Social inequalities, stressful work and non-fatal cardiovascular disease: follow-up findings from the CONSTANCES Study.

BACKGROUND: Studies show that a disadvantaged socioeconomic position (SEP) and psychosocial stress at work are both independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). But it is not clear if the effect of stress at work on CVD varies by SEP. METHODS: We used baseline and follow-up data from the French population-based cohort study CONSTANCES, including 48 383 employed women and men aged 30-70 years. Three SEP indicators (education, income, occupation), stressful psychosocial work as measured by effort-reward imbalance, pre-existing CVD and confounders were assessed at baseline, and incident non-fatal CVD events reported during annual follow-up (up to five follow-ups) were used as outcomes. The effect modification hypothesis was both investigated on an additive and multiplicative scale. RESULTS: SEP was inversely associated with CVD risk (eg, for low vs high income, OR 1.28 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.46)), and for all three components of stressful work CVD risks were significantly increased (eg, for effort-reward ratio OR 1.26 (95% CI 1.17 to 1.36)). Employees with a disadvantaged SEP showed moderately increased effect sizes of stressful work on CVD. However, no clear evidence of an effect modification was found. CONCLUSIONS: Disadvantaged SEP and stressful work contribute to higher CVD risk in this cohort. Despite moderately increased effect sizes for disadvantaged SEP groups, no evidence was found to support an effect modification hypothesis.

Measuring emotional variables in occupational performance: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: As interest in job-related psychology increased, the need to focus on understanding workplace stress was emphasized. Negative emotional states such as anxiety and stress permeate the organization and, if uncontrolled, can negatively impact the health and work performance of workers. Therefore, attempts to analyze various signals to understand human emotional states or attitudes may be important for future technological development. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify what biological variables can discriminate emotions that can significantly affect work results. METHODS: Databases (Embase, PsychINFO, PubMed, and CINAHL) were searched for all relevant literature published as of December 31, 2019. RESULTS: Brain activity (BA) and heart rate (HR) or heart rate variability (HRV) are adequate for assessing negative emotions, while BA, galvanic skin response (GSR), and salivary samples (SS) can confirm positive and negative emotions. CONCLUSION: In the future, researchers should study measurement tools and bio-related variables while workers perform tasks and develop intervention strategies to address emotions associated with work. This may enable workers to perform tasks more efficiently, prevent accidents, and satisfy clients.

"Our Work, Our Health, No One's Concern": Domestic Waste Collectors' Perceptions of Occupational Safety and Self-Reported Health Issues in an Urban Town in Ghana.

Domestic waste collectors face major public health hazards that result in injuries and morbidity globally. This study explored domestic waste collectors' perceptions of occupational safety and self-reported health issues in a city in Ghana using a phenomenological qualitative research design. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were held with 64 domestic waste collectors from two waste companies. The transcribed data were imported into NVivo 11.0 software (QSR International, Burlington, MA, USA) for coding, and a content analysis was applied to analyze all the transcribed data using the processes of induction and deduction. The consensual views from the domestic waste collectors showed the waste-company employers' non-interest in the domestic waste collectors' occupational safety and health. Poor communication from employers to domestic waste collectors and huge workloads were identified as the causes of the poor implementation of occupational safety practices, which exposed the domestic waste collectors to occupational health hazards. The domestic waste collectors reported that they suffered from occupational injuries, psychosocial disorders, work-related stress, and frequent burnout. The domestic waste collectors adopted coping strategies, such as self-medication, to deal with these occupational hazards, since most of them were not covered by guaranteed health insurance. In addition, the study revealed the non-compliance and non-enforcement of occupational health and safety policies by the employers to guide health and safety training and practices among the domestic waste collectors. In conclusion, the findings suggest that DWCs are exposed to occupational safety and health hazards in their work. Waste-company employers should extend welfare benefits to DWCs, such as health insurance and social security benefits, to ensure their security, health, and well-being. The findings could inform the design of intervention programs and policies to guide training and practices for domestic waste collectors.

Beyond the Outbreak of COVID-19: Factors Affecting Burnout in Nurses in Iran.

Background: Nurses working in treating patients with COVID-19 are exposed to various stressors, such as fear of COVID-19, stress, and high workload, leading to burnout. Objectives: This study aimed to identify the level of burnout and its predictors in nurses working in hospitals for COVID-19 patients. Methods: Participants in this study were nurses working in 11 hospitals for COVID-19 patients in the Fars province of Iran. The Maslach burnout and the UK Health and Safety stress questionnaires were used to assess burnout and stress, respectively. Analysis, using multiple regression in the SPSS21 software, aimed to identify the factors affecting burnout. Findings: The mean level of burnout in the nurses at the COVID-19 hospitals was 57 out of 120, and burnout was affected by workload (ß = 0.69, p < 0.001), job stress (ß = 0.25, p < 0.001) and inadequate hospital resources for the prevention of COVID-19 (ß = -0.16, p < 0.001). These three variables explained 87% of the variance in burnout. Conclusions: The burnout of nurses directly exposed to COVID-19 patients is more than nurses in other wards, and workload is the most significant cause of burnout in them. Therefore, necessary measures such as hiring more nurses, reducing working hours and increasing rest periods are necessary to reduce workload. In addition, the job stress of these nurses should be managed and controlled, and the hospital resources needed to prevent this disease should be provided.

A study on the relationship between nurses' compulsory citizenship behaviours and job stress.

AIM: To determine whether there is a relationship between compulsory citizenship behaviours and job stress among nurses working at public hospitals. BACKGROUND: Nurses may face strong pressure from their managers or peers to perform role behaviours beyond what is found in their job definition. When mandated, these extra duties are called compulsory citizenship behaviours. METHOD: This descriptive study included 569 nurses who work in three hospitals. Data were analysed using descriptive statistical analyses, linearity test, Pearson's correlation analysis, simple linear regression analysis and parametric and nonparametric tests. RESULTS: There was a significant, strong and positive relationship between the nurses' job stress and compulsory citizenship behaviours. Statistically significant differences were found between the nurses' job stress scores according to the institution and unit they worked in and their professional experience duration. CONCLUSION: This study found that nurses display compulsory citizenship behaviours and experience job stress at a high level. A significant relationship was found between these two variables. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Special training programmes should be held informing managers and nurses about the negative outcomes of compulsory citizenship behaviours and positive outcomes of organisational citizenship behaviours. Appropriate opportunities and resources should be provided to cope with stress in hospital settings.

Job stress and needlestick injuries in nurses: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: The prevention of needlestick injuries (NSIs) in nurses employed in Emergency Departments (EDs) represents a special issue for healthcare organizations globally. Stressful working conditions, lack of organizational arrangements and lack of supporting one another at work, may contribute to increase the risk of NSIs. METHODS: We conducted an observational study to analyze: 1) the effectiveness of organizational interventions to minimize the occurrence of NSIs in ED nurses; 2) to measure the impact of such interventions on the safety budget. RESULTS: The occurrence of NSIs detected after organizational level interventions was significantly lower than the occurrence observed previously such interventions (p<0,05). By results, cost saving from managing fewer NSIs than the previous period was found. CONCLUSION: The study shows that the proactive, integrated and comprehensive management of organizational features at workplace brings benefits to employees and reduces the burden of the occurrence of NSIs. As result of the reduced NSIs frequency, the overall costs for follow-up of injured workers were reduced. (www.actabiomedica.it).

Work-Family Conflict and Ideal Cardiovascular Health Score in the ELSA-Brasil Baseline Assessment.

Background There are few data about the association between work-related stress and the American Heart Association ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics. We studied the association between work-family conflict (WFC) and ideal CVH scores in the ELSA-Brasil (Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health) baseline study. Methods and Results We analyzed data of active workers (5424 men and 5967 women), aged 35 to 74 years, from 2008 to 2010. Ideal CVH scores were calculated based on the lifestyle and health metrics proposed by the American Heart Association, using data from questionnaires and clinical and laboratory examinations from the ELSA-Brasil study baseline. The WFC questionnaire was based on the Frone model, validated for Brazilian Portuguese. WFC domains (time and strain-based work interference with family, family interference with work, and lack of time for personal care and leisure) and frequency (never to rarely, sometimes, or frequently) were self-reported. Main models were adjusted for age, sex, race, educational level, income, and study site. Positive relative predicted score differences (rPSDs) indicate higher predicted scores. We found lower lifestyle ideal CVH scores among men (rPSD, -5.7%; P=0.002) and women (rPSD, -10.2%; P<0.001) with frequent lack of time for personal care and leisure. We found lower lifestyle ideal CVH scores among women with frequent strain-based work interference with family (rPSD, -5.1%; P=0.002), and family interference with work (rPSD, -8.6%; P=0.001). We found higher health ideal CVH scores among men with frequent WFC, which may be attributable to reverse causation. Conclusions We found significant associations between WFC and ideal CVH scores. These associations were heterogeneous according to sex.

Association Between Speed of Multimorbidity Accumulation in Old Age and Life Experiences: A Cohort Study.

Rapidly accumulating multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity) during aging are associated with many adverse outcomes. We explored the association between 4 experiences throughout life-childhood socioeconomic circumstances, early-adulthood education, midlife occupational stress, and late-life social network-and the speed of chronic disease accumulation. We followed 2,589 individuals aged ≥60 years from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen for 9 years (2001-2013). Information on life experiences was collected from detailed life-history interviews. Speed of disease accumulation was operationalized as the change in the count of chronic conditions obtained from clinical examinations, medical histories, laboratory data, drug use, and register linkages over 9 years. Linear mixed models were used to analyze the data. Speed of disease accumulation was lower in individuals with more than elementary education (for secondary, ß × time = -0.065, 95% CI: -0.126, -0.004; for university, ß × time = -0.118, 95% CI: -0.185, -0.050); for active occupations compared with high-strain jobs (ß × time = -0.078, 95% CI: -0.138, -0.017); and for richer social networks (for moderate tertile, ß × time = -0.102, 95% CI: -0.149, -0.055; for highest tertile, ß × time = -0.135, 95% CI: -0.182, -0.088). The association between childhood circumstances and speed of disease accumulation was attenuated by later-life experiences. Diverse experiences throughout life might decelerate chronic disease accumulation during aging.

Stressful work conditions, positive affect, and physical health of middle-aged couples: A dyadic analysis.

This study investigated actor and partner effects involving middle-aged husbands' and wives' stressful work conditions (SWCs), positive affect (PA), and health outcomes in a dyadic trajectory context in three steps. First, examination of husbands' and wives' individual trajectories showed significant interindividual variations in SWCs and PA over time. Second, a dyadic growth curve model incorporating both husbands' and wives' growth curves of SWCs and PA showed that husbands' and wives' trajectories of SWCs over their early middle years (1991-1994) were negatively associated with their own parallel trajectories of PA independent of depressive symptoms trajectories. Finally, most of the growth factors of PA trajectories of husbands and wives (1991-1994) predicted their own residual changes in physical illness and overall physical health in 2001. In dyadic models, although contemporaneous correlations between most of the study constructs between husbands and wives were significant, all partner effects involving growth parameters of SWCs, PA, and health outcomes were not significant. Most of the indirect effects from SWCs growth factors to health outcomes through PA were significant. The findings suggested that PA was an important health resource for middle-aged husbands and wives that mediates the influence of one's SWCs on own physical health outcomes.

Women's Smoking: Relationships Among Emotional Labor, Occupational Stress, and Health Promotion.

Call centers in Korea have been found to be operated mainly by women, and they experience high levels of job-related stress. Compared with the general population, the prevalence of smoking among women in Korea's call centers is strikingly high. Little attention has been paid to the associations between smoking behavior and their emotional labor, occupational stress, and health-promotion behaviors. For this cross-sectional study, a paper-based survey was conducted in a sample of female employees in a credit card call center (N = 309). Among the participants, about 20% (n = 62) were current smokers. Smokers were less engaged in health-promotion behaviors than nonsmokers, and occupational stress was negatively associated with health-promoting behaviors in nonsmokers, but not in smokers. Smokers may use cigarettes as a way of alleviating the emotional burden of their work.

The relationship between pain psychological factors and job stress in rehabilitation workers with or without chronic pain.

BACKGROUND: Pain is affected by pain psychological factors (PPFs), whereas relationship between PPFs and job stress are unclear. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between PPFs and job stress in workers. METHODS: The study participants were the staff of the rehabilitation department of a core hospital. After undergoing a preliminary survey (38/43, 88% response rate), the rehabilitation workers were divided into the chronic pain group (CPG, n = 18) and the nonpain group (NPG, n = 13). RESULTS: Depression, anxiety, and magnification in the CPG were significantly associated with depressed mood and total stress response. Anxiety in the NPG was also significantly associated with all stress responses, except irritability and feelings of anxiety. Furthermore, all subscales of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale in the NPG were significantly and negatively associated with the vigor of stress responses. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic pain in workers was associated with severe job stress, and increased job stress worsened the state of chronic pain. Pain catastrophizing may be associated with early job stress in a person with no pain. This finding revealed a difference between the CPG and NPG and may be important for managing workers with job stress or pain.

Work-sharing and male employees' mental health during an economic recession.

BACKGROUND: One approach to reducing occupational stress during an economic recession is to share work amongst employees. This may include reducing employees' working hours to avoid redundancies. AIMS: To examine whether work-sharing influenced the psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms encountered by Japanese employees, and to determine which psychosocial factors predict employees' mental health during an economic recession. METHODS: A survey was performed in a Japanese manufacturing company at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of a 6-month period during the 2008 economic recession using the validated Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). RESULTS: Three hundred and thirty-six male employees completed the questionnaire. Twenty-four per cent of participants showed depressive symptoms at T1. Despite reductions in employees' working hours and job strain (P < 0.001), SDS scores showed no change after 6 months. Logistic regression analyses showed that low social support between the two surveys was associated with depressive symptoms at T2 after adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, workplace factors, scheduled working hours and depressive symptoms at T1. CONCLUSIONS: Reductions in job strain did not affect employees' depressive symptoms. Employees with low social support during the study had a significantly higher risk of having depressive symptoms. These findings indicate that social and emotional support within the workplace is important during the work-sharing period.

Evaluation of functional state in medical personnel with long length of service.

Examination covered 118 medical staffers with length of service 25,7±6,3 years. Materials included work conditons, case histories, physical and laboratory examinations, cardiointervalography. To identify emotional burnout syndrome, the authors used simultaneous testing with <> (MBI) and questionnaire <>. According to emotional burnout syndrome components, somatic disease manifestations, cognitive, emotional, motivational and attitudinal disorders were assessed. Findings are that vegetative nervous system in medical personnel with long length of service is overstrained, functional resources are exhausted, energetic level is under normal level - that is supported by clinical and laboratory data. 36,4% of the medical staffers were diagnosed as having vegetative dysfunction syndrome. Complaints of psycho-physical, social and psychologic and/or behavoral symptoms were seen in 7% of the examinees; hypodynamia - in 53%; excuses for sedatives or psychoactive drugs intake - in 53%. Findings are that according to periodic medical examinations risk groups should be formed and specific medical and prophylactic measures should be provided.

Identificação de sintomas musculoesqueléticos e articulares em estudantes de graduação em enfermagem / Identification of musculoskeletal and joint symptoms in undergraduate nursing students

Os objetivos deste estudo são: identificar sintomas musculoesqueléticos e articulares nos estudantes de graduação em Enfermagem e relacionar o surgimento ou a exacerbação dos sintomas às atividades desenvolvidas na prática assistencial hospitalar. Abordagem quantitativa, analítico, observacional do tipo caso controle com metodologia tipo Survey. Amostra composta por 127 estudantes de graduação em Enfermagem de uma Universidade pública federal na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, sendo 56 estudantes do quinto e sexto período (grupo caso) e 71 do primeiro e segundo período (grupo controle). Os resultados demonstraram um grupo homogêneo com semelhança das características sociodemográficas. Dos 127 estudantes pesquisados, 115 apontaram ter um ou mais dos sintomas musculoesqueléticos e articulares. A coluna lombar, ombros e pernas foram as regiões mais afetadas pelo grupo caso e no grupo controle foram a coluna cervical, ombros e joelhos. A dor foi o sintoma predominante em ambos os grupos. As situações agravantes dos sintomas no grupo caso foram problemas posturais, sobrecarga, estágio e estresse e no grupo controle foram a postura, sobrecarga e estresse. Dos 54 estudantes do grupo caso, 48 têm os seus sintomas agravados durante ou depois do estágio curricular, entre eles destaca-se a lombalgia. Dentre as atividades que mais colaboram para o agravamento dos sintomas estão: realizar banho no leito, mobilizar o paciente, ficar muito tempo em pé, esforço físico, ficar na mesma posição e fazer curativos. Concluiu-se que atividades de cuidado hospitalar cotidianas exacerbam os sintomas musculoesqueléticos e articulares, sendo a dor o sintoma mais frequente em estudantes de Enfermagem.

The objectives of this study are: to identify musculoskeletal and joint symptoms in undergraduate nursing students and to relate the onset or exacerbation of symptoms to activities developed in hospital care practice. Quantitative, analytical, observational case- control approach with Survey methodology. A sample of 127 undergraduate nursing students from a federal public university in the city of Rio de Janeiro, 56 students from the fifth and sixth period (case group) and 71 from the first and second period (control group). The results showed a homogeneous group with similarity of sociodemographic characteristics. Of the 127 students surveyed, 115 reported having one or more musculoskeletal and joint symptoms. The lumbar spine, shoulders and legs were the regions most affected by the case group and in the control group were the cervical spine, shoulders and knees. Pain was the predominant symptom in both groups. The aggravating situations of symptoms in the case group were postural problems, overload, stage and stress and in the control group were posture, overload and stress. Of the 54 students in the case group, 48 have their symptoms aggravated during or after the curricular internship, including low back pain. Among the activities that most contribute to the aggravation of symptoms are: bathing in the bed, mobilizing the patient, standing for a long time, physical exertion, staying in the same position and dressing. It was concluded that daily hospital care activities exacerbate musculoskeletal and joint symptoms, with pain being the most frequent symptom in nursing students.