Applied research – Work, Stress, and Health

Total Worker Health Participatory Action Research to Impact Health of Workers in Precarious Jobs

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The University of Illinois Chicago Center for Healthy Work (CHW) is a NIOSH-funded Center for Excellence for Total Worker Health? (TWH) that implements participatory action research by engaging communities to understand how precarious work impacts residents, building the skills of public health and labor to collaboratively identify pathways to healthy work, and working with local leaders to leverage resources to implement TWH initiatives. The CHW utilizes PAR through the Greater Lawndale Healthy Work project and Healthy Communities through Healthy Work to embrace social justice and health equity as a research orientation that is better suited to addressing complex health issues, like precarious work and OSH disparities, through TWH.

Uncovering the sources and impacts of fatigue for onshore oil and gas extraction workers

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

To better understand motor vehicle injuries and associated risk factors in the U.S. onshore oil and gas extraction (OGE) industry, NIOSH researchers set out to survey 500 OGE workers. Survey respondents reported extreme daily commutes, long work hours, and limited sleep all of which were significantly associated with risky driving behaviors and poor driving safety outcomes. The NIOSH researchers are initiating a new research study to identify and describe fatigue in this workforce. The goal of this project is to produce baseline estimates of fatigue for onshore OGE workers, develop initial guidance to employers about the types of work tasks, work schedules, and determine operational environments that should be targeted for fatigue-related interventions.

An Expanded Conceptual Model for Research on Work, Safety, Health, and Well-being

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, & Well-being is a NIOSH Total Worker Health? Center of Excellence. Its mission is to protect and promote the safety, health, and well-being of workers through integrated workplace policies, programs, and practices that foster safe and healthy conditions of work. Building on its systems-level conceptual model centered on the conditions of work, the Center has expanded this model to include employment & labor patterns and the social/political/economic environment. The Center?s three unifying themes, informed by our conceptual model, provide a framework for setting priorities to ensure that our research and dissemination efforts make a difference in improving the conditions of work.

Using workers’ compensation systems to improve workplace safety and health

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Center for Workers’ Compensation Studies (CWCS) is to maximize the use of workers’ compensation (WC) claims data and systems to improve workplace safety and health through partnerships. This poster presentation will describe recent and ongoing CWCS surveillance and research studies to achieve several key goals (see https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/workercomp/cwcs/publications.html).

Occupational Health Equity Program at NIOSH

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Not all workers have the same risk of experiencing a work-related health problem, even when they have the same job. The way societies configure social and economic institutions influence workers? exposure to occupational hazards (differential exposure) as well as their ability to cope with adverse consequences of an occupational injury or illness (differential susceptibility). The Occupational Health Equity program is working to integrate a social determinants of health approach to occupational safety and health.

Continuous multimodal assessment of physiological stress responses among nurses in relation to incidents of workplace violence: A feasibility study guided by Total Worker Health principles

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

A primary objective of the present study is to demonstrate the feasibility of a protocol for detailed and continuous assessment of physiological signals among nurses using a wearable physiological sensor system along with event-contingent experience sampling of critical incidents. Twelve registered nurses (N=12) in a university hospital emergency department wore noninvasive wearable sensors continuously for seven consecutive days and logged the occurrence of workplace violence incidents. The ability to objectively quantify stress responses over the course of the workday could serve as a valuable tool in planning Total Worker Health? interventions.

Later chronotype is associated with poor self-rated health among Japanese daytime employees: a cross-sectional epidemiologic study

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Chronotype, which is the natural inclination or preference of your body to sleep at a certain time, has been implicated to be associated with various health issues including sleep problems and depression. In this study, we have specifically focused on self-rated health and its association with chronotype. As a result, later chronotype was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of poor self-rated health.

Working on the railroad during COVID-19: A case study analysis on employee perceptions of safety culture

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

This mixed-methods case study analysis investigates employees? perceptions of their organization?s COVID-19 response, and seeks to examine how these perceptions relate to the organization?s safety culture. Qualitative and quantitative archival survey data collected from one large freight-carrying railroad with sites across the U.S. was utilized to conduct analyses. The top five themes extracted from a bottom-up qualitative analysis of employees? open-ended responses about their organization?s COVID-19 response are presented and discussed (n = 196). Initial quantitative analyses that examine these responses in relation to employees? perceptions of their organization?s safety culture suggest that an organization?s existing safety culture may relate to its handling of the pandemic; a finding that bolsters existing literature on the many benefits of a strong organizational safety culture. Additional analyses are currently being conducted to further explore how the top five themes that emerged from open-ended comments relate to more-specific indicators of safety culture. In this way, we may be able to more finely-tune the practical implications of this work.

New venture launch: The impacts of relationship quality and spousal commitment

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The study purpose is to examine individual and relational contributions to an entrepreneur?s perception of their spouse?s commitment to a new business venture one year after its creation. Hobfoll?s Conservation of Resources theory of stress was the theoretical grounding for the study of 73 entrepreneurs and their spouses. Whether a spouse was involved in the new venture prior to its launching, whether the spouse perceived the new venture to be a positive influence on their couple relationship, and an entrepreneur?s positive global affect one year after the launch predicted the entrepreneur?s perception of spousal commitment to the new venture one year after its launch. Spousal involvement had the strongest influence on entrepreneur?s perception of spousal commitment followed by spousal expectation of the business on their couple relationship and entrepreneur?s global affect.

Toward understanding how menopausal symptoms affects work-related stress. A cross-sectional study in a sample of women, administrative employees.

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The increasing presence of employed women undergoing menopause has stimulated a growing corpus of research highlighting the complex relationship between menopause and work. Nevertheless, little is known regarding the mechanism by which menopause affects work ability and work-related well-being. In order to fill this gap in the literature, the present study examined whether and how menopausal symptoms affect the relationship between job demands, work ability, and exhaustion. In total, 1,069 menopausal women employed as administrative officers in a public organization filled out a self-report questionnaire. A moderated mediation analysis was carried out using latent moderated structural (LMS) equation. The findings of this analysis indicated that the indirect effect of work ability on the relationship between job demands and exhaustion is influenced by the exacerbating effect of menopausal symptoms on the relationship between job demands and work ability. Moreover, the conditional effect confirmed that women with high menopausal symptoms receive more exposure to the negative effects of job demands on work ability compared to women with low menopausal symptoms. The present findings may help in addressing interventions to prevent negative outcomes for menopausal women and their organizations.