Job strain among post office mailhandlers

Organizational factors associated with work-related sleep problems in a nationally representative sample of Korean workers

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of organizational factors with work-related sleep problems (WRSP) among Korean workers.

Methods

The data were derived from the First Korean Working Conditions Survey conducted in 2006 with a representative sample of the Korean working population (n = 10,039).

Results

The overall prevalence of WRSP was 5.1  % (95  % confidence interval (CI) 4.7–5.5). Those who experienced sexual harassment at work (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3.47: 95 % CI 1.77–6.81), discrimination due to sex (aOR 2.44: 95 % CI 1.36–4.36) or age (aOR 2.22: 95 % CI 1.52–3.23), violence at work (aOR 1.98: 95 % CI 1.06–3.68), threat of violence (aOR 1.96: 95 % CI 1.05–3.66), poor work-life balance (aOR 1.78: 95 % CI 1.44–2.20), low job satisfaction (aOR 1.69: 95 % CI 1.37–2.09), high cognitive (OR 1.64: 95 % CI 1.32–2.03) and emotional (aOR 1.53: 95 % CI 1.22–1.91) demands, job insecurity (aOR 1.32: 95 % CI 1.07–1.63), and high work intensity (aOR 1.55: 95 % CI: 95 % CI 1.25–1.92) had an increased risk of WRSP compared to their respective counterparts (p < 0.01). Low social support was not significantly associated with WRSP (aOR 0.88: 95 % CI 0.67–1.15).

Conclusion

The results revealed that poor psychosocial working conditions may be related to a high prevalence of WRSP among representative Korean workers.

Psychosocial work environment and medical symptoms among Swedish commercial airline cabin crew

BACKGROUND

Associations between stress measured by the demands-control model, iso-strain model, and stress-related symptoms among cabin crew were studied.

METHODS

A questionnaire about psychosocial work environment and symptoms was answered by 918 (82%) flight attendants, stewards, and pursers at one airline company in 2005. Adjustment was made for age, gender, smoking, job category, and flight length using multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS

Weekly headaches, concentration difficulties, fatigue, and gastrointestinal symptoms were reported at rates of 18%, 10%, 56%, and 13%, respectively. Pursers scored higher on control than the others and they had lower associations between the strain measured by the demands-control model and symptoms than stewards and flight attendants. All symptoms were more common in the high strain situation than in the low strain (reference). An active situation was related to an excess of symptoms. Low social support in the iso-strain model increased risk of symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Demands-control and iso-strain models are useful in studying stress-related symptoms in cabin crews. The dimension of social support adds explanatory value.

Workplace bullying and sleep disturbances: findings from a large scale cross-sectional survey in the French working population

STUDY OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between workplace bullying, the characteristics of workplace bullying, and sleep disturbances in a large sample of employees of the French working population.

DESIGN

Workplace bullying, evaluated using the validated instrument developed by Leymann, and sleep disturbances, as well as covariates, were measured using a self-administered questionnaire. Covariates included age, marital status, presence of children, education, occupation, working hours, night work, physical and chemical exposures at work, self-reported health, and depressive symptoms. Statistical analysis was performed using logistic regression analysis and was carried out separately for men and women.

SETTING

General working population.

PARTICIPANTS

The study population consisted of a random sample of 3132 men and 4562 women of the working population in the southeast of France.

RESULTS

Workplace bullying was strongly associated with sleep disturbances. Past exposure to bullying also increased the risk for this outcome. The more frequent the exposure to bullying, the higher the risk of experiencing sleep disturbances. Observing someone else being bullied in the workplace was also associated with the outcome. Adjustment for covariates did not modify the results. Additional adjustment for self-reported health and depressive symptoms diminished the magnitude of the associations that remained significant.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of workplace bullying (around 10%) was found to be high in this study as well was the impact of this major job-related stressor on sleep disturbances. Although no conclusion about causality could be drawn from this cross-sectional study, the findings suggest that the contribution of workplace bullying to the burden of sleep disturbances may be substantial.

Associations of insomnia with job strain, control, and support among male Japanese workers

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationship between job stress and insomnia among office workers.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study examined 1209 male workers (mean age 43 years) at periodic health checkups in 2007. Insomnia was defined as consistently experiencing any of three sleep disorder symptoms (i.e., difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, and early-morning awakening) in a recent two-week period. Job stress indices included job demand, control, strain (job demand/control), and social support, as measured by the Job Content Questionnaire.

RESULTS

The prevalence of insomnia was 4.7%. After adjusting for age, perceived daily stress, sleep dissatisfaction, lifestyle factors, and physical comorbidities, the risk of insomnia increased with a higher degree of job strain (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence intervals 1.3-4.0) and decreased with a higher degree of job control (0.5, 0.3-0.8). The combination of high job strain with low degree of control or social support had an approximately three times higher risk of insomnia than that of low job strain with high degree of control or support.

CONCLUSIONS

Both job strain and job control had an independent effect on insomnia, and the association between job strain and insomnia was mediated by the buffering effects of control and support.

Social support for stress prevention in hospital settings

AIMS

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of social support, interacting with work stressors, on psychological stress prevention in a public hospital, based on Karasek's demand-control-support (DCS) model.

METHODS

A self-administered survey was conducted with 240 employees of a public hospital in the south-east of the United States. The survey asked for demographic information, details on job demands and job control as work stressors, social support, and depressive symptoms as the representative psychological stress symptoms.

RESULTS

Social support was detected as a primary interpersonal positive factor buffering depressive symptoms. Social support was also related to job control and depressive symptoms in the simple correlation. Only the main effect model with general characteristics was significantly accepted in hierarchical regression analysis (p = .04). High social support was associated with low depressive symptom scores, which means that social support had a positive association with health care employees' mental well being. However, any two-way or three-way interaction model was not accepted. The main effect part of the demand-control-support model was supported; however, interactions between demands, control, and support failed to be supported.

Work factors as predictors of poor sleep in nurses' aides

OBJECTIVES

The aim was to identify work factors that predict poor sleep in nurses' aides (assistant nurses).

METHODS

The study was based on a randomly selected, nationwide sample of Norwegian nurses' aides. Of 5,513 nurses' aides, not on leave when they completed a mailed questionnaire in 1999, 4,771 (86.5 %) completed a second questionnaire 3 months later. A wide spectrum of work factors was assessed at baseline by questions from the General Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social factors at Work. Subjective sleep quality during the previous 3 months was measured at baseline and follow-up by a question from the Basic Nordic Sleep Questionnaire. Poor sleep was defined as the subjective experience of not sleeping well.

RESULTS

Medium and high demands, high demand-control ratio, frequent exposure to role conflicts, and frequent exposure to threats and violence at work were associated with increased odds of poor sleep during the successive 3 months, after adjustments for sleep quality during the 3 months before baseline, other work factors, and background factors. High support from immediate superior, frequent rewards for well-done work, and high control of decisions that influence own work situation were associated with or tended to be associated with reduced odds of poor sleep.

CONCLUSION

Psychosocial work factors which are likely to produce sustained arousal, such as frequent exposure to role conflicts and violence, may contribute to poor sleep in nurses' aides. Support and encouragement from superiors, and high control at work seem to reduce the risk of poor sleep.

Perceived job stress and sleep-related breathing disturbance in Japanese male workers

To examine the association of job stress with sleep-related breathing disturbance (SBD), a cross-sectional sample of 1940 males aged 17-83 (mean 45) years in 292 small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan were surveyed by means of a self-administered questionnaire. Perceived job stress was evaluated by the Japanese version of the Generic Job Stress Questionnaire developed by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which included 13 job stress variables. Participants were divided into thirds according to their job stress scores. SBD was assessed by the question "Have you ever felt difficulty breathing during sleep or has anyone in your family told you that you have such difficulty?" SBD was defined as presence of symptoms more than once a month. Risk of SBD through job stress was estimated using logistic regression with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as measures of association. Prevalence of study-defined SBD was 6.7%. Participants who perceived the lowest level of social support from supervisors, and highest levels of job future ambiguity, interpersonal conflict at the workplace, job dissatisfaction, variance in workload, and quantitative workload had significantly increased risk of SBD after adjusting for potential confounders. High depressive symptoms, as measured by Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale scores of 16 or higher, were also significantly associated with increased SDB. Although the results should be considered preliminary because of the self-reporting and cross-sectional design, data suggest that exposure to high job stress could be a possible risk factor for developing or aggravating SBD. Results also indicate that job stress should be considered when evaluating SBD in occupational and clinical settings.

Morbidity ranking of U.S. workers employed in 206 occupations: the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 1986-1994

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to rank U.S. occupations by worker morbidity.

METHODS

From 1986 through 1994, morbidity information was collected on over 410,000 U.S. workers who participated in the National Health Interview Survey, an annual household survey representative of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. A multivariate adjusted logistic regression morbidity summary score was created for each worker group based on seven indicators: days of restricted activity, bedrest, and missed work in the previous 2 weeks; doctor visits and hospitalizations in the previous 12 months; reported health conditions; and health status.

RESULTS

Worker groups reporting the greatest morbidity included social workers, inspectors, postal clerks, psychologists, and grinding machine operators; worker groups reporting the least morbidity included dentists, pilots, physicians, pharmacists, and dietitians.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings aid in the identification of worker groups that require increased attention for morbidity research and prevention.

Job stress, social support, and prevalence of insomnia in a population of Japanese daytime workers

To clarify the relationship between perceived job stress, social support and prevalence of insomnia in Japanese daytime workers, 1161 male white-collar employees of an electric equipment manufacturing company (age, 23-60 years, mean age of 37.0) were surveyed by means of a mailed questionnaire. Perceived job stress was evaluated with the Japanese version of the generic NIOSH job stress questionnaire. Insomnia was diagnosed if workers had at least 1 of 3 types of symptoms on an almost nightly basis. The symptoms were (1) taking more than 30 min to fall asleep (Difficulty Initiating Sleep, DIS), (2) difficulty in maintaining sleep (DMS), or (3) early morning awakening (EMA). The overall prevalence of insomnia was 23.6% and the prevalences of the three subtypes were 11.3% for DIS, 14.2% for DMS, and 1.9% for EMA. Workers with high intragroup conflict (OR 1.6), high job dissatisfaction (OR 1.5), and high symptoms of depression (OR 2.0) (CES-D > 16) had a significantly increased risk for insomnia after adjusting for multiple confounding factors. Low employment opportunities, physical environment and low coworker support also were weakly associated with risk for insomnia among workers. Furthermore, high depressive symptoms significantly increased the risk of DIS (OR 2.4). Therefore in white-collar male daytime workers, psychological job stress factors such as interpersonal conflicts with fellow employees, job satisfaction, and social support were independently associated with a modestly increased risk of insomnia that included three different subtypes that were considered to be defining for the disorder.

Contemporary work characteristics, stress, and ill health

This study investigates the relationship between work and ill health resulting from stressors originating in the work environment. The association between work and health has been well-documented. Factors in the work environment leading to ill health have included generalized psychological stress and/or specific physical environmental characteristics. Data for this study come from a 1998 telephone survey, the Indiana Survey of Work in a Polarized Economy, under the auspices of the Center for Survey Research at Indiana University. The dependent variable is an index that measures ill health among workers; control variables include sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics of these workers as well as their job characteristics; and the four key independent variables are occupational status, organizational disruption, layoff experience, and educational discordance of the workers. Multiple regression analysis on the entire sample (n = 919) demonstrates that occupational status is negatively associated with ill health, while organizational disruption, layoff experience, and educational discordance are positively associated with it. Separate analyses for male (n = 474) and female (n = 445) respondents find significant sex differences in the effects of the key variables: for males, organizational disruption is positively related to ill health while for women occupational status is negatively related and layoff experience and educational discordance are positively related to ill health. The findings from the present research provide insight into the interrelationship of occupational environment and health within the framework of evolutionary medicine.

[Impact of occupational stress on health status in Canada]

Studies have shown that high psychological demands and low decision latitude may be involved in the development of major health problems. The objective of the current study was to describe the importance of these factors among the Canadian working population. The sample included 7,250 participants from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) of 1994-95. Women were significantly more exposed than men to high psychological demands (56% versus 49%), to low decision latitude (61% versus 49%), and to these two factors simultaneously (33% versus 22%). The exposure to each of these factors was more frequent among younger and less educated people. Simultaneous exposure to both factors was more frequent among younger people and those with intermediate education level. There was a socio-economic gradient for the exposition to these factors. Some jobs with the highest exposure were identified.

Gender differences in minor morbidity among full time employees of a British university

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To examine gender differences in minor morbidity among men and women working in similar circumstances, and to test whether the relation between reported working conditions and health is similar for men and women.

DESIGN

Multivariate analysis of data collected from a postal questionnaire distributed to full time employees in white collar jobs within a single organisation.

SETTING

A British university.

PARTICIPANTS

1641 employees (1009 men and 632 women) working full time in white collar occupations in the university.

MAIN RESULTS

Overall, female university employees reported more "physical" symptoms (2.0 v 1.7, p < 0.001) and more "malaise" symptoms (1.4 v 1.1, p < 0.001) than male employees, but mean scores on a measure of minor psychiatric morbidity did not differ by gender. Poor perceived working conditions (and particularly lack of job stimulation, job drain and poor physical conditions) were consistently related to all three measures of minor morbidity, and these variables accounted for most of the variance in these health measures in this sample. When the analysis controlled for occupational grade, perceived working conditions and orientation to gender roles, there was no difference between men and women for any of the health measures. The relations for the predictor variables were generally the same for men and women (and there were no interactions with gender for any of the work related variables).

CONCLUSIONS

Although small gender differences in recent experience of malaise and physical symptoms remain when examining men and women in as similar working circumstances as possible, these differences are cumulatively eroded by taking account of occupational grade, reported working conditions and orientation to gender. These results lend support to a differential exposure, rather than a differential vulnerability, model of gender differences in health.

Problematizing gender, work and health: the relationship between gender, occupational grade, working conditions and minor morbidity in full-time bank employees

It is commonly asserted that while women have longer life expectancy than men, they have higher rates of morbidity, particularly for minor and psychological conditions. However, most research on gender and health has taken only limited account of the gendered distribution of social roles. Here we investigate gender differences in morbidity whilst controlling, as far as possible, for one major role, namely participation in paid employment. There is substantial segregation of the labour market by gender; men and women typically work different hours in different occupations which involve varying conditions and differing rewards and costs. Here, we examine men and women working full-time for the same employer. This paper reports on a postal survey of employees (1112 men and 1064 women) of a large British bank. It addresses three main questions: do gender differences in minor morbidity remain if we compare men and women who are employed in similar circumstances (same industry and employer)? What is the relative importance of gender, grade of employment within the organisation, perceived working conditions and orientation to gender roles for minor morbidity? Finally, are these factors related to health differentially for men and women? There were statistically significant gender differences amongst these full-time employees in recent experience of malaise symptoms, but not in physical symptoms or GHQ scores. Controlling for other factors did not reduce the gender differences in malaise scores and produced a weak, but significant, gender difference in GHQ scores. However, gender explained only a small proportion of variance, particularly in comparison with working conditions. Generally similar relationships between experience of work and occupational grade and morbidity were observed for men and women. Throughout the paper, we attempt to problematize gender, recognising that there are similarities between women and men and diversity amongst women and amongst men. However, we conclude that the gendered nature of much of adult life, including paid work, continues to shape the experiences and health of men and women at the end of the twentieth century.