Stress in paid and unpaid work as related to cortisol and subjective health complaints in women working in the public health care sector

Parents' work demands on next day's cortisol awakening response - the moderating role of family-to-work conflict

BACKGROUND

Constant availability, overtime and feeling overwhelmed by work can impact employees' wellbeing and their biological stress responses. Especially working parents often struggle to balance the demands of their work and family life and were found to be distracted from their work due to family responsibilities. The Family-to-Work Conflict (FWC) indicates the extent to which participating in work is made difficult by family demands. Recent studies have found associations between FWC and biological outcomes such as the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR), a measure of an individual's Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA)-axis activity. This diary study investigates the effect of parental work demands on next day's cortisol response as well as the moderating role of FWC and the mediating role of fatigue.

METHODS

Over the course of five consecutive days (from Monday to Friday), 168 observations were made on a total of 42 parents. Participants had at least one child and worked a minimum of 20 hours per week. Salivary cortisol samples were obtained immediately, 15 and 30 minutes after awakening each day. Work demands, FWC and fatigue were assessed using standardized questionnaires. Within-person effects were examined using multilevel modeling and mediation analyses.

RESULTS

Our results indicate that there are no main effects of work demands on next day's cortisol response. The multilevel analysis revealed that FWC predicts lower wakening cortisol levels and confirmed FWC as an increasing moderator between work demands and next day's HPA-axis activity. Further, work overload was found to increase fatigue, which in turn leads to higher CAR on the following day. This indicates that fatigue mediates the relationship between work demands and CAR. Our findings add to a growing body of research demonstrating further predictors for HPA-axis activity and emphasise the importance of considering family related demands when investigating biological outcomes for working parents.

Contextual factors in persistent severe back pain: A longitudinal analysis among German employees

BACKGROUND

Chronic back pain in employees compromises participation in social and daily activities, as well as work.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the severity of back pain after 2 years and identify factors predicting stagnation at this level of pain.

METHODS

Data were derived from a prospective cohort study with randomized sampling of insurants in the German Pension Insurance using a questionnaire at baseline and follow-up after 2 years. The sample consisted of middle-aged employees (45-59 years) with strong limitations due to back pain (Chronic Pain Grade III or IV), who had not applied for disability pension and did not use medical rehabilitation in the previous 4 years before baseline. Stepwise multivariable logistic regression models with backwards selection were used to identify relevant contextual factors in the stagnation of severe back pain.

RESULTS

Of 1208 persons with severe back pain at baseline, 48% had stagnated at that pain level after 2 years. Predictors of persistent severe back pain were older age, poorer general health, more additional disabling conditions, more depressive symptoms, caregiving burden, less pain-related self-efficacy and more fear avoidance beliefs.

CONCLUSIONS

In a high-risk subgroup with several co-existing conditions, this analysis highlights (mental) health, social and personal (contextual) factors associated with long-term unfavourable back pain progression.

SIGNIFICANCE

Back pain is a condition that often has a chronic or recurrent course, threatening participation in many areas of life. In this study it was found that the unfavourable condition of severe back pain can remain stable for long periods of time in a significant proportion of sufferers. Contextual factors (self-efficacy, fear-avoidance beliefs, caregiving burden) as well as additional health problems should be considered when identifying persons with stagnating pain courses.

Association Between Unequal Division of Caregiving Work and South Korean Married Women's Depressive Symptoms

Background:

A disproportionate amount of family caregiving can negatively impact married women's mental health. This study aims to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms in South Korean women and the satisfaction with their husband's participation in family caregiving.

Methods

Raw data from 1,515 of the participants in the 2014, 2016, and 2018 Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families were analyzed. Satisfaction with husbands' participation in family caregiving was classified as satisfied, less satisfied, and not satisfied. The survey used the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to measure depressive symptoms. The association was examined using a generalized estimating equations model.

Results

Results indicated 22.2% of the participating women reported depressive symptoms. Women who reported dissatisfaction with their husband's participation in caregiving were 2.54 times more likely to report depressive symptoms than the women who were satisfied. Subgroup analysis indicated that women with higher levels of education, were more likely to have depressive symptoms when they were not satisfied with their husbands' participation in caregiving.

Conclusion

Married women who reported being dissatisfied with their husbands' participation in caregiving were more likely to report depressive symptoms. These results suggest the need to create environments with fair distribution of caregiving duties to minimize depressive symptoms in women.

Women's wellbeing and the burden of unpaid work

Soraya Seedat and Marta Rondon examine how gender inequities in the time allocated to unpaid work, exacerbated by covid-19, are affecting women’s mental health

Study for the Design of a Protocol to Assess the Impact of Stress in the Quality of Life of Workers

(1) Background: Work stress is one of the most relevant issues in public health. It has a significant impact on health, especially the development of mental disorders, causing occupational imbalance. There is a growing interest in the development of tools with a positive effect on workers. To this end, wearable technology is becoming increasingly popular, as it measures biometric variables like heartbeat, activity, and sleep. This information may be used to assess the stress a person is suffering, which could allow the development of stress coping strategies, both at a professional and personal level. (2) Methods: This paper describes an observational, analytical, and longitudinal study which will be set at a research center in A Coruña, Spain. Various scales and questionnaires will be filled in by the participants throughout the study. For the statistical analysis, specific methods will be used to evaluate the association between numerical and categorical variables. (3) Discussion: This study will lay the foundation for a bigger, more complete study to assess occupational stress in different work environments. This will allow us to begin to understand how occupational stress influences daily life activity and occupational balance, which could directly enhance the quality of life of workers if the necessary measures are taken.

Managing multiple roles during the COVID-19 lockdown: Not men or women, but parents as the emotional “loser in the crisis”

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a global crisis with high demands for the general population. In this research, we conducted a cross-sectional online study (N = 2278), which was diverse regarding age, employment, and family status to examine emotional well-being in times of the lockdown. We focused on inter-role conflict as a central factor associated with well-being. We tested whether individuals with high inter-role conflict (e.g. care-taker and employee) would appraise the lockdown more negatively than those experiencing low role-conflict and whether this would be associated with fatigue. In addition, we looked at gender as moderating this link. Latent modelling only showed small gender specific effects in the non-parent sample. However, in the parent sample, we found that although men experience less inter-role conflict than women on average, they coped significantly less well with it. We discuss the role of gender stereotypes in creating these psychological obstacles for men and women.