In recent years, news of premature death of scientific and technological workers came out from time to time, and the health problems of scientific and technological workers have attracted growing public attention. According to the results of the fourth national survey on scientific and technological workers conducted in 2017, the physical and mental health conditions of scientific and technological workers in China are not good. With regard to physical health, 52.3% of the scientific and technological workers claimed they were suffering from chronic diseases. Among them, 31.0% claimed to suffer from cervical spondylosis or discopathy diseases, followed by digestive tract diseases (8%) and hypertension (5.9%). These chronic diseases are closely related to the occupational characteristics of scientific and technological workers, such as bending over the desk for long hours and high work pressure. With regard to sub-health status, 21.5% of the scientific and technological workers were in a constant state of physical fatigue, and 7.6% suffered from long-term insomnia. With regard to mental health, less than half of the scientific and technological workers believed they are very happy or relatively happy. In the last month, 7.2% of the scientific and technological workers were always or often in a state of depression or in a bad mood, which affects their normal work and life.

The poor health conditions of scientific and technological workers are mainly affected by the following factors.

The first one is the working state. Over-stress and overtime work lead to low immunity, decline in cognitive ability, poor emotional experience and sleep problems, which are the direct causes of poor physical and mental health of scientific and technological workers. According to the survey, 89.3% of the scientific and technological workers reported they felt under pressure, of which 36.7% were under great pressure. And the pressure of scientific and technological workers mainly comes from work, followed by economic pressure. In terms of working hours, 76.9% of the scientific and technological workers work more than 40 hours a week, and those who work more than 60 hours a week accounts for 15.3% of the total. Working overtime also takes away their time for exercise and leisure.

The second is lifestyle. Lack of exercise and irregular schedule are important factors that endanger the physical and mental health of scientific and technological workers. According to the survey, 75.7% of the scientific and technological workers have the habit of exercise every week, and the other 24.3% hardly take exercises. However, of all the scientific and technological workers that regularly exercise, only 31.9% are close to the standard of the sports population, that is, at least three times a week for more than 30 minutes of exercise.

The third is the way of leisure and entertainment. Most scientific and technological workers take watching TV, listening to music and playing computer games as their main leisure activities. However, previous studies have shown that leisure activities like watching TV are not effective in reducing pressure, while sports activities help to improve physical and mental health. In terms of vacations, most of the scientific and technological workers are unable to enjoy the full benefit of their vacations, especially those with senior titles. Their actual vacation time is only about half of the paid vacation they are entitled to.

It is particularly noteworthy that the mental health problems of young scientific and technological workers are even more prominent. 37.9% of the young scientific and technological workers under 45 years of age feel they were under huge pressure, which is higher than those over 45 years of age (31.0%). Among all the scientific and technological workers under 45 years of age, 7.8% felt their work or daily activities are affected by depression or bad mood, which is significantly higher than those over 45 years of age (4.6%). Besides, the proportion of young scientific and technological workers who feel happy was also relatively low, accounting for only 44.1% of the total as against 54.7% for those over 45 years of age.

The reason is that young scientists and technicians have greater pressure in their promotion and life. The Nature magazine launched an informal survey in 2016 on social media sites to ask young scientists about the biggest challenges they face. Of all the 12,000 respondents, an overwhelming 44% chose “competition for funding”. In addition, about one-third of the respondents felt they were judged entirely by the number of academic papers they published, and up to 65% said they had considered dropping off scientific research due to economic pressure. Many colleges and universities have adopted the “Up or out” mechanism, and the criteria for assessment and promotion have become more stringent. The anxiety of scientists caused by the pressure to apply for projects and produce research outputs, as well as housing, child education and other costs of living in first-tier cities have long plagued young scientific and technological workers, which will inevitably have an impact on their physical and mental health.

People often regard health as 1, and career, family, reputation, wealth and other things are the 0s behind the 1, and life is not perfect without 1. Scientific and technological workers should be encouraged to establish a health-priority concept, enhance the awareness of health prevention, take better care of themselves, and strive to achieve a balance between work and life. For scientific and technological workers, producing high quality research outputs while having a healthy body and mind is not only responsible for themselves and their families, but also responsible for the science and technology of the country.

Furthermore, the whole society should also pay attention to the health problems of scientific and technological workers. First, regular physical and mental health check-ups for scientific and technological workers should be guaranteed. It’s necessary to establish self-help online monitoring and service platform on the physical and mental health of scientific and technological workers, and strengthen health monitoring and guidance. Second, we should encourage the employing organizations to set up more leisure facilities and fitness equipment; encourage trade unions to formulate a systematic plan on fitness programs and mental health promotion, and encourage scientific and technological workers to take a more active part in leisure and exercise activities. Third, we should improve the assessment and promotion system and alleviate the pressure of scientific and technological workers. We should promote the adoption of the distribution system that increases the value of knowledge, and establish the evaluation and salary structure system adapted to different types of scientific and technological activities. We should advocate the implementation of flexible work schedule and academic leave system in keeping with the characteristics of scientific and technological work.