The Association Between Work-related Stress, Indoor Air Quality and Voice Problems Among Teachers - Is There a Trend?

Breathing Uneasily: Employees' Stories of Coping With Poor Indoor Air Quality in the Workplace

OBJECTIVES

This phenomenological study aimed to elucidate the lived experiences of employees suffering from poor indoor air quality (IAQ) in their university workplace. It addresses gaps in understanding IAQ's personal impacts from occupants' perspectives.

BACKGROUND

Prior research on sick building syndrome and indoor air pollution utilized quantitative methods to assess physical health outcomes. However, few studies have adopted qualitative approaches to uncover the meanings ascribed to adverse IAQ experiences and their influences on psychosocial well-being.

METHODS

In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five university employees who attributed their chronic illnesses to poor IAQ in their 60-year-old office building with a history of IAQ concerns. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using qualitative techniques including thematic coding to extract key themes conveying shared experiences.

RESULTS

Employees depicted the building itself as fundamentally "sick" and stigmatized, compelling complex coping behaviors hindering productivity. Communication breakdowns, mistrust in leadership, and strained workplace relationships were prevalent. A sense of betrayal, powerlessness, and a sense of detachment from the workplace emerged with home as a refuge.

CONCLUSIONS

Although technically adequate, poor IAQ profoundly damaged perceived health, quality of life, relationships, and satisfaction. The accounts emphasize IAQ's psychosocial dimensions, advancing theoretical links between indoor environments and well-being. Supportive policies, transparency, communication, participatory processes, and human-centered strategies emerge as ways to nurture productivity, well-being, and organizational health.

The interaction between voice disorders and stress for work ability of teachers

OBJECTIVE

Less attention has been paid to the interaction between voice disorders, stress, and indoor environmental quality for work ability in teachers. Therefore, our aim was to study whether lower work ability associated more strongly when the variables of voice disorders and stress at work were combined as opposed to evaluating these two factors separately.

METHODS

We conducted a questionnaire study including validated self-assessment of work ability and a technical assessment of school buildings utilizing a sample of 1198 and a subsample (n = 538) of Finnish teachers.

RESULTS

When combined, voice disorders and stress at work had a stronger association to decreased work ability than when they were evaluated separately. The occurrence of stress was more prevalent in poor and moderate work ability than the occurrence of voice disorders. Nine out of 10 of the teachers who had neither voice disorders nor stress reported good work ability, while four out of 10 of the teachers who suffered from both voice disorders and stress had poor work ability. As regards the background variables, nearly half of the subjects working in the non-problem buildings have neither stress nor voice disorders.

DISCUSSION

We recommend offering support for reducing stress at work to improve teachers' work performance. The findings also support the maintenance of school buildings and keeping them in good condition. Follow-up studies are needed to investigate the possible effects of voice disorders and the associated variables on work ability.

Home as a new physical workplace: a causal model for understanding the inextricable link between home environment, work productivity, and well-being

The home has become a new physical workplace, and can therefore influence the work, health, and life of workers. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the chronology of the effects of work hazards at home on factors such as workers' health, productivity, and well-being (WB). Information on novice working-from-home (WFH) workers was derived from the "Occupational health of WFH" project. The selected variables in the hypothesis model comprised problems such as perceived indoor environmental quality (IEQ), working conditions (WC), sick house syndrome (SHS), occupational stress (OS), work productivity (WP), and WB. The relationship between these variables was analyzed using a structural equation model. The group analysis results showed the following significant indirect path effects from work environment through WP: IEQ-> SHS->OS->WP. A non-significant direct effect was observed between IEQ and WP. While WC problems could also have a significant direct effect on WP, or be mediated by OS, WP is a significant consequence and a direct effect of WB. In conclusion, the WFH model's causal impact between home environment, WP, and WB is a physiopsychological pathway. Therefore, creating a healthy home environment and WC, along with OS management, comprise important issues for improving productivity and WB for this new work style.

Occupational Risk Factors for Hoarseness Among Police Officers in Finland

PURPOSE

Police officers have many work-related risks. In Finland, hoarseness and other respiratory symptoms and related risk factors have not been investigated on a national level. In many of the work tasks carried out by the police, an excellent physical and mental condition is essential.

METHOD

Our aim was to determine the prevalence of hoarseness and related respiratory symptoms and to investigate eventual occupational risk factors associated with hoarseness. We also compared different work tasks and remediation procedures in three police stations with indoor air problems.

MATERIAL

In all, 767 persons completed a nation-wide e-mail survey. The study population is approximately 11% of the total police force in Finland. Half of the study population were men. In three cities, we evaluated the outcome of different type of remediation methods after the moisture damaged buildings were renovated. The prevalence of hoarseness was compared in different work tasks and the risk associated with indoor air, work-related stress, and background factors were estimated. Information on the remediation was obtained from the employer.

RESULTS

Altogether, 30.5% of the respondents had hoarseness and 15.5% had work-related stress. Almost 9% were smokers and 43% had pets at home. Of all the respondents, 13% had asthma. Hoarseness was not related to work-related stress. The strongest risk factors for hoarseness were asthma and exposure to mold odor, dusts and cold temperatures after adjusting for age, gender, smoking and pet-owning. When three renovation techniques were compared, the best results were found in the building with a thorough remediation and the removal of mold from the building.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the exposure to irritant gases, fumes, and bioaerosols should be minimized whenever possible in order to avoid incident asthma and voice problems.

The prevalence of hoarseness among health care professionals: time trends and effect of remediation in working conditions in 2007-2018

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to investigate time trends in the prevalence of hoarseness among health care professionals in primary health care units (PHC) and in hospitals from 2007 to 2018. Moreover, purpose was to discover potential indoor environmental quality (IEQ) risk factors as well as to determine the effect of the remediation of the indoor air problems on the prevalence of hoarseness.

METHODS

The health status was collected from all employees in these units/hospitals (N = 1564/1199) with questionnaires and the follow-ups were carried out as an open cohort. Based on building condition inspections, buildings were classified to be an "exposed" or "reference" buildings by third-party experts. The before and after remediation results were compared to reference buildings.

RESULTS

During follow-up, hoarseness has not increased in those PHC units with good IEQ. In the pilot study, the prevalence of hoarseness in non-exposed reference building was 5.9%, and it stayed approximately at the same level throughout the follow-up. Whereas in buildings with an IEQ problem the prevalence of hoarseness varied between 16.2 and 36.1% and it decreased to 11.4% after the remediations. In a large hospital with severe IEQ problems, the prevalence of hoarseness was 39.1%, and in hospital buildings with a milder exposure 23.3%. The most important risk factors for hoarseness were asthma, allergic rhinitis and IEQ problems.

CONCLUSION

A good indoor environment and the remediation of damaged buildings seem to promote a better condition of the voice in health care workers.

Influence of aromatization on the perception of work environment and job satisfaction

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to examine how indoor aromatization affects the expressed and unexpressed satisfaction with the work environment in the production hall of an industrial company.

Design/methodology/approach

The aroma was flavored by an aromatization unit, the expressed satisfaction was measured on a scale and biometrics of facial recognition (FaceReader) was used to measure unexpressed satisfaction, enabling the recording of eight emotions and two basic emotions.

Findings

Research has shown the effect of aroma on two emotions – neutral and angry – which partially confirmed the sense of flavoring production facilities. Previous research has shown that positive feelings caused by a pleasant smell influence customers' purchasing decisions. As the use of aroma affects the mental state of the individual, it could be also applied for non-marketing purposes.

Originality/value

To date, there has been no research that systematically addresses the impact of aromatization on the perception of the work environment in a manufacturing company. The presented study is unique in its design and focus and provides basic information about the impact of aroma on individuals. The findings of this study can help to examine further aspects that indirectly affect performance.

Hoarseness Among Young Children in Day-Care Centers

BACKGROUND

Chronic respiratory symptoms among toddlers are assumed to be due to allergies and common respiratory infections. Because symptoms and respiratory disease in this age group often continue on to school age and later life, it is important to know the possible risk factors for prevention of the chronic hoarseness.

AIM

We aimed to determine the current prevalence of hoarseness and other chronic respiratory symptoms among toddlers and young children. Another aim was to examine the risk factors for hoarseness in the building environments of day-care centers (DCC).

MATERIAL

An electronic symptom survey was sent to all parents of children in day-care centers of a large city in southern Finland. In all, 3721 individuals completed the questionnaire (38%), 53.4% were the parents of boys and 46.6% girls.

RESULTS

The prevalence of hoarseness was 5.6%. The boy's parents reported hoarseness more often than the girls, but no significant difference was observed. Risk factors for hoarseness in a built environment in this age group were noise, visible dust and dirt, mold and a cellar like odor, a sewer smell, other unpleasant smells, stuffiness of the indoor air, a too high or too low temperatures, a cold floor, insufficient ventilation, the age of the DCC building, and wood as the bearing construction of the building. The lifestyle factors that correlated with the prevalence of hoarseness were the amount of time spent outdoors; however, passive smoking, the number of siblings and pets at home did not correlate with hoarseness. Hoarseness was significantly correlated with other chronic respiratory symptoms such as rhinitis, coughs, eye irritation, tiredness, headaches, and stomach problems and also with the regular or periodic use of medication. Hoarseness was also significantly correlated with asthma and allergic rhinitis and also with repeated infections, such as a common cold, cold with a fever, laryngitis, otitis media and acute bronchitis, but not with tonsillitis or pneumonia. When potential confounders had been controlled for with a logistic regression model, the following risk factors in the built environment remained statistically significant: noise, high room temperature, insufficient ventilation and the stuffiness of the indoor air, a solvent odor, wood as the bearing construction and the age of the building.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that in day-care centers, buildings should be maintained, cleaned and ventilated properly. Concrete and brick used in the construction were protective compared with wood. The acoustic environment should be planned to reduce noise indoors and solvent based chemicals should be avoided. Neither having pets at home or the number of siblings were risk factors, but they were also not found to be protective in this material. All measures that reduce the occurrence of respiratory infections probably also reduce chronic voice problems.