Socioeconomic position, psychosocial work environment and cerebrovascular disease among women: the Finnish public sector study

ObjectivesTo examine the associations of COVID-19-related changes in work with perceptions of psychosocial work environment and employee health.MethodsIn 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’).ResultsAfter 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).ConclusionEmployees 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.

Download Full-text

The impact of moderate and major workplace expansion and downsizing on the psychosocial and physical work environment and income in Sweden

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1080/14034940600813073 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 62-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Jane E. Ferrie ◽

Hugo Westerlund ◽

Gabriel Oxenstierna ◽

Töres Theorell

Keyword(s):

Organizational Change ◽

Public Sector ◽

Private Sector ◽

Work Environment ◽

Psychosocial Work Environment ◽

Physical Work ◽

Psychosocial Work ◽

Physical Hazards ◽

Data Limitations ◽

The Impact

Aims: To describe the effect of organizational change (moderate and major expansion and downsizing) on psychosocial work characteristics, physical hazards, and income in a representative sample of larger workplaces in Sweden. Methods: Annual changes in workforce size for the years 1991—1996 were derived from tax registry data. Work environment characteristics were measured in a sub-set of participants from the biennial Swedish Work Environment Surveys for 1991, 1993, and 1995. Income data were derived from national registries. Results: Not all organizational change resulted in a poorer work environment. The number of beneficial outcomes associated with moderate downsizing and moderate expansion in the public sector outweighed the number of adverse outcomes. However, in the private sector the overall effect of moderate organizational change was a poorer work environment. Major downsizing was associated with a better psychosocial work environment for private-sector men and major expansion with a poorer environment for public-sector women and private-sector men. Otherwise, associations between major organizational change and the psychosocial work environment were mixed across sex and sector, although major organizational change was consistently associated with a greater risk of physical hazards. Low income was associated exclusively with organizational downsizing in the private sector. Conclusions: More research is needed to determine whether the work environment can explain observed associations between organizational change and health. Data limitations prevented the authors from examining this in the present study. Their findings indicate that future research on the work environment should pay more attention to physical hazards.

Download Full-text

Expanding the Domain of the Psychosocial Work Environment: Work Place Norms and Work-Family Conflict as Correlates of Stress and Subjective Health Symptoms

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e336032004-001 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Tove H. Hammer ◽

Per Oystein Saksvik ◽

Kjell Nytro ◽

Hans Torvatn ◽

Mahmut Bayazit

Keyword(s):

Work Environment ◽

Family Conflict ◽

Subjective Health ◽

Psychosocial Work Environment ◽

Work Place ◽

Psychosocial Work ◽

Work Family Conflict ◽

Health Symptoms ◽

Work Family

Download Full-text

Being bullied at work--Psychosocial work environment, organisation's economic situation, and individual situation of the target

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e577572014-018 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Maarit A.-L. Vartia ◽

Maria Hirvonen

Keyword(s):

Work Environment ◽

Psychosocial Work Environment ◽

Economic Situation ◽

Psychosocial Work ◽

Being Bullied

Download Full-text

The Psychosocial Work Environment and Perceived Stress among Seniors with Physically Demanding Jobs: The SeniorWorkingLife Study

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18147437 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (14) ◽

pp. 7437

Author(s):

Jonas Vinstrup ◽

Annette Meng ◽

Emil Sundstrup ◽

Lars L. Andersen

Keyword(s):

Work Environment ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

High Stress ◽

Organizational Factors ◽

Work Conditions ◽

Psychosocial Work Environment ◽

Psychosocial Work ◽

Decision Latitude ◽

Collegial Support ◽

Increased Risk

Background: Poor psychosocial work conditions are known to foster negative health consequences. While the existing literature on this topic focus mainly on white-collar workers, the influence of different aspects of the psychosocial work environment in physically demanding jobs remain understudied. Likewise, senior workers represent a population of the workforce at increased risk of adverse health outcomes and premature exit from the labour market. This study investigates the association between psychosocial work factors and perceived stress among the senior work force. Methods: Utilizing cross-sectional findings, this study reports associations between psychosocial factors (organizational justice, cooperation and collegial support, decision latitude, clarity of tasks, and quality of leadership) and the outcome of perceived stress quantified by Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS). Currently employed senior workers with physically demanding jobs were included in the analyses (n = 3386). Associations were modeled using general linear models with weights to make the estimates representative. Results: For all individually adjusted psychosocial variables, the category of “good” was consistently associated with lower stress scores compared to the categories of both “moderate” and “poor” (all p < 0.0001). Likewise, in the mutually adjusted analysis, the category of “good” was statistically different from “poor” for all included variables, while the category of “moderate” remained different from “poor” for “clarity of tasks”, “cooperation and collegial support”, and “decision latitude”. Conclusions: Among senior workers with physically demanding jobs, poor ratings of organizational factors related to the psychosocial work environment are consistently associated with high stress scores. Blue-collar occupations focusing primarily on physical risk factors are recommended to increase awareness on psychosocial aspects that may be relevant to the local work environment.

Download Full-text