High job control enhances vagal recovery in media work.

BACKGROUND: Job strain has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. In modern media work, time pressures, rapidly changing situations, computer work and irregular working hours are common. Heart rate variability (HRV) has been widely used to monitor sympathovagal balance. Autonomic imbalance may play an additive role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. AIMS: To study the effects of work demands and job control on the autonomic nervous system recovery among the media personnel. METHODS: From the cross-sectional postal survey of the employees in Finnish Broadcasting Company (n = 874), three age cohorts (n = 132) were randomly selected for an analysis of HRV in 24 h electrocardiography recordings. RESULTS: In the middle-aged group, those who experienced high job control had significantly better vagal recovery than those with low or moderate control (P < 0.01). Among young and ageing employees, job control did not associate with autonomic recovery. CONCLUSIONS: High job control over work rather than low demands seemed to enhance autonomic recovery in middle-aged media workers. This was independent of poor health habits such as smoking, physical inactivity or alcohol consumption.

Associations of reported bruxism with insomnia and insufficient sleep symptoms among media personnel with or without irregular shift work.

BACKGROUND: The aims were to investigate the prevalence of perceived sleep quality and insufficient sleep complaints, and to analyze whether self-reported bruxism was associated with perceptions of sleep, and awake consequences of disturbed sleep, while controlling confounding factors relative to poor sleep. METHODS: A standardized questionnaire was mailed to all employees of the Finnish Broadcasting Company with irregular shift work (n = 750) and to an equal number of randomly selected controls in the same company with regular eight-hour daytime work. RESULTS: The response rate in the irregular shift work group was 82.3% (56.6% men) and in the regular daytime work group 34.3% (46.7% men). Self-reported bruxism occurred frequently (often or continually) in 10.6% of all subjects. Altogether 16.8% reported difficulties initiating sleep (DIS), 43.6% disrupted sleep (DS), and 10.3% early morning awakenings (EMA). The corresponding figures for non-restorative sleep (NRS), tiredness, and sleep deprivation (SLD) were 36.2%, 26.1%, and 23.7%, respectively. According to logistic regression, female gender was a significant independent factor for all insomnia symptoms, and older age for DS and EMA. Frequent bruxism was significantly associated with DIS (p = 0.019) and DS (p = 0.021). Dissatisfaction with current work shift schedule and frequent bruxism were both significant independent factors for all variables describing insufficient sleep consequences. CONCLUSION: Self-reported bruxism may indicate sleep problems and their adherent awake consequences in non-patient populations.

Validity of a single-item measure of stress symptoms.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to investigate the content, criterion, and construct validity of a single-item measure of stress symptoms. Such a concise measure would be useful in monitoring stress at work. The criteria for validity were convergence with conceptionally close measures, the plausibility of associations with health and work characteristics, and the power to discriminate between groups. METHODS: Four sets of independent cross-sectional data were used. The first data set, from Finland Post, comprised symptoms of ill health and mental resources (N=1014). The second, from four Nordic countries, included well-known validated scales on exhaustion, mental health, sleep, vitality, and optimism, and therefore the convergence between the measures could be studied (N=1015). The third, from a metal factory, included three indicators of health and four work characteristics (N=773). The fourth, representing the Finnish working population, described group differences in stress symptoms (N=2156) and allowed comparison with a study on emotional exhaustion in the working population. Distributions, correlations, and factor analysis were used for the study. RESULTS: The stress-symptoms item converged with items on psychological symptoms and sleep disturbances and with validated measures of well-being. It had theoretically grounded associations with indicators of health and psychosocial work characteristics, and it discriminated between gender and age groups and industrial branches in accordance with the validated emotional exhaustion scale. CONCLUSIONS: The stress-symptoms item showed satisfactory content, criterion, and construct validity for group-level analysis. It is suggested that the longer scales used to measure psychological stress can be replaced with it in survey research.