Current Students and Staff

// University News

11 May 2015

Email addiction is damaging the health of the nation

Email addiction is a growing problem and needs to be tackled to improve the health of the nation, claims one of the UK’s top email experts.

Professor Tom Jackson from Loughborough University has done extensive research on the impact of work email on health and mental wellbeing.

His findings show there is a direct link between email use and increased levels of stress as well as other health conditions such as hypertension, thyroid disease, heart failure and coronary artery disease.

Professor Jackson, from the University’s school of Business and Economics explains: “Multifunctional devices like Blackberry’s and iPhones allow workers to be accessible 24-hours a day, and because of this it is likely that there will be an increase in stress levels.

“Another concerning aspect is that many employees do not realise that they are stressed, as in my study users perceived themselves not to be stressed when the physiological findings showed their bodies were under increased stress. This would indicate that employees might find it difficult to self-regulate their use of communication media to ensure they do not become overwhelmed by stress.

“The significance of this is that long term short sharp increases such as this can lead to long term chronic health conditions.”

Read the press release for more information.