Documents Rugulies, Reiner 25 results

"Objective
This study aimed to systematically review the effectiveness of organizational-level interventions in improving the psychosocial work environment and workers' health and retention.
Methods
We conducted an overview of systematic reviews on organizational-level interventions published between 2000 and 2020. We systematically searched academic databases, screened reference lists, and contacted experts, yielding 27 736 records. Of the 76 eligible reviews, 24 of weak quality were excluded, yielding 52 reviews of moderate (N=32) or strong (N=20) quality, covering 957 primary studies. We assessed quality of evidence based on quality of review, consistency of results, and proportion of controlled studies.
Results
Of the 52 reviews, 30 studied a specific intervention approach and 22 specific outcomes. Regarding intervention approaches, we found strong quality of evidence for interventions focusing on “changes in working time arrangements” and moderate quality of evidence for “influence on work tasks or work organization”, “health care approach changes”, and “improvements of the psychosocial work environment”. Regarding outcomes, we found strong quality of evidence for interventions about “burnout” and moderate quality evidence for “various health and wellbeing outcomes”. For all other types of interventions, quality of evidence was either low or inconclusive, including interventions on retention.
Conclusions
This overview of reviews identified strong or moderate quality of evidence for the effectiveness of organizational-level interventions for four specific intervention approaches and two health outcomes. This suggests that the work environment and the health of employees can be improved by certain organizational-level interventions. We need more research, especially about implementation and context, to improve the evidence."

"This study estimated the economic effects of hypothetical interventions improving different aspects of Danish workers' psychosocial work environment. We found substantial economic gains, mostly driven by savings related to sickness absence, from simultaneous improvements of all aspects. Economic effects from improvements in specific aspects varied a lot. The results may be useful when considering implementing future real-life interventions."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"About one year ago, we wrote about how the COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding worldwide and started to impact our personal and professional lives (1). Little did we know that, one year later, more than 2.5 million people would have died, with the highest death tolls in Europe, North America, and Latin America (2). Whereas in many countries, life expectancy has increased steadily over the past decades with a couple of months per year, emerging evidence shows that the COVID-19 pandemic will abruptly end this trend in various countries. As one of the most affected countries, life expectancy at birth in the US was down during the first half of 2020 already 1.0 per year compared to 2019 (3). Projections indicate a potential loss in life expectancy of 1.13 years in 2020 for the total US population, resulting in the lowest life expectancy since 2003. ..."

"Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Danish return-to-work (RTW) program on long-term sickness absence in a randomized controlled trial in three municipalities. Methods The intervention group comprised 1948 participants while the control group comprised 1157 participant receiving ordinary sickness benefit management (OSM). Study participants were working-age adults receiving long-term (?8 weeks or more) benefits, included regardless of reason for sickness absence or employment status. Each beneficiary was followed-up for a maximum period of 52 weeks. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for return to work (RTW) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results The intervention effect differed significantly between the municipalities (P=0.00005). In one municipality (M2) the intervention resulted in a statistically significant increased rate of recovery from long-term sickness absence (HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.31–1.74). In the other two municipalities, the intervention did not show a statistically significant effect (HRM1 1.12, 95% CI 0.97–1.29, and HRM3 0.80, 95% CI 0.63–1.03, respectively). Adjustment for a series of possible confounders only marginally altered the estimated HR. Conclusion The effect of the intervention differed substantially between the three municipalities, indicating that that contextual factors are of major importance for success or failure of this complex intervention."

"Objectives
Sleep problems and adverse psychosocial working conditions are associated with increased risk of long-term sickness absence. Because sleep problems affect role functioning they may also exacerbate any effects of psychosocial working conditions and vice versa. We examined whether sleep problems and psychosocial working conditions interact in their associations with long-term sickness absence.
Methods
We linked questionnaire data from participants to two surveys of random samples of the Danish working population (N=10 752) with registries on long-term sick leave during five years after questionnaire response. We defined sleep problems by self-reported symptoms and/or register data on hypnotics purchases of hypnotics. Psychosocial working conditions included quantitative and emotional demands, influence, supervisor recognition and social support, leadership quality, and social support from colleagues. Using time-to-event models, we calculated hazard ratios (HR) and differences and examined interaction as departure from multiplicativity and additivity.
Results
During 40 165 person-years of follow-up, we identified 2313 episodes of long-terms sickness absence. Sleep problems predicted risk of long-term sickness absence [HR 1.54, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.38–1.73]. This association was statistically significantly stronger among participants with high quantitative demands and weaker among those with high supervisor recognition (P<0.0001).
Conclusions
High quantitative demands exacerbated the association of sleep problems with risk of long-term sickness absence whereas high supervisor recognition buffered this association. To prevent long-term sickness absence among employees with sleep problems, workplace modifications focusing on quantitative demands and supervisor recognition may be considered. Workplace interventions for these factors may more effectively prevent sickness absence when targeted at this group. The efficacy and effectiveness of such interventions needs to be established in future studies."

"Objective
This review aimed to examine systematically the epidemiological evidence linking work-related exposure to violence and threats thereof with risk of mental disorders and mental ill-health symptoms.
Methods
We searched PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Web of Science to identify original studies that provide quantitative risk estimates. The evidence was weighted according to completeness of reporting, potential common method bias, and bias due to differential selection and drop out, selective reporting, and misclassification of exposure and outcome.
Results
We identified 14 cross-sectional and 10 cohort studies with eligible risk estimates, of which 4 examined depressive disorder and reported an elevated risk among the exposed [pooled relative risk (RR) 1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.31-1.54, I 2=0%]. The occurrence of depressive and anxiety symptoms, burnout and psychological distress was examined in 17 studies (pooled RR 2.33, 95% CI 3.17, I 2=42%), and 3 studies examined risk of sleep disturbance (pooled RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.09-1.37, I2=0%). In most studies, common method bias and confounding could not be ruled out with confidence and strong heterogeneity in most outcome definitions invalidate the strict interpretation of most pooled risk estimates.
Conclusion
The reviewed studies consistently indicate associations between workplace violence and mental health problems. However, due to methodological limitations the causal associations (if any) may be stronger or weaker than the ones reported in this study. Prospective studies with independent and validated reporting of exposure and outcome and repeated follow-up with relevant intervals are highly warranted."

"We live in unprecedented modern times experiencing how an outbreak of a particular viral disease, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, also commonly referred to as the Coronavirus, is disrupting societies and personal lives. The virus is likely to spread to most, if not all, countries, illustrating the interconnectedness of the world. At the time of writing, Italy and Spain have become the epicenters in terms of fatalities in Europe, whereas the United States has recorded the most diagnosed cases worldwide. While many national measures to contain, suppress, mitigate, or delay the spread of the virus are being taken, there is great uncertainty as to which measures are appropriate or not, varying from instructions of stringent hand hygiene; travel restrictions; social distancing; and closure of schools, restaurants, bars and shops to a complete lock down of large parts of society. ..."

"Objectives Workplace bullying has been suggested to increase symptoms of anxiety. A reverse relationship has also been proposed. However, so far only few earlier studies have investigated this topic and the reported associations might partly be explained by unmeasured individual characteristics. In this study, we aim to examine the temporality and directionality between workplace bullying and anxiety symptoms, taking time-invariant characteristics into account. Furthermore, we aim to examine whether leadership quality modifies these associations.

Methods We included 13 491 individuals from two nationwide cohort studies in Sweden and Denmark. Using cross-lagged structural equation models (SEM) and dynamic panel models with fixed effects, we examined contemporaneous and lagged associations between self-reported workplace bullying and anxiety. Cohort-specific results were estimated and combined using fixed-effect meta-analysis.

Results The cross-lagged SEM models supported contemporaneous and lagged relationships in both directions (from workplace bullying to symptoms of anxiety and vice versa). In contrast, only contemporaneous relationships remained statistically significant and of considerable magnitude in the dynamic panel models with fixed effects. Specifically, exposure to workplace bullying was related to a concurrent increase in anxiety symptoms (b=0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.32–0.90). No support of interaction with leadership quality was found.

Conclusions The results indicate that onset of workplace bullying is associated with an immediate or short-term increase in anxiety symptoms. This study provides novel insights regarding temporal aspects and causal inference of the bullying-anxiety relationship useful for managing psychological hazards and preventing mental illness at work."

"In the past three years, we have witnessed the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with unprecedented challenges to all aspects of human life worldwide. In the workforce, it rapidly became clear that workers in some jobs were more likely to suffer adverse consequences for morbidity and mortality. In our earlier editorials in the Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, we reviewed emerging evidence, suggesting that well-established socio-economic health inequalities intermingled with occupational risk factors, making it difficult to target the conditions at work that contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in working populations ..."

"At the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, it is our fundamental conviction that workers' health
is a value in itself. To put it simply, work must not be health-hazardous, and work must not make the worker neither
physically nor mentally sick. In our minds, there is no need for any further rationale for healthy and safe work.
That said, it would be naïve to think that, in a bottom-line world, the bottom-line would not count with regard
to work and health. It does count at individual, company, and societal level. At individual level, a worker may worry
about reduced payment during sickness absence. ..."