Decreasing employees' work stress by a participatory, organizational level work stress prevention approach: a multiple-case study in primary education.

BACKGROUND: Work stress is an important problem among employees in education in the Netherlands. The present study aims to investigate the effects of a participatory organizational level work stress prevention approach to reduce (quantitative) job demands, increase resources (i.e. autonomy, supervisor and coworker support) and to reduce work stress and increase job satisfaction of employees in primary education. METHODS: This study makes use of a multiple case study research design. The stress prevention approach is implemented at 5 primary schools and questionnaires were filled out by 119 employees of the 5 schools at baseline and 1 year later, measuring job demands, resources, work stress, job satisfaction and implementation factors. RESULTS: Multilevel analyses showed a significant decrease in job demands and a significant increase in job satisfaction between baseline and follow up. In addition, employees that were more satisfied with the communication about the intervention showed more improvements in autonomy and job satisfaction. However, employees reporting an increased dialogue in work stress between employees and management showed a smaller decrease in job demands. CONCLUSION: The study shows a decrease in job demands and an increase in job satisfaction in the schools that implemented a stress prevention approach. Results of the study underline the importance of communication about the intervention as part of the implementation process, impacting the effectiveness of the intervention to improve autonomy and job satisfaction. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry, study ID: ISRCTN14697835, registration date: 11-10-2019 (retrospectively registered).

Development of a new measure for mental retirement; testing of a three-factor structure of mentale retirement in different subgroups.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to develop a new measure for the concept of mental retirement and test the construct validity of the measure. Employees who are 'mentally retired' are present at their work physically, but have already said their goodbyes mentally. Mental retirement has a three-factor structure: developmental proactivity, work engagement and perceived appreciation. METHODS: We use data from employees (N = 867) of five different organizations in the Netherlands. Mental retirement was assessed with 11 items in an online survey. In addition, socio-demographic characteristics like age, level of education and occupation, were measured. Next to tests of internal consistency, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is performed to test the three-factor structure of mental retirement in this population and in different subgroups (age, education, occupation). RESULTS: The internal consistency varies from .80 to .94 for the developmental proactivity scale and the work engagement scale, respectively (appreciation was measured with one item). For the CFA, the three-factor model fits the data adequately. Multiple group analyses also shows equal factor loadings in all subgroups, but the mean levels of mental retirement differ across subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the three-factor model of mental retirement in a general group of employees as well as across different subgroups. However, this study only tested the construct validity. Future research should study validity more extensively and be longitudinal in nature. In addition, the causal chain of antecedent variables to mental retirement and its outcomes should be considered. These studies could also focus on the effects of interventions aiming at preventing or decreasing the level of mental retirement in organizations.

Effect of a participative action intervention program on reducing mental retirement.

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a stepwise, bottom-up participatory program with a tailor-made intervention process addressing the level of mental retirement in a sample of Dutch employees. Mental retirement refers to feelings of being disconnected from your work and your organization. Prevention of mental retirement is important since sustainable employability is becoming more important in today's society due to the ageing of the working population and the changes in skills demands. METHODS: This prospective cohort study with a one-year follow-up employs a sample of 683 employees of three organizations in The Netherlands, who filled out two questionnaires: at baseline and 1 year later. The dependent measure was mental retirement, which consists of three sub-concepts: developmental pro-activity, work engagement and perceived appreciation. RESULTS: Multilevel analysis (N = 466) showed that employees who more actively participated in the intervention(s) had a small but statistically significant larger decrease in mental retirement at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The stepwise, bottom-up participatory program with a tailor-made intervention process shows a tendency to decrease the level of mental retirement in Dutch employees. However, the implementation of interventions could be further improved since it turned out to be very challenging to keep up participants' commitment to the program. Future research should study the effectiveness of this program further with an improved study design (control group, multiple follow-ups, several data sources).

The association between exposure to psychosocial work factors and mental health in older employees, a 3-year follow-up study.

PURPOSE: Unfavourable exposure to psychosocial work factors threatens older employees' mental health, and their sustained employment. This study assesses whether an improved compared to stable unfavourable and stable favourable exposure to psychosocial work factors is associated with a change in mental health in older employees at 3-year follow-up. METHODS: The current study used data from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (STREAM), in workers aged 45-65 years (n = 5249). Two-year (2010-2012) exposure was assessed for psychological demands, autonomy, support, mental load, and distributive justice. Linear regression analyses were performed to compare improved exposure to unfavourable psychosocial work factors with stable unfavourable and stable favourable exposure and mental health at follow-up (2013), corrected for confounders. Analyses were stratified for age groups (45-54 and 55-65 years) and gender. RESULTS: In certain subgroups, stable unfavourable exposure to psychological demands, autonomy, support, and distributive justice was associated with a significantly lower mental health score than improved exposure. Stable favourable exposure to support was associated with a higher mental health score than improved support, whereas stable favourable exposure to autonomy was associated with a lower mental health score compared to improved exposure. CONCLUSIONS: There is a longitudinal association between changes in exposure to psychosocial work factors and mental health. Improvement in unfavourable exposure to psychosocial work factors was associated with improved mental health. This is important information for organisations that consider deploying measures to improve the psychosocial work environment of older workers.

The role of autonomy and social support in the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress in health care workers.

BACKGROUND: Health care workers are exposed to psychosocial work factors. Autonomy and social support are psychosocial work factors that are related to stress, and are argued to largely result from the psychosocial safety climate within organisations. This study aimed to assess to what extent the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress in health care workers can be explained by autonomy and social support. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, psychosocial safety climate, stress, autonomy, co-worker support, and supervisor support were assessed using questionnaires, in a sample of health care workers (N = 277). Linear mixed models analyses were performed to assess to what extent social support and autonomy explained the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress. RESULTS: A lower psychosocial safety climate score was associated with significantly higher stress (B = -0.21, 95% CI = -0.27 - -0.14). Neither co-worker support, supervisor support, nor autonomy explained the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress. Taken together, autonomy and both social support measures diminished the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress by 12% (full model: B = -0.18, 95% CI = -0.25 - -0.11). CONCLUSIONS: Autonomy and social support together seemed to bring about a small decrease in the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress in health care workers. Future research should discern whether other psychosocial work factors explain a larger portion of this relation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered in the Netherlands National Trial Register, trial code: NTR5527 .

Stress Prevention@Work: a study protocol for the evaluation of a multifaceted integral stress prevention strategy to prevent employee stress in a healthcare organization: a cluster controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Adequate implementation of work-related stress management interventions can reduce or prevent work-related stress and sick leave in organizations. We developed a multifaceted integral stress-prevention strategy for organizations from several sectors that includes a digital platform and collaborative learning network. The digital platform contains a stepwise protocol to implement work-related stress-management interventions. It includes stress screeners, interventions and intervention providers to facilitate access to and the selection of matching work-related stress-management interventions. The collaborative learning network, including stakeholders from various organizations, plans meetings focussing on an exchange of experiences and good practices among organizations for the implementation of stress prevention measures. This paper describes the design of an integral stress-prevention strategy, Stress Prevention@Work, and the protocol for the evaluation of: 1) the effects of the strategy on perceived stress and work-related outcomes, and 2) the barriers and facilitators for implementation of the strategy. METHODS: The effectiveness of Stress Prevention@Work will be evaluated in a cluster controlled trial, in a large healthcare organization in the Netherlands, at six and 12 months. An independent researcher will match teams on working conditions and size and allocate the teams to the intervention or control group. Teams in the intervention group will be offered Stress Prevention@Work. For each intervention team, one employee is responsible for applying the strategy within his/her team using the digital platform and visiting the collaborative learning network. Using a waiting list design, the control group will be given access to the strategy after 12 months. The primary outcome is the employees' perceived stress measured by the stress subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Secondary outcome measures are job demands, job resources and the number of preventive stress measures implemented at the team level. Alongside the trial, a process evaluation, including barriers and facilitators of the implementation of Stress Prevention@Work, will be conducted in one healthcare organisation. DISCUSSION: If Stress Prevention@Work is found to be effective in one healthcare organisation, further implementation on a broader scale might lead to increased productivity and decreased stress and sick leave in other organizations. Results are expected in 2018. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NTR5527 . Registered 7 Dec 2015.

Physical working conditions as covered in European monitoring questionnaires.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of workers with demanding physical working conditions in the European work force remains high, and occupational physical exposures are considered important risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), a major burden for both workers and society. Exposures to physical workloads are therefore part of the European nationwide surveys to monitor working conditions and health. An interesting question is to what extent the same domains, dimensions and items referring to the physical workloads are covered in the surveys. The purpose of this paper is to determine 1) which domains and dimensions of the physical workloads are monitored in surveys at the national level and the EU level and 2) the degree of European consensus among these surveys regarding coverage of individual domains and dimensions. METHOD: Items on physical workloads used in one European wide/Spanish and five other European nationwide work environment surveys were classified into the domains and dimensions they cover, using a taxonomy agreed upon among all participating partners. RESULTS: The taxonomy reveals that there is a modest overlap between the domains covered in the surveys, but when considering dimensions, the results indicate a lower agreement. The phrasing of items and answering categories differs between the surveys. Among the domains, the three domains covered by all surveys are "lifting, holding & carrying of loads/pushing & pulling of loads", "awkward body postures" and "vibrations". The three domains covered less well, that is only by three surveys or less, are "physical work effort", "working sitting", and "mixed exposure". CONCLUSIONS: This is the first thorough overview to evaluate the coverage of domains and dimensions of self-reported physical workloads in a selection of European nationwide surveys. We hope the overview will provide input to the revisions and updates of the individual countries' surveys in order to enhance coverage of relevant domains and dimensions in all surveys and to increase the informational value of the surveys.

Long working hours and cancer risk: a multi-cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Working longer than the maximum recommended hours is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but the relationship of excess working hours with incident cancer is unclear. METHODS: This multi-cohort study examined the association between working hours and cancer risk in 116 462 men and women who were free of cancer at baseline. Incident cancers were ascertained from national cancer, hospitalisation and death registers; weekly working hours were self-reported. RESULTS: During median follow-up of 10.8 years, 4371 participants developed cancer (n colorectal cancer: 393; n lung cancer: 247; n breast cancer: 833; and n prostate cancer: 534). We found no clear evidence for an association between working hours and the overall cancer risk. Working hours were also unrelated the risk of incident colorectal, lung or prostate cancers. Working ⩾55 h per week was associated with 1.60-fold (95% confidence interval 1.12-2.29) increase in female breast cancer risk independently of age, socioeconomic position, shift- and night-time work and lifestyle factors, but this observation may have been influenced by residual confounding from parity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that working long hours is unrelated to the overall cancer risk or the risk of lung, colorectal or prostate cancers. The observed association with breast cancer would warrant further research.

Long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished data for 603,838 individuals.

BACKGROUND: Long working hours might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but prospective evidence is scarce, imprecise, and mostly limited to coronary heart disease. We aimed to assess long working hours as a risk factor for incident coronary heart disease and stroke. METHODS: We identified published studies through a systematic review of PubMed and Embase from inception to Aug 20, 2014. We obtained unpublished data for 20 cohort studies from the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations (IPD-Work) Consortium and open-access data archives. We used cumulative random-effects meta-analysis to combine effect estimates from published and unpublished data. FINDINGS: We included 25 studies from 24 cohorts in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The meta-analysis of coronary heart disease comprised data for 603,838 men and women who were free from coronary heart disease at baseline; the meta-analysis of stroke comprised data for 528,908 men and women who were free from stroke at baseline. Follow-up for coronary heart disease was 5·1 million person-years (mean 8·5 years), in which 4768 events were recorded, and for stroke was 3·8 million person-years (mean 7·2 years), in which 1722 events were recorded. In cumulative meta-analysis adjusted for age, sex, and socioeconomic status, compared with standard hours (35-40 h per week), working long hours (≥55 h per week) was associated with an increase in risk of incident coronary heart disease (relative risk [RR] 1·13, 95% CI 1·02-1·26; p=0·02) and incident stroke (1·33, 1·11-1·61; p=0·002). The excess risk of stroke remained unchanged in analyses that addressed reverse causation, multivariable adjustments for other risk factors, and different methods of stroke ascertainment (range of RR estimates 1·30-1·42). We recorded a dose-response association for stroke, with RR estimates of 1·10 (95% CI 0·94-1·28; p=0·24) for 41-48 working hours, 1·27 (1·03-1·56; p=0·03) for 49-54 working hours, and 1·33 (1·11-1·61; p=0·002) for 55 working hours or more per week compared with standard working hours (ptrend<0·0001). INTERPRETATION: Employees who work long hours have a higher risk of stroke than those working standard hours; the association with coronary heart disease is weaker. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the management of vascular risk factors in individuals who work long hours. FUNDING: Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, European Union New and Emerging Risks in Occupational Safety and Health research programme, Finnish Work Environment Fund, Swedish Research Council for Working Life and Social Research, German Social Accident Insurance, Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Academy of Finland, Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (Netherlands), US National Institutes of Health, British Heart Foundation.

Job strain and the risk of stroke: an individual-participant data meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Psychosocial stress at work has been proposed to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, its role as a risk factor for stroke is uncertain. METHODS: We conducted an individual-participant-data meta-analysis of 196 380 males and females from 14 European cohort studies to investigate the association between job strain, a measure of work-related stress, and incident stroke. RESULTS: In 1.8 million person-years at risk (mean follow-up 9.2 years), 2023 first-time stroke events were recorded. The age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio for job strain relative to no job strain was 1.24 (95% confidence interval, 1.05;1.47) for ischemic stroke, 1.01 (95% confidence interval, 0.75;1.36) for hemorrhagic stroke, and 1.09 (95% confidence interval, 0.94;1.26) for overall stroke. The association with ischemic stroke was robust to further adjustment for socioeconomic status. CONCLUSION: Job strain may be associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke, but further research is needed to determine whether interventions targeting job strain would reduce stroke risk beyond existing preventive strategies.

Who gets fired, who gets re-hired: the role of workers' contract, age, health, work ability, performance, work satisfaction and employee investments.

PURPOSE: Many workers have been dismissed in the past few years, either becoming unemployed or finding re-employment. The current study examined whether dismissal and its follow-up for the employee (re-employment versus unemployment) could be predicted from workers' employment contract and age, and their health status, work ability, work performance, work satisfaction and employee investments at baseline. METHODS: Our sample comprised a selection of participants from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2010 who participated in a follow-up questionnaire in 2012 (N = 2,644). We used logistic regression analyses to test our hypotheses. RESULTS: Temporary employment, low health status, low work ability, poor work performance, low work satisfaction and no employee investments in terms of training predicted future dismissal. Furthermore, older workers and workers reporting decreased work performance due to impaired health at baseline had a lower chance of re-employment after being dismissed. Interestingly, after taking into account all predictors, former temporary workers without permanent employment prospects had much better chances of re-employment after their dismissal than former permanent workers. CONCLUSIONS: Temporary, less healthy, low work ability, poor performing, dissatisfied and "under-invested" workers are at risk for dismissal, whereas older and less healthy workers are (also) at risk for long-term unemployment after being dismissed.

Dimensional comparability of psychosocial working conditions as covered in European monitoring questionnaires.

BACKGROUND: In most countries in the EU, national surveys are used to monitor working conditions and health. Since the development processes behind the various surveys are not necessarily theoretical, but certainly practical and political, the extent of similarity among the dimensions covered in these surveys has been unclear. Another interesting question is whether prominent models from scientific research on work and health are present in the surveys--bearing in mind that the primary focus of these surveys is on monitoring status and trends, not on mapping scientific models. Moreover, it is relevant to know which other scales and concepts not stemming from these models have been included in the surveys. The purpose of this paper is to determine (1) the similarity of dimensions covered in the surveys included and (2) the congruence of dimensions of scientific research and of dimensions present in the monitoring systems. METHOD: Items from surveys representing six European countries and one European wide survey were classified into the dimensions they cover, using a taxonomy agreed upon among all involved partners from the six countries. RESULTS: The classification reveals that there is a large overlap of dimensions, albeit not in the formulation of items, covered in the seven surveys. Among the available items, the two prominent work-stress-models--job-demand-control-support-model (DCS) and effort-reward-imbalance-model (ERI)--are covered in most surveys even though this has not been the primary aim in the compilation of these surveys. In addition, a large variety of items included in the surveillance systems are not part of these models and are--at least partly--used in nearly all surveys. These additional items reflect concepts such as "restructuring", "meaning of work", "emotional demands" and "offensive behaviour/violence & harassment". CONCLUSIONS: The overlap of the dimensions being covered in the various questionnaires indicates that the interests of the parties deciding on the questionnaires in the different countries overlap. The large number of dimensions measured in the questionnaires and not being part of the DCS and ERI models is striking. These "new" dimensions could inspire the research community to further investigate their possible health and labour market effects.

Joint ICOH-WOPS & APA-PFAW global roundtable perspectives: exploring national policy approaches for psychological health at work through the 'National Policy Index' lens.

Worker psychological health is a significant global imperative which requires national policy action and stakeholder engagement. While national policy is a critical lever for improving worker psychological health, some countries are more progressive than others in relation to policy development and/or implementation. At the Joint Congress of the International Commission on Occupational Health, Scientific Committee on Work Organization and Psychosocial Factors and the Asia Pacific Academy for Psychosocial Factors Work in Tokyo (September 2023), a Global Roundtable was designed to initiate international dialogue and knowledge exchange regarding relevant national policy approaches. The Global Roundtable involved experts from diverse regions alongside an engaged audience of congress attendees and facilitators. Qualitative data were analysed against the five components of the National Policy Index tool, comprising policy priority, specific laws, nation-wide initiatives, sector-oriented initiatives, national survey and/or studies. Analysis revealed that while work-related psychological health is a policy priority across many countries, at the same time, there are global gaps in both legislation specificity and active regulation across different countries. For future policy development across countries, it will be beneficial to continue and deepen international discourse and for countries to share their approaches with others.

Job strain as a risk factor for coronary heart disease: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data.

BACKGROUND: Published work assessing psychosocial stress (job strain) as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is inconsistent and subject to publication bias and reverse causation bias. We analysed the relation between job strain and coronary heart disease with a meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies. METHODS: We used individual records from 13 European cohort studies (1985-2006) of men and women without coronary heart disease who were employed at time of baseline assessment. We measured job strain with questions from validated job-content and demand-control questionnaires. We extracted data in two stages such that acquisition and harmonisation of job strain measure and covariables occurred before linkage to records for coronary heart disease. We defined incident coronary heart disease as the first non-fatal myocardial infarction or coronary death. FINDINGS: 30,214 (15%) of 197,473 participants reported job strain. In 1·49 million person-years at risk (mean follow-up 7·5 years [SD 1·7]), we recorded 2358 events of incident coronary heart disease. After adjustment for sex and age, the hazard ratio for job strain versus no job strain was 1·23 (95% CI 1·10-1·37). This effect estimate was higher in published (1·43, 1·15-1·77) than unpublished (1·16, 1·02-1·32) studies. Hazard ratios were likewise raised in analyses addressing reverse causality by exclusion of events of coronary heart disease that occurred in the first 3 years (1·31, 1·15-1·48) and 5 years (1·30, 1·13-1·50) of follow-up. We noted an association between job strain and coronary heart disease for sex, age groups, socioeconomic strata, and region, and after adjustments for socioeconomic status, and lifestyle and conventional risk factors. The population attributable risk for job strain was 3·4%. INTERPRETATION: Our findings suggest that prevention of workplace stress might decrease disease incidence; however, this strategy would have a much smaller effect than would tackling of standard risk factors, such as smoking. FUNDING: Finnish Work Environment Fund, the Academy of Finland, the Swedish Research Council for Working Life and Social Research, the German Social Accident Insurance, the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment, the BUPA Foundation, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the US National Institutes of Health.

Design of the DISCovery project: tailored work-oriented interventions to improve employee health, well-being, and performance-related outcomes in hospital care.

BACKGROUND: It is well-known that health care workers in today's general hospitals have to deal with high levels of job demands, which could have negative effects on their health, well-being, and job performance. A way to reduce job-related stress reactions and to optimize positive work-related outcomes is to raise the level of specific job resources and opportunities to recover from work. However, the question remains how to translate the optimization of the balance between job demands, job resources, and recovery opportunities into effective workplace interventions. The aim of the DISCovery project is to develop and implement tailored work-oriented interventions to improve health, well-being, and performance of health care personnel. METHODS/DESIGN: A quasi-experimental field study with a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design will be conducted in a top general hospital. Four existing organizational departments will provide both an intervention and a comparison group. Two types of research methods are used: (1) a longitudinal web-based survey study, and (2) a longitudinal daily diary study. After base-line measures of both methods, existing and yet to be developed interventions will be implemented within the experimental groups. Follow-up measurements will be taken one and two years after the base-line measures to analyze short-term and long-term effects of the interventions. Additionally, a process evaluation and a cost-effectiveness analysis will be carried out. DISCUSSION: The DISCovery project fulfills a strong need for theory-driven and scientifically well-performed research on job stress and performance interventions. It will provide insight into (1) how a balance between job demands, job resources, and recovery from work can be optimized, (2) the short-term and long-term effects of tailored work-oriented effects, and (3) indicators for successful or unsuccessful implementation of interventions.

Job strain as a risk factor for leisure-time physical inactivity: an individual-participant meta-analysis of up to 170,000 men and women: the IPD-Work Consortium.

Unfavorable work characteristics, such as low job control and too high or too low job demands, have been suggested to increase the likelihood of physical inactivity during leisure time, but this has not been verified in large-scale studies. The authors combined individual-level data from 14 European cohort studies (baseline years from 1985-1988 to 2006-2008) to examine the association between unfavorable work characteristics and leisure-time physical inactivity in a total of 170,162 employees (50% women; mean age, 43.5 years). Of these employees, 56,735 were reexamined after 2-9 years. In cross-sectional analyses, the odds for physical inactivity were 26% higher (odds ratio = 1.26, 95% confidence interval: 1.15, 1.38) for employees with high-strain jobs (low control/high demands) and 21% higher (odds ratio = 1.21, 95% confidence interval: 1.11, 1.31) for those with passive jobs (low control/low demands) compared with employees in low-strain jobs (high control/low demands). In prospective analyses restricted to physically active participants, the odds of becoming physically inactive during follow-up were 21% and 20% higher for those with high-strain (odds ratio = 1.21, 95% confidence interval: 1.11, 1.32) and passive (odds ratio = 1.20, 95% confidence interval: 1.11, 1.30) jobs at baseline. These data suggest that unfavorable work characteristics may have a spillover effect on leisure-time physical activity.

Can labour contract differences in health and work-related attitudes be explained by quality of working life and job insecurity?

STUDY AIM: We hypothesise that due to a lower quality of working life and higher job insecurity, the health and work-related attitudes of temporary workers may be less positive compared to permanent workers. Therefore, we aimed to (1) examine differences between contract groups (i.e. permanent contract, temporary contract with prospect of permanent work, fixed-term contract, temporary agency contract and on-call contract) in the quality of working life, job insecurity, health and work-related attitudes and (2) investigate whether these latter contract group differences in health and work-related attitudes can be explained by differences in the quality of working life and/or job insecurity. METHODS: Data were collected from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2008 (N = 21,639), and Hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance and cross-table analysis. RESULTS: Temporary work was associated with fewer task demands and lower autonomy and was more often passive or high-strain work, while permanent work was more often active work. Except for on-call work, temporary work was more insecure and associated with worse health and work-related attitude scores than permanent work. Finally, the quality of working life and job insecurity partly accounted for most contract differences in work-related attitudes but not in health. CONCLUSIONS: Especially agency workers have a lower health status and worse work-related attitudes. Job redesign measures regarding their quality of working life and job insecurity are recommended.

Social Dialogue and Psychosocial Risk Management: Added Value of Manager and Employee Representative Agreement in Risk Perception and Awareness.

The present study aimed to explore the added value of managers' and employee representatives' agreement in risk perception and awareness in explaining the management of more 'subjective' psychosocial risks as compared to the more 'objective' traditional OSH risks. The general assumption tested was whether the added value of agreement in risk perception and awareness between these parties would be larger for psychosocial risk management as compared to traditional OSH risk management. European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-1) data were used from 7226 enterprises in which both managers and employee representatives were interviewed. Answers by employee representatives and managers to mirror questions on risk perception and awareness were used as independent variables, and answers to questions on risk management by the manager were used as dependent variables. Polynomial regression with response surface analysis was used. Differences in risk perception and awareness between managers and employee representatives explained more variance in psychosocial risk management as compared to more traditional OSH risk management. The implications of these findings and the importance of 'social dialogue' particularly in the case of psychosocial risk management as opposed to general OSH management are discussed.

A hard day's night: a longitudinal study on the relationships among job demands and job control, sleep quality and fatigue.

This prospective four-wave study examined (i) the causal direction of the longitudinal relations among job demands, job control, sleep quality and fatigue; and (ii) the effects of stability and change in demand-control history on the development of sleep quality and fatigue. Based on results of a four-wave complete panel study among 1163 Dutch employees, we found significant effects of job demands and job control on sleep quality and fatigue across a 1-year time lag, supporting the strain hypothesis (Demand-Control model; Karasek and Theorell, Basic Books, New York, 1990). No reversed or reciprocal causal patterns were detected. Furthermore, our results revealed that cumulative exposure to a high-strain work environment (characterized by high job demands and low job control) was associated with elevated levels of sleep-related complaints. Cumulative exposure to a low-strain work environment (i.e. low job demands and high job control) was associated with the highest sleep quality and lowest level of fatigue. Our results revealed further that changes in exposure history were related to changes in reported sleep quality and fatigue across time. As expected, a transition from a non-high-strain towards a high-strain job was associated with a significant increase in sleep-related complaints; conversely, a transition towards a non-high-strain job was not related to an improvement in sleep-related problems.

Cross-language differential item functioning of the job content questionnaire among European countries: the JACE study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about cross-language measurement equivalence of the job content questionnaire (JCQ) PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to assess the extent of cross-language differential item functioning (DIF) of the 27 JCQ items in six languages (French, Dutch, Belgian-French, Belgian-Dutch (Flemish), Italian, and Swedish) from six European research centers and to test whether its effects on the scale-level mean comparisons among the centers were substantial or not. METHOD: A partial gamma coefficient method was used for statistical DIF analyses where the Flemish JCQ was the reference for other language versions. Additionally, equivalence between the Flemish and Dutch translations was subjected to a judgmental review. RESULTS: On average, 36% to 39% of the total tested items appeared to be cross-language DIF items in the statistical analyses. The judgmental review indicated that half of the DIF items may be associated with translation difference. The impacts of the DIF items on the mean comparisons of the JCQ scales between the centers were non-trivial: underestimated skill discretion (Milan), underestimated decision authority (Leiden), underestimated psychological demands (Milan women), and incomparable coworker support (Gothenburg 95). CONCLUSION: Cross-language DIF of the JCQ among European countries should be considered in international comparative studies on psychosocial job hazards using JCQ scales.