Monitoring Work Ability Index During a Two-Year Period Among Portuguese Municipality Workers

Abstract

In Portugal, little is known about the work ability profiles of municipal workers and their changes during working life. In order to characterize and understand the changes in work ability among municipal workers, a prospective study was designed to begin in 2015 in the municipality of Sintra, in the surroundings of Lisbon, and to collect data every two years. The present paper aims at characterizing the changes in the work ability of those workers between 2015 and 2017 and to identify the main predictors. Data collection was based on a questionnaire that encompassed socio-demographic data, the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire II (COPSOQ II), the Nordic questionnaire adapted, and the Work Ability Index (WAI). In this two-year period, the work ability of municipal workers decreased and the main predictive factors were age, lower-back pain, negative health perception, the presence of burnout, and making manual efforts. Still, there were factors that act as positive predictors of an excellent work ability, such as having training in the previous two years, a good sense of community at work, and a favorable meaning of work. In summary, the intervention strategies in the work field should take into consideration the main predictors of work ability that are relevant for each organization.

Aging and the Future of Decent Work

“…Nevertheless, there are organizational factors that support the maintenance of work ability over time. For instance, offering the ability to adjust working time and take training to improve individual skills and knowledge, having a good sense of community and support at work, and providing meaningful work are positive predictors of a good or excellent work ability [14,45,46]. In terms of workforce aging, one of the major challenges for the future of work concerns the unpredictability of changes in the nature of work that will likely make some individual competencies antiquated in the long run [14], which in turn may increase job insecurity and influence the maintenance of good or excellent work ability.…”

The Portuguese Third Version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire: Preliminary Validation Studies of the Middle Version among Municipal and Healthcare Workers

“…It means that companies need accurate and updated information to support their decisions, as well as usable tools to assess the psychosocial factors. COPSOQ II has played an important role in the assessment of psychosocial factors all over the world [5,6,8,9], especially in Portugal [12,13,19], with a wide use in academic studies [14,15] and in business environments [19]. With the emergence of COPSOQ III, which includes fundamental dimensions for the psychosocial reality at work, it became essential to validate the Portuguese middle version.…”

“…In Portugal, the validation of COPSOQ II started in 2006 [12], and it has been used ever since in several national studies, for intervention purposes, in a variety of occupations and in workplaces. This past project included the validation of the COPSOQ II middle version [12,13] used in research [14][15][16] and by enterprises in Portugal. The Portuguese middle version comprised nine domains (demands at work, work organization and job contents, interpersonal relations and leadership, work-individual interface, values in the workplace, personality, health and well-being, and offensive behaviors), 29 dimensions (also called scales), and 76 items [12,13].…”

Health-related quality of life and work ability of smallholder rice farm workers in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, Philippines

“…These are factors that should be increased in the future because they act as positive predictors of strong work ability, such as having job training in the previous two years, a good sense of community at work, and a favorable work ethic. 38 The people with indications for being subject to targeted preventative actions are those with moderateto-low WAI, which constitute greater than one-third of the sample. In terms of different lines of business, the fastest decline in work ability was typical for health care.…”