Self-Reported Sleepiness after 2, 4, and 7 Consecutive Night Shifts and Recovery Days in Danish Police Officers

Background: Night shift work often implies shorter sleep duration and this can lead to sleepiness, which has been associated with an increased risk of accidents and injuries. The aim is to study how the number of consecutive night shifts affects self-reported sleepiness. Participants and methods: The study was a quasi-experimental, within-subject crossover study with 73 police officers. Three work schedules of two, four, and seven consecutive night shifts followed by the same number of recovery days, i.e., days worked or days off, was performed by all participants. Sleepiness was self-reported using the Karolinska sleepiness scale (KSS) every fourth hour on the last night shift and the last recovery day in each sequence. Results: We observed differences in the level of sleepiness between recovery days and night shift days but no differences in the pattern of sleepiness levels on night shift days in the different work schedules. The highest levels of KSS were observed before bedtime (at 07:00 after a night shift and 23:00 on a recovery day). Conclusion: The number of consecutive night shifts did not affect the self-reported levels of self-reported sleepiness among Danish police officers

A comparison of work environment, job insecurity, and health between marginal part-time workers and full-time workers in Denmark using pooled register data

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate characteristics of the work environment, job insecurity, and health of marginal part‐time workers (8.0‐14.9 hours/week) compared with full‐time workers (32.0‐40.0 hours/week). METHODS: The study population included employees in the survey Work Environment and Health in Denmark (WEHD) in 2012, 2014, or 2016 (n = 34 960). Survey information from WEHD on work environment and health was linked with register‐based information of exposure based on working hours 3 months prior to the survey, obtained from the register Labour Market Account. Associations between marginal part‐time work and work environment and health were assessed using logistic regression models. RESULTS: Marginal part‐time workers reported less quantitative job demands, lower levels of influence at work, poorer support from colleagues and leaders, less job satisfaction and poorer safety, as well as more job insecurity. Results on negative social relations in the workplace and physical workload were more ambiguous. Marginal part‐time workers were more likely to report poorer self‐rated health, treatment‐requiring illness, and depressive symptoms compared with full‐time workers. Adjusting for characteristics of the work environment showed an indication of altered odds ratios for self‐rated health and depressive symptoms, whereas job insecurity did not. CONCLUSIONS: This study finds that marginal part‐time workers experience a poorer psychosocial work environment and safety, higher job insecurity, and poorer health than full‐time workers. Work environment characteristics may confound or mediate the association between marginal part‐time work and health. However, prospective studies are needed to determine the causal direction of the revealed associations

Labor Market Affiliation of Marginal Part-Time Workers in Denmark—A Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study examined the labor market affiliations of marginal part-time workers (<15 working hours/week) compared with full-time workers (32–40 working hours/week) within gender and age groups. Analyses were based on 1,492,187 Danish employees with marginal part-time or full-time work at baseline using register data of working hours and labor market affiliation from the Labor Market Account. We used the Expected Labor Market Affiliation method within gender and age groups to estimate the time spent in different labor market states over a 5-year follow-up from 2012–2017. The multistate model included five recurrent labor market states: work, unemployment, long-term sickness absence, studying, and temporarily out, and the results were adjusted for education level, morbidity, and ethnicity. A marginal part-time worker generally had fewer days of work without social benefits and spent more days studying during follow-up compared with a full-time worker. In addition, marginal part-time workers ≥ 25 years old had more days of unemployment and more days of long-term sickness absence. These findings suggest that marginal part-time workers have fewer paid workdays without social benefits compared with full-time workers, depending on age. Further studies should explore whether marginal part-time work is a stepping stone into or out of the labor market

Working hours and the risk of injuries – study protocol

<p><b>Abstract</b></p><p><i>Introduction</i>: This protocol describes the study design of a research project on how working hours affect the risk of accidental injuries.</p><p><i>Method</i>: The research project will investigate how working hours during the past week affects the risk of all accidental injuries (during work, commuting and leisure time), with a main focus on timing of working hours. The population will consist of public sector employees in the Danish working hour database (DWHD) from 2008–2015, primarily employed in hospitals. Payroll data from the DWHD will be linked to accidental injuries recorded in the National Patient Register and The Danish Register of Causes of Death. The effect of timing of working hours will be studied in a multistate model with Poisson regression analyses.</p><p><i>Discussion</i>: A protocol helps in the planning of a research project and reduces the risk of data driven findings. This protocol describes the research questions, data, definitions and serves as a starting point for testing and applying the method in a subset of the data. The developed model will then be used to test the research questions in another subset of the cohort.<br></p