Summary of observational studies of associations between work factors and ill health: health care workers in developed countries beyond the UK
| Study | Country | Design | Participants | Response rate | Work factors | Outcomes | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenault et al, 199118 | Canada | Cross sectional | 760 hospital workers | Not reported | Professional latitude, clinical demands, workload problems, role difficulties | Mental strain including depression (Cobb) and anxiety (STAI) | Low professional latitude (F=12.7, p<0.001) and high workload problems (F=4.5, p<0.04) and role difficulties (F=31.6, p<0.001) associated with mental strain |
| Brooke and Price, 198919 | USA | Cross sectional | 425 hospital workers | 74% | Routinisation, centralisation, pay, reward policy, role ambiguity, conflict, overload, organisational tolerance of absenteeism | Absenteeism | High role ambiguity and tolerance of absenteeism, low pay and low centralisation predicted absenteeism (structural coefficients 0.21, p<0.001; 0.27, p<0.001; −0.11, p<0.05; −0.19, p<0.02, respectively) |
| Estryn-Behar et al, 199020 | France | Cross sectional | 1505 female hospital workers | 90% | Mental load, insufficient training, time pressure | Psychological distress (GHQ-12) | Mental load and time pressure associated with psychological distress (ORs 2.9 and 2.2) |
| Gray-Toft and Anderson, 198521 | USA | Experimental | 159 nurses | Not reported | Open, supportive supervisory style | Absenteeism | Open supportive supervisory style associated with lower absenteeism (relevant statistics not presented) |
| Johnson et al, 199522 | USA | Longitudinal | 581 doctors | 86% | Job demands, work control, social support | Psychological distress (GHQ-20) | Work control and social support negatively associated with psychological distress (B=−0.44, p=0.05 and B=−0.46, p=0.05) |
| Landeweerd and Boumans, 199423 | Netherlands | Cross sectional | 561 nurses | 96% | Work pressure, job complexity, feedback, autonomy, promotion/training | Absence frequency | Work pressures associated with absence frequency (B=0.12) and promotion/training negatively associated (B=−0.12) |
| Marshall & Barnett, 199224 | USA | Cross sectional | 362 female nurses and social workers | Not reported | Work related support, job overload | Psychological distress (SCL-90-R) and emotional well-being (Rand Corporation) | Co-worker support associated with emotional wellbeing (B=−0.20, p<0.01) |
| Martin, 198425 | USA | Cross sectional | 95 and 140 hospital workers | 63% and 70% | Work overload and ambiguity, participation in decision making | Psychological distress (GHQ-12) | Work factors associated with distress (canonical correlations=0.53 and 0.41, p<0.001) |
| Petterson et al, 199526 | Sweden | Cross sectional | 2568 nurses | 76% | Job influence | Emotional exhaustion (MBI) | Job influence negatively associated with emotional exhaustion (p<0.001) |
| Pisarski et al, 199827 | Australia | Cross sectional | 172 nurses, aged 21–40 years | Not reported | Social support | Psychological distress (GHQ-12) | Co-worker social support directly associated with distress and mediates association with supervisor social support (path coefficients <0.001) |
| Revicki and May, 198928 | USA | Cross sectional | 232 nurses | 77% | Organisational climate, supervisor behaviour, role ambiguity, social support | Depression (Rand corporation) | The association of organisational climate and role ambiguity with depression is mediated by stress |