Documents questionnaire survey 204 results

"The objective of the study was to investigate the content, criterion, and construct validity of a single-item measure of stress symptoms. Such a concise measure would be useful in monitoring stress at work. The criteria for validity were convergence with conceptionally close measures, the plausibility of associations with health and work characteristics, and the power to discriminate between groups.The stress-symptoms item showed satisfactory content, criterion and construct validity for group-level analysis. It is suggested that the longer scales used to measure psychological stress can be replaced with it in survey research."

"Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the occupational factors that cause workers to take sick leave.

Methods Twice, with a 24-month interval, 117 white- and 189 blue-collar employees from 2 metal industry companies completed a questionnaire on recurrent low-back pain and exposure to potential risk factors (biomechanical loads, physical environment, psychosocial factors) at work. Sick leave was monitored for the period between the questionnaires.

Results Low-back pain was predicted by exposure to harmful biomechanical loads among both white- and blue-collar workers [odds ratio (OR) 4.1 and 4.7, respectively), stress among white-collar workers (OR 2.4), and draft among blue-collar workers (OR 2.3). The take-up of sick leave was predicted by exposure to harmful biomechanical loads [rate ratio (RR) 1.7]; for sick leaves attributed to low-back pain the rate ratio was 3.1. Lack of recognition and respect at work predicted sick-leave attributed to low-back pain (RR 2.0), but not to other disorders.

Conclusion Recurrent low-back pain is preceded by reports of harmful biomechanical loads at work among white- and blue-collar workers, by stress among white-collar workers and by draft among blue-collar workers. The environmental and psychosocial factors under study did not modify the relation between biomechanical loads and the recurrent low-back pain. Sick leave attributed to back disorders is preceded by exposure to biomechanical loads at work and by a lack of recognition and respect at work among blue-collar workers. Biomechanical loading seems to be the most important occupational factor predicting both recurrent low-back pain and sick leave attributed to back disorders. Lack of recognition and respect at work appear to affect sick leave attributed to back disorders."

"The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the reproducibility and validity of self-report questions concerning physical work demands. After a bibliographic search of Medline and Ergonomic Abstracts for 1980–2003, 15 articles meeting the eligibility criteria were reviewed for methodological quality; 82 formulations of questions on physical work demands were evaluated for reproducibility and 83 for validity. Questions evaluated for both reproducibility and validity that performed well in both sets of studies included those on duration or presence of sitting and standing posture, the presence of walking, kneeling or squatting postures, duration or frequency of hands above shoulders, manual handling of more than or less than 10 kg, general level of physical effort, presence and duration of whole-body vibration, and duration of the use of visual display terminals. Suggestions for improving the design of reproducibility and validity studies and directions for future research in physical workload measurement are proposed.".(Authors' abstract)

"Objective: Our objective was to examine the impact of shift work on mental health at the population level. We expected that this impact would depend on duration of exposure, type of shift work, and gender.Methods: We analyzed longitudinal data (1995–2005) from the British Household Panel Survey. From the 2005 wave, we selected a subsample of people aged 21–73 years who had been followed annually from 1995 to 2005. We used responses in 2005 to the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, 12-item) and self-reported anxiety/depression as dependent variables. Controlling for age, marital status, education, number of years working in six occupational categories (1995–2005), and baseline mental health, we performed nested logistic regression models to examine the effect of the duration of night work and varied shift patterns on mental health for men and women.Results: Undertaking night work for =4 years in men was associated with an increased risk of having a GHQ score reflecting mental ill health and reporting anxiety/depression [odds ratios (OR) 2.58, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.22–5.48; OR 6.08, 95% CI 2.06–17.92, respectively]. Women were significantly more likely to report anxiety/depression (OR 2.58, 95% CI 1.53–4.35 ) and to have a GHQ score reflecting mental ill health (OR 4.17, 95% CI 1.45–11.98), after working varied shift patterns for 2–3 years, and =4 years, respectively.Conclusions: Different types of shift work had a differential impact on mental health, but this impact varied according to gender. Women's mental health was more adversely affected by varied shift patterns, while night work had a greater negative impact on men's mental health."

"Objective The aim of the study was to elucidate the development of the psychosocial work environment in Denmark from 1997–2005. Methods The analyses were based on two national questionnaire surveys (N1=1062; N2=3517) of randomly selected employees who completed the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. The psychosocial work environment was described by 19 scales and 6 single items. Results Quality of leadership and social support from supervisors were the only dimensions that saw improvements. The negative developments were: higher work pace, less influence (job control), less *possibilities for development (skill discretion), lower level of meaning of work, more role conflicts, decreased role clarity, reduced sense of community, less social support from colleagues, increased conflicts at work, more threats of violence and more slander and gossip. Conclusions The psychosocial work environment in Denmark has deteriorated during the period 1997–2005. This deterioration was seen not just among certain groups of employees but in all subgroups, incorporating gender, age and socioeconomic status. The negative development of a country's psychosocial work environment is worrying; as such, there is a strong need to change this negative trend."