Improving Work Functioning and Mental Health of Health Care Employees Using an E-Mental Health Approach to Workers’ Health Surveillance: Pretest-Posttest Study
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Mental health complaints are quite common in health care employees and can have adverse effects on work functioning. The aim of this study was to evaluate an e-mental health (EMH) approach to workers' health surveillance (WHS) for nurses and allied health professionals. Using the waiting-list group of a previous randomized controlled trial with high dropout and low compliance to the intervention, we studied the pre- and posteffects of the EMH approach in a larger group of participants. METHODS: We applied a pretest-posttest study design. The WHS consisted of online screening on impaired work functioning and mental health followed by online automatically generated personalized feedback, online tailored advice, and access to self-help EMH interventions. The effects on work functioning, stress, and work-related fatigue after 3 months were analyzed using paired t tests and effect sizes. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-eight nurses and allied health professionals participated at pretest as well as posttest. Significant improvements were found on work functioning (p = 0.01) and work-related fatigue (p < 0.01). Work functioning had relevantly improved in 30% of participants. A small meaningful effect on stress was found (Cohen d = .23) in the participants who had logged onto an EMH intervention (20%, n = 26). CONCLUSION: The EMH approach to WHS improves the work functioning and mental health of nurses and allied health professionals. However, because we found small effects and participation in the offered EMH interventions was low, there is ample room for improvement.
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From Web-based interventions for the management of stress in the workplace: Focus, form, and efficacy (2017) · cites this paper as [38]
A smaller uncontrolled pre-post-trial was conducted with 128 participants who had comprised the waitlist control for the Ketelaar et al. study.
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- Authors
- Ketelaar, S. M., Nieuwenhuijsen, K., Bolier, L., Smeets, O., & Sluiter, J. K.
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Trimbos Institute (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Ketelaar, Sarah M.
- Venue
- Safety and Health at Work
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-12
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 216-221
- ISSN
- 2093-7911 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4266797
- OpenAlex
- W2152185521
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 3.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Safety and Health at Work (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (208010001)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
- Keywords
- e-mental health, occupational health surveillance, mental health, work functioning, nurses, allied health professionals, occupational fatigue, occupational stress, online screening, personalized feedback, tailored advice, self-help intervention, healthcare workers
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