Shu-Ling Huang

Long-term psychological effects of low-dose radiation exposure have received limited attention. This study examined radiation-related worry, coping, and psychological distress among residents exposed to contaminated buildings in Taiwan, and tested the mediating roles of approach and avoidant coping. Methods: a cross-sectional survey (2022–2023) recruited 268 residents with prior exposure. Radiation-related worry, coping strategies, and psychological distress were assessed using validated scales. Correlation and multiple regression analyses evaluated associations and mediation. Results: overall worry and distress were low, yet they were modestly but significantly correlated ( r = .207, p < .01). Approach coping partially mediated the relationship between worry and distress, and was also directly associated with higher distress ( β = 0.158, p < .01). Avoidant coping was positively associated with distress ( β = 0.247, p < .01) but was not significantly related to worry, and thus did not serve as a mediator. Conclusions: even decades later, radiation-related worry remains positively associated with psychological distress. Coping strategies appear to play complex roles: approach coping may be linked to higher distress in uncontrollable contexts, while avoidant coping is independently associated with distress. In long-term, low-dose radiation exposure contexts, interventions focusing on managing excessive engagement and recalibrating active coping strategies may help individuals to achieve better psychological adjustment.

Background: This study aims to explore the moderating role of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in the association between work stress and burnout. Burnout is a persistent occupational health problem; however, individual-level strategies associated with its lower prevalence remain limited. This study addresses whether CRF functions as a resource that interacts with work stress in relation to burnout levels. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, questionnaire data were collected from workers in glass manufacturing, including demographics, job-related characteristics, work stress (including psychological job demands, job control, and workplace social support), and burnout. Anthropometric measurements and the step test were also conducted. Hierarchical multiple linear regression with mean-centered interaction terms was used to test moderation. Findings: A total of 377 full-time workers voluntarily participated in the study. The results indicate that over two-thirds of participants exhibited poor or very poor CRF. Although CRF was not directly associated with burnout, it moderated the relationship between job control and burnout (β = .11, p < .05). Specifically, job control was not significantly associated with burnout at higher levels of CRF, whereas the association remained significant at lower levels of CRF. Additionally, CRF did not moderate the relationship between psychological job demands or workplace social support and burnout. Conclusion: These findings highlight improving CRF as a factor that may relate to a reduced association between low job control and burnout among employees. Application to Practice: Promoting CRF through workplace wellness initiatives may enhance employee resilience, particularly in environments where organizational changes to increase job control are challenging.

Background/Objectives: White-collar workers experience a unique dual burden of high psychological demands and prolonged static loading, creating a need to understand how physical resilience may mitigate these stressors. This study investigated the moderating role of specific muscle fitness components in the associations between work stress, burnout, and well-being among white-collar workers. To address the gap in task-specific physical resilience, we employed a cross-sectional design involving 321 full-time employees. Methods: Work stress (job control and demands), burnout, and well-being were assessed via structured questionnaires, while grip strength, abdominal endurance, and back muscle endurance were objectively measured. Results: Results indicated that the muscle fitness components were not directly associated with either burnout or well-being. However, the moderation model for burnout was significant (F = 15.837, p < 0.001; adjusted R² = 0.278), where back muscle endurance significantly moderated the association between psychological job demands and burnout (β = −0.121, p < 0.05), whereas no such moderating effect was observed for well-being. In contrast, no such moderating effect was observed for well-being, nor did grip strength or abdominal endurance exhibit significant buffering effects on either psychological outcome. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the relevance of task-specific physical resources in sedentary environments, specifically that back endurance functions as a buffer against burnout but may be insufficient to directly enhance overall well-being. The results suggest that while integrating task-specific physical assessments is vital for burnout prevention, psychosocial organizational support remains essential for fostering comprehensive well-being.

This study examined the relationships between job-related factors and overall physical activity (PA), including its subdivisions: leisure-time PA, transportation PA, and work-related PA. Additionally, this study investigated the associations between exercise intentions and different types of PA. A cross-sectional design was employed, utilizing a questionnaire to collect data on participants’ demographics, job-related characteristics, exercise intentions, and levels of PA. A total of 400 full-time workers voluntarily participated in this study. The findings identified women, white-collar workers, those with longer working hours, and individuals with low exercise intentions as high-risk groups for insufficient overall PA in multiple linear regression analysis. After controlling for covariates, occupation was found to be associated with both overall PA (β = 0.146) and work-related PA (β = 0.236). Shift workers exhibited higher levels of work-related PA (β = 0.234). Furthermore, exercise intentions showed associations with overall PA (β = 0.243), leisure-time PA (β = 0.523), and transportation PA (β = 0.176) but did not demonstrate a significant relationship with work-related PA. This study highlights the importance of implementing comprehensive approaches in workplace health promotion programs aimed at enhancing various types of PA. Strategies should focus on improving exercise intentions to boost leisure-time and transportation PA, while work-related PA requires tailored interventions based on job-specific factors.

Purpose: The present study aims to examine the disparate effects of health behavior models, namely exercise self-efficacy (ESE), health belief model (HBM), and planned behavior theory (PBT), applied to clarify the degree of regular exercise among workers in Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was adopted. A questionnaire was distributed to obtain information pertaining to regular exercise level, demographic characteristics, and the scores of ESE, HBM, and PBT. In total, 400 full-time workers voluntarily participated in this study. Results: The results showed that only 20.5% of the participants exercised regularly, 37.3% exercised irregularly, and 42.3% did not exercise currently. “Perceived benefits” and “perceived barriers” pertaining to HBM; “attitude” and “perceived behavioral control” pertaining to PBT; and ESE were associated with regular exercise level in the multiple linear regression analyses of each health behavior model. When all three models were considered simultaneously, ESE provided the greatest explanation of the variances for regular exercise levels. PBT total made a smaller contribution in the prediction of regular exercise level, while the effect of HBM did not show statistical significance. In order to explore the practicality of moving beyond theoretical models and focusing on the components across health behavior models to enhance workers’ exercise behavior, the components showing statistical significance in separate analysis were put into the multiple linear regression simultaneously. The results showed that ESE, perceived barriers of health behavior, attitude, and perceived behavioral control were significantly associated with regular exercise level. Conclusion: A low percentage of workers exercising regularly should be a notable issue for workplace health promotion. Neither utilizing cues to exercise nor advertising health threats of physical inactivity is sufficient to enable workers to exercise regularly. Enhancing workers’ ESE and behavior control and removing the exercise barriers would constitute efficient strategies for maintaining the exercise habit of workers.

The purpose of the present study was to explore the role of gender in the relation of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), white blood cell (WBC) count, and serum uric acid (UA) to the risk of future cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. In total, 404 workers were recruited to obtain the measurements of serum markers for CVD risk. Demographic data, nutrition, exercise, smoking, and alcohol consumption were assessed through a questionnaire. The Framingham Risk Score (FRS) was adopted to estimate the risk of future CVD events. Multiple linear regression models were used to determine CVD risk markers in relation to the FRS by gender. The hsCRP was not significantly correlated with the FRS for all workers after adjusting for covariates, including demographic data and health-related lifestyle. WBC count was positively correlated with FRS for all workers, but WBC count did not show an interaction with gender with respect to the FRS. Serum UA showed an interaction with gender on the FRS, and UA positively correlated with the FRS in males though not in females. With respect to CVD prevention, the WBC count can be used to monitor the risk for all workers. Due to a gender difference shown in the relationship between serum UA and the FRS, serum UA can be a monitor of the risk of future CVD events in male workers only.

This study aimed to investigate level of work ability and quality of life (QOL) as well as the relationship between them among patients suffering from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in Taiwan. A cross-sectional study design with continuous sampling and a questionnaire were used to obtain the research data. Controlling for personal characteristics, pain, psychological distress, and social support, multiple linear regressions were adopted to explore the relationship between work ability and overall QOL. Further analyses were also made to clarify the relationships between work ability and each domain of QOL. In total, 165 patients with WMSDs were recruited. Compared with general workers, the participants reported a lower level of work ability and overall QOL. Work ability was significantly associated with overall QOL when covariates were controlled. Among the four domains of QOL, work ability was significantly associated with both the physical and psychological domains. The conclusion was that work ability is a definite factor of QOL for patients with WMSDs; the essence of work ability may be beyond economic function or social support. Strategies to help workers with WMSDs enhance their work ability to fit their new or temporary jobs would be beneficial to their QOL.

The present study explores the relations between work hours and the difficulty in leaving work on time to both work-to-family conflict (WFC) and burnout among female workers in Taiwan. A cross-sectional research design and questionnaire were employed to obtain the research data. In total, 738 full-time female workers took part in the study. The results of regression analyses showed that when age, marital status, economic status, occupation, parental status, and housework responsibilities were controlled, more work hours were positively associated with WFC and burnout. When the difficulty in leaving work on time was also considered in the analysis, long working hours were still significantly associated with burnout; however, the significant relation with WFC disappeared. It is surmised that if female employees work overtime voluntarily, the perception of WFC diminishes; nevertheless, the adverse effect of long working hours on health remains unabated. This study concludes that female employees who work overtime on a voluntary basis are at risk of health problems, which should be a focus of concern.

The present study aims to apply gender-specific analyses to examine how work-to-family conflict (WFC) and burnout are related to well-being among the workers in Taiwan. A cross-sectional research design was adopted. A questionnaire was distributed to obtain information pertaining to demographic characteristics, WFC, burnout, and well-being. In total, 4259 full-time workers in the manufacturing industry were recruited. Gender-specific statistical analyses were used. The results showed that no significant gender difference occurred on WFC; however, females had higher scores on burnout compared to males. In the correlation analyses, WFC as well as burnout were negatively associated with well-being in both genders. In the regression analyses when demographic factors were controlled, burnout explained larger variances of well-being in both genders compared with WFC. WFC made a smaller contribution to the models predicting well-being in males in contrast to females. Moreover, the significant association between WFC and well-being for males disappeared when burnout was taken into account. The conclusion reached was that to improve workers’ well-being, organizations should develop relevant policies to decrease the extent of burnout for different genders. The policies that the organization adopted should consider females’ needs beyond work-related burden. Moreover, merely decreasing the extent of WFC is insufficient to enhance males’ well-being.

This study aimed to investigate the relationships of nutrition and exercise behaviors on metabolic risk factors (MRF) when body mass index (BMI) was considered. Health-associated nutrition and exercise behaviors were assessed by a questionnaire, anthropometric values, blood pressure and biochemical determinations that were obtained from 4017 workers. The nutrition score was negatively associated with triglycerides in the overweight subgroup and with systolic blood pressure (SBP) in the obese subgroup. The exercise score was negatively associated with triglycerides and waist circumference (WC) and positively associated with SBP and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in the ideal weight subgroup as well as being negatively associated with WC and positively associated with HDL-C in the overweight subgroup. Similarly, the exercise score was negatively associated with WC and positively associated with SBP in the obese subgroup. However, no significant association was found between nutrition or exercise behavior and MRF in the underweight subgroup. In conclusion, the relationships of exercise and nutrition behaviors on MRF varied for different levels of BMI. Exercise showed a significant association with lower WC. Moreover, its effect showed a gradient trend in accordance with the levels of BMI. For ameliorating MRF, exercise seemed to have better effects than nutrition behavior, especially in the ideal weight subgroup.