Work stress and emotional disorders in community workers: A parallel mediation analysis

COVID-19 Pandemic: What Has Work Got to Do With It?

Introduction: Work stress is a significant issue in the nursing profession, often linked to adverse mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and decreased quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between anxiety, depression, quality of life, and work stress among nurses in East Java Province, Indonesia. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed, involving 205 nurses from three cities in Indonesia. Data were collected using standardized instruments: Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) for anxiety, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for depression, World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) for quality of life, and the Work Stress Scale (WSS) for work stress. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the variables. Results: The finding revealed significant correlations between work stress, anxiety (p-value 0.001), and quality of life (p-value 0.001). Higher levels of work stress were associated with increased anxiety and lower quality of life scores. However, no significant association was found between work stress and depression in the regression analysis (p-value 0.101). Anxiety and quality of life were significant predictors of work stress, accounting for 13.4% of the variance. Conclusion: This study's findings support targeted interventions that can reduce anxiety and improve nurses' quality of life. These include mental health workplace programs and hospital organizational changes to foster a positive work culture. Given the limitations of self-reported data, future research should incorporate longitudinal designs and objective measures to understand these relationships better.

In China, for community social workers, work-family conflict has become a common phenomenon that may harm their well-being. Based on the analysis of a survey of community social workers in four cities in China, this study demonstrated that community workers' work-family conflict significantly affects burnout, role overload mediates the relation between work-family conflict and burnout, and cognitive crafting negatively moderates the relation between role overload and burnout. The conclusions validate the job crafting theory and enrich the research on job burnout under the JD-R model. The practical significance of the study is that on the one hand, community and individual workers can effectively alleviate burnout by clarifying their roles. On the other hand, it also reminds managers that they should pay attention to the physical and mental health of social workers to enable them to develop healthily.

The potential stressfulness of an event may depend on how it is appraised by the individual, although up to now there have been no longitudinal studies on the relationship between lay beliefs concerning work stress and perceived strain. This longitudinal study examines how lay theories of work stress at baseline were related to perceived mental strain at follow up. The present paper builds on an earlier study (Furnham, 1997), using a longitudinal design and a much larger population of the British workforce (N=2270). Lay beliefs were assessed by a scale consisting of 36 items. Factor analysis gave a solution with five factors on perceived causes and four factors of perceived alleviation of work stress. Linear multiple regression analysis revealed significant relations between lay beliefs of work stress at baseline and perceived mental strain as well as job stress 14 months later. The effect sizes were small but of a similar magnitude to those that have been found, for example, in occupational stress-reducing interventions. A problem with the factor analytic approach was the discrepancies between the factor solutions and the relative importance of the perceived causes of work stress. The results from the study suggest that subjective beliefs about work stress merits further analysis as potentially mediating between ‘objective’ working conditions and stress outcomes.

The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) program which is one of the human rights and one of the efforts in improving employee performance in the company itself. This research aims to determine the effect of the Occupational Safety and Health program and workload on employee performance which is mediated by work stress at PT. Sinarjaya Inti Mulya Srengsem work unit. The research method used is comparative quantitative research, where variables are measured using a Likert scale. The number of samples in this research was 70 employees of PT. Sinarjaya Inti Mulya Srengsem work unit. The data collection techniques in this research used document studies, questionnaires, and interviews. Data analysis techniques using Structural Equational Modeling (SEM) using Smart-PLS. The research results showed that the OSH Program has a positive and significant effect on employee performance, workload, and work stress has a negative and significant effect on employee performance, the OSH Program has a negative but not significant effect, workload has a positive and significant effect on work stress, the OSH Program mediated work stress does not have a significant effect on employee performance, work conditions mediated by work stress have a significant effect on employee performance.

Background: Stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure. Nowadays, stress has become a major problem and can be seen in most of the people including young children. If stress persists for a longer time, it affects the body in several ways as the body is unable to cope with it. Stress affects both physical as well as mental health. The impact of stress is different in individuals. Stress is associated with diabetes, hypertension, suppression of the immune system, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders. The study is Aims: aimed to evaluate Stress in Work from Home individuals which impacts mental health leading to further health complications. Materials And Methods: In this Randomized Prospective Observational study that was conducted online for six months, all the relevant data was collected using an online questionnaire form which includes patient demographic details, Perceived Stress Scale, Diabetes Distress Scale and Diabetes Risk Assessment scale. During the study period we collected a total of 501 res Results: ponses. Among 501, 63(12.6%) were having low stress, 372(74.3%) were having moderate stress and 66(13.1%) were having high stress. 16 employees were diabetic in which their diabetic distress is moderate. In 485 employees, diabetic risk was assessed in which 182(37%) were having slightly elevated risk, 33(7%) were having moderate risk, and 3(1%) were having high risk. Moderate stress is seen in the majority of the s Conclusion: tudy population. The possibility of having Stress is high in individuals with no physical activity. Diabetes risk is seen in 45% of the study population. As the percentage of family history increases diabetes risk is increased which supports genetic predisposition to diabetes mellitus.

Introduction: Study related to work stress is usually more focused on the industrial sector. Meanwhile, workers in other sectors such as the government organization also have the potential to feel stressed due to their job. During the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease) pandemic, Health Office is one of the main stakeholders in handling and preventing COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic can cause work stress due to unachieved health programs and huge demands to develop programs related to this pandemic. This study analyzed the relationship between individual factors, work factors, and factors outside of work with level of work stress among Health Office employees. This study is expected to be able to analyze work stress and its determinant as early as possible. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study using the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale 42 (DASS-42) and NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) Generic Job Stress Questionnaire instrument. This study was conducted at the Public Health Office Bogor Regency April 2021. This study used total sampling method on employees of the Public Health Office Bogor Regency with total sample collected of 135 respondents. Data analysis in this study was performed using multiple logistic regression. Results: 86.67% of respondents did not experience work stress, 5.93% of respondents had mild work stress, and 7.41% of respondents experienced moderate work stress. Moreover, workload (p = 0.0001) and social support (p = 0.011) had a significant relationship in increasing work stress. Conclusion: Workload was the most dominant variable affecting work stress in which workers who had high subjective workload were 33.63 times more stressful compared to workers who had the appropriate workload. Prevention of occupational stress can be done by adjusting workloads and building a good social environment between colleagues.Keywords: factors outside of work, health office, individual factors, work factors, work stress

We are pleased that our paper on job strain and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk prediction1 has attracted the interest of IJE readers. Given that stress has been the subject of observational research for several decades,2 surprisingly few attempts have been made to explore the predictive value of stress in clinical practice. The purpose of our paper was to address this gap in knowledge. We examined whether information on work stress would improve identification of patients at high risk of developing CHD if we already knew their standard risk factors, such as raised blood pressure, lipid levels, smoking habits and the presence of diabetes. Determining a patient's risk of CHD is important as this helps a physician to decide whether there is a need to recommend lifestyle change or prescribe medication (e.g. statins). Our findings for job strain,3 the most commonly used operationalization of work stress, suggest this additional information is unlikely to enhance the predictive capacity of Framingham risk prediction algorithm (a summary of conventional risk factor levels). In his letter to the Editor, Bozorgmanesh raises important points regarding risk prediction, both in general and specific to our paper. He notes that choice of the reference method that represents current clinical practice is critical because if the best available method is not selected, the value of the new measure (here work stress) may be overestimated. The Framingham risk algorithm is a widely used tool to assess a patient's 10-year risk of CHD based on standard coronary risk factors—this was the model used in our paper. Bozorgmanesh noted that we did not specify whether it was the most recent revision4 or an earlier, less well-calibrated, version.5 We are grateful for the opportunity to clarify that we used the most recent algorithm,4 thus any concern that we used a comparator model that would have resulted in an overestimation of the value of adding job strain is unfounded. Traditional C-statistics have been found to be insensitive for detecting improvement in risk prediction;6 Net Reclassification Index (NRI) analysis is seen as a more informative alternative.7 Bozorgmanesh correctly notes that there has recently been some further developments in the NRI, but to date most clinical studies still apply the standard NRI.7 This was also the case in our paper, mainly to enable comparison with other studies that have tested new risk markers to improve CHD prediction.8,9 In this analysis, we divided the predicted risk level into four categories: <4, 4–5.9, 6–9.9 and ≥10%. An alternative approach would have been to use cut-points that are of more direct relevance to clinical decisions on risk prevention, that is, very low (risk <5%), low (5–9.9%), intermediate (10–19.9%) and high (≥20%);10 the latter indicative of a need to consider pharmacotherapy. Unfortunately, the small number of participants in the highest category in our study prevented us from doing so. This brings us to the final point made by Bozorgmanesh: the use of a 2-step analysis strategy. That is, using conventional risk prediction models first and, instead of then examining the entire population, testing whether the new measure (here job strain) improves risk stratification within the intermediate category only (people with an estimated risk of 10–20%). This group is particularly problematic for clinicians because, while some group members are truly at low risk of CHD (no interventions needed), others are at high risk and would thus benefit from medication, such as statin therapy or behaviour modification. Further research is needed to examine whether information on work stress could be useful to improve risk stratification among those who are, based on conventional risk models, at intermediate risk. Following our null findings, one might ask whether further research on this issue is likely to be worthwhile. We believe that our findings on job strain are not the final word in this field of research. Indeed, we have subsequently tested other life stress markers and found, among working populations, inclusion of information on long working hours to improve CHD risk prediction. Employees who work very long days are at increased risk of CHD and the net reclassification improvement on inclusion of this information is ~5%.11 While this finding needs to be replicated in other cohorts before firm conclusions can be drawn, it indicates a possible role for stress markers in improved CHD risk prediction in clinical practice.

The International Labour Organization1) has estimated that there are 2.34 million work-related deaths every year. Among them, 321,000 are due to accidents whereas the remaining 2.02 million deaths are caused by various types of work-related diseases, which correspond to a daily average of more than 5,500 deaths. The International Labour Organization1) states “The inadequate prevention of occupational diseases has profound negative effects not only on workers and their families but also on society at large due to the tremendous costs that it generates; particularly, in terms of loss of productivity and burdening of social security systems.” According to the International Social Security Association2), 270 million suffer non-fatal workplace accidents each year with 160 million new cases of occupational illnesses; the financial burden of compensation, health care, rehabilitation and invalidity is huge: a sum equivalent to 4 percent of world GDP for work injuries alone. For some developing countries, the cost can be as high as 10 percent of GDP. Farquhar et al. (2001)3) stated in their book “Public health has, for many years, been concerned with efforts to increase the efficiency of health care delivery, to measure changes in health care resource utilization and associated costs, and to link these changes to different types of interventions.” From this viewpoint, we consider that research on the socioeconomic impact of occupational disease and injuries is important for decision makers in occupational health and safety to implement preventive measures, service and policy. In this Special Issue, we would like to focus on “The Socioeconomic Impact of Occupational Diseases and Injuries,” addressing the socioeconomic impact of occupational diseases and injuries as well as the cost-effectiveness (or benefits) of analysis of preventive measures and the evaluation of legislation and social policy in occupational health. In Volume 51: Issue 5 (2013) of Industrial Health, seven articles have been accepted for publication, viz (1) Santana et al.: Health Care Costs and the Socioeconomic Consequences of Work Injuries in Brazil: A Longitudinal Study, (2) Shimazu et al.: Psychosocial Mechanisms of Psychological Health Disparity in Japanese Workers, (3) Wada et al.: Economic Impact of Loss of Performance due to Absenteeism and Presenteeism Caused by Depressive Symptoms and Comorbid Health Conditions among Japanese Workers, (4) Hasegawa et al.: Occupational Factors and Problem Drinking among a Japanese Working Population, (5) Ishida: Inequality in Workplace Conditions and Health Outcomes, (6) Kan: Being out of Work and Health among Younger Japanese Men: A Panel Data Analysis, and (7) Itoh et al.: Estimates of Annual Medical Costs of Work-related Low Back Pain in Japan. Other several articles submitted to the Special Issue are now under review and we expect publication in the following regular issues of Industrial Health. Santana et al. estimate the direct health care costs and socioeconomic consequences of work injuries by a prospective longitudinal study of workers identified in the emergency departments of public hospitals in Brazil. They report that approximately half the cases suffered loss of earnings, and female workers were more frequently dismissed than male workers. The most frequently reported family consequences were the need for a family member to act as a caregiver and difficulties with daily expenses. Total costs for treatment and rehabilitation of work injuries were approximately US$40,000; half of that was out-of-pocket costs paid by relatives or workers themselves. Most out-of-pocket costs were related to transport and purchasing medicines and other wound care products. The second largest contribution (40.6%) came from the public National Health System (SUS). Employer participation was negligible. Health care funding must be discussed to alleviate the economic burden of work injuries on workers. In Shimazu et al.’s article, the psychosocial mechanisms underlying the positive relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and psychological health are investigated. They test the hypothesized model based on large datasets from two different studies, and report that (1) educational attainment was positively related to psychological distress through job demands, (2) educational attainment was negatively related to psychological distress through job resources, and (3) educational attainment was not directly related to psychological distress. Thus, educational attainment has an indirect effect, rather than a direct one, on psychological distress among workers; educational attainment has both a positive and a negative relationship with psychological distress through job demands and job resources, respectively. The economic impact of absenteeism and presenteeism due to five illnesses potentially comorbid with depressive symptoms was studied by Wada et al among Japanese workers aged 18–59 years. These conditions included back or neck disorders, depression, anxiety, or emotional disorders, chronic headaches, stomach or bowel disorders, and insomnia. The Stanford Presenteeism Scale was used in their study. The primary leading cause of economic loss was found to be back or neck disorder. Wage loss per person was relatively high among those identifying depression, anxiety, or emotional disorders. These findings offer insight into developing strategies for workplace interventions on increasing work performance. The study by Hasegawa et al. was to clarify the occupational risk factors for problem drinking among a Japanese working population. They analyzed the data from a random-sampling survey about mental health and suicide in Hamamatsu residents in 2008. Self-employed females have a high prevalence of problem drinking. Problem drinking was also associated with clerical and service professions for both genders, and with administrative/managerial and sales professions for females. Smaller companies showed a higher prevalence of problem drinking than larger ones for male workers. It is necessary to consider these characteristics to provide effective measures to address problem drinking in the workplace. Ishida examined the relationship between the inequality in workplace conditions and health-related outcomes in Japan, by analyzing the effect of changes in the work conditions and work arrangements on the subjective health, activity restriction, and depression symptoms. They used the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey, which consists of a nationally representative sample of the youth and the middle-aged. The first major conclusion is that there are substantial changes in health conditions between the two waves even though the distributions of health-related outcomes are very similar at two time points. The second is that the effects of work conditions depend on different health-related outcomes. Self-reported health and depression symptoms are affected by a variety of job-related factors. The atmosphere of helping each other and the control over the pace of work are two important factors that affect both depression and self-reported health. They suggest that the workplace conditions and job characteristics have profound influence on the workers’ health. The report by Kan examines the effect of being out of work, which is in a broader category of unemployment, on the physical and mental health of young Japanese men using panel data. Being out of work has no observable effect on self-assessed physical health, whereas it has a negative effect on mental health as measured by five-item version of the Mental Health Inventory. It is difficult to clearly distinguish the direction of causality even after controlling for individual heterogeneity that is constant over time. An analysis was done with a sub-sample to mitigate a possible reverse causality. The result consistently showed that being out of work has a negative effect on mental health. Little is reported regarding economic burden of work-related low back pain except in the United States. In Itoh et al.’s study, annual medical cost of work-related low back pain in Japan is calculated based on the treatment fee per day, the total number of days of treatment received for low-back pain of all causes, employment rates, and an estimated number of work-related low-back pain cases. The analysis indicates that, in 2011, the total annual medical cost for work-related low back pain was 82.14 billion yen, consisting of 26.48 and 55.66 billion yen for inpatients and outpatients, respectively. Whereas the total medical costs of work-related low back pain monotonically increased during 2002–2011, the costs for spine disorders (including spondylosis) have also increased in recent years. Work-related low back pain entails a considerable economic burden to Japanese society. “Healthy Work Life in 21st Century Japan: National Occupational Research Strategies”4) in 1998 provided a framework to guide occupational health research in our country, showing three key areas, viz I. Research on issues related to working life and health that arise from changes in the occupational structure, II. Research on the human health effects of hazardous workplace factors, and III. Research on risk assessment and the management system for occupational health and safety, consisting of 18 priority issues. In 2010, a new framework was proposed by a group of experts5), which advocated three important areas of research, viz., I. Research on issues related to occupational safety and health that arise from changes in the industrialized society, II. Research on the risks and hazard at workplace, and III. Research on risk assessment and the management system, consisting of 22 priority issues. Understanding and solving the “Socioeconomic Impact of Occupational Diseases and Injuries” discussed in this Special Issue is crucial to determining the order of priority.

Orientation: The study of work stressors, job insecurity and union support creates opportunity for iron ore mining organisations to manage job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour more effectively. Research purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour of a sample of iron ore mine workers in South Africa.Motivation for the study: The mining industry in general is often faced with hazardous and physically demanding working environments, where employees work under constant pressure. Work stressors, job insecurity, union support and job satisfaction are considered key variables when investigating effective means of managing safety.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was utilised to collect the data. A convenience sample of employees in the iron ore mining industry of South Africa (N = 260) were included. Structural equation modelling and bootstrapping resampling analysis were used to analyse the data.Main findings: Work stressors and job insecurity were found to be negatively associated with job satisfaction. Conversely, perceived union support was positively associated with job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour. Furthermore, job satisfaction mediated the relationship between union support and safety motivation and behaviour.Practical/managerial implications: Mining organisations can, by placing the focus on reducing work stressors, and promoting job security and union support, achieve higher levels of safety motivation and behaviour through job satisfaction.Contribution/value-add: A great deal of independent research on work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction as well as safety motivation and behaviour has already been done. To date, very little empirical research exists that simultaneously considers all these constructs. This study brought together these lines of research.

Labor of love? The influence of work-conditions among self-employed and work stress

ObjectiveTo investigate the reciprocal relationship between psychosocial work stress and quality of life (QoL) and to examine whether the relationship can be moderated by gender or education.DesignLongitudinal, population-based study.SettingThe Survey...

This study's overarching goal was to explore the effect stress has on employee safety decision-making under three safety participation hindering cognitive biases. Safety research often involves analysis on injuries and illnesses after occurrence, using lagging indicators to estimate trends, for example. The present research is forward-looking, investigating the predictive value of stress variables to the likelihood of safe choices. Utilizing the framework of the Precaution Adoption Process Model to categorize behavioral decision-making, the goal was to determine where life and work stress may predict the adoption of safe behavior. Two research questions were pursued: 1. Are Perceived Life Stress and Perceived Work Stress significant predictors of employee tendency to engage in safety and the extent of their engagement if they decide to participate, under the Recency, Melioration, and Free-ride cognitive biases? 2. Is choice distribution significantly different among the Recency, Melioration, and Free-ride cognitive biases? The study also incorporated COVID-19, work history, and demographic variables as potential stressors. A survey was developed and deployed. Perceived life stress scale (PSS-Cohen, 1994), perceived work stress scale, the National Population Health Survey (NPHS -Wang, et al., 2001), COVID-19, work history, and demographic variables were used in conjunction with decision simulations framed as the three cognitive biases of Recency, Melioration, and Free-ride Social Dilemma. The decision-making simulations' presentation choices were molded into the Precaution Adoption Process Model stages. Participants (n=206) were employees of utility units and companies in Central Iowa. Perceived life stress was only a significant predictor of a tendency of engagement in safety in the Recency bias. Work stress was not a significant predictor of engagement in safety in any of the biases, nor a significant predictor of the extent of engagement in safety in any of the three biases. Losing someone close due to COVID-19 was a significant predictor of the extent of engagement in safety only in the Free-ride bias. Recent injury was a significant predictor of a tendency to engage in safety in the Melioration and Free-ride bias. Having a team member suffer an injury was a predictor of engagement in only the Free-ride bias. The distribution of choices was significantly different among the three biases. However, no significance was detected when the choices were consolidated to either act or not act. The results are discussed in the framework of the Precaution Adoption Process Model.

Isolation is a common phenomenon during the COVID-19 global pandemic, impacting people's physical and mental health worldwide. 1 2 Based on a rapid systematic review, Loades et al 3 concluded...

Objectives: Evaluate the effects of increased ambient temperatures among outdoor workers on physiological heat stress through continuous monitoring of heart rate variability. Methods: A digital smartphone health promotion application was deployed to engage and educate construction workers about stress and other risk reduction; to determine body mass index; and to measure the impact of elevated temperatures on physiological stress measured by tracking continuous non-exertional heart rate variability using a wearable device over 24 hours. Results: Post-program self-rating of health status improved among 56% of participants. A linear relationship was observed between external ambient temperature and physiological stress. Healthy weight people demonstrated less dynamic HRV change and stress with rising temperature compared to those obese/overweight. Physiological stress levels peaked during the hottest hours of the day, with high BMI workers having the greatest increases in stress. Conclusions: Physiological heat stress is impacting outdoor workers in the construction industry, with greater severity observed as BMI increases. Framing climate change as an occupational health issue will help employers understand and mitigate the negative impact of a changing climate on outdoor workers. Use of personal mobile digital technology enables employers to effectively monitor and target physiological heat stress and mental stress among at-risk employees.