Health effects of immediate telework introduction during the COVID-19 era in Japan: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Telework has been widely discussed in several fields; however, there is a lack of research on the health aspects of teleworking. The current study was conducted to determine the health effects of teleworking during an emergency statement as evidence for future policy development. Method This was a cross-sectional study in which we administered an online questionnaire to 5,214 general workers (response rate = 36.4%) from June 2020 to August 2020. Based on working methods during the pandemic, workers were categorized into the office group (n = 86) and telework group (n = 1597), and we characterized their demographics, changes in lifestyle, telework status, physical symptoms, and mental health. Results The results showed that the workers’ residence, marital status, management positions, and employee status affected the choice of the work method. During the emergency, teleworkers experienced more changes in their habits than office workers. In terms of exercise habits, 67.0% of the individuals belonging to the office-telework (OT) group exercised less. Approximately half of the teleworkers were satisfied with their telework, and those in the OT group were less satisfied with their telework than those in the telework-telework (TT) group, and they reported an increase in both working hours and meeting hours. Work-family conflict was more pronounced in the TT group than in the two other groups. Only 13.2% of individuals did not experience any stress in the past 30 days, and all three groups showed varying degrees of anxiety and depressive tendencies. In addition, all teleworkers experienced adverse physical symptoms before and after the emergency. Conclusion Health issues associated with teleworking should be given adequate attention.

Telework and Worker Health and Well-Being: A Review and Recommendations for Research and Practice

“…In relation to worker sleep health and hygiene, employees reporting higher levels of flexibility at work also reported a higher number of hours slept on average [ 71 ]. Furthermore, workers transitioning from the office to telework in Japan during a mandated COVID-19 lockdown reported getting more sleep after their transition to home-based telework [ 74 ]. Nonetheless, it is important to note that although there are proper sleep hygiene behaviors that may help workers’ well-being, and sleep duration and quality can also be affected by factors such as chronic health conditions, work schedules, presence of children in the home, and other individual differences [ 75 ].…”

Association between workplace and mental health and its mechanisms during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional, population-based, multi-country study

“…This further limits the generalisation of our research to countries or regions where remote working is not well-accepted, especially for the finding of insignificant association between WFH and worse mental health identified in our study. Fifthly, when evaluating the relationship between workplaces and employee mental health, it is also necessary to be aware of whether the employee experienced remote working before the COVID-19 pandemic ( Niu et al, 2021 ), the type of their work, and the reasons for remote working ( Giménez-Nadal et al, 2019 ; Lunde et al, 2022 ). Mental issues related to the health emergency, such as anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and drugs and alcohol addiction are more likely to affect healthcare workers, migrant workers, and workers in contact with the public ( Giorgi et al, 2020b ).…”

Remote Working and Home Learning: How the Italian Academic Population Dealt with Changes Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

“…Several studies also showed an association between having young children and psychological distress [9,54], which seems stronger among females [31]. Teleworkers were more likely to report distress resulting from work-family conflict and being in confined spaces at home [45].…”

“…Evidence of the effect of telework on well-being remains still inconsistent: some studies described the negative effects of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health outcomes [42], whilst others involving non-academic workers found high teleworking satisfaction [43][44][45].…”