Psychosocial Work Characteristics Predicting Daytime Sleepiness in Day and Shift Workers

Abstract

Characteristics of work organization other than working time arrangements may contribute importantly to daytime sleepiness. The present study was designed to identify the psychosocial factors at work that predict daytime sleepiness in a sample of day and shift workers. Participants working at a pulp and chemical factory completed an annual questionnaire regarding psychosocial factors at work using the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Generic Job Stress Questionnaire (i.e., quantitative workload, variance in workload, job control, support from supervisor, coworkers, or family/friends, job satisfaction, and depressive symptoms), as well as daytime sleepiness (through the Epworth Sleepiness Scale [ESS]) and sleep disturbances for three years starting in 2002 (response rates, 94.6-99.0%). The present analysis included 55 day workers (11 women) and 57 shift workers (all men) who participated in all three years of the study, worked under the same work schedule throughout the study period, and had no missing data on any of the daytime sleep items. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the effects of work schedule (day vs. shift work) and psychosocial factors at work in 2002 on the ESS scores in subsequent years, with sleep duration, insomnia symptoms, chronic diseases, and sleepiness levels at baseline as covariates. Given significant and near-significant interactions of work schedules with psychosocial factor or study year, the ANCOVA, with the factors of psychosocial work characteristics and study year, was performed by type of work schedule. The results indicated a significant main effect of psychosocial work characteristics (p = 0.010, partial eng2 = 0.14) and an almost significant main effect of study year (p = 0.067, partial eng2 = 0.06) and interaction between psychosocial work characteristics and study year (p = 0.085, partial eng2 = 0.06) for variance in workload among the day work group. The day workers reporting high variance in workload in 2002 exhibited significantly higher ESS scores in 2003 and 2004 than did those reporting low variance in workload. The ANCOVA for the shift work group showed a main effect of psychosocial work characteristics for job satisfaction (p = 0.026, partial eng2 = 0.10) and depressive symptoms (p = 0.094, partial eng2 = 0.06) with the interaction between psychosocial work characteristics and study year for job satisfaction (p = 0.172, partial eng2 = 0.04) and depressive symptoms (p = 0.035, partial eng2 = 0.07). The shift workers with low job satisfaction and high symptoms of depression in 2002 showed significantly greater ESS scores in 2003 and/or 2004 than did those with opposite characteristics. These results may suggest a potential predictive value of variance in workload for day workers as well as job satisfaction and depressive symptoms for shift workers with respect to daytime sleepiness. The present findings may imply that redesigning these aspects of work environment would be of help in managing daytime sleepiness.

Correlates to Sleepiness on Night Shift among Male Workers Engaged in Three-shift Work in a Chemical Plant: Its Association with Sleep Practice and Job Stress

“…Since these variables exhibited a moderately positive correlation with one another (r=0.31 to 0.66, data not shown), they should be discussed together. The above associations with SNS confirm the previous findings among day workers 17,[26][27][28][29][30][31] , and shift workers [31][32][33] . Job control, reward from work, and suitability to the job were associated with infrequent sleep disturbance ( Table 4).…”

“…Of course, shift systems and related variables such as bedtime can affect their sleep 21,25) . Although many researchers have reported the association of job stress (e.g., work demand, insufficient support from coworkers, and job dissatisfaction) with sleep among day workers 17,[26][27][28][29][30][31] , there are only a few reports on a similar association among shiftworkers [31][32][33] . If an environmental factor affects sleep or SNS among shiftworkers in a work site, their managers should make an effort to change the factor.…”

Differences in Medical Error Risk among Nurses Working Two- and Three-shift Systems at Teaching Hospitals: A Six-month Prospective Study

“…Studies of care workers in nursing homes, currently the subject of much attention in Japan, increasingly demonstrate associations between shift work and worker sleep and musculoskeletal disorders 48,49) , and additional studies with a wide range of health care workers are necessary. Given that the interaction between shift work and psychosocial factors is an important research theme in fields other than health care 50) , a wide range of studies of shift work and worker health in a range if fields is anticipated.…”

Vital Working Hour Schemes: The Dynamic Balance between Various Interests

“…Knowledge about the relationship between the social and physical aspects of work timetables, for instance, is extremely limited, which becomes clear in a number of contributions to these proceedings (Costa et al, 2006;Fisher et al, 2006;Kandelaars et al, 2006;Knauth et al, 2006;Pisarski et al, 2006;Raediker et al, 2006). A large number of papers in this special issue address research on work hours as related to sleeping problems Eriksen et al, 2006;Jay et al, 2006;Kandelaars et al, 2006;Lammers-van der Holst et al, 2006;Lamond et al, 2006;Persson et al, 2006;Petrilli et al, 2006;Ribeiro-Silva et al, 2006;Takahashi et al, 2006;Van Dongen, 2006); however, most articles do not address the influence of such sleeping problems on the employee's functioning in Vital Working Hour Schemes 1101 social and family life (with the exception of Kandelaars et al, 2006). In the same vein, some articles (Axelsson et al, 2006;Costa et al, 2006;Raediker et al, 2006;van Amelsvoort et al, 2006) report about health problems as a consequence of shift work; whereas, most do not discuss the interaction between health and family life (with the exception of Costa et al, 2006, and.…”