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Fulltext Psychological distress, quality of life and coping in cancer patients: a prospective study

Suthahar A, Gurpreet K, Ambigga D, Dhachayani S, Fuad I, Maniam T, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Dec;63(5):362-8.
PMID: 19803291 MyJurnal

We present the results and conclusions of an observational prospective cohort design study using self-administered questionnaires to determine correlation between psychosocial factors and cancer outcome among 80 consecutive newly diagnosed treatment naïve cancer subjects who were being referred to the Oncology Clinic, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Subjects were recruited over a period of 43 weeks from October 2000 till July 2001. Follow-up assessments were carried out at 6-months and 12 to 26 months later. The prediction of survival time was performed by the Cox Regression Analysis method with adjustments for biological and psychosocial risk factors. It was noted that depression (p = 0.001), stage 4 cancer disease (p = 0.016), neurological (p = 0.032), gastrointestinal tract (p = 0.04), head and neck (p = 0.011), gynaecological (p = 0.005) and bone and soft tissue (p = 0.030) malignancies were independent and statistically significant prognostic factor of survival during the study period. It was further shown than depressed patients were found to have almost four fold greater risk of dying than non-depressed patients and patients with stage 4 cancer illness have a five fold greater risk of dying than patients with stage 1 disease. Furthermore, based on tumour types subjects with neurological, gynaecological, head and neck, bone and soft tissue and gastro intestinal tract malignancies were found to have approximately thirty-six, twenty-five, twenty-two, sixteen and seven fold greater risk of dying respectively when compared to subjects with genitourinary cancers. This study further affirms the need for health care providers to be aware of the psychological aspects of the cancer patient and provide appropriate therapy so as to ensure that this group of individuals would have enhanced survival rates.

Study site: Oncology clinic, Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM)

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological*
Fulltext Examining behavioural coping strategies as mediators between work-family conflict and psychological distress

Aazami S, Shamsuddin K, Akmal S

ScientificWorldJournal, 2015;2015:343075.
PMID: 25695097 DOI: 10.1155/2015/343075

We examined the mediating role of behavioral coping strategies in the association between work-family conflict and psychological distress. In particular, we examined the two directions of work-family conflict, namely, work interference into family and family interference into work. Furthermore, two coping styles in this study were adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 429 Malaysian working women using self-reported data. The results of mediational analysis in the present study showed that adaptive coping strategy does not significantly mediate the effect of work-family conflict on psychological distress. However, maladaptive coping strategies significantly mediate the effect of work-family conflict on psychological distress. These results show that adaptive coping strategies, which aimed to improve the stressful situation, are not effective in managing stressor such as work-family conflict. We found that experiencing interrole conflict steers employees toward frequent use of maladaptive coping strategies which in turn lead to psychological distress. Interventions targeted at improvement of coping skills which are according to individual's needs and expectation may help working women to balance work and family demands. The important issue is to keep in mind that effective coping strategies are to control the situations not to eliminate work-family conflict.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/prevention & control*
Fulltext Work-family conflict and sleep disturbance: the Malaysian working women study

Aazami S, Mozafari M, Shamsuddin K, Akmal S

Ind Health, 2016;54(1):50-7.
PMID: 26423332 DOI: 10.2486/indhealth.2015-0086

This study aimed at assessing effect of the four dimensions of work-family conflicts (strain and time-based work interference into family and family interference into work) on sleep disturbance in Malaysian working women. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 325 Malaysian married working women. Multiple-stage simple random sampling method was used to recruit women from public service departments of Malaysia. Self-administrated questionnaires were used to measure the study variables and data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. We found that high level of the four dimensions of work-family conflicts significantly increase sleep disturbance. Our analyses also revealed an age-dependent effect of the work-family conflict on sleep disturbance. Women in their 20 to 30 yr old suffer from sleep disturbance due to high level of time-based and strain-based work-interference into family. However, the quality of sleep among women aged 30-39 were affected by strain-based family-interference into work. Finally, women older than 40 yr had significantly disturbed sleep due to strain-based work-interference into family as well as time-based family interference into work. Our findings showed that sleep quality of working women might be disturbed by experiencing high level of work-family conflict. However, the effects of inter-role conflicts on sleep varied among different age groups.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/psychology*
Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Sleep Disturbance among Jordanian Mothers and Fathers of Infants Admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Preliminary Study

Al Maghaireh DF, Abdullah KL, Chong MC, Chua YP, Al Kawafha MM

J Pediatr Nurs, 2017 06 19;36:132-140.
PMID: 28888494 DOI: 10.1016/j.pedn.2017.06.007

PURPOSE: To investigate the stressors and stress levels among Jordanian parents of infants in the NICU and their relationship to three factors: anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance.
DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two hospitals in Jordan among 310 parents of infants in the NICU by using PSS: NICU and PROMIS.
RESULTS: Both parents experienced high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance. There was a significant difference in stress level between mothers and fathers [t (308)=3.471, p=0.001], with the mothers experiencing higher stress than the fathers [mean: mothers=108.58; fathers=101.68]. The highest and lowest sources of stress were infant behavior and appearance (M=4.09) and sights and sounds in the NICU (M=3.54), respectively. The correlation between stress levels with anxiety (r=0.79) and depression (r=0.75) was strong and positive while sleep disturbance was significant and moderate (r=0.43).
CONCLUSIONS: The mothers experienced higher levels of stress compared to fathers, with positive correlations between stress and anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings of this study create nursing awareness of parent stress and its impact, which will help them to improve nursing care for parents.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/etiology; Stress, Psychological/epidemiology
Fulltext Psycho-behavioural risks of low back pain in railway workers

Ganasegeran K, Perianayagam W, Nagaraj P, Al-Dubai SA

Occup Med (Lond), 2014 Jul;64(5):372-5.
PMID: 24727561 DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqu039

BACKGROUND:
Low back pain (LBP) is the most costly ailment in the work force. Risky work behaviour and psychological stress are established risk factors.

AIMS:
To explore the associations between workplace risk factors, psychological stress and LBP among Malaysian railway workers.

METHODS:
A cross-sectional study was carried out on railway workers in Malaysia. Socio-demographics, workplace risk factors for LBP, perceived psychological stress and history of LBP over the previous month were obtained by direct interviews using a structured closed-ended questionnaire. Descriptive, bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted.

RESULTS:
There were 513 study participants (70% response rate). The prevalence of LBP in the previous month was 69%. Multivariate analysis yielded four significant predictors of LBP: employment of ≥ 10 years, lifting and lowering heavy loads, prolonged standing posture and psychological stress.

CONCLUSIONS:
The high prevalence of LBP and its significant associations with physical and psychological stress factors in railway workers points to an urgent need for preventive measures, particularly among workers in high-risk occupations.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/complications*
Fulltext Tualang honey improves memory performance and decreases depressive-like behavior in rats exposed to loud noise stress

Azman KF, Zakaria R, AbdAziz C, Othman Z, Al-Rahbi B

Noise Health, 2015 Mar-Apr;17(75):83-9.
PMID: 25774610 DOI: 10.4103/1463-1741.153388

Recent evidence has exhibited dietary influence on the manifestation of different types of behavior induced by stressor tasks. The present study examined the effects of Tualang honey supplement administered with the goal of preventing or attenuating the occurrence of stress-related behaviors in male rats subjected to noise stress. Forty-eight adult male rats were randomly divided into the following four groups: i) nonstressed with vehicle, ii) nonstressed with Tualang honey, iii) stressed with vehicle, and iv) stressed with honey. The supplement was given once daily via oral gavage at 0.2 g/kg body weight. Two types of behavioral tests were performed, namely, the novel object recognition test to evaluate working memory and the forced swimming test to evaluate depressive-like behavior. Data were analyzed by a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using IBM SPSS 18.0. It was observed that the rats subjected to noise stress expressed higher levels of depressive-like behavior and lower memory functions compared to the unexposed control rats. In addition, our results indicated that the supplementation regimen successfully counteracted the effects of noise stress. The forced swimming test indicated that climbing and swimming times were significantly increased and immobility times significantly decreased in honey-supplemented rats, thereby demonstrating an antidepressant-like effect. Furthermore, cognitive function was shown to be intensely affected by noise stress, but the effects were counteracted by the honey supplement. These findings suggest that subchronic exposure to noise stress induces depressive-like behavior and reduces cognitive functions, and that these effects can be attenuated by Tualang honey supplementation. This warrants further studies to examine the role of Tulang honey in mediating such effects.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological*
Fulltext EEG Mental Stress Assessment Using Hybrid Multi-Domain Feature Sets of Functional Connectivity Network and Time-Frequency Features

Hag A, Handayani D, Pillai T, Mantoro T, Kit MH, Al-Shargie F

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Sep 20;21(18).
PMID: 34577505 DOI: 10.3390/s21186300

Exposure to mental stress for long period leads to serious accidents and health problems. To avoid negative consequences on health and safety, it is very important to detect mental stress at its early stages, i.e., when it is still limited to acute or episodic stress. In this study, we developed an experimental protocol to induce two different levels of stress by utilizing a mental arithmetic task with time pressure and negative feedback as the stressors. We assessed the levels of stress on 22 healthy subjects using frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, salivary alpha-amylase level (AAL), and multiple machine learning (ML) classifiers. The EEG signals were analyzed using a fusion of functional connectivity networks estimated by the Phase Locking Value (PLV) and temporal and spectral domain features. A total of 210 different features were extracted from all domains. Only the optimum multi-domain features were used for classification. We then quantified stress levels using statistical analysis and seven ML classifiers. Our result showed that the AAL level was significantly increased (p < 0.01) under stress condition in all subjects. Likewise, the functional connectivity network demonstrated a significant decrease under stress, p < 0.05. Moreover, we achieved the highest stress classification accuracy of 93.2% using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Other classifiers produced relatively similar results.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/diagnosis
Fulltext Enhancing EEG-Based Mental Stress State Recognition Using an Improved Hybrid Feature Selection Algorithm

Hag A, Handayani D, Altalhi M, Pillai T, Mantoro T, Kit MH, et al.

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Dec 15;21(24).
PMID: 34960469 DOI: 10.3390/s21248370

In real-life applications, electroencephalogram (EEG) signals for mental stress recognition require a conventional wearable device. This, in turn, requires an efficient number of EEG channels and an optimal feature set. This study aims to identify an optimal feature subset that can discriminate mental stress states while enhancing the overall classification performance. We extracted multi-domain features within the time domain, frequency domain, time-frequency domain, and network connectivity features to form a prominent feature vector space for stress. We then proposed a hybrid feature selection (FS) method using minimum redundancy maximum relevance with particle swarm optimization and support vector machines (mRMR-PSO-SVM) to select the optimal feature subset. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated and verified using four datasets, namely EDMSS, DEAP, SEED, and EDPMSC. To further consolidate, the effectiveness of the proposed method is compared with that of the state-of-the-art metaheuristic methods. The proposed model significantly reduced the features vector space by an average of 70% compared with the state-of-the-art methods while significantly increasing overall detection performance.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/diagnosis
Fulltext The influence of meaningful work on the mental health of SME employees in the COVID-19 era: can coping strategies mediate the relationship?

Jalil MF, Ali A

BMC Public Health, 2023 Dec 06;23(1):2435.
PMID: 38057782 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-17347-3

BACKGROUND: Stress, depression, and anxiety are prevalent issues among SME employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even while having meaningful work that expressively contributes to individual growth has been related to improving mental health, employees' work may also need to adopt coping strategies to increase outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between meaningful work (positive meaning, meaning-making, and greater good motivations) and mental health, as well as coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused) as a mediator of this relationship.
METHODS: Meaningful work, coping strategies, and mental health were evaluated in empirical research based on a sample of 462 SME employees working in Malaysia. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data and analyze it through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 21.0.
RESULTS: The findings of the study show the importance of meaningful work in influencing the mental health of SME employees, particularly during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests that the more they value and see their work as meaningful, the more capable they are of dealing with limitations and mental health problems associated with crises. The study also discovered a partial mediating role for coping strategies between employees' mental health and meaningful work.
CONCLUSION: This study encourages employees to constantly feel connected and discover continued possibilities to work and learn even during crisis situations. In order to improve human resource efficiency in emerging markets, managers and owners of SMEs must implement the model developed by the researchers.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/psychology
Fulltext Optimizing the multidimensional aspects of the patient-physician relationship in the management of inflammatory bowel disease

Chew D, Zhiqin W, Ibrahim N, Ali RAR

Intest Res, 2018 10;16(4):509-521.
PMID: 30369231 DOI: 10.5217/ir.2018.00074

The patient-physician relationship has a pivotal impact on the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) outcomes. However, there are many challenges in the patient-physician relationship; lag time in diagnosis which results in frustration and an anchoring bias against the treating gastroenterologist, the widespread availability of medical information on the internet has resulted in patients having their own ideas of treatment, which may be incongruent from the treating physicians' goals resulting in patient physician discordance. Because IBD is an incurable disease, the goal of treatment is to sustain remission. To achieve this, patients may have to go through several lines of treatment. The period of receiving stepping up, top down or even accelerated stepping up medications may result in a lot of frustration and anxiety for the patient and may compromise the patient-physician relationship. IBD patients are also prone to psychological distress that further compromises the patient-physician relationship. Despite numerous published data regarding the medical and surgical treatment options available for IBD, there is a lack of data regarding methods to improve the therapeutic patient-physician relationship. In this review article, we aim to encapsulate the challenges faced in the patient-physician relationship and ways to overcome in for an improved outcome in IBD.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological
Fulltext Psychosocial Work Environment and Teachers' Psychological Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Job Control and Social Support

Ibrahim RZAR, Zalam WZM, Foster B, Afrizal T, Johansyah MD, Saputra J, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 07 08;18(14).
PMID: 34299757 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18147308

Nowadays, the issue of teachers' psychological well-being causes serious concern, especially in Malaysia. Many studies related to psychological well-being have focused on students rather than on the health and well-being of teachers. Thus, the current study investigated the determinants of psychological well-being (depression, anxiety and stress) from the psychosocial work environment (job control, job demands and social support), and examined the moderating role of job control and social support in the relationship between job demands and psychological well-being among teachers. The design of this study was quantitative research through a survey questionnaire. The sample consisted of 335 high school teachers (23.3%-male; 76.7%-female) who responded to measuring scales of job demands, job control, social support, depression, anxiety and stress, and socio-demographic profile. The data were analyzed using two statistical methods, namely descriptive and inferential statistics. The hierarchical linear regression model was used to analyze the data by assisting the statistical software, i.e., SPSS-23. The results showed that job demands, job control and social support significantly predicted teachers' psychological well-being. Furthermore, the effect of job demands on teachers' depression and anxiety was partially moderated by job control and social support. In conclusion, this study has successfully identified the significant predictors of teachers' psychological well-being and the role of job control and social support as a moderating variable to teachers' psychological well-being in Malaysia. The result provides insights and contributes to the literature of teachers' psychological well-being determinants and involves Malaysian respondents with a collectivistic eastern culture.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/epidemiology
Fulltext Depression and its associated factors among secondary school students in Malaysia

Abdul Latiff L, Tajik E, Ibrahim N, Abubakar AS, Ali SS

Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health, 2016 Jan;47(1):131-41.
PMID: 27086434

Research in the field of factors associated with depression among adolescents is lacking in Malaysia. The aims of the present study were to assess the current prevalence of depression and its related factors among secondary school students in Pasir Gudang, South Malaysia. In this cross sectional study, 2,927 secondary school students (13-17 years old) from urban areas were screened for symptoms of mental disorder as well as demographic and risk behaviors using a validated Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) 12 questionnaire. The majority of the respondents (53.8%) were Malay, of which 53.1% were female. Symptoms of mild depression were found in 33.2% of the respondents, while the prevalence of the symptoms of moderate, severe, and extremely severe depression was 21.5%, 18.1%, and 3.0%, respectively. Logistic regression suggested that participants who were Chinese or had a lower average grade were three times more likely to have depression, while those who came from a single-parent family were twice as likely to have this condition. This study indicated that academic performance and risk behaviors along with the demographic characteristics are important contributors to adolescent depression.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/epidemiology
Fulltext Central serous choroidopathy in pregnancy

Normalina M, Zainal M, Alias D

Med J Malaysia, 1998 Dec;53(4):439-41.
PMID: 10971992

Central serous choroidopathy is a spontaneous serous detachment of the sensory retina, usually affecting adults between 20 to 50 years of age but is also found in patients older than 60 years of age. This disease usually affects males with a male to female ratio of 8-10 to 1. Many aetiological or associated factors have been described. Here we report a 39-year-old pregnant lady presented with left central serous chorioretinopathy preceded by an unusual emotional disturbance. She was not given any photocoagulative treatment to avoid possible photocoagulative complications. Post delivery, she presented with resolution of the CSC.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/complications*
Fulltext The correlation between serum leptin and blood pressure after exposure to noise at work

Rahma MS, Mustafa BE, Razali A, Shamsuddin N, Althunibat OY

Noise Health, 2013 Nov-Dec;15(67):375-8.
PMID: 24231415 DOI: 10.4103/1463-1741.121223

Several epidemiologic studies have reported that exposure to noise is associated with cardiovascular disease. The increased body weight is often associated with metabolic as well as increased blood pressure. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between the elevation of blood pressure and serum leptin hormones due to the effects of noise in the work place. A total of 80 volunteer males where included in this study with an age range between of 20 and 45 years, they were divided in two groups equally, the 1 st group were exposed to noise in the workplace while the 2 nd group were not. The individual noise exposure was determined by using a sound level meter. The range of noise was 80-100 dBA. Body Mass Index was also taken for each individual by a standard measure, blood pressure was measured by OMRON sphygmomanometer and serum leptin was measured through venous blood sample analysis enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Spearman rank order correlation was used to examine the correlations between Blood pressure value (Systolic, Diastolic) and Leptin. All the relationships between parameters showed a positive correlation. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure values had a significant correlation to leptin hormone level in comparison to the control. There was a significant relation between leptin and blood pressure. leptin effects on the sympathetic nervous system may provide a partial explanation. Therefore, Leptin might have diverse cardiovascular actions.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/etiology*; Stress, Psychological/physiopathology
Fulltext Treatment readiness, attitudes toward, and experiences with methadone and buprenorphine maintenance therapy among people who inject drugs in Malaysia

Vijay A, Bazazi AR, Yee I, Kamarulzaman A, Altice FL

J Subst Abuse Treat, 2015 Jul;54:29-36.
PMID: 25841703 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsat.2015.01.014

Little is known about attitudes toward and experiences with opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) among people who inject drugs in Malaysia, a country where people who inject drugs comprise 1.3% of the adult population.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/psychology
The relationship of hostility, negative affect and ethnicity to cardiovascular responses: an ambulatory study in Singapore

Enkelmann HC, Bishop GD, Tong EM, Diong SM, Why YP, Khader M, et al.

Int J Psychophysiol, 2005 May;56(2):185-97.
PMID: 15804452

This study tested the hypotheses that ambulatory heart rate and blood pressure would be higher for individuals high but not low in hostility when they experienced negative affect or social stress and that this interaction would be stronger for Indians compared with other Singapore ethnic groups. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was done on 108 male Singapore patrol officers as they went about their daily duties. After each BP measurement participants completed a computerized questionnaire including items on emotional experience. Individuals high in hostility showed higher systolic blood pressure when reporting negative affect whereas this was not true for those low in hostility. Ethnic differences were obtained such that Indians showed an increase in mean arterial pressure when angered whereas MAP was negatively related to anger for Malays and unrelated for Chinese. Also a three-way interaction between ethnicity, hostility, and social stress indicated that hostility and social stress interacted in their effects on DBP for Indian participants but not for Chinese or Malays. Finally, a three-way interaction was obtained between ethnicity, hostility and negative affect for heart rate in which heart rate increased with increasing levels of negative affect for Chinese high in hostility and Malays low in hostility but decreased with increasing negative affect for all other participants. These data are consistent with higher CHD rates among individuals high in hostility and also provide additional evidence on ethnic differences in cardiovascular reactivity in Singapore.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/ethnology; Stress, Psychological/physiopathology; Stress, Psychological/psychology
Stress management training program for stress reduction and coping improvement in public health nurses: A randomized controlled trial

Alkhawaldeh JM, Soh KL, Mukhtar F, Peng OC, Alkhawaldeh HM, Al-Amer R, et al.

J Adv Nurs, 2020 Nov;76(11):3123-3135.
PMID: 32856353 DOI: 10.1111/jan.14506

AIMS: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the stress management interventional program in reducing occupational stress and improving coping strategies among public health nurses.
DESIGN: A double-blind, cluster-randomized approach was used as a randomization method for this study to evaluate the stress management interventional program.
METHODS: A cluster-randomized controlled trial was carried out in eight comprehensive healthcare centres in Amman city, Jordan; four centres were randomly assigned to each experimental and control group. One hundred and seventy nurses were selected randomly from March 2019 - August 2019 and data were collected by using the Nursing Stress Scale & brief COPE over three data collection times. Both descriptive and inferential statistics (repeated measure ANOVA, Independent t test, and chi-squared) were used to answer the research questions of this study.
RESULTS: The results showed that both the levels of occupational stress and coping strategies were significantly different between the two study groups over the three data collection points (p stress management program is an effective non-invasive method that can be used to reduce stress levels and improve coping strategies for public health nurses. The implementation of stress management interventions in health care is likely to help nurses manage occupational stress in practice.
IMPACT: Nurses suffer from a high level of occupational stress. In particular, approximately74% of nurses experience severe occupational stress, which can lead to many mental and physical disorders. However, nurses were less able to utilize the correct stress preventive strategies due to gaps in knowledge, skills, and awareness. This study contributed to the provision of empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the stress management program in reducing occupational stress and improving coping strategies among public health nurses. A stress management intervention program is a valuable non-invasive method that can be used by healthcare organizations to reduce stress levels and improve coping strategies for nurses in practice.
CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03833986.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological
Fulltext Effects of Probiotics on Anxiety, Stress, Mood and Fitness of Badminton Players

Salleh RM, Kuan G, Aziz MNA, Rahim MRA, Rahayu T, Sulaiman S, et al.

Nutrients, 2021 May 24;13(6).
PMID: 34073684 DOI: 10.3390/nu13061783

BACKGROUND: Reports of probiotic consumption on athletes' performance are debatable due to their equivocal results. There is a need for more evidence on the effects of probiotic intake on psychological state and fitness level. Thus, this study determined the effects of daily probiotic consumption on competitive anxiety, perceived stress and mood among university badminton players, besides their fitness like aerobic capacity, strength, speed, leg power and agility.
METHODS: Thirty university badminton players aged from 19 to 22 years old were randomly divided equally into two groups, where the probiotic group (PG; n = 15) received a drink that contained Lactobacillus casei Shirota (3 × 1010 CFU) and placebo group (CG; n = 15) a placebo drink for six weeks. Anxiety, stress and mood levels were determined using the CSAI-2R, PSS and BRUMS questionnaires, respectively. Fitness levels were measured using by subjecting the players to 20-m shuttle runs (aerobic capacity), handgrips (muscular strength), vertical jumps (leg power), 40-m dash (speed) and T-test (agility). The Student's t-test (p < 0.05) was used to determine the differences between PG and CG players.
RESULTS: After six weeks, the anxiety and stress levels of PG players significantly decreased by 16% (p < 0.001) and 20% (p < 0.001), respectively, but there were no significant changes detected in CG players. Supplementation of probiotics also improved aerobic capacity in PG players by 5.9% (p < 0.001) but did not influence the speed, strength, leg power and agility.
CONCLUSIONS: Probiotics supplementation showed improved aerobic capacity and relieve anxiety and stress. However, further studies need to be carried out to determine the mechanisms through which probiotic intake produces these effects.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/drug therapy*
Reliability (internal consistency) of the job content questionnaire on job stress among office workers of a multinational company in Kuala Lumpur

Maizura H, Masilamani R, Aris T

Asia Pac J Public Health, 2009 Apr;21(2):216-22.
PMID: 19189999 DOI: 10.1177/1010539509331981

This small, cross-sectional study assessed the reliability of 3 scales from the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ)-decision latitude, psychological job demand, and social support-in a group of office workers in a multinational company in Kuala Lumpur. A universal sample of 30 white-collar workers from a department of the company self-administered the English version of the JCQ comprising 21 core items selected from the full recommended version of 49 items on-site. Reliability (internal consistency) was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficients for each scale. Corrected item-total correlation was presented for each and every item. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were acceptable for decision latitude (.76) and social support (.79) but slightly lower for psychological job demand (.64). Values for all item-total correlations for all 3 scales were greater than .3. In conclusion, this study suggests that the JCQ is a reliable scale for assessing job stress in this group of workers.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/diagnosis*
Coping Styles Mediate Perfectionism Associations with Depression Among Undergraduate Students

Abdollahi A, Hosseinian S, Asmundson GJG

J Gen Psychol, 2018 01 18;145(1):93-105.
PMID: 29345535 DOI: 10.1080/00221309.2017.1421137

To better understand depression among adolescent university students, this study was designed to examine coping style as a potential mediator between perfectionism and depression. Participants comprised 510 undergraduate students from Malaysia. Structural Equation Modelling demonstrated that personal standards perfectionism and task-focused coping style were negatively associated with depression, while emotion-focused coping style, avoidant coping style, and evaluative concerns perfectionism were positively associated with depression. Multiple mediator modelling provided evidence that coping styles partially mediated the relationship between perfectionism and depression. These findings advance current knowledge by suggesting how perfectionism may contribute to depression and may inform the development of more effective prevention and intervention programs for depression.

Matched MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological/psychology

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