Working hours, sleep, and fatigue in the public safety sector: A scoping review of the research

Abstract

Background The public safety sector includes law enforcement officers (LEO), corrections officers (CO), firefighter service (FF), wildland firefighting (WFF), and emergency medical services (EMS), as defined in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Across these occupations, shiftwork, long‐duration shifts, and excessive overtime are common. Our objective was to identify research gaps related to working hours, sleep, and fatigue among these workers. Methods We used a scoping review study design that included searches of MEDLINE, Embase, CAB Abstracts, Global Health, PsychInfo, CINAHL, Scopus, Academic Search Complete, Agricultural and Environmental Science Collection, ProQuest Central, Cochrane Library, Safety Lit, Homeland Security Digital Library, and Sociological Abstracts using a range of occupational search terms and terms related to working hours, sleep, and fatigue. Results Out of 3415 articles returned from our database search, 202 met all inclusion criteria. Six common outcomes related to working hours, sleep, and fatigue emerged: sleep, fatigue, work performance, injury, psychosocial stress, and chronic disease. Nearly two‐thirds (59%, n = 120) of the studies were observational, of which 64% (n = 77) were cross sectional and 9% were (n = 11) longitudinal; 14% (n = 30) of the studies were reviews; and 19% (n = 39) were experimental or quasi‐experimental studies. Only 25 of the 202 articles described mitigation strategies or interventions. FFs, LEOs, EMS, and WFFs were the most studied, followed by COs. Conclusions In general, more longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to enrich the knowledge base on the consequences of long working hours, poor sleep, and fatigue in the public safety sector. Few experimental studies have tested novel approaches to fatigue mitigation in diverse sectors of public safety. This gap in research limits the decisions that may be made by employers to address fatigue as a threat to public‐safety worker health and safety.

Do Sleep Quality Can Be the Intervening Factors of Personality Data to Occupational Fatigue?

“…One reason is that it is challenging to prove causation since, of course, long-term and experimental study is required to draw a definitive judgment about it. (Allison et al, 2022).…”

Approaches to managing work‐related fatigue to meet the needs of American workers and employers

“…Work schedule design and workplace culture are identified as priority areas for improvement, with additional considerations for fatigue‐mitigation strategies such as promoting education for workers and employers, reducing fatigued driving, studying individual differences, and developing holistic fatigue risk management systems. Allison et al report that nonstandard schedules are also highly prevalent in public safety occupations such as firefighting (including wildland), emergency medical services, corrections, and law enforcement 27 . However, unlike most other sectors, these occupations are subject to periods of inactivity, interspersed with unpredictable peaks of physical activity and psychological strain during emergency situations which may involve exposure to traumatic incidents.…”

“…Allison et al report that nonstandard schedules are also highly prevalent in public safety occupations such as firefighting (including wildland), emergency medical services, corrections, and law enforcement. 27 In addition to our sector-specific approach, two topic areas (populations at disproportionate risks, and economic evaluation) which cut across all industries were explored. Cunningham et al find that in addition to nonstandard shifts, lack of access to fatigue management resources and socioeconomic barriers may increase the risk for fatiguerelated health and safety concerns among young or new, female or minority workers, those with low levels of education or socioeconomic status, or those employed in small businesses.…”

Working from home and job satisfaction: evidence from Russia

“…Remote work may require employees to be continuously engaged in the work process, thereby increasing their working hours. Since long working hours lead to increased fatigue and lower productivity (Allison et al, 2022), headaches and weight gain (Virtanen et al, 2020), this may have a negative impact on job satisfaction (Hoang and Knabe, 2021). In this regard, this study tests the hypothesis of the impact of working hours on job satisfaction for remote workers (RWRs).…”

“…Remote work may require employees to be continuously engaged in the work process, thereby increasing their working hours. Since long working hours lead to increased fatigue and lower productivity (Allison et al. , 2022), headaches and weight gain (Virtanen et al.…”