Job Strain as a Risk Factor for Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity: An Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis of Up to 170,000 Men and Women: The IPD-Work Consortium

Fransson, Eleonor I.; Heikkilä, Katriina; Nyberg, Solja T.; Zins, Marie; Westerlund, Hugo; Westerholm, Peter; Väänänen, Ari; Virtanen, Marianna; Vahtera, Jussi; Theorell, Töres; Suominen, Sakari; Singh‐Manoux, Archana; Siegrist, Johannes; Sabia, Séverine; Rugulies, Reiner; Pentti, Jaana; Oksanen, Tuula; Nordin, Maria; Nielsen, Martin L.; Marmot, Michael; Hanson, Linda L. Magnusson; Madsen, Ida E. H.; Lunau, Thorsten; Leineweber, Constanze; Kumari, Meena; Kouvonen, Anne; Koskinen, Aki; Koskenvuo, Markku; Knutsson, Anders; Jöckel, Karl-Heinze; Joensuu, Matti; Houtman, I.L.D.; Hooftman, W.; Goldberg, Marcel; Geuskens, G.; Ferrie, Jane E.; Erbel, Raimund; Dragano, Nico; Bacquer, Dirk De; Clays, Els; Casini, Annalisa; Burr, Hermann; Borritz, Marianne; Bonenfant, Sébastien; Bjørner, Jakob Bue; Alfredsson, Lars; Hamer, Mark; Batty, G. David; Kivimäki, Mika

doi:10.1093/aje/kws336

Cited by 217 publications

(211 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Such work designs are associated with, for example: better physical well-being, including physical fitness (Fransson et al, 2012), lower hypertension (Babu et al, 2014), fewer headaches/ gastrointestinal problems (Nixon, Mazzola, Bauer, Krueger, & Spector, 2011) and lowered incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (Eijckelhof et al, 2013); higher mental health and psychological well-being (Luchman & González-Morales, 2013); more positive job attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Humphrey et al, 2007); better job performance (Humphrey et al, 2007); and higher levels of innovation (Hammond, Neff, Farr, Schwall, & Zhao, 2011). Studies also show positive effects at higher levels in the organization, such as group work design enhancing team effectiveness (Campion, Papper, & Medsker, 1996;Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009) and team innovation (Hülsheger, Anderson, & Salgado, 2009).…”

Section: Mainstream Research: How Work Design Affects Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs

Parker

Broeck

Holman

2017

ANNALS

143

152

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High quality work design is a key determinant of employee well-being, positive work attitudes, and job/organizational performance. Yet many job incumbents continue to experience deskilled and demotivating work. We argue that there is a need to understand better where work designs come from. We review research that investigates the factors that influence work design, noting that this research is only a small fragment of the work design literature. The research base is also rather disparate, spanning distinct theoretical perspectives according to the level of analysis. To help integrate this literature, we use a framework that summarizes the direct and indirect ways in which work design is shaped by the higher-level external context (global/ international, national and occupational factors), the organizational context, the local work context (work group factors), and individual factors. We highlight two key indirect effects: first, factors affect formal decisionmaking processes via influencing managers' work design-related motivation, knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), and opportunities; and second, factors shape informal and emergent work design processes via influencing employees' work design-related motivation, KSAs and opportunities. By reviewing the literature according to this framework, we set the stage for more comprehensive theoretical development and empirical studies on the factors that influence work design. 3Work Design Influences A Synthesis of Multi-Level Factors that Affect The Design of WorkWork design refers to "the content and organization of one's work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities" (Parker, 2014, p. 662). When work is designed so that it has motivating characteristics like job autonomy and social support, as well as reasonable levels of job demands, multiple positive individual and organizational outcomes arise. A vast amount of research shows that work design affects work stress, job satisfaction, performance, absenteeism, accidents, team innovation, company financial revenue, and more (e.g. see the meta analysis by Humphrey, Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007).Yet, despite extensive evidence about the benefits of well-designed work, there are still many poorly designed jobs in both advanced and developing economies. For example, in Europe, Lorenz and Valeyre (2005) reported that one third of workers had jobs that were deskilled or that involved excessive demands. Significant technological and societal change is also affecting work and organizing, yet we know little about how this change might affect people's work design (Parker, 2014). Both of these forces -the continued prevalence of poor quality work designs and the vast change occurring in work -highlight the importance of having a comprehensive, evidence-based understanding of the forces that affect work design.Such an understanding is currently lacking. In most theory and research pertaining to the design of jobs, work design is modeled at the start of a causal chain leading to outcomes via intermediary pr...

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Section: Mainstream Research: How Work Design Affects Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs

Parker

Broeck

Holman

2017

ANNALS

143

152

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Predefined, harmonized measures were used to assess job strain (yes v. no) and 4 life style risk factors at baseline: current smoking (yes v. no), 19 physical inactivity (yes v. no), 20 heavy drinking (≥ 21 and ≥ 28 units of alcohol per wk for women and men, respectively), 21 and obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30). 22 A detailed description of these measures, including their validation and harmonization, has been published previously.…”

Section: Measurement Of Job Strain and Lifestyle Risk Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations of job strain and lifestyle risk factors with risk of coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis of individual participant data

Kivimäki

Nyberg

Fransson³

et al. 2013

CMAJ

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Background: It is unclear whether a healthy lifestyle mitigates the adverse effects of job strain on coronary artery disease. We examined the associations of job strain and lifestyle risk factors with the risk of coronary artery disease. Methods: We pooled individual-level data from 7 cohort studies comprising 102 128 men and women who were free of existing coronary artery disease at baseline (1985-2000). Questionnaires were used to measure job strain (yes v. no) and 4 lifestyle risk factors: current smoking, physical inactivity, heavy drinking and obesity. We grouped participants into 3 lifestyle categories: healthy (no lifestyle risk factors), moderately unhealthy (1 risk factor) and unhealthy (2-4 risk factors). The primary outcome was incident coronary artery disease (defined as first nonfatal myocardial infarction or cardiac-related death). Results: There were 1086 incident events in 743 948 person-years at risk during a mean follow-up of 7.3 years. The risk of coronary artery disease among people who had an unhealthy lifestyle compared with those who had a healthy lifestyle (hazard ratio [HR] 2.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.18-2.98; population attributable risk 26.4%) was higher than the risk among participants who had job strain compared with those who had no job strain (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.06-1.47; population attributable risk 3.8%). The 10-year incidence of coronary artery disease among participants with job strain and a healthy lifestyle (14.7 per 1000) was 53% lower than the incidence among those with job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle (31.2 per 1000). Interpretation: The risk of coronary artery disease was highest among participants who reported job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle; those with job strain and a healthy lifestyle had half the rate of disease. A healthy life style may substantially reduce disease risk among people with job strain

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“…We found that those experiencing job strain were more likely to become physically inactive as assessed via questions on leisure time activity, compared to those free of job strain (22). Using cross-sectional data, we also found a link between job strain and obesity, however, in longitudinal analyses a temporal sequence from job strain to obesity was not confirmed (20).…”

Section: What Is the Par Of Job Strain For Chd?mentioning

confidence: 55%

IPD-Work consortium: pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data strengthen evidence base for a link between psychosocial factors and health

Kivimäki¹,

Singh‐Manoux²,

Virtanen³

et al. 2015

Scand J Work Environ Health

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Established in 2008 and comprising over 60 researchers, the IPD-Work (individual-participant data metaanalysis in working populations) consortium is a collaborative research project that uses pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data from multiple cohort studies representing a range of countries. The aim of the consortium is to estimate reliably the associations of work-related psychosocial factors with chronic diseases, disability, and mortality. Our findings are highly cited by the occupational health, epidemiology, and clinical medicine research community. However, some of the IPD-Work's findings have also generated disagreement as they challenge the importance of job strain as a major target for coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention, this is reflected in the critical discussion paper by Choi et al (1).In this invited reply to Choi et al, we aim to (i) describe how IPD-Work seeks to advance research on associations between work-related psychosocial risk factors and health; (ii) demonstrate as unfounded Choi et al's assertion that IPD-Work has underestimated associations between job strain and health endpoints; these include the dichotomous measurement of job strain, potential underestimation of the population attributable risk (PAR) of job strain for CHD, and policy implications arising from the findings of the IPD-Work consortium; and (iii) outline general principles for designing evidence-based policy and prevention from good-quality evidence, including future directions for research on psychosocial factors at work and health. In addition, we highlight some problems with Choi et al's approach. What is the IPD-Work consortium?The IPD-Work consortium was established at a meeting of principal investigators and researchers working on European occupational cohort studies in London in 2008. In 2010, we obtained funding from the European Union (new OSH-ERA research program) to cover core activities, harmonization of the data across studies, and statistical analysis. Originally, 17 independent cohort studies from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK were included (2). This number currently stands at 26 studies, including those from the United States and Australia.Our motivation for establishing the consortium was to advance research on work-related psychosocial factors and health. The most widely studied of these, "job strain", dates back to 1979 (3). The original hypothesis posits that a combination of high psychological demands at work and low job control (ie, job strain) increases the risk of health problems of public health importance, such as CHD (4). Although the concept was well received by both stress researchers and occupational health specialists, for decades, unresolved debates have hampered interpretation of results and research progress. These include the magnitude of the association, the relative importance of high psychological demands versus low job control (whether one is more toxic than the other), and differences in effect by age and sex...

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Job Strain as a Risk Factor for Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity: An Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis of Up to 170,000 Men and Women: The IPD-Work Consortium

Cited by 217 publications

References 49 publications

Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs

Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs

Associations of job strain and lifestyle risk factors with risk of coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis of individual participant data

IPD-Work consortium: pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data strengthen evidence base for a link between psychosocial factors and health

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