Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Risk of Burnout in Child Care Workers — A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

ObjectivesGerman child care workers' job satisfaction is influenced by the consequences of unfavourable underlying conditions. Child care workers tend to suffer from psychosocial stress, as they feel that their work is undervalued. The objective of the present study is to investigate how the psychosocial factors of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model influence musculoskeletal symptoms (MS) and the risk of burnout. To our knowledge this is the first study investigating the association between the factors of the ERI model and MS in child care workers.Methods and FindingsData from 199 child care workers were examined in a cross-sectional study. Psychosocial factors were recorded with the ERI questionnaire. MS was recorded with the Nordic Questionnaire and risk of burnout with the Personal Burnout scale of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Multivariate analysis was performed using linear and logistic regression models. The response rate was 57%. In most of the sample (65%), an effort-reward imbalance was observed. 56% of the child care workers were at risk of burnout and 58% reported MS. Factors associated with risk of burnout were subjective noise exposure (OR: 4.4, 95%CI: 1.55–12.29) and overcommitment (OR: 3.4; 95%CI: 1.46–7.75). There were statistically significant associations between MS and overcommitment (low back pain—OR: 2.2, 95%CI: 1.04–4.51), low control (overall MS OR: 3.8; 95%CI: 1.68–3.37) and risk of burnout (overall MS OR: 2.3, 95%CI: 1.01–5.28). For ERI no statistically significant associations were found with reference to risk of burnout or MS.ConclusionOvercommitment in child care workers is related to MS and risk of burnout. There is also evidence that low control is associated with MS and subjective noise exposure with risk of burnout. Effort-reward imbalance is not related to either outcome. This occupational health risk assessment identifies changeable working factors in different types of facilities.

Use of moulded hearing protectors by child care workers - an interventional pilot study

“…Objective measurements have found that the peak sound pressure in these institutions is greater than 85 dB(A) [1–5], which confirms the employees’ subjective impression [1, 6, 7]. This noise is mostly caused by the children’s voices and their playing [4].…”

“…The structural causes of the noise exposure and possibly also burnout risk in this group are presumably inadequate numbers of employees, excessively large groups and, especially, too few trained child care workers [7]. These issues have long been discussed by politicians with expertise in employment and could only be modified at another level.…”

“…As part of stress monitoring for child care workers in a multi-site institution for children and adolescents [7], parallel groups of subjects were recruited for an interventional study on reduction in risk of burnout and subjective noise exposure by MHPs. The participation in the study was offered all 400 child care workers in 26 different facilities (Fig.…”

“…Studies have shown that staff report fewer health problems when they work in institutions with closed rooms than in those with large half open or open rooms [8]. In this setting, symptoms associated with noise include headache, exhaustion, burnout, stress, voice problems, hearing difficulties and tinnitus [4, 7–12]. In environments with continuous background noise, small children are even at risk of disturbances in speech development [13].…”

Applications of the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire: A Review

“…Koch et al [231] investigated how psychosocial factors influence MSD, in addition to the risk of burnout among infant caretakers within the German labour system. Siivola et al [221] studied a sample of teenage students to ascertain the way in which neck and shoulder pain is related to cervical alterations found by nuclear magnetic resonance.…”