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Workplace
Long-term effects of an intervention on psychosocial work factors among healthcare professionals in a hospital setting
  1. Renée Bourbonnais1,
  2. Chantal Brisson1,
  3. Michel Vézina1,2
  1. 1Laval University, Canada
  2. 2National Institute of Public Health, Québec, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Renée Bourbonnais, Rehabilitation Department, Medicine Faculty, Laval University, Québec, Qc G1K 7P4, Canada; renee.bourbonnais{at}rea.ulaval.ca

Abstract

Objective This study assessed the long-term effects of a workplace intervention aimed at reducing adverse psychosocial work factors (psychological demands, decision latitude, social support and effort–reward imbalance) and mental health problems among health care professionals in an acute care hospital.

Methods A quasi-experimental design with a control group was used. Pre-intervention (71% response rate) and 3-year post-intervention measures (60% response rate) were collected by telephone interviews with validated instruments.

Results Three years after the intervention, all adverse psychosocial factors except one were reduced in the experimental group, and the improvement was statistically significant for 5/9 factors: psychological demands, effort–reward imbalance, quality of work, physical load and emotional demands. In addition, all health indicators improved and 2/5 significantly: work-related and personal burnout. In the control hospital, three work factors improved significantly but two deteriorated significantly: decision latitude and social support. All health problem deteriorated, although not significantly, in the control hospital. Moreover, 3 years after the intervention, the mean of all adverse factors except one (psychological demands) and all health indicators was significantly more favourable in the experimental than the control hospital, after adjusting for pre-intervention measures.

Conclusion These results support the long-term effectiveness of the intervention. The reduction in many psychosocial factors in the experimental hospital may have clinical significance since most health indicators also improved in this hospital. These results support the whole process of the intervention given that significant improvements in psychosocial factors and health problems were observed in the experimental hospital but not in the control hospital.

  • Psychosocial work environment
  • primary prevention intervention
  • evaluative research
  • quasi-experimental design
  • longitudinal
  • mental health
  • intervention studies
  • longitudinal studies

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Footnotes

  • Funding This research was funded by the Québec Council for Social Research, the Canadian Council of Humanities Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the provincial Ministry of Health and Social Services and the Québec Regional Board of Health and Social Services. RB was a Research Scholar for the Québec Health Research Fund and CB was a Research Scientist Scholar for the CIHR.

  • Competing interests None.

  • Ethics approval This research was approved by the ethics committee of Laval University and the ethics committee of both the experimental and control hospitals.

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