Emotional labor and dysmenorrhea in women working in sales and call centers

Social Determinants of Health and Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review

Social determinants of health play a key role in health disparities. Dysmenorrhea is a highly prevalent and impactful public health problem affecting reproductive-age females. Systematically examining social determinants of health (SDoH) in dysmenorrhea is important for identifying gaps in the literature and informing research, policy, and clinical practice to reduce the public health burden associated with dysmenorrhea. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the literature on SDoH and dysmenorrhea. The review protocol was prospectively registered. We searched Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Google Scholar through February 2024 using search strategies informed by the literature. Screening of the articles, data extraction, and risk-of-bias (RoB) assessment were conducted independently by at least 2 reviewers on the Covidence platform. Among 2,594 unique records screened, 166 met eligibility criteria and were included for data extraction and RoB assessment. Evidence suggests traumatic experiences, toxic environmental exposures, female genital mutilation, job-related stress, lack of menstrual education, and low social support were associated with worse dysmenorrhea outcomes. However, evidence was equivocal regarding the relationships between dysmenorrhea outcomes and SDoH factors, including socioeconomic status, geographical location, race/ethnicity, employment, and religion. Nearly all articles (99.4%) had a high or very high overall RoB. The relationships between SDoH and dysmenorrhea outcomes were often inconsistent and complicated by heterogeneous study populations and methodologies. More rigorous research examining SDoH in dysmenorrhea is needed to inform policy and clinical practice. PERSPECTIVE: This systematic review synthesizes evidence linking SDoH and dysmenorrhea. The relationships between SDoH and dysmenorrhea were often equivocal and complicated by heterogeneous study populations and methodologies. We identify directions for future research and SDoH factors that could be addressed clinically (eg, trauma, menstrual education, and occupational stress).

The impact of emotional labor on the health in the workplace: a narrative review of literature from 2013-2018

There is a paradigm-shift in the workplace from a production mentality to a service-oriented mentality. As a result, there is a greater need on employees to expend emotional labor in dealing with the challenges of meeting the demands of a service-oriented economy. This present study discussed the impact that expending emotional labor has on the health of employees in the workplace. Literature was retrieved from MEDLINE/PubMed, Excerpta Medica/EMBASE, Scopus and Thomson Reuters' Web of Science databases. Studies were selected if they were published between 2013 and 2018, written in English and had the terms “emotional labor” or “emotional labour” in their titles. An overview of the different effects of emotional labor on the health of employees in different sectors of the economy revealed effects ranging from burnout and fatigue to dysmenorrhea, disruptions in sleep patterns and suicidal tendencies. The effects of emotional labor on the health of members of the population who belong to the working class can be attributed to reciprocal determinism where environmental influences in the form of clients, supervisors, or organizational culture put employees in a position where they had to develop the habit of engaging emotional labor to cope with environmental stresses.

Emotional labor and job types of male firefighters in Daegu Metropolitan City

Background

Research on the emotional labor of firefighters is actively being carried out, but studies that analyze emotional labor separately by job types, working departments, and other conditions of firefighters are insufficient. The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in emotional labor level between departments and other conditions of firefighters.

Methods

A total of 287 Korean firefighters were included for analysis. The demands of emotional labor and emotional damage were measured using the Korean Emotional Labor Scale. To analyze the conditions and factors affecting the emotional labor level of the firefighters, logistic regression analysis was performed using the emotional labor high risk group as a dependent variable.

Results

The average score of overall emotional labor level of the firefighters was 47.2 ± 17.3, and the prevalence of high risk firefighters with emotional labor was 27.1%. It was found that the emergency medical service and administration departments showed a higher prevalence of high risk emotional labor firefighters than did other departments. The result of multiple logistic regression analysis for the high risk emotional labor firefighters showed that the adjusted odds ratio of emergency medical service department compared to the reference group (the rescue department) was 2.89 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-8.24).

Conclusions

Among the firefighters, the emergency medical service department is a high risk factor for emotional labor. Therefore, education and prevention training on emotional labor should be more thorough before work shifts.

The relationship between emotional labor status and workplace violence among toll collectors

Background

This study aimed to identify the emotional labor and workplace violence status among toll collectors by assessing and comparing the same with that in workers in other service occupation. It also aimed to analyze the relationship between emotional labor and workplace violence.

Methods

This study examined emotional labor and workplace violence status in 264 female toll collectors from August 20 to September 4, 2015. The emotional labor was assessed using the Korean Emotional Labor Scale (K-ELS), and a questionnaire was used to examine the presence or absence, and type and frequency of workplace violence experienced by the subjects. A linear regression analysis was also performed to analyze the relationship between workplace violence and emotional labor.

Results

The scores on “emotional demanding and regulation (p < 0.001),” “overload and conflict in customer service (p = 0.005),” “emotional disharmony and hurt (p < 0.001),” and “organizational surveillance and monitoring (p < 0.001)” among the sub-categories of emotional labor were significantly high and indicated “at-risk” levels of emotional labor in those who experienced workplace violence, whereas they were “normal” of emotional labor in those who did not. Even after being adjusted in the linear regression analysis, the emotional labor scores for the above 4 sub-categories were still significantly high in those who experienced workplace violence. On comparing the present scores with 13 other service occupations, it was found that toll collectors had the highest level in “emotional disharmony and hurt,” “organizational surveillance and monitoring,” and “organizational supportive and protective system”.

Conclusions

This study found that the toll collectors engaged in a high level of emotional labor. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between emotional labor and the experience of workplace violence among the toll collectors.