¿Por qué hay unos colectivos de profesionales más expuestos que otros? Una adecuada información sobre la realidad del ejercicio profesional, así como informes y cuestionarios sobre el clima laboral y las percepciones de los empleados son algunas de las medidas que se proponen para anticiparse al síndrome de desgaste profesional

The KAI Cognitive Style Inventory: Was it personality all along?

Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) is a widely-used measure of "cognitive style." Surprisingly, there is very little research investigating the discriminant and incremental validity of the KAI. In two studies (n = 213), we examined whether (a) we could predict KAI scores with the "big five" personality dimensions and (b) the KAI scores predicted leadership behavior when controlling for personality and ability. Correcting for measurement error, we found that KAI scores were predicted mostly by personality and gender (multiple R = 0.82). KAI scores did not predict variance in leadership while controlling for established predictors. Our findings add to recent literature that questions the uniqueness and utility of cognitive style or similar "style" constructs; researchers using such measures must control for the big five factors and correct for measurement error to avoid confounded interpretations.