work-related rumination and its effect on employee health and well-being: a meta-analysis

Background: rumination has been suggested to be an important factor and a possible mechanism hindering the healing process after work. the present study aimed to evaluate work-related rumination and its impact on employees’ health and well-being.material and methods: to conduct the present meta-analysis, an extensive electronic search was undertaken across medline (pubmed and ovid), web of science, and scopus, covering the period from january 2014 to july 2024. search terms were carefully selected to correspond with the objectives of the review. the study adhered to the prisma 2020 guidelines (27 items) to ensure methodological rigor. from the initial retrieval of 1,281 records, only 14 cross-sectional investigations satisfied the inclusion criteria and were retained for synthesis. the analysis employed effect size estimates with 95% confidence intervals as the principal outcome metric. all statistical procedures were performed using stata/mp, version 17.result: the meta-analysis reveals a statistically significant and negative relationship between rumination and well-being (es, -0.22; 95% ci, -0.25 to -0.18; p < 0.001), indicating that as rumination increases, employee well-being decreases.conclusion: the present meta-analysis emphasizes the importance of reducing work-related rumination in increasing employee well-being.