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  • Are changes in objective working hour characteristics associated with changes in work-life conflict among hospital employees working shifts? A 7-year follow-up

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Original article
Are changes in objective working hour characteristics associated with changes in work-life conflict among hospital employees working shifts? A 7-year follow-up
  1. Kati Karhula1,
  2. Aki Koskinen1,
  3. Anneli Ojajärvi1,
  4. Annina Ropponen1,
  5. Sampsa Puttonen1,
  6. Mika Kivimäki1,2,3,
  7. Mikko Härmä1
  1. 1Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland
  2. 2Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  3. 3Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kati Karhula, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki 00250, Finland; kati.karhula{at}ttl.fi

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether changes in objective working hour characteristics are associated with parallel changes in work-life conflict (WLC) among hospital employees.

Methods Survey responses from three waves of the Finnish Public Sector study (2008, 2012 and 2015) were combined with payroll data from 91 days preceding the surveys (n=2 482, 93% women). Time-dependent fixed effects regression models adjusted for marital status, number of children and stressfulness of the life situation were used to investigate whether changes in working hour characteristics were associated with parallel change in WLC. The working hour characteristics were dichotomised with cut-points in less than or greater than 10% or less than or greater than25% occurrence) and WLC to frequent versus seldom/none.

Results Change in proportion of evening and night shifts and weekend work was significantly associated with parallel change in WLC (adjusted OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.96; OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.44; OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.194 to 2.22, respectively). Similarly, increase or decrease in proportion of quick returns (adjusted OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.89) and long work weeks (adjusted OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.52) was associated with parallel increase or decrease in WLC. Single days off and very long work weeks showed no association with WLC.

Conclusions Changes in unsocial working hour characteristics, especially in connection with evening shifts, are consistently associated with parallel changes in WLC.

  • work-life balance
  • work-family conflict
  • shift work
  • payroll data
  • health care professional

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2017-104785

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All the authors have participated in designing of the study and writing the manuscript. Statistical analyses were conducted by KK, AK and AO. We are in agreement with the content of the manuscript and with the order of authorship.

    • Funding This study was funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund (114 317) and NordForsk, the Nordic Program on Health and Welfare (74809). MK is supported by a professorial fellowship from the Economic and Social Research Council, UK and NordForsk (75021).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval The ethics committee of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) approved this study as part of the Finnish Public Sector study ethical approval (HUS 1210/2016).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.