Association between work fatigue and cognitive function among Lebanese health-care professionals: the moderating effect of emotional intelligence

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the association between work-related fatigue and cognitive impairment among Lebanese health-care professionals with a closer look into the moderating role of emotional intelligence. This cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2021 and January 2022; 406 Lebanese health-care professionals were recruited through convenience sampling. Moderate analysis showed that with low levels of emotional intelligence, more physical, mental, or emotional work fatigue was significantly associated with lower cognitive function scores. These scores get better in people with moderate and high emotional intelligence for the same levels of work fatigue. Health-care workers, especially in Lebanon, are subject to a decline in their cognitive function when faced to high work fatigue loads in all its types, physical, mental, and emotional, along with the country’s stressors. Here comes the role of emotional intelligence, where for the same level of fatigue, professionals with high emotional intelligence tend to have better cognitive functioning

KEYWORDS:

• Work fatigue
• emotional intelligence
• cognitive function
• health-care professionals

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants.

Authors’ contributions

AG, SO and SH conceived and designed the survey. SH was involved in the statistical analysis and data interpretation. SM wrote the manuscript. IA and DM involved in the data collection. All authors reviewed the manuscript, critically revised it for intellectual content, and approved the final version.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the authors do not have the right to share any data information as per their institutions’ policies but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.