Documents Ervasti, Jenni 2 results

"Objectives
To examine the associations of COVID-19-related changes in work with perceptions of psychosocial work environment and employee health.
Methods
In a cohort of 24 299 Finnish public sector employees, psychosocial work environment and employee well-being were assessed twice before (2016 and 2018=reference period) and once during (2020) the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who reported a change (=‘Exposed') in work due to the pandemic (working from home, new tasks or team reorganisation) were compared with those who did not report such change (=‘Non-exposed').
Results
After adjusting for sex, age, socioeconomic status and lifestyle risk score, working from home (44%) was associated with greater increase in worktime control (standardised mean difference (SMD)Exposed=0.078, 95% CI 0.066 to 0.090; SMDNon-exposed=0.025, 95% CI 0.014 to 0.036), procedural justice (SMDExposed=0.101, 95% CI 0.084 to 0.118; SMDNon-exposed=0.053, 95% CI 0.038 to 0.068), workplace social capital (SMDExposed=0.094, 95% CI 0.077 to 0.110; SMDNon-exposed=0.034, 95% CI 0.019 to 0.048), less decline in self-rated health (SMDExposed=−0.038, 95% CI −0.054 to –0.022; SMDNon-exposed=−0.081, 95% CI −0.095 to –0.067), perceived work ability (SMDExposed=−0.091, 95% CI −0.108 to –0.074; SMDNon-exposed=−0.151, 95% CI −0.167 to –0.136) and less increase in psychological distress (risk ratio (RR)Exposed=1.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.09; RRNon-exposed=1.16, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.20). New tasks (6%) were associated with greater increase in psychological distress (RRExposed=1.28, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.39; RRNon-exposed=1.10, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.12) and team reorganisation (5%) with slightly steeper decline in perceived work ability (SMDExposed=−0.151 95% CI −0.203 to –0.098; SMDNon-exposed=−0.124, 95% CI −0.136 to –0.112).
Conclusion
Employees who worked from home during the pandemic had more favourable psychosocial work environment and health, whereas those who were exposed to work task changes and team reorganisations experienced more adverse changes.

"Background
We examined how reducing work-related psychosocial stressors affected long-term sickness absence of younger and older employees.
Methods
We used data from 43 843 public sector employees in Finland who participated in surveys in 2018 and 2020. We assessed psychosocial factors, such as job demands, job control, work effort, job rewards and worktime control. We obtained sickness absence data from registers for spells longer than 10 consecutive working days. We applied age-specific propensity score weighting and generalized linear models to estimate the effects of changes in psychosocial factors between 2018 and 2020 on sickness absence in 2020.
Results
Among employees under 50 years, increasing job rewards by 1 SD reduced the risk of sickness absence by 17% [risk ratio (RR) 0.83, 95% CI 0.72–0.96]. Among employees aged 50 years or older, decreasing job demands by 1 SD reduced the risk of sickness absence by 13% (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.78–0.98), and increasing job control by 1 SD reduced the risk by 12% (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.76–1.01). Changes in efforts and worktime control had no significant associations with sickness absence.
Conclusions
Reducing psychosocial stressors can lower the occurrence of long-term sickness absence, but the associations differ by age group. Younger workers benefit more from enhancing job rewards, while older workers benefit more from lowering job demands and increasing job control. To establish the causal impact of psychosocial risk reduction on sickness absence across age groups, future research should employ randomized controlled trials as the methodological approach."