Mental workload as a psychosocial risk factor. Differences based on sick leave

Mental workload is one of the most important psychosocial risk factors. It is defined in terms of the difference between the worker s resources and job demands. Overload and underload conditions cause problems in workers performance and health. In this paper, the appraisal of workload is compared among two groups of workers (those who had versus those who had not suffered at least one medical problem during the previous year). The NASA-TLX instrument was administered to a sample of 509 workers in order to assess mental workload. Results show that, in general, workers who have been on sick leave perceive higher levels of mental workload, especially in terms of effort, mental demand and frustration.