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福祉。他们也越来越意识到，员工福祉不佳会对工作场所绩效和业务产出产生连锁反应。企业和整个社会面临的主要挑战是为员工找到最佳的工作模式，最大限度地提高福祉和经济产出。 这项研究将解释工作模式对员工工作表现产生影响的心理和生物过程。我们将研究工作模式如何影响身心健康，以及身心健康如何反过来推动工作场所绩效。我们从其他研究中得知，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。我们还知道，身心健康的这些方面会影响大脑功能，从而最终影响工作表现。为了更好地了解工作模式、幸福感和工作绩效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磁共振成像 (fMRI) 数据，这是一项针对 100,000 名英国公民的大规模研究。生物银行参与者提供了有关他们工作模式的信息，例如他们在工作上花费了多少时间。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，与特定的大脑活动模式以及生活方式、心理健康和免疫功能之间的关系。这将告诉我们，对于大部分英国人口来说，长时间工作会对健康造成什么后果。 接下来，我们将与参与的雇主一起试行每周工作 4 天。在每周工作 4 天的情况下，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，每周工作 4 天可以提高工作效率。我们认为这是因为员工得到了更好的休息，并且有更高的积极性。然而，尚未证明工作场所绩效的有益变化是由于身心健康（例如大脑功能）的改善所致。我们将使用 MRI 扫描、血液测试以及心理健康和生活方式调查问卷来调查每周工作 4 天如何改变员工的健康状况。我们还将调查在同一组人中，每周工作 4 天如何改变工作表现。这将使我们首次能够解释每周 4 天的工作绩效改善是否是由于员工因工作时间减少而获得的健康益处。 最后，我们将在“每周工作 4 天”全球基金会在世界许多国家进行的“每周工作 4 天”国际试验中重复我们的发现，即每周工作 4 天的更好的幸福感与更好的工作场所表现相关。这将巩固我们对跨多种类型的雇主和跨文化的每周 4 天工作制的理解。 这种利用科学技术（例如 MRI 脑部扫描）来了解现代工作模式的全新应用将使我们能够向政策制定者（政府）和雇主提出如何最大限度地提高员工绩效和生产力的建议。它还将使我们能够向公众解释工作模式如何影响健康，以及如何改进。 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（例如零时合同）如何影响健康、大脑功能和工作场所绩效。最终，这项研究将帮助我们理解和优化 21 世纪职场的心理和生物学理想工作模式。