Researchers from Maastricht followed more than 8000 initially healthy and fit employees from various companies during a three-year period. A year after the start of the study, almost ten percent of the originally healthy men were fatigued and of the initially healthy women, at least fourteen percent were fatigued. For both men and women, a lack of freedom to organise their own work and a lack of support from colleagues increased the risk for the onset of prolonged fatigue by a factor 1.5 to 2. In addition to this it was found that for men, a high emotional demand, physically demanding work and little support from immediate supervisors increased the occurrence of fatigue. In women on the other hand, a demanding job and conflicts were related to the onset of fatigue. The research also demonstrated that not only the work environment but also the lifestyle of the employees played an important role. Overweight men became fatigued 1.3 times as fast as colleagues with a normal weight. For men who where physically inactive during leave time, the same factor applied. For women, being underweight increased the risk of future fatigue by a factor of three. In 1998, the researchers sent a personal letter with a questionnaire to 27,000 employees in 45 companies and institutes. More than 12,000 people responded. Of these 8000 were not fatigued at the start of the study. These 8000 received an extensive questionnaire once a year and a short questionnaire twice a year throughout the study period. The Maastricht cohort study was set up to gain insight into the magnitude, onset, natural course and treatment of fatigue at work. Dr Ute Bültmann was the first person to obtain her doctorate in this project. Her research focussed on the magnitude of the onset of fatigue. Other research in the group is directed towards the phase following this. The ultimate goal is to develop prevention measures for prolonged fatigue in the working population. The research is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research Programme ‘Fatigue at work’.
The research was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
For further information please contact Dr Ute Bültmann (Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University), tel. +31 (0)43 3882384, fax +31 (0)43 3884128, e-mail u.bultmann@epid.unimaas.nl. The defence of the doctoral thesis took place on 12 April 2002. Dr Bültmann’s supervisors were Prof. P.A. van den Brandt (Maastricht University) and Prof. S.V. Kasl (Yale University, United States).