Work, work-life conflict and health in an industrial work environment

BackgroundWork-life conflict has been poorly studied as a cause of ill-health in occupational medicine.AimsTo study associations between physical and psychosocial working conditions, including work-life conflict on the one hand and general, physical and mental health outcomes on the other.MethodsCross-sectional data were used from an employee survey among the workforces of four medium-sized and large companies in Switzerland. Physical work factors included five demands and exposures such as heavy loads, repetitive work and poor posture. Psychosocial factors included 14 demands and limited resources such as time pressure, overtime, monotonous work, job insecurity, low job autonomy, low social support and work-life conflict. Health outcomes studied were self-rated health, sickness absence, musculoskeletal disorders, sleep disorders, stress and burnout.ResultsThere was a response rate of 49%; 2014 employees participated. All adverse working conditions were positively associated with several poor health outcomes in both men and women. After mutual adjustment for all work factors and additional covariates, only a few, mainly psychosocial work factors remained significant as risk factors for health. Work-life conflict, a largely neglected work-related psychosocial factor in occupational medicine, turned out to be the only factor that was significantly and strongly associated with all studied health outcomes and was consistently found to be the strongest or second strongest of all the studied risk factors.ConclusionsEven in an industrial work environment, psychosocial work factors, and particularly work-life conflict, play a key role and need to be taken into consideration in research and workplace health promotion

Correlates of short- and long-term absence due to musculoskeletal disorders

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are a common cause of disability and absence from work. There is no consistent evidence in the literature regarding predictors for short- and long-term absences due to these disorders. AIMS: To investigate work-related factors influencing short- and long-term absences due to MSD in German-speaking countries. METHODS: The study is based on data from the Fourth European Working Conditions Survey. The study population included 2849 workers in German-speaking countries who participated in face-to-face interviews. Logistic regression models were used to determine the associations between possible risk factors and the occurrence of short- or long-term absence due to MSD. RESULTS: A tiring or painful working position was positively correlated with short- and long-term absenteeism due to MSD, whereas the freedom to decide when to take holidays was negatively associated with this phenomenon. Some psychosocial factors, such as the ability to apply one's own ideas at work, the ability to choose or change the speed or rate of work and the emotional demands of the job, had contradictory impacts on short- and long-term absenteeism due to MSD. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this investigation show that it is important to distinguish between predictors of short- and long-term absenteeism due to MSD