La tercera versión de COPSOQ-ISTAS21. Un instrumento internacional actualizado para la prevención de riesgos psicosociales en el trabajo

El Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) es uno de los más utilizados en investigación y evaluación de riesgos psicosociales en el trabajo. En este artículo se describió la adaptación de la tercera versión internacional a España y se presentaron las pruebas de su validez y fiabilidad

Continguts del treball i incapacitat temporal en la cohort "Casa Gran" de treballadors de l'Ajuntament de Barcelona

Introducció: L'anàlisi de l'absentisme s'ha abordat des de diverses perspectives teòriques. Des de la d'aquesta tesi, L'absentisme laboral és contemplat com un indicador de funcionament, les causes S'han de cercar en les condicions i organització del treball i en les relacions socials de producció i de gènere. L'objectiu general de la tesi és analitzar la relació entre la freqüència d'episodis d'incapacitat laboral (IT) i els continguts del treball entre els treballadors de l'Ajuntament de Barcelona durant els anys 1984 i 1993. Els objectius específics són analitzar les diferències en la freqüència d'episodis d'IT de curta i llarga durada entre homes i dones i identificar les característiques dels continguts del treball que poden influenciar la freqüència d'episodis de IT. Subjectes i Mètodes: El disseny és longitudinal retrospectiu. La població d'estudi inclogué totes les persones que entre l'1 de gener de 1984 i el 31 de desembre de 1993 van treballar un mínim de 6 mesos i un dia a l'Ajuntament de Barcelona. La cohort quedà constituïda per 20.648 persones, que contribuïren a 78.524,81 persones - any de seguiment pels homes i 56.403,89 per a les dones. Tota la informació socio-demogràfica i laboral s'obtingué del Sistema Integrat de Personal de l'Ajuntament de Barcelona. Es classificà la població en categories administratives i en grups de llocs de treball amb continguts homogenis. Es calcularen les taxes crues i específiques per a cada categoria, grup de llocs de treball, i edat, així com les acumulades per a tot el període d'estudi i les raons de taxes per categories i grups de llocs de treball. L' anàlisi fou específica per gènere.Resultats: La incapacitat temporal es relaciona de manera diferenciada amb el gènere, l'edat, la categoria professional i els continguts del treball. Les dones presentaren taxes (crues i ajustades) d'IT més altes que els homes, tant d'episodis de curta com de llarga durada. L'análisi específica per gènere mostrà l'existència d'una doble segregació laboral en base a aquest: la raó dones / homes que ocupaven llocs de treball de major responsabilitat i salari fou molt desfavorable per a aquestes, alhora que es constatà l'existència de grups de llocs de treball i categories administratives específiques de gènere. S'observà una clara relació entre la categoria administrativa i les taxes d'IT de curta i de llarga durada, les categories manuals presentaren majors taxes que les no manuals, patró més evident per a les taxes de llarga durada i pels homes. Entre les dones,els resultats foren menys explicatius que entre els homes. Els mateixos patrons s'observaren en relació als continguts del treball, les raons de taxes foren generalment superiors per a les categories amb menors continguts.Conclusions: Els resultats recolzen la hipòtesi de que l'estat de salut es realciona més amb la incidència d'episodis d'IT de llarga durada que amb els de curta durada. Els factors de risc relacionats amb el treball de reproductiu (familiar i domèstic), i els recursos personals que el treball proporciona (en termes de control sobre el treball i suport social), podrien tenir més importància en la incidència d'episodis de curta durada. La segregació laboral i del treball familiar i domèstic en base al gènere explicarien principalment les majors taxes femenines. També recolzen la hipòtesi de que l'absentisme laboral ha ser analitzat des de la perspectiva d'un indicador de funcionament, i no només de salut, i que està fortament relacionat amb la classe social i amb els continguts del treball.Introduction: Analysis of absenteeism has been done under diverse theoretical theories. In this research, work absenteeism is seen as a functioning indicator. Working conditions, organisation of work and social relations of production and gender have to be analysed when looking for its causes. The general objective is to analyse the relationship of sickness leave (SL) with the job contents among the Barcelona city council civil servants during the 1984 - 1993 period. Specific objectives are to analyse the differences in the frequency of SL episodes of short and long duration and to identify the characteristics of the contents of the job that can influence it.Population and Methods. The study was a retrospective cohort including all people who worked for more than six months for the City Council of Barcelona from 1/1/1984 to 31/12/1993. The cohort was composed of 20,648 people who contribute to 78,524.81 person/years of follow-up for men and 56,403.89 for women. All information was obtained from company records. The study population was classified into administrative categories and occupational groups based on homogeneous job contents. Crude and age, category and occupational group specific rates of SL were computed and cumulative rates for all the period as well in a gender-specific analysis.Results: SL related to gender, age, and administrative category and job contents. Women showed generally higher SL rates than men for both short and long episodes. Gender specific analysis showed the double labour segregation. The women / men ratio among higher categories was very desfavourable for women, and there were gender-specific categories and workplaces. A clear relationship between administrative category and SL rates was found, manual categories had higher rates than non -manual. This trend was more evident for men and for long episodes. Among women, results were less explicative than among men. Similar results were found referring job contents, rate ratios were generally higher for those occupational groups with poorest contents of the job.Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that the health status is more related to the incidence of long episodes of SL than to short episodes. The incidence of short episodes could be more related to the reproductive work and to the personal resources that the work provides in terms of control over the work and social support. The gender-based segregation of productive and reproductive work could explain the higher rates of women. These results also support the hypothesis that work absenteeism should be analysed under the perspective of a functioning indicator and that is related to health, social class and the contents of the job

Employment precariousness and poor mental health: evidence from Spain on a new social determinant of health

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the health-damaging effects of precarious employment is limited by the use of one-dimensional approaches focused on employment instability. This study assesses the association between precarious employment and poor mental health using the multidimensional Employment Precariousness Scale. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 5679 temporary and permanent workers from the population-based Psychosocial Factors Survey was carried out in 2004-2005 in Spain. Poor mental health was defined as SF-36 mental health scores below the 25th percentile of the Spanish reference for each respondent's sex and age. Prevalence proportion ratios (PPRs) of poor mental health across quintiles of employment precariousness (reference: 1st quintile) were calculated with log-binomial regressions, separately for women and men. RESULTS: Crude PPRs showed a gradient association with poor mental health and remained generally unchanged after adjustments for age, immigrant status, socioeconomic position, and previous unemployment. Fully adjusted PPRs for the 5th quintile were 2.54 (95% CI: 1.95-3.31) for women and 2.23 (95% CI: 1.86-2.68) for men. CONCLUSION: The study finds a gradient association between employment precariousness and poor mental health, which was somewhat stronger among women, suggesting an interaction with gender-related power asymmetries. Further research is needed to strengthen the epidemiological evidence base and to inform labour market policy-making

The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES): psychometric properties of a new tool for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers

Background: Despite the fact that labour market flexibility has resulted in an expansion of precarious employment in industrialized countries, to date there is limited empirical evidence about its health consequences. The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) is a newly developed, theory-based, multidimensional questionnaire specifically devised for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers. Objective: To assess acceptability, reliability and construct validity of EPRES in a sample of waged and salaried workers in Spain. Methods: Cross-sectional study, using a sub-sample of 6.968 temporary and permanent workers from a population-based survey carried out in 2004-2005. The survey questionnaire was interviewer administered and included the six EPRES subscales, measures of the psychosocial work environment (COPSOQ ISTAS21), and perceived general and mental health (SF-36). Results: A high response rate to all EPRES items indicated good acceptability; Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, over 0.70 for all subscales and the global score, demonstrated good internal consistency reliability; exploratory factor analysis using principal axis analysis and varimax rotation confirmed the six-subscale structure and the theoretical allocation of all items. Patterns across known groups and correlation coefficients with psychosocial work environment measures and perceived health demonstrated the expected relations, providing evidence of construct validity. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence in support of the psychometric properties of EPRES, which appears to be a promising tool for the measurement of employment precariousness in public health research.Alejandra Vives is supported by Programme Alβan, the European Union Programme of High Level Scholarships for Latin America, scolarship nºE06D103150CL. This study was partially funded by the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (Health Research Fund) of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spanish Health Ministry, PI031499)

Employment precariousness and poor mental health: evidence from Spain on a new social determinant of health

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the health-damaging effects of precarious employment is limited by the use of one-dimensional approaches focused on employment instability. This study assesses the association between precarious employment and poor mental health using the multidimensional Employment Precariousness Scale. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 5679 temporary and permanent workers from the population-based Psychosocial Factors Survey was carried out in 2004-2005 in Spain. Poor mental health was defined as SF-36 mental health scores below the 25th percentile of the Spanish reference for each respondent's sex and age. Prevalence proportion ratios (PPRs) of poor mental health across quintiles of employment precariousness (reference: 1st quintile) were calculated with log-binomial regressions, separately for women and men. RESULTS: Crude PPRs showed a gradient association with poor mental health and remained generally unchanged after adjustments for age, immigrant status, socioeconomic position, and previous unemployment. Fully adjusted PPRs for the 5th quintile were 2.54 (95% CI: 1.95-3.31) for women and 2.23 (95% CI: 1.86-2.68) for men. CONCLUSION: The study finds a gradient association between employment precariousness and poor mental health, which was somewhat stronger among women, suggesting an interaction with gender-related power asymmetries. Further research is needed to strengthen the epidemiological evidence base and to inform labour market policy-making

The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES): psychometric properties of a new tool for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers

Background: Despite the fact that labour market flexibility has resulted in an expansion of precarious employment in industrialized countries, to date there is limited empirical evidence about its health consequences. The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) is a newly developed, theory-based, multidimensional questionnaire specifically devised for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers. Objective: To assess acceptability, reliability and construct validity of EPRES in a sample of waged and salaried workers in Spain. Methods: Cross-sectional study, using a sub-sample of 6.968 temporary and permanent workers from a population-based survey carried out in 2004-2005. The survey questionnaire was interviewer administered and included the six EPRES subscales, measures of the psychosocial work environment (COPSOQ ISTAS21), and perceived general and mental health (SF-36). Results: A high response rate to all EPRES items indicated good acceptability; Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, over 0.70 for all subscales and the global score, demonstrated good internal consistency reliability; exploratory factor analysis using principal axis analysis and varimax rotation confirmed the six-subscale structure and the theoretical allocation of all items. Patterns across known groups and correlation coefficients with psychosocial work environment measures and perceived health demonstrated the expected relations, providing evidence of construct validity. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence in support of the psychometric properties of EPRES, which appears to be a promising tool for the measurement of employment precariousness in public health research.Alejandra Vives is supported by Programme Alβan, the European Union Programme of High Level Scholarships for Latin America, scolarship nºE06D103150CL. This study was partially funded by the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (Health Research Fund) of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spanish Health Ministry, PI031499)

Informe de Salud Laboral. España, 2006

El objetivo principal de este Informe de Salud Laboral, España 2006, esayudar a definir y evaluar las políticas en seguridad y salud en el trabajo ennuestro país. Para ello, con la mejor información disponible, se ha descrito elcontexto sociolaboral en el que se insertan las condiciones de trabajo, así comolos principales daños a la salud, fundamentalmente las lesiones, relacionadas conestas condiciones de trabajo.Entre sus resultados destaca que aunque las muertes por lesionestraumáticas por accidentes de trabajo producidas in itínere o en desplazamientodisminuyen entre 1994 y 2004, como también se observa en las que ocurren enlos centros de trabajo, esta disminución no es tan pronunciada. Asimismo, elriesgo de morir por un accidente de trabajo se concentra de manera particularen las Comunidades Autónomas del noroeste de España

Informe de Salud Laboral. España, 2006

El objetivo principal de este Informe de Salud Laboral, España 2006, esayudar a definir y evaluar las políticas en seguridad y salud en el trabajo ennuestro país. Para ello, con la mejor información disponible, se ha descrito elcontexto sociolaboral en el que se insertan las condiciones de trabajo, así comolos principales daños a la salud, fundamentalmente las lesiones, relacionadas conestas condiciones de trabajo.Entre sus resultados destaca que aunque las muertes por lesionestraumáticas por accidentes de trabajo producidas in itínere o en desplazamientodisminuyen entre 1994 y 2004, como también se observa en las que ocurren enlos centros de trabajo, esta disminución no es tan pronunciada. Asimismo, elriesgo de morir por un accidente de trabajo se concentra de manera particularen las Comunidades Autónomas del noroeste de España