This stress reduction White Paper provides the science that shows the solutions being taught during Joy Walk 2019 are aiming at the right target.
The White Paper documents research about the way psychological stress affects our ability to thrive. Download the full PDF here:
Stress The Most Productive Primary Prevention Target Preliminary White Paper
Executive Summary
Psychological stress is a ripe target for primary prevention of morbidity, mortality, injuries, and accidents. Improved emotion regulation and stress coping skills revealed by research over the past decade provide the opportunity to significantly reduce perceived and experienced stress. Countries, including the UK and Greece, have recognized the detrimental impact of stress on population health and mandated employers to reduce occupational stress to acceptable levels.
Psychological stress has an adverse impact on:
Maternal Stress during Gestation
- The health of offspring at and after birth
- Birth weight and duration of gestation
- Perinatal period complications
- Health across the lifespan
Childhood Stressors
- Increased risk of drug and alcohol abuse
- Increased risk of mental illness
- Increased risk of teen pregnancy
- Increased risk of involvement in criminal activity
- Decreased likelihood of high school graduation
- Decreased likelihood of college admission
- Decreased likelihood of college graduation
- Increased risky behaviors (e.g., driving recklessly, not wearing seatbelts and condoms, etc.)
Workplace Stress
- Worse perceptions about work increase burnout and disengagement, both of which increase the risk of morbidity including fatigue, hypertension, and obesity.
- Social support at work is protective against the detrimental effects of chronic stress. Toxic, uncivil, and unsupportive workplace environments add to chronic stress to decrease employee well-being.
- The health outcomes experienced by employees differ in line with whether the organization (overall score, supervisors, and co-workers) is viewed as supportive of a healthy work environment. Employees whose workplace scores as consistently positive experience better health than workgroups that are average or negative. Average groups fare better than consistently negative groups on employee well-being.[i]
General Stressors
- Increased risk of mental illnesses
- Increased risk of a broad spectrum of mental and physical illnesses
Disaster-related Stress
- Increased serious mental health problems
- Increased intimate partner violence (+31%)
Health-related Behavior
- Worse food choices
- Decreased physical activity
- Lower quality and duration of sleep
- Less social support (social support is protective against deleterious outcomes from stress)
- Increased addictions and maladaptive drug and alcohol use including binge drinking
Outcomes Associated with Improved Stress Management
- 50% reduction in development of cardiovascular disease[ii]
- Reductions in a broad spectrum of chronic illnesses
Research has provided us with much better tools than we had a dozen years ago. These new tools allow us to address psychosocial stress inexpensively with large groups. Unmanaged or poorly managed stress increases the incidents of mental and physical illnesses and contributes to undesirable behaviors including addiction, crime, and violence.
Stress Reduction White Paper
The purpose of this paper is to provide a consolidated source for the research that supports the message shared during Joy Walk 2019 so talks can focus on how to apply the solutions and not the evidence that supports them. Joy Walk 2019 won’t tell people what they should do–it will help them learn how to do what they should do. The research supports the reasons to do it. The choice to thrive more nor not is up to each individual.
[i] (Zweber, et al., 2015)
[ii] (Boehm, 2012)