A Pragmatic, Assessor-Blinded, Randomized Pilot Trial of an Art-Based EightPillar Well-Being Intervention for Occupational Stress and Burnout Prevention

Ignacio Bonasa Alzuria

Abstract

Background: Occupational stress and burnout prevention require interventions that are credible for organizations, meaningful for workers, ethically safe, and methodologically transparent for clinical, public-health and organizational audiences. This revised manuscript presents a pragmatic, assessor-blinded, randomized pilot-trial protocol and analytical framework for an art-based Eight-Pillar Well-Being intervention designed to reduce occupational stress risk and prevent burnout trajectories.

Methods: The trial is designed as a two-arm, parallel-group pragmatic randomized pilot study comparing an eight-session art-based well-being intervention with an active wait-list or enhanced usual-care comparator. The emphasis is feasibility, acceptability, fidelity, safety, implementation learning, and preliminary signals of change rather than definitive efficacy.

Outcomes: Candidate outcomes include perceived stress, burnout, engagement, depressive and anxiety symptoms, general health and well-being, affect, life satisfaction, meaning in life, psychological well-being, resilience, psychological flexibility, mood states, sleep quality, physical activity and work ability.

Conclusion: The manuscript positions art-based learning as a feasible preventive pathway for occupational well-being when it is implemented with clear intervention description, ethical safeguards, validated measures and transparent trial reporting. The reference list has been reconciled with the text so that all 121 references are now cited in the body of the manuscript.