Exploring the mediation role of employees’ well-being in the relationship between psychosocial factors and musculoskeletal pain during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has increased some psychosocial risks which may aggravate the development of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and reduced psychological well-being, two leading global occupational health problems. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate whether an employee’s psychological well-being mediates the relationship between the psychosocial factors (job strain, work-life balance, and job security) and the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in the Indonesian general working population during the pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was employed using an online questionnaire. A total of 406 from 465 respondents were included in the final analysis. RESULTS: It was found that 73.9% of respondents suffered from upper body part pain, 25.15% from low back pain, and 39.7% reported pain in the lower limb. Process Macro Model 4 analysis showed the significant role of well-being as a mediator in the association between work-life balance and the odds of experiencing the upper body and low back pains. However, neither the direct nor mediating effect on the relationship between job strain or job security and any musculoskeletal pains were observed. These findings suggest that specific psychosocial factors may be more relevant to be investigated in the particular context. CONCLUSION: The use of a mediation model was able to link work-life balance to musculoskeletal complaints through well-being states in the context of the pandemic. Organizations need to mitigate poor well-being triggered by psychosocial stressors which could affect physical complaints to maintain employee’s health and productivity.

Perceived Physical Discomfort and Its Associations With Home Office Characteristics During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The present study did not consider other factors, such as psychosocial, psychological, and organizational, that may have influenced the perception of pain/discomfort experienced by the teleworkers. These nonphysical risk factors are known to play a role in the development of musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., Bongers et al, 1993 ; Carayon et al, 1999 ; Graveling et al, 2021 ), and some factors may be more relevant than others, as reported by Sutarto et al (2022) . However, their analysis and complex relationship with physical factors and subjective outcomes ( Graveling et al, 2021 ; Sutarto et al, 2022 ), which are mediated by multiple mechanisms (biomechanical, neurological, physiological, and neuroendocrine), was beyond the scope of this study.…”

“…These nonphysical risk factors are known to play a role in the development of musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., Bongers et al, 1993 ; Carayon et al, 1999 ; Graveling et al, 2021 ), and some factors may be more relevant than others, as reported by Sutarto et al (2022) . However, their analysis and complex relationship with physical factors and subjective outcomes ( Graveling et al, 2021 ; Sutarto et al, 2022 ), which are mediated by multiple mechanisms (biomechanical, neurological, physiological, and neuroendocrine), was beyond the scope of this study. Such endeavor would have required additional questionnaires and thus reduced the number and quality of responses.…”

Subjective well‐being, COVID‐19 and financial strain following job loss: stretching the role of human resource management to focus on human sustainability beyond the workplace

“…Consistent with recent literature that highlights the potential of HRM to address unemployment issues, our focus in this article is to highlight the short-and long-term consequences of job loss resulting from COVID-19 for financial strain and the negative impacts of financial strain on both short-and long-term subjective well-being. What clearly emerges from the literature is that COVID-19 has had a major impact on employee psychological health and well-being (Schwab et al 2022;Sutarto, Wijayanto and Afiah 2022). According to the APAs COVID-19 Practitioner Impact Survey (2022), psychological well-being is one of the major outcomes of the pandemic leading to early retirement, the great resignation, decreased mental well-being, reduced ability to engage with the workforce post-pandemic and a significant mental health crisis.…”

“…What clearly emerges from the literature is that COVID‐19 has had a major impact on employee psychological health and well‐being (Schwab et al. 2022; Sutarto, Wijayanto and Afiah 2022). According to the APAs COVID‐19 Practitioner Impact Survey (2022), psychological well‐being is one of the major outcomes of the pandemic leading to early retirement, the great resignation, decreased mental well‐being, reduced ability to engage with the workforce post‐pandemic and a significant mental health crisis.…”

Demystifying work-related outcomes and life satisfaction of Bangladeshi working women during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Because of COVID-19, several firms have offered their employees to perform their duties from home during the lockdown period (Sutarto, Wijayanto, & Afiah, 2021), and Bangladeshi enterprises do not differ (Ahmed & Islam, 2022). Work-from-home and remote working were identified as significant actors of WLB under the "new normal" condition and were also recognized as important for women's work-life balance (Uddin, 2021).…”