ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1603059
This article is part of the Research TopicMusic-based Interventions for Mental Health and WellbeingView all 10 articles
Integrative Stress Management for Global Workforce: A Randomized Trial of Music-based and Exercise Intervention for Overseas Employees
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fuzhou University, Fujian, China
- 2Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China
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Background: Overseas employees experience high stress from cultural, work, and social challenges. This study examines whether combining music-based intervention and aerobic exercise reduces stress, and explores the influence of age, occupation, music preference, and long-term effects.: We conducted a randomized trial with 92 Chinese expatriate workers, randomly assigned to either (1) an experimental group receiving weekly 45-minute resource-oriented music-based intervention sessions plus 30-minute moderate-intensity exercise, or (2) a control group receiving placebo interventions (background music + stretching) for 5 weeks. Stress levels were assessed using the Global Assessment of Recent Stress (GARS) at baseline (pre-intervention), post-intervention (0 months), and at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups through online surveys, supplemented by qualitative interviews. Results: The experimental group demonstrated significant stress reduction (GARS scores decreased from 3.59±0.71 to 2.68±0.57, p<0.001), with effects sustained at 6 months (p<0.05). Subgroup analyses showed enhanced efficacy for (a) employees aged 40-49 years, (b) classical music listeners, and (c) high-stress occupations like seafarers. Qualitative data corroborated these findings by highlighting participants' subjective experiences of improved emotional regulation, reduced anxiety, and increased relaxation, aligning closely with the quantitative stress reduction outcomes. Conclusion: This dual-modality intervention effectively reduces stress among overseas workers, with benefits influenced by individual characteristics. The results support implementing personalized, non-pharmacological stress management programs in multinational corporations to promote global workforce mental health.
Keywords: Expatriate workers, music-based interventions, Exercise Intervention, occupational 40 stress, randomized trial, Mental Health
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 24 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Wu and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yongfan Song, yongfansong30@gmail.com
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