Working hours and health – key research topics in the past and future

Objective This paper discusses the past and present highlights of working hours and health research and identifies key research needs for the future.Method We analyzed over 220 original articles and reviews on working hours and health in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health published during the last 50 years. Key publications from other journals were also included.Results The majority of identified articles focussed on the effects of shift and night work, with fewer studying long and reduced working hours and work time control. We observed a transition from small-scale experimental and intensive field studies to large-scale epidemiological studies utilizing precise exposure assessment, reflecting the recent emergence of register-based datasets and the development of analytic methods and alternative study designs for randomized controlled designs. The cumulative findings provide convincing evidence that shift work and long working hours, which are often associated with night work and insufficient recovery, increase the risk of poor sleep and fatigue, sickness absence, occupational injuries, and several chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The observed risks are strongly modified by individual and work-related factors.Conclusions Although the observed health risks of shift work and long working hours are mostly low or moderate, the widespread prevalence of exposure and the hazardousness of the many associated potential outcomes makes such working time arrangements major occupational health risks. Further research is needed to identify exposure–response associations, especially in relation to the chronic health effects, and to elucidate underlying pathways and effective personalized intervention strategies

Comparing the acute effects of shiftwork on mothers and fathers

BackgroundShift work may impact women more negatively than men due to the increased burden of coping with demanding work schedules while also undertaking more of the domestic chores, including childcare.AimsTo examine whether the combination of shift working and caring for children affects the sleep, fatigue and work–family conflict experienced by women more than it affects men.MethodsUsing data from a survey of the Swedish working population, mixed linear regression models examined work schedule (daywork, shift work with nights, shift work without nights), gender and presence of children <13 years at home as predictors of sleep insufficiency, sleep disturbance, fatigue and work–family conflict, over up to three successive measurement occasions. Adjustments were made for age, education, full/part-time working and baseline year.ResultsIn fully adjusted models (N = 8938), shift work was associated with insufficient sleep (P < 0.01), disturbed sleep (P < 0.01), fatigue (P < 0.05) and work–family conflict (P < 0.001). Interactions in the analyses of sleep disturbance (P < 0.001) and work–family interference (P < 0.05) indicated that among participants with no children, females reported more disturbed sleep and more work–family conflict than their male counterparts, irrespective of schedule; while among participants with children, female dayworkers reported more disturbed sleep than their male counterparts, and females working shifts without nights reported more work–family interference.ConclusionsHaving young children did not exacerbate negative effects of shift work, in either men or women. This may reflect high levels of gender equality and childcare provision in Sweden

Randomised control trial of a proactive intervention supporting recovery in relation to stress and irregular work hours: effects on sleep, burn-out, fatigue and somatic symptoms

Objectives To examine if a proactive recovery intervention for newly graduated registered nurses (RNs) could prevent the development of sleep problems, burn-out, fatigue or somatic symptoms.Methods The study was a randomised control trial with parallel design. Newly graduated RNs with less than 12 months’ work experience were eligible to participate. 461 RNs from 8 hospitals in Sweden were invited, of which 207 signed up. These were randomised to either intervention or control groups. After adjustments, 99 RNs were included in the intervention group (mean age 27.5 years, 84.7% women) and 108 in the control group (mean age 27.0 years, 90.7% women). 82 RNs in the intervention group attended a group-administered recovery programme, involving three group sessions with 2 weeks between each session, focusing on proactive strategies for sleep and recovery in relation to work stress and shift work. Effects on sleep, burn-out, fatigue and somatic symptoms were measured by questionnaires at baseline, postintervention and at 6 months follow-up.Results Preventive effect was seen on somatic symptoms for the intervention group. Also, the intervention group showed less burn-out and fatigue symptoms at postintervention. However, these latter effects did not persist at follow-up. Participants used many of the strategies from the programme.Conclusions A proactive, group-administered recovery programme could be helpful in strengthening recovery and preventing negative health consequences for newly graduated RNs

Psychosocial working conditions of shiftworking nurses: A long‐term latent transition analysis

AimThis study aimed to identify profiles of working conditions to which nurses were exposed to over time and investigate how changes in working conditions relate to shiftworking and health.BackgroundPrevious studies rarely addressed the issue of working conditions development over long periods and the effects of such development on nurses' health.MethodsData from a national cohort of nurses in Sweden (N = 2936) were analysed using a person-centred analytical approach—latent profile and latent transition analysis.ResultsNurses report better psychosocial working conditions as they progress into mid-career. Shiftworking nurses experience poorer working conditions than their dayworking counterparts and tend to move from shiftwork to daywork as they progress into mid-career. In mid-career, nurses in work environments characterized by low autonomy and support tend to report poorer health outcomes.ConclusionCurrent analyses suggest that shiftworking nurses are particularly in need of interventions that address poor work environments. Not only do they experience more negative psychosocial working conditions than their dayworking counterparts, but they do so while having to contend with demanding schedules.Implications for Nursing ManagementThe findings highlight that organisational interventions should target different aspects of the work environment for nurses in diverse stages of their careers

Prospective effects of work–time control on overtime, work–life interference and exhaustion in female and male knowledge workers

Aims:Employee-based flexible working hours are increasing, particularly among knowledge workers. Research indicates that women and men use work–time control (WTC; control over time off and daily hours) differently: while men work longer paid hours, women use WTC to counteract work–life interference. In a knowledge-worker sample, we examined associations between WTC and overtime, work–life interference and exhaustion and tested whether gender moderates the mediating role of overtime.Methods:The sample contained 2248 Swedish knowledge workers. Employing hierarchical regression modelling, we examined effects of control over time off/daily hours on subsequent overtime hours, work–life interference and exhaustion in general and in gender-stratified samples. Using conditional process analysis, we tested moderated mediation models.Results:Control over time off was related to less work–life interference (βmen= −0.117; 95% confidence interval (CI): −0.237 to 0.003; βwomen= −0.253; 95% CI: −0.386 to −0.120) and lower exhaustion (βmen= −0.199; 95% CI: −0.347 to −0.051; βwomen= −0.271; 95% CI: −0.443 to −0.100). For control over daily hours, estimates were close to zero. While men worked more overtime (42 min/week), we could not confirm gender moderating the indirect effect of control over time off/daily hours on work–life interference/exhaustion via overtime. Independent of gender, effects of control over time off on work–life interference were partly explained by working fewer overtime hours

Notes on the Life of James Grant Prior and Subsequent to His Governorship of East Florida

To the general reader of Florida history, James Grant is but governor of British East Florida. Had the country remained English for a few more decades, it might well have been that those seven years held the most important service of his long public life; for during that time he laid, in a wilderness, the sound foundation of a typical British colony. But as that beginning came to naught; his governorship is only the midpoint of a military career which began in 1741 as an ensign and carried him to the rank of general in 1796

Tensor distributions on signature-changing space-times

Irregularities in the metric tensor of a signature-changing space-time suggest that field equations on such space-times might be regarded as distributional. We review the formalism of tensor distributions on differentiable manifolds, and examine to what extent rigorous meaning can be given to field equations in the presence of signature-change, in particular those involving covariant derivatives. We find that, for both continuous and discontinuous signature-change, covariant differentiation can be defined on a class of tensor distributions wide enough to be physically interesting.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX 2.0

Phonon broadening from supercell lattice dynamics: random and correlated disorder

We demonstrate how supercell implementations of conventional lattice dynamical calculations can be used to determine the extent and nature of disorder-induced broadening in the phonon dispersion spectrum of disordered crystalline materials. The approach taken relies on band unfolding, and is first benchmarked against virtual crystal approximation phonon calculations. The different effects of mass and interaction disorder on the phonon broadening are then presented, focussing on the example of a simple cubic binary alloy. For the mass disorder example, the effect of introducing correlated disorder is also explored by varying the fraction of homoatomic and heteroatomic neighbours. Systematic progression in the degree of phonon broadening, on the one hand, and the form of the phonon dispersion curves from primitive to face-centered cubic type, on the other hand, is observed as homoatomic neighbours are disfavoured. The implications for rationalising selection rule violations in disordered materials and for using inelastic neutron scattering measurements as a means of characterising disorder are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

A Qualitative Study of the Assistive Technology Decision-Making Process in Four Pennsylvania School Districts

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the Assistive Technology decision making process at four regional school districts in Pennsylvania. A qualitative case study research method involving the triangulation of data sources was implemented to collect and analyze data. Through an analysis of the data, three major topics emerged that will be addressed in the body of this paper: (a) the procedure for determining assistive technology needs and the dynamics of the decision-making process, b) the cohesiveness of Special Education and General Education programs, and c) major concerns that impact the delivery of assistive technology services