Sleep Duration Moderates the Relationship Between Perceived Work-Life Interference and Depressive Symptoms in Australian Men and Women from the North West Adelaide Health Study

Longitudinal associations between self-reported sleep duration and cardiometabolic disease risk in corporate executives

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to determine the longitudinal associations between self-reported sleep duration and cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk in corporate executives.

METHODS

Self-reported sleep duration and lifestyle, occupational, psychological, and anthropometrical, blood pressure and blood marker variables were obtained from 1512 employees at annual health risk assessments in South Africa between 2016 and 2019. Gender-stratified linear mixed models, adjusting for age, lifestyle, occupational and psychological covariates were used to explore these longitudinal associations.

RESULTS

Among women, shorter sleep duration was associated with higher body mass index (BMI) covarying for age only (ß with 95% confidence intervals: -0.19 [-0.36, -0.03]), age and occupational factors (-0.20 [-0.36, -0.03]) and age and psychological factors (-0.20 [-0.37, -0.03]). Among men, shorter sleep was associated with both BMI and waist circumference (WC) covarying for age only (BMI: -0.15 [-0.22; -0.08]; WC: -0.62 [-0.88; -0.37]); age and lifestyle factors (BMI: -0.12 [-0.21; -0.04]); WC: -0.016 [-0.92; -0.29], age and occupational factors (BMI: -0.20 [-0.22; 0.08]; WC: -0.62 [-0.88; -0.36]), and age and psychological factors (BMI: -0.15 [-0.22; -0.07]; WC: -0.59 [-0.86; -0.33]). Among men, shorter sleep was also longitudinally associated with higher CMD risk scores in models adjusted for age and lifestyle factors (CMD: -0.12 [-0.20; -0.04]) and age and psychological factors (CMD: -0.08 [-0.15; -0.01]).

CONCLUSION

Corporate executives who report shorter sleep durations may present with poorer CMD risk profiles, independent of age, lifestyle, occupational and psychological factors. Addressing sleep health in workplace health programmes may help mitigate the development of CMD in such employees.

Working Conditions and Mental Health in a Brazilian University

The highest prevalence of mental illnesses and mental suffering in contemporary society has raised awareness of the theme and their connection to work. In Brazil, university servants (professors and technical-administrative staff) are a focused occupational group. We developed this research with the objective of exploring the relationship between the perception of working conditions and the mental health of these servants. Structured questionnaires were applied to 285 servants, 33.5% being professors and 66.5% technical-administrative staff. Regarding working conditions, the questionnaires included items that measured 15 primary factors and questions about their contracts and legal conditions. To evaluate mental health, the participants answered a questionnaire about common psychic symptoms, negative and positive affects, self-esteem, and family-work conflict. We composed groups of participants according to their mental health indicator scores (cluster analysis), and after that, we compared the mean scores in working conditions for the groups. Then, we found that the mean scores of 13 from the 15 working condition factors were significantly different between the mental health groups. Our results showed the importance of improving working conditions in universities to prevent mental illnesses. Understanding the content of each working condition factor presents potency to contribute to defining the priorities among different aspects of working conditions.

Men's Physical Activity and Sleep Following a Workplace Health Intervention: Findings from the POWERPLAY STEP Up challenge

The workplace provides an important delivery point for health promotion, yet many programs fail to engage men. A gender-sensitive 8-week team challenge-based intervention targeting increased physical activity was delivered at a petrochemical worksite. The purpose of this study was to examine men's pre-post physical activity and sleep following the intervention, as well as to explore program acceptability and gather men's recommendations for health promotion. Pre-post surveys assessed physical activity, sleep, program exposure, acceptability, and suggestions for continued support. Overall, 328 men completed baseline surveys and 186 (57%) completed follow-up surveys. Walking increased by 156.5 min/week, 95% confidence interval (61.2, 251.8), p = .001. Men with higher program exposure increased moderate and vigorous activity 49.4 min more than those with low exposure (p = .026). Sleep duration and quality were higher postintervention, though changes were modest. Program acceptability was high as was intention to maintain physical activity. Men's suggestions to enable physical activity involved workplace practices/resources, reducing workload, and leadership support. These findings suggest that a gender-sensitive physical activity workplace intervention showed promise for improving physical activity and sleep among men. The men's suggestions reflected workplace health promotion strategies, reinforcing the need for employers to support ongoing health promotion efforts.