Abstract
Psychological distress has a negative impact on employee health and work performance. However, there is a paucity of studies examining the effects of exercise on the psychological well-being of workers in the field of occupational health. In this study, we evaluated the benefits of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based exercise program in reducing psychological distress among employees. A 10-week single-group study was conducted with employees aged 20 to 65 years who had no present or past serious medical illness. Eighty-one subjects participated in a 30-minute health education class instructed by a health-exercise teacher and psychologist, and subsequently completed a 10-week CBT-based exercise program developed by the authors. Post-intervention improvement of psychological distress on the Kessler psychological distress scale (K6) was the primary outcome. Forty-four subjects (54.3%) completed the program. For the subjects who completed the program, the mean total score on K6 significantly reduced from 4.39 to 3.53, with a mean change of 0.86 (p = 0.044). In addition, the total amount of weekly physical exercise significantly increased (p = 0.043) and daily amount of time spent sitting significantly decreased (p = 0.023). These findings suggest that a CBT-based exercise program may reduce the level of psychological distress and increase the amount of daily physical activity of healthy employees. In addition, self-help CBT-based exercise programs may have the potential to cause both positive mental and physical effects among non-clinical samples. Future studies including a control group and with higher completion rate among participants should be performed.
Highlights
Psychological distress is a general phrase used to describe unpleasant feelings or emotions such as sadness, anxiety, anger, or frustration (Pratt, 2009)
We have developed a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based exercise program based on the “The beck diet solution” (Beck, 2007; Beck, 2009), which utilizes skills such as psychological education, mood monitoring, and cognitive reconstruction
Only 17 (38.6%) subjects who met the criterion of 1380 METS/min per week were proposed to have a healthy amount of activity in daily life by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, indicating that the amount of exercise was low
Summary
Psychological distress is a general phrase used to describe unpleasant feelings or emotions such as sadness, anxiety, anger, or frustration (Pratt, 2009). It has become clear that psychological distress is even associated with death (Pratt, 2009). Kilkkinen et al (2007) reported that 31.3% of a rural population in Australia experienced moderate to severe psychological distress. The number of workers experiencing psychological distress has risen in the past five years, with larger workloads being identified as one of the causes for this increase (Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 2013). Severe stress affects cognitive functions, such as attention and memory, and lowers work performance (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). It is important for the field of occupational health to support psychological distress reduction techniques for employees
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