Effectiveness of bioenergy economy-based health improvement versus mindfulness-based stress reduction on the occupational stress and psychosomatic symptoms of distressed employees

Abstract

Background: Career stress is one of the most important and challenging risk factors among employees because of its vast effect on mental and physical health. This research was conducted with the aim to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and bioenergy economy-based health improvement (BEHI) program on occupational stress and psychosomatic symptoms of distressed employees. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted using a pretest-posttest design. The targeted population of the study comprised all employees of the customer service management department of Telecommunications Company in Isfahan, Iran, in the year 2018. Purposeful sampling was employed, and 60 candidates exhibiting distress symptoms were randomly assigned to 3 groups (MBSR, BEHI, and control groups), each consisting of 20 individuals. Data collection was performed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6; Kessler et al., 2003), Stressful Life Event (SLE) Questionnaire (Roohafza et al., 2011), Occupational Stress Questionnaire (Cousins et al., 2004), and Screening for Somatoform Symptoms-7 (SOMS-7) questionnaire (Ebrahimi et al., 2018). The experimental groups participated in the MBSR (Kabat-Zinn, 1990) and BEHI (Goli, 2022) program training sessions. The control group received no intervention. The data were assessed in SPSS software. Results: Both the BEHI program and MBSR therapy significantly decreased the occupational stress (F = 2.78) and psychosomatic symptoms (F = 3.63) of distressed employees (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental groups in the posttest (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Both programs could reduce the employees' distress on worksites and could be beneficial for healers to mitigate the psychosomatic manifestations of occupational stressors. © 2024, Vesnu Publications. All rights reserved.