Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate and compare the anxiety levels of office workers employed in a public health department and see if there was a difference between the 5 days of a week.
Methods: A sociodemographic form, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-I and II) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were performed to 50 office workers and 6 managers working only in morning shift in Ardahan Public Health Department in every working day of a week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). Questionnaires were filled during 3 weeks for a better rating. SPSS 17.0 program was used to analyze the collected data.
Results: Mean Monday STAI-I score was 39.14, although showing clinically significant anxiety levels, it was not statistically significant. Mean STAI-II score for Monday was 40.84, which is a statistically significant anxiety level. Analyses to determine the differences among days showed significant differences between Monday STAI-II score and the STAI-II scores of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. BAI scores were also different among days and these differences were statistically significant between Monday-Wednesday, Monday-Friday, and Thursday-Friday. Minority of the participants (15-30%) has shown a steadily increasing anxiety level from Monday to Friday.
Conclusion: High anxiety levels on Mondays as a psychosocial state affects more than half of the workers. When preparing weekly working schedules, work load should be homogeneously dispersed. On the other hand, we also observed a group that has an increased anxiety level on Friday, this observation needs further researches.
Key words: Monday Syndrome, anxiety, monday, office workers
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