The importance of psychophysiological factors in the development of fatigue in digital technology workers

Introduction. The introduction of digital technologies and computerization of workplaces in all spheres of activity leads to an increasing intensification of work and the prevalence of the impact of a complex of psychophysiological factors on employees, which leads to increased risks of fatigue, the development of work-related diseases (hypertension, psychosomatic disorders), occupational stress and occupational injuries.

The study aims to identify the prevalence of psychophysiological factors and their influence on the appearance of signs of fatigue and deterioration of health in workers engaged in the field of digital technologies.

Materials and methods. The authors have conducted online survey of employees of three professional groups — "programmers", "operators" and "librarians", differing in the level of work intensity (a total of 1,190 respondents). The main focus group was programmers. To compare professional groups with each other, the method of cumulative scoring of respondents' answers to each of the questions was used. The researchers have analyzed the results of a special assessment of working conditions according to the Federal State Social Insurance Service at enterprises of the Russian Federation, as well as data from SAWC cards at computerized workplaces posted on the official websites of IT industry organizations. The researchers analyzed 18 summary reports (7568 employees, of which 4267 were IT specialists). Statistical processing included calculations of averages, errors of averages, tests, comparisons of frequencies of quantitative and categorical indicators, Fisher's exact test, chi-square criterion, Spearman correlation coefficient, assessment of relative risk (RR) and etiological proportion (EF, %).

Results. An analysis of the survey data showed that work intensity (WI) (mental and intellectual stress) is the leading factor in the working conditions of programmers — 29.0% of respondents noted the presence of work tension, noise was noted by 24.7% of respondents, elevated air temperature — 16.9%, insufficient illumination — 12.6%. In the work of operators, the assessment of the presence of a labor stress factor (nervous and emotional stress) was 2.5 times higher — 71.4%, while noise was the leading factor — 82.4%. Librarians' work intensity is also in 2^nd place — 20.8% — after the "dustiness" factor — 36.4%. According to the criteria of the total labor intensity score, operators are in the first place (830.2 points), programmers are in the second (530.3 points), librarians are in the third (482.6 points). The frequency of the severity factor was highest in the work of operators — 17.6%, in the other two groups — 7–8 times lower.

However, when assessing signs of psychological and physical well-being, programmers had the worst indicators. The prevalence of the indicators "decreased ability to concentrate" was 45.5%, 37.4% and 34.1% (p<0.05), "slow reaction speed" — 29.4%, 29.1% and 17.4% among programmers, operators and librarians, respectively. The total score for all these criteria was: programmers — 422.8 points, operators — 325.8 points, librarians — 294.9 points.

Significant correlation coefficients (rs) have been established between all signs of psychological and physical well-being disorders and labor intensity indicators (from 0.43 to 0.67 in the three groups), which indicates a significant contribution of labor intensity to the studied indicators in the group of programmers.

Limitations. The study had certain limitations due to the specifics of the survey based on the subjective opinion of the respondents.

Conclusion. The results obtained indicate a more pronounced deterioration in cognitive functions by the end of the work shift, as well as a higher incidence of signs of chronic fatigue and health problems among programmers, relative to the comparison groups. The features of cognitive impairment and chronic fatigue among programmers, the frequency of which in the course of the study was 51.1%, fit into the picture of "digital fatigue", a syndrome that WHO called a "professional phenomenon" in the modern world, most characteristic of IT workers. This requires improving hygienic approaches to assessing intellectual workloads, including for programmers, which are currently not legally fixed, and therefore the level of work intensity in the workplace is underestimated.

Ethics. The study did not require the conclusion of the Ethics Committee, all data were presented in a depersonalized form.

Contributions:
Zibarev E.V. — concept, design and methodology of research, questionnaire development, editing;
Kravchenko O.K. — data processing, questionnaire development, text writing;
Mazhkenov S.A. — research concept and design, questionnaire development, data collection, text writing;
Nikonova S.M. — data processing, questionnaire development, text writing;
Mukhin K.S. — research concept and design, data collection, editing.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no funding.

Received: 09.02.2026 / Accepted: 16.02.2026 / Published: 25.04.2026

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