Organizational levers supporting police officers’ psychological health in the workplace after exposure to a potentially psychologically traumatic event

One in two police officers report having experienced a potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE) in the course of their career that has had an impact on their professional or personal life. In addition, daily exposure to PPTEs results in major adverse effects that affect all aspects of health: psychological, emotional, and physical. However, it is not necessarily PPTEs as such that cause psychological distress at work; rather, the determining factor seems to be the organization’s response to police officers’ exposure to PPTEs. The purpose of this study is therefore to identify the organizational factors that explain psychological health at work for police officers who have experienced a PPTE in the line of duty. The results show that the quality of relationships with the superior and colleagues, the availability of support such as advice, job demand, and job decision latitude are factors that partially explain the psychological distress that police officers experience at work after a PPTE [R2 = .38, p<.05; F(1,451) = 55.99, p<.001]. Conversely, quality relationships with co-workers, job demand, and job decision latitude partially account for the workplace psychological well-being experienced by officers after a PPTE [R2=.42, p<.05; F(1,457) = 109.55, p<.001]. This study highlights the importance for police organizations to promote good relationships between police officers and, above all, to encourage managers to invest in their relational skills and counseling-type social support. The study limitations and new avenues for research are also discussed.

Perceived stress is related to lower blood pressure in a Swedish cohort

Aims: General psychosocial stress and job strain have been related to blood pressure (BP) with conflicting results. This study sought to explore the contribution of several lifestyle factors in the relation between general psychosocial stress, job strain and BP. Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated the association of general stress and job strain with systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP in a sample of 9441 employed individuals from the EpiHealth cohort. General stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale. Job strain was assessed with the Job Content Questionnaire, assessing two dimensions of job strain: psychological job demand and decision latitude. Linear regression and sensitivity analysis were performed. Results: At the uncorrected model, general stress, job demand and decision latitude were all inversely associated with SBP. After further adjustment for lifestyle and health parameters, only general stress was associated with SPB (β coefficient: −0.103; 95% confidence interval −0.182 to 0.023). Conclusions: General stress is associated with lower SBP independently of lifestyle in middle-aged adults. Our findings point towards a major contribution for job-unrelated stressors in determining SBP and support the pivotal role of lifestyle behaviours and health status in modulating the effect of stress on BP, calling for a careful selection of confounders.

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

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.

POS0484 THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL STRESSORS AND DISEASE REMISSION AMONG MEN AND WOMEN WITH EARLY RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Background:The role of psychosocial conditions on the disease course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is getting increased attention. In our previous study, low social support and low decision latitude at work were associated with known modifiable risk factors for RA disease development, such as smoking and low educational level (1). Further, smoking and low educational level have previously been shown to be associated with worse RA disease outcome (2-4). Whether psychosocial characteristics are related to RA disease outcome needs further investigation.Objectives:To investigate the relationship between two psychosocial characteristics: low social support and low decision latitude at work, and achievement of remission in patients with RA.Methods:At inclusion in the Swedish EIRA study, incident RA cases (N=3724) and controls (N=5937), matched for age, sex and residential area, responded to a questionnaire including questions on social support and decision latitude at work. The answers were recoded into separate scores and the distribution of the scores among controls were used to define the exposures. Low social support and low decision latitude at work, respectively, among patients, were set as the level corresponding to the lowest quartile among controls, and were compared with scores corresponding to the remaining three quartiles.The outcome, disease activity score 28-joint count (DAS28) remission, defined as DAS28<2.6, was captured through linkage with the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register (SRQ) with data available from diagnosis for 2693 out of 3700 cases for social support and for 847 out of 1248 cases for decision latitude at work.Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between low social support or low decision latitude at work, respectively, and the chance of remission at the time-points 3 months, 12 months and 60 months after inclusion. All results were adjusted for age, sex and residential area and the fully adjusted models were also adjusted for smoking, obesity, physical activity and educational level.Results:Low social support (n=655) was associated with a reduced chance for remission at all three time points in the model adjusted for age, sex and residential area; OR 3 months 0.77 (95% CI 0.61-0.97), OR 12 months 0.78 (95% CI 0.64-0.95) OR 60 months 0.77 (95% CI 0.59-0.99). This association was diminished after further adjustment. After stratifying for sex, this association was enhanced in women but inverse among men (Figure 1).No association between low decision latitude at work (n=166) and chance for remission was observed neither in the analyses stratified for matching variables, nor in the full model. This result was only marginally changed after stratifying for sex (Figure 1).Conclusion:Low social support was associated with lower chance of remission in early RA, but the association was not independent of other risk factors for worse outcome (smoking, physical activity, obesity and low educational level).The interrelationship between social stressors and previously known risk factors for worse outcome highlights the importance of supportive actions at many levels to increase the possibility for the individual to make healthy decisions.References:[1]Hedenstierna. et al. Scand J Rheumatol. 2021:1-5.[2]Saevarsdottir, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2011;70(3):469-75.[3]Saevarsdottir, et al. Arthritis Rheum. 2011;63(1):26-36.[4]Jiang, et al. Arthritis Res Ther. 2015;17:317.Figure 1.Odds ratios for assiciation between social stressors and DAS 28 remissionAcknowledgements:We want to thank all the participants of the EIRA study and the clinical collaborators for their valuable contribution. We also want to thank the staff for their dedicated work with the data collection.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

Work-related stress assessment in an emergency department in French Guiana

Background: In emergency departments (EDs), the staff continually face stressful situations requiring staff to adopt various coping strategies. Aims: The study aimed to assess work-related stress in ED during the COVID-19 outbreak. Method: The study was a monocentric investigation based on a questionnaire survey that elicits general information and uses the Karasek model to analyse the data. Findings: A total of 117 forms were collected for analysis. The score for decision latitude (or autonomy and skills at work) was 70 (IQR: 64–74) and the score for psychological demand was 25 (IQR: 23-27). The score for social support by the management team was 11 (IQR: 9–12) and the score for social support by colleagues 12 (IQR: 10–12). Of the total number of respondents, job strain was assessed as affecting 24.8%. Conclusion: The study shows high levels of stress among the ED workforce. The findings indicate that it is imperative to develop simple management tools that are capable of measuring the internal causes of stress in order to develop an adapted wellness programme in ED.

Investigating association between job stress dimensions and prevalence of low back pain among hospital nurses

BACKGROUND: There are a few studies conducted on job stress dimensions and their relationship with Low Back Pain (LBP) among Iranian nurses. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between job stress dimensions assessed via Demand-Control-Social Support (DCS) and Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) models and prevalence of LBP among Iranian hospital nurses. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 495 randomly selected nurses of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) participated. Demographic/occupational questionnaire, the Persian version of the Job Content Questionnaire (P-JCQ) and the Persian version of the ERI Questionnaire (P-ERIQ) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 19) using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and logistic regression. RESULTS: The LBP prevalence was found to be 69.9%. The means±standard deviations of job stress dimensions were obtained as follows: decision latitude: 64.67±6.82, physical job demands: 15.52±2.6, social support: 23.18±3.65, psychological job demands: 38.02±4.98, effort: 8.73±2.62, reward: 23.12±5.31, over-commitment: 12.25±3.09, and effort-reward ratio: 0.86±0.3. The findings revealed that the work experience (OR = 1.56), psychological job demands (OR = 1.082), and effort-reward ratio (OR = 3.43) were predictors for LBP among the study population. CONCLUSION: The prevalence rate of LBP among studied nurses was high. About half of nurses had high psychological demands, low decision latitude and low social support. Based on the effort-reward ratio, nurses had experienced high level of stress. Interventional programs and coping strategies for reduction of work-related stress and, subsequently, prevention of LBP are recommended among hospital nurses.

The influence of organizational justice and decision latitude on expatriate organizational commitment and job performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the influence of organizational justice and decision latitude on expatriate organization commitment and job performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 175 nonmanagerial-level expatriate employees in Dubai, UAE using a purposive sampling approach. A structural equation model with partial least squared analysis was utilized to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that decision latitude partially mediates the relationship between organization justice and organizational commitment and fully mediates the relationship between organization justice and job performance.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from a cross sectional sample in UAE, and hence, the generalizability of the results to other contexts may be limited.Practical implicationsThe research study suggests ways in which human resource managers and practitioners can develop a stronger awareness of the importance of decision latitude in employee decision-making and the role it plays in promoting employees' commitment and job performance given perceived organizational justice.Originality/valueThe present research is among the first of its kind to examine the study variables within the nonmanagerial expatriate context.

A Medical Interpreter Training Program and Signed Language Interpreters' Decision Latitude

The certificate in healthcare interpreting (CHI) is a medical signed language interpreter training program in the U.S. This qualitative study consisted of focus groups to examine the effect of CHI on graduates' views of their role, responsibilities, and decision latitude. Analysis suggests that CHI may be shifting practitioners from a restrictive conduit model (taking no action when faced with a decision) to a values-based approach. Also outlined are features of the program that contribute to this shift.