The Gutenberg Health Study: measuring psychosocial factors at work and predicting health and work-related outcomes with the ERI and the COPSOQ questionnaire

Abstract

BackgroundSeveral instruments have been developed to assess psychosocial workload. We compared two of these instruments, the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model and the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) with regard to congruent validity and internal validity.MethodsThis analysis is based on a population-based sample of the baseline examination of 2,783 employees from the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS). About half of the participants completed the ERI questionnaire (n = 1,342), the other half completed the COPSOQ (n = 1,441). First, the two samples were compared and descriptive analyses were carried out calculating mean values for both instruments in general, then separately for age, gender and main occupational groups. Second, we analyzed the relationship between ERI and COPSOQ scales on the workplace situation and on the workplace outcomes: job satisfaction, general health, burnout, satisfaction with life, by applying stepwise logistic regression analysis.Results and discussionFor the majority of occupations, high effort as reflected by the ERI corresponded with high demands as reflected by the COPSOQ. Comparably, high reward (according to ERI) yielded a good agreement with high “influence and development” (according to COPSOQ). However, we could also find differences between ERI and COPSOQ concerning the intensity of psychosocial workload in some occupations (e.g., physicians/pharmacists or warehouse managers/warehousemen/transport workers). These differences point to differing theoretical concepts of ERI and COPSOQ. When the ability of ERI and COPSOQ was examined to determine the associations with health and work outcomes, burnout could be better predicted by the COPSOQ; this might be due to the fact that COPSOQ comprises the constructs “work-privacy conflict” and “emotional demand”, which are closely related to burnout. However, methodological differences between these instruments limit their direct comparability.ConclusionsThe ERI and COPSOQ instrument yielded similar results for most occupational groups. The slightly stronger association between psychosocial workload as assessed by COPSOQ and burnout might be explained by its broader approach. The ability of the ERI and COPSOQ instrument to reflect relevant risk factors for clinically manifest disorders (e.g., coronary heart disease) will be derived from subsequent prospective analyses of the GHS with the follow-up data.

Relationships of work-related psychosocial risks, stress, individual factors and burnout – Questionnaire survey among emergency physicians and nurses

“…The high sense of insecurity at work is present especially in the group of nurses; prominent meaning of work is dominantly recognized by physicians, confirming that the current problems in the health care in Serbia result from unsatisfactory economic and staff [14] because it may increase the job and life satisfaction and the work ability. However, in our study the above mentioned conditions, characteristic of the area, time of research and lack of employment possibilities, the high meaning of work may be a risk factor related to occupational stress and it may affect mental and physical health of the EMS staff and their quality of life [4].…”

“…For all participants involved in the research a questionnaire survey was put together to contain general data, Serbian translations of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) [2,[14][15][16] about psychosocial factors at work, health and well-being and inventory about burnout according to the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) [13].…”

“…The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire is a tool developed by the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, internationally renowned, oriented to evaluation of psychosocial risks at work, that is considered as a standardized instrument for prevention purposes [14,15]. The COPSOQ is theory-based on a set of stress theories more widely nowadays, but not attached to one specific theory.…”

Prevalence and Determinants of Job Stress in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

“…This concurs with the notion that before exhaustion from chronic stress and "burnout" as well as depression sets in, workers are often trying to cope with increasing job demands through greater work engagement, thereby inevitably running the risk of depleting their energy resources further downstream. 27 Such dynamics could also help to explain why patients with higher OC had more absence at the workplace. They may have ended up with depleted energy levels, ultimately leaving them unable to function in their job.…”

“…[26][27][28] A high overcommitment (OC) score and a high ERI score are associated with depression [29][30][31] and anxiety, 32 which both can influence negatively the course of IBD as delineated above.…”