ObjectivesTo provide systematically evaluated evidence of prospective associations between exposure to physical, psychological and gender-based violence and health among healthcare, social care and education workers.MethodsThe guidelines on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses were followed. Medline, Cinahl, Web of Science and PsycInfo were searched for population: human service workers; exposure: workplace violence; and study type: prospective or longitudinal in articles published 1990–August 2019. Quality assessment was performed based on a modified version of the Cochrane’s ‘Tool to Assess Risk of Bias in Cohort Studies’.ResultsAfter deduplication, 3566 studies remained, of which 132 articles were selected for full-text screening and 28 were included in the systematic review. A majority of the studies focused on healthcare personnel, were from the Nordic countries and were assessed to have medium quality. Nine of 11 associations between physical violence and poor mental health were statistically significant, and 3 of 4 associations between physical violence and sickness absence. Ten of 13 associations between psychological violence and poor mental health were statistically significant and 6 of 6 associations between psychological violence and sickness absence. The only study on gender-based violence and health reported a statistically non-significant association.ConclusionThere is consistent evidence mainly in medium quality studies of prospective associations between psychological violence and poor mental health and sickness absence, and between physical violence and poor mental health in human service workers. More research using objective outcomes, improved exposure assessment and that focus on gender-based violence is needed.

We found a high prevalence of HIV among injecting drug users (IDU) 54% in Tallinn and 90% in Kohtla Jarve, Estonia. Risk factors for HIV in Tallinn included use of the drug 'china white', being registered as an IDU at a drug treatment clinic, and sharing injecting equipment with sex partners. Differences existed in risk behaviour between the cities. An urgent scale-up of HIV prevention is needed. It is also important to explore how local 'risk environments' mediate the risk of HIV transmission.

The results of this present study show beneficial effects on sleep and stress due to a worktime reduction of 25% for full-time workers, including increased sleep duration during workdays. The paper may contribute to unresolved questions about the possible positive effects of implementing 6-hour workdays on employee's long-term health and work performance.

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A continuing HIV epidemic among new injectors is of critical public health concern. Interventions to prevent initiation into injecting drug use and scaling up HIV prevention programs for IDUs in Estonia are of utmost importance.

Depression and musculoskeletal pain are associated, but long-term follow-up studies are rare. We aimed to examine the relationship of early depressive symptoms with developmental patterns of musculoskeletal pain from adolescence to middle age. Adolescents ending compulsory school (age 16) in Luleå, Northern Sweden, in 1981 (n = 1083) were studied and followed up in 1986, 1995, and 2008 (age 43) for musculoskeletal pain. Attrition was very low. Indicators for any and severe pain were based on pain in the neck-shoulders, low back, and the extremities. Latent class growth analyses were performed on 563 men and 503 women. Associations of a depressive symptoms score (DSS, range 0.0-2.0) at age 16 with pain trajectory membership were assessed by logistic and multinomial regression, adjusting for parental socioeconomic status, social adversities, smoking, exercise, body mass index, and alcohol consumption at age 16. For any pain, 3 trajectories emerged: high-stable (women 71%, men 61%), moderate (11%, 17%), and low-increasing (18%, 22%). With the low-increasing trajectory as reference, for each 0.1-point increase in the DSS, the odds ratio of belonging to the high-stable trajectory was 1.25 (95% confidence interval 1.11-1.41) in women and 1.23 (1.10-1.37) in men. For severe pain, 2 trajectories were found: moderate-increasing (women 19%, men 9%) and low-stable. For each 0.1-point increase in the DSS, the odds ratio of membership in the moderate-increasing trajectory was 1.14 (1.04-1.25) in women and 1.17 (1.04-1.31) in men in the fully adjusted model. Thus, depressive symptoms at baseline are strongly associated with pain trajectory membership.

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PurposeSleep disturbance is common in the working population, often associated with work stress, health complaints and impaired work performance. This study evaluated a group intervention at work, based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia, and the moderating effects of burnout scores at baseline.MethodsThis is a randomized controlled intervention with a waiting list control group. Participants were employees working at least 75% of full time, reporting self-perceived regular sleep problems. Data were collected at baseline, post-intervention and at a 3-month follow-up through diaries, wrist-actigraphy and questionnaires including the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (SMBQ). Fifty-one participants (63% women) completed data collections.ResultsA multilevel mixed model showed no significant differences between groups for sleep over time, while there was a significant effect on insomnia symptoms when excluding participants working shifts (N = 11) from the analysis (p = 0.044). Moreover, a moderating effect of baseline-levels of burnout scores was observed on insomnia symptoms (p = 0.009). A post-hoc analysis showed that individuals in the intervention group with low burnout scores at baseline (SMBQ < 3.75) displayed significantly reduced ISI scores at follow-up, compared to individuals with high burnout scores at baseline (p = 0.005).ConclusionsGroup CBT for insomnia given at the workplace did not reduce sleep problems looking at the group as a whole, while it was indicated that the intervention reduced insomnia in employees with regular daytime work. The results also suggest that workplace-based group CBT may improve sleep in employees with primary insomnia if not concomitant with high burnout scores.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00420-018-1291-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.