Travel certainly takes its toll--but according to a recently
published study, the effects on your health extend far beyond
disrupting your sleep patterns.
The results of the Medical Insurance Claims Associated With
International Business Travel study were drawn after analyzing the
medical insurance claims of nearly 11,000 employees of Washington,
DC-based World Bank. The organization, which lends to developing
countries worldwide, conducted the study.
As predicted, the researchers confirmed that as frequency and
duration of work-related international travel increased, so did the
incidences of infectious and parasitic diseases. "The physical
effects of travel are well-known," explains Dr. Bernhard
Liese, who designed the study for World Bank.
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But an unanticipated, even more significant finding surfaced:
Frequent business travelers also experienced a rise in
stress-related psychological disorders. "That was the
strongest association we found," Liese says. "And that
was something we hadn't expected."
The study's authors suspected jet lag as the logical cause,
at least until they compared claims of employees crossing several
time zones to those who did not leave their time zone at all--and
found no significant difference between the two.
Follow-up interviews with participants revealed the real
culprit. "Competing demands, multiple work pressures,
separation from the family, and adjusting to the return home--this
whole pool of issues seems to be more of the reason why people have
psychological disorders," says Liese.
So what does it all mean? For starters, Liese points to
preventive measures anyone can take--not just World Bank employees,
who rack up an average of 250,000 travel days a year. Frequent
travelers need to take it easy while on business trips and, upon
returning home, should take the adjustment process more gradually.
"These issues seem to be very prominent in other industries
and other companies as well," Liese says. "There are
considerable stresses attached to travel."
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