Emerging Issues in Occupational Disease: Mental Health in the Aging Working Population and Cognitive Impairment-A Narrative Review.

Gabriele Giorgi,Luigi I Lecca,Gabriela Topa,Jose M Leon-Perez,Silvia Pignata,Nicola Mucci

doi:10.1155/2020/1742123

Abstract

Cognitive impairment has often been reported in scientific literature as a concern derived from chronic exposure to work-related stress. Organizational factors can contribute to the onset of this concern especially in a susceptible population such as elderly workers. The aim of our study was to review the last five years of scientific literature, focusing on experimental and epidemiological studies, possible mechanisms implicated in the onset of cognitive decline due to work-related stress, and the recent organizational strategies to prevent detrimental effects of stress on cognitive processes. A literature search was performed in scientific platforms Medline and Web of Science, by means of specific string search terms, restricting the search to the years of publication 2014–2019. Thirty-three articles were identified and qualitatively evaluated, reporting narratively the main point of interest. At this stage, six articles were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Only a few articles considered the population of the elderly workers, often with a short follow-up period. Strategies to manage stress with organizational procedures are scarce. Mechanisms implicated in the development of cognitive impairment due to stress are not fully explained and seem to include a chronical decrease in the inhibitory process of neurological pathways. Further research that focused on strategies to manage stress in elderly workers, with the aim of preventing cognitive impairment processes, is warranted.

Highlights

Mental health in occupational settings is a major topic for occupational medicine, psychology, and social science [1, 2], with important implications for general health, psychological well-being, and company productivity [3, 4]
Chronic cognitive impairment cannot be evaluated with a cross-sectional study design. e same authors repeated the assessment of neuropsychological performance in the same group of patients and controls after one year [23] and found that the former patients with prolonged work-related stress continued to perform worse
Our narrative review provides an update of the emerging problem of the decline of cognitive performance in elderly workers exposed to work-related stress

Summary

Introduction

Mental health in occupational settings is a major topic for occupational medicine, psychology, and social science [1, 2], with important implications for general health, psychological well-being, and company productivity [3, 4]. Since the decrease of classic occupational disease, due to the general improvement of working conditions, more attention is being paid to the mental well-being of employees. In the last five years, a consistent number of publications have been produced on this topic [5,6,7,8]. Modern industry 4.0 is changing the way of working, requiring high mental performance along with low physical effort. Modern 4.0 factories are characterized by high connectivity between production lines and operators’ control through a system that can visualise the entire production line and make decisions on its own

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