Migrant workers occupational health research: an OMEGA-NET working group position paper.

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were: (1) to clarify the definitions of "migrant" used in occupational health research; (2) to summarize migrant workers' industry sectors, occupations and employment conditions; (3) to identify the occupational health and safety services available to migrant workers; (4) to summarize work-related health problems found among migrant workers; (5) to identify the methodological challenges to research into occupational health of migrant workers; and (6) to recommend improvements in migrant occupational health research. METHODS: This position paper was prepared by researchers from several European countries and Australia, working within the EU COST Action OMEGA-NET. The paper drew on two recent systematic reviews on the occupational health of international migrant workers and other literature, and also identified uncertainties and gaps in the research literature. Migrants may, for example, be temporary or permanent, moving for specific jobs migrants or other reasons. Their ethnicity and language capabilities will affect their work opportunities. RESULTS: The occupational health literature seldom adequately identifies the heterogeneity or characteristics of the migrant group being studied. Migrants tend to work in more physically and mentally demanding environments with higher exposures than native workers. Migrants tend to have an increased risk of physical and mental ill health, but less access to health care services. This has been demonstrated recently by high rates of COVID-19 and less access to health care. There have been a number of cross-sectional studies of migrant health but few long-term cohort studies were identified. Other study designs, such as registry-based studies, surveys and qualitative studies may complement cross-sectional studies. Mixed-methodology studies would be valuable in research on migrants' occupational health. Language and lack of trust are barriers to migrant research participation. CONCLUSION: Targeted research, especially longitudinal, identifying how these economically important but often-vulnerable workers can be best assisted is needed. Researchers should identify the characteristics of the migrant workers that they are studying including visa/migration circumstances (temporary, permanent, undocumented), racial and ethnic characteristics, existing skills and language abilities.

Work Ability and Well-Being Management and Its Barriers and Facilitators in Multinational Organizations: A Scoping Review.

The aim of this scoping review was to identify effective workplace programs for work ability and well-being management and its barriers and facilitators in multinational organizations. The PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched from 1974 through February 2023 to identify quantitative and qualitative studies on the management of work ability and well-being, and related outcomes including presenteeism, absenteeism, productivity loss, and healthy practices, conducted in a multinational organization or company. The titles and abstracts of over 11,000 publications were screened, and 10 studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the review. The management of work ability and well-being in multinational companies requires leadership support and commitment, effective communication, employee health awareness and engagement, comprehensive personalized health risk and condition assessments, and the management of risk factors and occupational and non-occupational health conditions. Financial constraints, high workloads, competing priorities, a lack of effective communication, a lack of worksite managers' motivation, employees' language barriers, high worksite managers' turnover, and a decline in the support of senior managers are considered as barriers, and the presence of existing participatory practices is considered as a facilitator of participation in workplace health and well-being interventions in multinational companies. This review suggests that the management of work ability and well-being in multinational companies should go beyond health promotion and include comprehensive personalized health risk and health condition assessments and management.

The Vicious Circle of Working Hours, Sleep, and Recovery in Expert Work.

This study aimed to investigate working hours, sleep quality and alertness, and recovery and detachment in expert work using a mobile app. The study sample comprised members of The Finnish Business School Graduates and employees of an information technology (IT) company. The final study sample included 154 employees with at least four days of mobile app data. For statistical analyses of the survey and mobile app data (cross-sectional setting), we used logistic regression, and for the day-to-day data, we used multi-level logistic regression to calculate the odds ratios (OR), and a general equation estimates model for regression coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The results showed that moderate to fair sleep quality or alertness at awakening were associated with longer working hours the following day (OR 1.07⁻1.14, 95% CI 1.01⁻1.22). Recovery and detachment during the preceding day were associated with longer working hours. These associations were the same in the opposite direction. To conclude, the day-to-day ratings of sleep quality and alertness at awakening, and recovery and detachment from work during leisure time were associated with increased working hours the following day. In addition, longer working hours the preceding day were associated with worse ratings of sleep quality, alertness, recovery, and detachment.

Is working in culturally diverse working environment associated with physicians' work-related well-being? A cross-sectional survey study among Finnish physicians.

International mobility of health care professionals is increasing, though little is known about how working in a culturally diverse team affects the native physicians' psychosocial work environment. We examined Finnish physicians' perceptions of work-related wellbeing according to whether they had foreign-born colleagues (FBCs) in their work unit. We also examined whether work-related resources moderate the potential association between work-related wellbeing and working alongside FBCs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted for a random sample of physicians in Finland in 2010 (3826 respondents, response rate 55%). Analyses were restricted to native Finnish physicians working in public health care. The results were analyzed by ANCOVA. In unadjusted analyses, having FBCs was related to poor team climate (p<0.001) and poor job satisfaction (p=0.001). Those physicians who reported high procedural justice and high job control perceived also higher job satisfaction even if they had many FBCs in the work unit (p=0.007 for interaction between FBCs and procedural justice and p<0.001 for interaction between FBCs and job control). These associations were robust to adjustments for age, sex, health care sector, specialization, on-call duty, employment contract, full-time employment and leadership position. The results indicate that culturally diverse work units face challenges related to team climate and job satisfaction. The results also show that leadership plays an important role in culturally diverse work units. The potential challenges of culturally diverse teams for native physicians may be reduced by fair decision-making and by increasing physicians' job control.

Organizational change and employees' mental health: the protective role of sense of coherence.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of sense of coherence (SOC) on psychiatric events in the context of organizational merger. METHODS: Data were derived from a prospective "Still Working" study using questionnaire and health register data. The study population (n = 4279) consisted of employees with no psychiatric events prior to the 5-year mental health follow-up. RESULTS: Employees with a weaker premerger SOC were at a higher risk of perceiving the organizational change negatively (odds ratio = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.57 to 2.14) and had an elevated risk of postmerger psychiatric events (hazard ratio = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.94). A stronger SOC decreased the adverse effect of negative appraisal of change on psychiatric events. CONCLUSIONS: A strong premerger SOC seems to be a protective factor for mental health when the employee experiences negative changes during an organizational merger.

Work environment and occupational health of Finnish veterinarians.

BACKGROUND: Health and work environment of Finnish veterinarians was evaluated by The Finnish Veterinary Association and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in a questionnaire survey. METHODS: The questionnaire was mailed in the spring of 2000 to all veterinarians under 65 years of age and working in Finland (n = 1169); 785 (67%) responded. RESULTS: A veterinarian's work was physically demanding, and often involved an elevated risk of accident. The risks were considered moderately or considerably high by over half of the respondents, and the highest risks occurred among veterinarians working in equine, mixed (both small and large animals), or in production animal practice. The veterinarians were committed to their work, although, at the same time they experienced work-related stress and fatigue. Particularly veterinarians working in towns, or those involved in education and research, reported the most stress. Serious work-related exhaustion was experienced most often by women in the youngest and by men in the oldest age groups. On average, the veterinarians spent over 100 hr a month on call. Over two-thirds of the participants in the survey reported their general state of health as good or fairly good, while less than 5% of the participants reported their health as rather poor or poor. CONCLUSIONS: The work of a Finnish veterinarian, the work environment, and the risks of the work varied greatly depending on the tasks assigned to the veterinarian. This has to be taken into consideration when occupational health services are planned for veterinarians.