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Working at night and work ability among nursing personnel: when precarious employment makes the difference

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Abstract

Purpose

To test the association between night work and work ability, and verify whether the type of contractual employment has any influence over this association.

Methods

Permanent workers (N = 642) and workers with precarious jobs (temporary contract or outsourced; N = 552) were interviewed and filled out questionnaires concerning work hours and work ability index. They were classified into: never worked at night, ex-night workers, currently working up to five nights, and currently working at least six nights/2-week span.

Results

After adjusting for socio-demography and work variables, current night work was significantly associated with inadequate WAI (vs. day work with no experience in night work) only for precarious workers (OR 2.00, CI 1.01–3.95 and OR 1.85, CI 1.09–3.13 for those working up to five nights and those working at least six nights in 2 weeks, respectively).

Conclusions

Unequal opportunities at work and little experience in night work among precarious workers may explain their higher susceptibility to night work.

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Aknowledgments

We are grateful to the Workers’ Health Commission from the studied hospitals for the support. Financial support: CNPq, FAPERJ, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. LR and FMF are Irving Selikoff International Fellows of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine ITREOH Program. Their work was supported in part by grant 1 D43 TW00640 from the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Health and Environment Education, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Av. Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21045-900, Brazil

    Lucia Rotenberg & Rosane Harter Griep

  2. School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Av. Dr. Arnaldo 925, São Paulo, SP, 01246-904, Brazil

    Frida Marina Fischer

  3. School of Public Health, Fiocruz, Av. Leopoldo Bulhões 1480, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21041-210, Brazil

    Maria de Jesus Mendes Fonseca

  4. Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Box 1043, One Gustave Levy Place, NewYork, NY, 10029, USA

    Paul Landsbergis

Authors
  1. Lucia Rotenberg
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  2. Rosane Harter Griep
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  3. Frida Marina Fischer
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  4. Maria de Jesus Mendes Fonseca
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Correspondence to Lucia Rotenberg.

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Rotenberg, L., Griep, R.H., Fischer, F.M. et al. Working at night and work ability among nursing personnel: when precarious employment makes the difference. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 82, 877–885 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0383-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0383-4

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