How do healthy brains drive a healthy economy? A novel occupational neuroscience approach

健康的大脑如何推动健康的经济？

• 批准号: MR/X034100/1
• 负责人: Charlotte Rae
• 金额: $ 226.38万
• 依托单位: University of Sussex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FX034100%2F1
• 关键词: How; do; healthy; brains; drive

UK businesses are increasingly aware that long hours at work affect staff wellbeing. They are also increasingly conscious that poor staff wellbeing has a knock-on effect on workplace performance, and business outputs. A major challenge for businesses, and society as a whole, is to find optimum working patterns for staff that maximise both wellbeing, and economic output. This research will explain the psychological and biological processes that drive the impact of working patterns on how staff perform at work. We will study how physical and mental health are affected by working patterns, but also, how physical and mental health in turn drive workplace performance. We know from other research that working patterns affect employees' sleep, lifestyle, mental health, and immune systems. We also know that these aspects of physical and mental health impact on brain function, and therefore, ultimately, on performance at work. In order to better understand the psychological and biological interactions between working patterns, wellbeing, and performance at work, we will conduct three major studies. First, we will analyse functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale study of 100,000 UK citizens. The Biobank participants provided information about their working patterns, such as how much time they spend at work. We will investigate how their employment factors, in particular amount of time they spend at work, are associated with particular patterns of brain activity, as well as lifestyle, mental health, and immune function. This will tell us what the health consequences are of working long hours, in a large section of the UK population. Next, we will run trials of a 4 day working week with participating employers. In a 4 day week, full-time staff reduce their working hours to 4 days a week, while retaining full-time salary. Remarkably, studies so far show that productivity at work increases with a 4 day week. We think this is because employees are better rested, and have higher motivation. However, it has not yet been proven that the beneficial changes to workplace performance are due to improvements to physical and mental health, such as in brain function. We will investigate how a 4 day week changes staff wellbeing, using MRI scans, blood tests, and mental health and lifestyle questionnaires. We will also investigate how, in the same group of people, a 4 day week changes workplace performance. This will allow us, for the first time, to explain whether the improvements in performance at work that are seen on a 4 day week are due to the health benefits that employees experience from their reduced time on the job. Finally, we will seek to replicate our findings that better wellbeing on a 4 day week associates with better workplace performance in international trials of a 4 day week, conducted in many countries around the world by the 4 Day Week Global Foundation. This will solidify our understanding of how a 4 day week works, across many types of employers and across cultures. This entirely new application of scientific techniques (such as MRI brain scans) to understand modern day working patterns will enable us to make recommendations to policymakers (Government), and to employers, on how to maximise performance and productivity in the workforce. It will also enable us to explain to the general public how working patterns can impact health, and how this can be improved. In the future, we will also then investigate how other modern working patterns with potential health consequences for employees, such as zero-hours contracts, affect wellbeing, brain function, and workplace performance. Ultimately, this research will help us to understand and optimise psychologically and biologically ideal working patterns for the 21st world of work.

英国企业越来越意识到长时间工作会影响员工的健康。他们还越来越意识到，员工福利不佳会对工作场所的业绩和业务产出产生连锁反应。企业和整个社会面临的一个主要挑战是为员工找到最佳工作模式，最大限度地提高福利和经济产出。 这项研究将解释推动工作模式对员工工作表现的影响的心理和生物过程。我们将研究身心健康如何受到工作模式的影响，以及身心健康如何反过来推动工作场所的表现。我们从其他研究中了解到，工作模式会影响员工的睡眠、生活方式、心理健康和免疫系统。我们也知道，这些方面的身体和心理健康影响大脑功能，因此，最终，在工作中的表现。为了更好地了解工作模式、幸福感和工作表现之间的心理和生物相互作用，我们将进行三项主要研究。 首先，我们将分析来自英国生物银行的功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）数据，这是一项针对10万英国公民的大规模研究。生物银行的参与者提供了有关他们工作模式的信息，比如他们花在工作上的时间。我们将研究他们的就业因素，特别是他们花在工作上的时间，与大脑活动的特定模式，以及生活方式，心理健康和免疫功能之间的关系。这将告诉我们在英国大部分人口中，长时间工作对健康的影响。 接下来，我们将与参与的雇主进行每周4天工作制的试验。在4天工作制中，全职员工将工作时间减少到每周4天，同时保留全职工资。值得注意的是，迄今为止的研究表明，工作效率随着每周4天的工作而提高。我们认为这是因为员工得到了更好的休息，并且有更高的动力。然而，尚未证明工作场所表现的有益变化是由于身体和心理健康的改善，例如大脑功能。我们将调查4天工作周如何改变员工的幸福感，使用MRI扫描，血液测试，心理健康和生活方式问卷。我们还将调查在同一组人中，4天工作周如何改变工作场所的表现。这将使我们能够首次解释，每周工作4天的工作表现的改善是否是由于员工从工作时间减少中获得的健康益处。 最后，我们将试图复制我们的研究结果，即每周4天工作制与更好的工作场所表现之间存在联系，这是由4天工作制全球基金会在世界各地的许多国家进行的国际试验。这将巩固我们对4天工作周如何在许多类型的雇主和跨文化中运作的理解。 这种全新的科学技术（如MRI脑部扫描）应用于了解现代工作模式，将使我们能够向政策制定者（政府）和雇主提出建议，如何最大限度地提高劳动力的绩效和生产力。它还将使我们能够向公众解释工作模式如何影响健康，以及如何改善这一点。 在未来，我们还将研究其他对员工健康有潜在影响的现代工作模式，如零时合同，如何影响健康，大脑功能和工作场所表现。最终，这项研究将帮助我们理解和优化21世纪工作世界的心理和生物理想工作模式。