Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and a number of psychosocial work environment factors with a potential impact on inequality in ...health. Methods: A representative sample of 1,684 adult Danish employees filled in a standardized questionnaire or were interviewed by telephone. The response rate was 62%. The population was divided into four levels of SES (I to IV). The psychosocial work environment was described with 19 scales. Results: Quantitative, cognitive, and emotional job demands and a number of dimensions related to active and developmental work showed higher levels among high SES individuals. Job insecurity was highest among women with low SES. Dimensions describing interpersonal relations, social support, and leadership showed no clear associations with SES. Conclusions: Prevention aiming at improving health and reducing inequality in health should focus on the dimensions of active and developmental work: influence at work, possibilities for development, degrees of freedom, and meaning of work. Furthermore, job insecurity should be reduced.
Cross-sectional study.
To evaluate the effect of individual characteristics and physical and psychosocial workplace factors on neck/shoulder pain with pressure tenderness in the muscles.
Controversy ...prevails about the importance of workplace factors versus individual factors in the etiology of pain in the neck and/or shoulders.
Study participants were 3123 workers from 19 plants. Physical risk factors were evaluated via video observations, and psychosocial risk factors were assessed with the job content questionnaire. Other procedures included symptom survey, clinical examination, and assessment of health-related quality of life (SF-36). The main outcome variable, neck/shoulder pain with pressure tenderness, was defined on the basis of subjective pain score and pressure tenderness in muscles of the neck/shoulder region.
The prevalence of neck/shoulder pain with pressure tenderness was 7.0% among participants performing repetitive work and 3.8% among the referents. We found an association with high repetitiveness (prevalence ratio 1.8, 95% confidence interval 1.1-2.9), high force (2.0, 1.2-3.3), and high repetitiveness and high force (2.3, 1.4-4.0). The strongest work-related psychosocial risk was high job demands (1.8, 1.2-2.7). Increased risk was also associated with neck/shoulder injury (2.6, 1.6-4.1), female gender (1.8, 1.2-2.8), and low pressure pain threshold (1.6, 1.1-2.3). Neck/shoulder pain was strongly associated with reduced health-related quality of life.
Work-related physical and psychosocial factors, as well as several individual risk factors, are important in the understanding of neck/shoulder pain. The findings suggest that neck/shoulder pain has a multifactorial nature. Reduced health-related quality of life is associated with subjective pain and clinical signs from the neck and shoulders. The physical workplace factors were highly intercorrelated, and so the effect of individual physical exposures could only be disentangled to a minor degree.
During recent years many researchers have criticized the widely used scales on psychological job demands. For instance, they comment that in most cases different types of demand seem to be mixed in ...one measure. In this paper we analyse the scale on quantitative job demands in the recently developed Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), with special emphasis on Differential Item Functioning (DIF). DIF refers to basic differences between groups of respondents, which may affect how they respond to questionnaire items. The data material for our study comprised a representative sample of Danish employees. The respondents were categorized into 32 specific jobs according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO 1968). We analysed DIF with respect to the respondents' jobs with logistic regression analyses. These analyses showed that the items used in the original demand scale functioned very differently for different jobs in the population. The conclusion is that scales on quantitative demands are very sensitive to the choice of specific items. If many items on fast work pace and tempo are included in a scale, a number of blue-collar jobs will be identified as high-demand jobs. If, on the other hand, many questions on long working hours and overtime are included, the use of the scale will result in an entirely different picture. This issue has so far received little attention in occupational health psychology. The results have wide theoretical and methodological implications for research on quantitative job demands.
Purpose - This paper aims to identify longitudinal associations between job demands, job resources and experience of meaning at work.Design methodolgy approach - Using data from a longitudinal survey ...study among 6,299 employees in Danish eldercare who were divided into 301 work-groups, experience of meaning at work was predicted from a series of job demands and job resources measured at individual level and group level.Findings - A combination of individual-level and group-level measures of job demands and job resources contributed to predicting meaning at work. Meaning at work at follow-up was predicted by meaning at work at baseline, role ambiguity, quality of leadership, and influence at work at individual level and emotional demands at group level. Individual-level measures of job demands and job resources proved stronger predictors of meaning at work than group-level measures.Research limitations implications - Psychosocial job demands and job resources predict experience of meaning at work.Practical implications - Experience of meaning at work constitutes an important organizational resource by contributing to the capacities of employees to deal with work-related stresses and strains, while maintaining their health and well-being.Social implications - Experience of meaning at work is positively associated with well-being and reduces risk for long-term sickness absence and turnover. Attention towards enhancing employee experiences of meaning at work may contribute towards the ability of western societies to recruit the necessary supply of labour over the coming decades.Originality value - This is the first study to provide longitudinal, multi-level evidence on the association between job demands, job resources and experience of meaning at work.
Purpose
To investigate whether psychosocial job demands (work pace and quantitative demands) and job resources (influence at work and quality of leadership) predict long-term sickness absence (LTSA) ...for more than three consecutive weeks in four occupational groups.
Methods
Survey data pooling 39,408 respondents were fitted to a national register containing information on payments of sickness absence compensation. Using multi-adjusted Cox regression, respondents were followed for an 18-month follow-up period to assess risk of LTSA.
Results
In the entire study population, low and medium levels of influence at work and low quality of leadership predicted a significantly increased risk of LTSA, whereas medium levels of quantitative demands predicted a significantly reduced risk of LTSA. For employees working with clients and for office workers, low and medium influence at work associated with a significantly increased risk of LTSA. For employees working with clients, low quality of leadership predicted a significantly increased risk of LTSA. For manual workers, low influence at work predicted a significantly increased risk of LTSA and medium quantitative demands were associated with a significantly reduced risk of LTSA. For employees working with customers, medium quantitative demands predicted a significantly reduced risk of LTSA. Finally, in predicting LTSA, we found significant interaction effects between job demands and job resources.
Conclusions
The study indicates that a lack of job resources—particularly influence at work—are more important predictors of LTSA than high job demands.
Health care workers have a high prevalence of low back pain (LBP). Although physical exposures in the working environment are linked to an increased risk of LBP, it has been suggested that individual ...coping strategies, for example fear-avoidance beliefs, could also be important in the development and maintenance of LBP. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to examine (1) the association between physical work load and LBP, (2) the predictive effect of fear-avoidance beliefs on the development of LBP, and (3) the moderating effect of fear-avoidance beliefs on the association between physical work load and LBP among cases with and without previous LBP.
A questionnaire survey among 5696 newly qualified health care workers who completed a baseline questionnaire shortly before completing their education and a follow-up questionnaire 12 months later. Participants were selected on the following criteria: (a) being female, (b) working in the health care sector (n = 2677). Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the effect of physical work load and fear-avoidance beliefs on the severity of LBP.
For those with previous LBP, physical work load has an importance, but not among those without previous LBP. In relation to fear-avoidance beliefs, there is a positive relation between it and LBP of than 30 days in both groups, i.e. those without and with previous LBP. No moderating effect of fear-avoidance beliefs on the association between physical work load and LBP was found among cases with and without LBP.
Both physical work load and fear-avoidance beliefs matters in those with previous LBP. Only fear-avoidance beliefs matters in those without previous LBP. The study did not find a moderating effect of fear-avoidance beliefs on the association between physical work load and LBP.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
clausen t., nielsen k., carneiro i.g. & borg v. (2012) Job demands, job resources and long‐term sickness absence in the Danish eldercare services: a prospective analysis of register‐based outcomes. ...Journal of Advanced Nursing68(1), 127–136.
Aim. To investigate associations between psychosocial job demands, job resources and cases of registered long‐term sickness absence among nursing staff in the eldercare services.
Background. Research has shown that psychosocial work environment exposures predict sickness absence in healthcare settings. However, only few studies have longitudinally investigated associations between specific job demands and job resources and risk of long‐term sickness absence.
Methods. Questionnaire data were collected in 2004 and 2005 among all employees in the eldercare services in 35 Danish municipalities and were followed in a National register on payment of sickness absence compensation for a 1‐year follow‐up period (N = 7921). Three psychosocial job demands – emotional demands, quantitative demands and role conflicts – and three job resources – influence, quality of leadership and team climate – were investigated to predict risk of sickness absence for eight or more consecutive weeks in the follow‐up period. Data were analysed using Cox proportional hazards model.
Results. A percentage of 6·5 of the respondents were absent for eight or more consecutive weeks during follow‐up. The analyses showed that emotional demands, role conflicts, influence, quality of leadership and team climate were significantly associated with risk of long‐term sickness absence. In an analysis with mutual adjustment for all job demands and job resources, influence constituted the strongest predictor of long‐term sickness absence (negative association).
Conclusions. Job demands and job resources are significantly associated with risk of long‐term sickness absence. Interventions aimed at improving the psychosocial work environment may, therefore, contribute towards preventing long‐term sickness absence in the eldercare services.
The objective of this study is to investigate patterns of sickness absence in light of health status among immigrants. Cross-sectional data from 2005 was used and the study population consisted of ...3,121 healthcare assistants and healthcare helpers working in the elderly-care sector in Denmark. A multinomial logistic regression was employed to investigate the relationship between health indicator, sickness absence and being an immigrant. Our findings show that, on one hand, immigrants have worse health status, but on the other, they have significantly lower sickness absence than their Danish counterparts, even after factors such as age and gender are controlled for. The results show that the relationship between being an immigrant and sickness absence differs according to health status. Our findings are in line with Steer and Rhode's theoretical framework, according to which attendance to work is a function of ability and motivation to be at work.
Objectives This study assessed work postures, movements, psychosocial job demands, and shoulder and wrist extensor muscle activity and registered the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms of ...computer-aided design (CAD) operators. Methods A questionnaire survey was used to study the use of the computer mouse, psychosocial work factors, and musculoskeletal symptoms among 149 CAD operators. A workplace study was performed using observations, electrogoniometers on the wrists, and electromyography to measure exposures and physiological responses during CAD work among a subgroup of the CAD operators. Results Musculoskeletal symptoms were far more prevalent for the arm or hand operating the mouse than for the other arm or hand, and women were more affected than men. The symptoms may be related to such risk factors as repetitive movements, static postures (eg, ulnar-deviated and extended wrist on the mouse side), and static muscular activation patterns. The risk factors were present due to continuous mouse use and possibly also due to high demands for mental attentiveness, precision, and information processing. Conclusions Exposure during work with a computer mouse may present a risk for developing musculoskeletal symptoms. Improvements should focus on introducing more variation.
We investigated the effects of an intervention aiming at enhancing four types of team-level social capital (bonding, bridging and two types of linking social capital) in six dairy plants with a total ...of 60 teams. Social capital and work engagement was assessed in baseline and follow-up surveys. The follow-up period was approximately 20 months, comprising an intervention period of 12 months. Intervention effects were assessed by comparing changes in team-level mean-scores for teams that had developed action plans with teams that had not. Results show that teams that had developed action plans generally showed a larger increase in social capital and work engagement than other teams. Differences were statistically significant for linking social capital towards the workplace as a whole and work engagement. However, effect sizes indicate an effect of the action plans despite the lack of statistical significance. Moreover, the self-reported level of implementation of the action plans was associated with the size and direction of the observed change.
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