You are using an outdated browser. For a faster, safer browsing experience, upgrade for free today.

AGE AND EXPERIENCE RELATED CHANGES IN COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE OF SURGEONS WORKING DAILY DUTIES

AGE AND EXPERIENCE RELATED CHANGES IN COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE OF SURGEONS WORKING DAILY DUTIES

https://doi.org/10.33573/ujoh2016.02.027

Chernyuk V. I., Bobko N. A., Yavorskiy E. E.

AGE AND EXPERIENCE RELATED CHANGES IN COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE OF SURGEONS WORKING DAILY DUTIES

State Institution "Institute for Occupational Health of National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine", Kyiv

Full article (PDF), ENG

Introduction. Ageing is accompanied by a decline in a velocity of the information processing, possibility to process new and complicated information. At the same time semantic and logical memory, the ability to compare, classify and combine in mental workers remains to be high, owing to the professional importance of these characteristics. However, harmful work place conditions could affect cognitive performance.

Purpose of the study. To reveal age and experience related changes in cognitive functions of surgeons working daily duties. Materials and methods. 64 physicians of surgical specialties were observed at their workplaces, using computer based tests on cognitive performance. Age of subjects was 24–62 years, the overall work experience – 1–42 years, experience in profession – 1–39 years, experience in daily duties – up to 39 years, the experience in weekly daily duties – up to 33 years. The Pearson’s correlation at the value p<0, 05 was considered as a significant one, at the value 0,05 < p < 0,10 – as a trend.

Results. Normal age and experience related worsening in short-term memory, attention switching, attention concentration velocity, under time pressure, also, in attention concentration productivity were revealed. At the same time, with an increase in age and experience the significant improvement in the quality of attention concentration was found in surgeons. Under time pressure, its keeping at the same level, with an increase in daily duty experience, accuracy of 2-second intervals’ reproduction significantly reduced (of 3–5-second ones – did not change).

Conclusions. The cognitive performance of surgeons is the integral result of the normal age-related decline and professionally caused improvement, preservation (by virtue of the professional relevance) or deterioration (due to occupational hazards) in some functions of the higher nervous activity. The observed age and experience related improvement in the quality of attention concentration can reflect the professional importance of this characteristic for surgeons’ work. The deterioration in the accuracy of the short time intervals’ reproduction could be linked with the accelerated aging in this function under systematic night duties.

Key words: ageing, memory, attention, time perception, information flow processing

References

  1. Boiko, E. I. 1964, Human reaction time, Moscow: Meditsina, 440 p. (in Russian).
  2. Bonnefond, A., Rohmer, O., Hoeft, A. [et al.]. 2003, "Interaction of age with time of day and mental load in different cognitive tasks", Percept. Mot. Skills, v. 96, no. 3, pt. 2, pp. 1223–1236. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2003.96.3c.1223
  3. Monk, T. H., Buysse, D. J., Reynolds, C. F., 3rd [et al.]. 1992, "Rhythmic vs homeostatic influences on mood, activation, and performance in young and old men", J. Gerontol, v. 47, no. 4, pp. P221–P227. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/47.4.P221
  4. Reid, K., Dawson, D. 2001, "Comparing performance on a simulated 12 hour shift rotation in young and older subjects", Occup Environ Med, v. 58, no. 1, pp. 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.58.1.58
  5. Czigler, I., Patу, L., Poszet, E., Balazs, L. 2006. "Age and novelty: Event-related potentials to visual stimuli within an auditory oddball – visual detection task", Int J. of Psychophysiology, v. 62, no. 2, pp. 290–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2006.05.008
  6. Maddox, W. T., Pacheco, J., Reeves, M. [et al.] 2010, "Rule-based and information-integration category learning in normal aging", Neuropsychologia, v. 48, no. 10, pp. 2998–3008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.06.008
  7. Mutter, S. A., Plumlee, L. F. 2014, "The effects of age on associative and rule-based causal learning and generalization", Psychol Aging, v. 29, no. 2, pp. 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035930
  8. Stillman, C. M., Howard, J. H. Jr., Howard, D. V. 2016, "The effects of structural complexity on age-related deficits in implicit probabilistic sequence lear- ning", J. Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, v. 71, no. 2, pp. 212–219. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbu135
  9. Andel, R., Crowe, M., Kåreholt, I. [et al.] 2011, "Indicators of job strain at midlife and cognitive functioning in advanced old age", J. Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, v. 66, no. 3, pp. 287–291. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbq105
  10. Li, G., Grabowski, J. G., Baker, S. P., Rebok, G. W. 2006, "Pilot error in air carrier accidents: does age matter?", Aviat Space Environ Med, v. 77, no. 7, pp. 737–741.
  11. Navakatikyan, A. O., Kryzhanovskaya, V. V. 1979. "Age workability in mental workers", Kiev: Zdorov’ya, 208 p. (in Russian).
  12. O'Brien, J. L., Edwards, J. D., Maxfield, N. D. [et al.] 2013. "Cognitive training and selective attention in the aging brain: an electrophysiological study", Clin Neurophysiol, v. 124. no. 11, pp. 2198–2208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2013.05.012
  13. Bashkireva, A. S., Kachan, Y. Y., Kulapina, M. E. 2015, "Psychophysiological markers of accelerated aging among those working with occupational hazards", Adv Gerontol, v. 28, no. 2, pp. 336–343.
  14. Durning, S. J., Artino, A. R., Holmboe, E. [et al.] 2010, "Aging and cognitive performance: challenges and implications for physicians practicing in the 21st century", J. Contin Educ Health Prof, v. 30, no. 3, pp. 153–160. https://doi.org/10.1002/chp.20075
  15. Makarenko, N. V., Pukhov, V. A., Kolchenko, N. V. [et al.], 1987. "Bases of the Professional Psychophys iological Selection", Kiev : Naukova Dumka, 244 p. (in Russian).
  16. Navakatikyan, A. O., Buzunov, V. A., Majdikov, Yu. L., 1979, "Psychophysiological Methods of the Professional Selection for the Energy Enterprises’ Key Professions : Methodical Recommendations", Kiev, 24 p. (in Russian).
  17. Karpenko, A. V., 1992, "Current operators’ reliability and capacity for mental work. Monitoring systems, approaches to rehabilitation, orgware, computing base", Elektricheskiye Stantsii, no. 4, pp. 2–8 (in Russian).
  18. Majdikov, Yu. L., Makarenko, N. V., Petlenko, Ju. A. [et al.], 1985, "Psychophysiological Methods and Criteria for the Estimation of the Professional Activity Success of the HPPs’ Operative Personnel : Methodical Recommendations", Kiev, 55 p. (in Russian).
  19. Bobko, N. A., Chernjuk, V. I., Yavorskyi, E. E. 2010, "A method for evaluation of an operator’s current functional body state: Patent of Ukraine for a useful model № 49200 of 26.04.2010".
  20. Tsukanov, B. I., 1989, "Factor of time and a problem of the cardiovascular system diseases", Psychological Zhurn, v. 10, no. 1, pp. 83–88.
  21. Ferrario, V. F., Tredici, G., Crepsi, V. 1980, "Circadian rhythm in human nerve conduction velocity", Chronobiologia, v. 7, no. 2, pp. 205–209.
  22. Lufi, D., Segev, S., Blum, A. [et al.] 2015, "The effect of age on attention level: a comparison of two age groups", Int J. Aging Hum Dev, v. 81, no. 3, pp. 176–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091415015614953
  23. Block, R. A., Zakay, D., Hancock, P. A. 1998, "Human aging and duration judgments: a meta-analytic review", Psychol Aging, v. 13, no. 4, pp. 584–596. https://doi.org/10.1037//0882-7974.13.4.584
  24. Anderson, J. W., Rueda, A., Schmitter-Edgecombe, M. 2014, "The stability of time estimation in older adults", Int J. Aging Hum Dev, v. 78, no. 3, pp. 259–276. https://doi.org/10.2190/AG.78.3.c
  25. Verhaeghen, P., Cerella, J. 2002, "Aging, executive control, and attention: a review of meta-analyses", Neurosci Biobehav Rev, v. 26, no. 7, pp. 849–857. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(02)00071-4