Study on mental workload of teachers in primary schools / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the distribution characteristics and influencing factors of mental workload of teachers in primary schools.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) was used to assess the mental workload levels for 397 teachers of primary schools in a city.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mental workload (64.34+10.56) of female teachers was significantly higher than that (61.73+ 9.77) of male teachers (P<0.05). The mental workload (65.66+10.42) of "-35" years old group was the highest. When age of teachers was younger than 35 years old, there was a positive correlation between the mental workload and age (r=0.146, P<0.05). When age of teachers was older than 35 years old, there was a negative correlation between the mental workload and age (r=-0.190, P<0.05). The teachers with higher education level felt higher mental workload (unstandardized coefficients B=1.524, standardized coefficients /=0.111, P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between the mental workload and working hours per day (unstandardized coefficients B =4.659, standardized coefficients/3 =0.223, P<0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Mental workload of the teachers in primary schools is closely related to age, educational level and work hours per day. Work hours per day is an important risk factor for mental workload. Reducing work hours per day (8 hours) is an effective measure of alleviating the mental workload of teachers in primary schools.</p>

Coping resources of nurses' occupational stress / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effects of coping resources on nurses' strain.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Coping resources (recreation, self-care, social support, and rational coping) and strain (vocational strain, psychological strain, interpersonal strain, and physical strain) were measured on 387 nurses with personal resources questionnaire (PRQ) and personal strain questionnaire (PSQ).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The higher the nurses' coping resources were, the lower their strain was (P<0.01). Nurses' coping resources had a negative correlation with their strain and had the closest relation with their psychological strain (P<0.01). Among coping resources, social support was closest related with nurses' strain. In the items of social support, those related to feeling support had more remission on strain. In the items of rational coping, those related to keeping good mind had more remission on strain, while doing more than one job at one time could raise nurses' strain (P<0.05). In the items of self-care, those related to good healthy habit, being immersed in contemplation and sufficient sleeping had the most effects on the remission of strain. In the items of recreation, those related to enough rest and self-determination had more effects on the remission of strain, while doing other things in most of leisure time had a positive correlation with strain (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Enhancing coping resources, especially feeling support, keeping good mind, sufficient sleeping and rest, are the important measures for the remission of nurses' strain.</p>

The appraisal of reliability and validity of subjective workload assessment technique and NASA-task load index / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To test the reliability and validity of two mental workload assessment scales, i.e. subjective workload assessment technique (SWAT) and NASA task load index (NASA-TLX).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One thousand two hundred and sixty-eight mental workers were sampled from various kinds of occupations, such as scientific research, education, administration and medicine, etc, with randomized cluster sampling. The re-test reliability, split-half reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and correlation coefficients between item score and total score were adopted to test the reliability. The test of validity included structure validity.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The re-test reliability coefficients of these two scales and their items were ranged from 0.516 to 0.753 (P < 0.01), indicating the two scales had good re-test reliability; the split-half reliability of SWAT was 0.645, and its Cronbach's alpha coefficient was more than 0.80, all the correlation coefficients between its items score and total score were more than 0.70; as for NASA-TLX, both the split-half reliability and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were more than 0.80, the correlation coefficients between its items score and total score were all more than 0.60 (P < 0.01) except the item of performance. Both scales had good inner consistency. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the two scales was 0.492 (P < 0.01), implying the results of the two scales had good consistency. Factor analysis showed that the two scales had good structure validity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Both SWAT and NASA-TLX have good reliability and validity and may be used as a valid tool to assess mental workload in China after being revised properly.</p>