Will exposure to technostress increase the risk of mortality in the long run? No, that conclusion cannot be drawn just yet. However, the matter of fact is that technostress defined as ICT demands (i.e. experience of stress related to availability, overload and malfunctioning ICTs) have been observed to be associated with increased risk of poor self-rated health, based on both cross-sectional analyses and longitudinal analyses (the latter when the exposure to ICT demands was repeated). This after adjustment for several potential confounders such as job strain, effort-reward imbalance, health behaviors and not least social support. Self-rated health can in its simplest form be measured by the question “How would you rate your general state of health”. But why care so much about this silly simple question? Because it’s a good predictor of future health status and mortality, I would say. It is a cost-effective measure of health status as well. Nevertheless, is there any hope for us out there? Yes, there is! If the quality of buffering resources (e.g. organizational, psychological, individual) are enough, there is no need to worry too much about it, since the resources can balance the negative impact work-related stress (technostress in this context) have on our health status. So do not forget about the resources in actions to maintain or enhance a healthy digital work environment!
For further reading, see the attached articles.
https://link-springer-com.proxy.library.ju.se/article/10.1007%2Fs00420-016-1140-8
https://link-springer-com.proxy.library.ju.se/article/10.1007%2Fs00420-019-01407-6
Best Regards
/Magdalena Stadin
- The move to New Ångström - January 21, 2022
- Podcast episode about eHealth, competence and work-related stress by ‘A Smart future’ (sv. En Smart Framtid) - November 30, 2020
- Debate article about efforts to improve the digital work environment - October 5, 2020