ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of employee worktime control on health: a prospective cohort study

L Ala-Mursula¹, J Vahtera², J Pentti², M Kivimäki²

¹ Development and Service Centre of Occupational Health, City of Oulu, Finland; Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Finland
² Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr L Ala-Mursula
Researcher, Development and Service Centre of Occupational Health, PO Box 36, FIN-90015 City of Oulu, Finland; Leena.Ala-Mursula{at}oulu.fi

Aims: To investigate the health effects of employee worktime control.

Methods: Prospective cohort study among 4218 permanent full time municipal employees linking questionnaire data from 1997 and 2000 with sickness absence records from 1997 and 2001. Worktime control was considered high for the highest tertile in both 1997 and 2000, low for the lowest tertile for both years, and intermediate for all other combinations. Self rated health status, psychological distress, and medically certified periods of sickness absence were used as the health outcomes. Adjustments were made for age, baseline health status, occupational status, marital status, dependent children, and behavioural health risks.

Results: In the follow up, women with a low level of worktime control had a 1.9 times (95% CI 1.4 to 2.5) higher odds ratio for poor self rated health, a 1.4 times (95% CI 1.1 to 1.8) higher odds ratio for psychological distress, and a 1.5 times (95% CI 1.3 to 1.7) higher risk of medically certified sickness absences than women with a high level of worktime control. The health effects of worktime control were particularly evident among women with families. Among men, worktime control was not associated with self rated health or distress, but it predicted sickness absences in two subgroups: those with dependent children and those with manual occupations.

Conclusions: A low level of worktime control increases the risk of future health problems. The risk is highest among women, especially those with families, and among manual workers. The results suggest that worktime control can help workers integrate their work and private lives successfully.

Keywords: working times; autonomy; gender; sickness absence; self rated health

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Floderus, B, Hagman, M, Aronsson, G, Marklund, S, Wikman, A (2009). Work status, work hours and health in women with and without children. Occup. Environ. Med. 66: 704-710 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Netterstrom, B., Conrad, N., Bech, P., Fink, P., Olsen, O., Rugulies, R., Stansfeld, S. (2008). The Relation between Work-related Psychosocial Factors and the Development of Depression. Epidemiol Rev 30: 118-132 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ala-Mursula, L, Vahtera, J, Kouvonen, A, Vaananen, A, Linna, A, Pentti, J, Kivimaki, M (2006). Long hours in paid and domestic work and subsequent sickness absence: does control over daily working hours matter?. Occup. Environ. Med. 63: 608-616 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ala-Mursula, L., Vahtera, J., Linna, A., Pentti, J., Kivimaki, M. (2005). Employee worktime control moderates the effects of job strain and effort-reward imbalance on sickness absence: the 10-town study. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 59: 851-857 [Abstract] [Full Text]