Job characteristics and the subjective oral health of Australian workers

Abstract : The way in which work is structured and organised is associated with the health and well-being of workers.
Objectives : To examine the associations between hours worked, job security, skill maintenance and work and home interference and subjective oral health; and to compare findings for different occupational groups.
Methods : Data were collected in 1999 from a random stratified sample of households in all Australian States and Territories using a telephone interview and a questionnaire survey. Subjective oral health was evaluated with the short form Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14), which assesses the adverse impact of oral conditions on quality of life.
Results : Data were obtained for 2,347 dentate adults in the workforce. In the 12 months preceding the survey, 51.9% had experienced oral pain and 31.0% reported psychological discomfort from dental problems. Males, young adults, Australian-born workers, and those in upper-white collar occupations reported lower mean OHIP-14 scores (ANOVA p <0.001). Having controlled for the effects sex, age, country of birth and socio-economic factors in a linear multiple regression analysis, hours worked, skill maintenance and work and home interference were significantly associated with OHIP-14 scores for all workers. While part-time work was associated with higher OHIP-14 among upper white-collar workers, working >40 hours a week was associated with higher OHIP-14 scores for other workers.
Conclusions : Aspects of the work environment are associated with the subjective oral health of workers. Because these contexts are subject to only limited control by individual workers, their influence is a public health issue.     

Job satisfaction of health workers

A postal questionnaire was sent to a stratified random sample of 33.6% (556 out of 1655) of health workers representing five occupational groups in the Ratnapura Health Region, Sri Lanka, to discover their intensity of job satisfaction. The overall response rate was 60.3% (335 out of 556), being highest among the nurses (P < 0.01) and lowest among the medical practitioners (P < 0.001). Of the respondents, 70.0% (237 out of 335) were generally satisfied with the occupational environment. For 14.8% (26 out of 175) of the minor employees it was ‘excellent most of the time’ and for 19.6% (11 out of 56) of midwives it was extremely uncongenial. The immediate supervisor was described as ‘fair at all times’ by 50.4% (169 out of 335); being 61.7% (108 out of 175) among the minor employees and 21.4% (8 out of 37) among the nurses. Community relationships were described as ‘satisfactory’ by 46.5% (156 out of 335); this being 26.3% (88 out of 175) among the minor employees and 56.2% (18 out of 32) among the middle technical officers. The fellow workers were described as co-operative by 34.1% (114 out of 335) and as ‘all right’ by 34.9% (117 out of 335). Thirty seven per cent (124 out of 335) declared that their personal problems were not affecting their work and 20% (67 out of 335) gave the reply as ‘absolutely no’. The latter reply was highest among the medical practitioners (28.6% or 10 out of 35) and nurses (27.0% or 10 out of 37) respectively. About the factors affecting work, more medical practitioners (57.1% or 20 out of 35) and nurses (67.6% or 25 out of 37) were concerned about staff shortages; more middle technical officers (40.6% or 13 out of 32) and minor employees (37.7% or 66 out of 175) were worried about inadequate incentives and more midwives (50.0% or 28 out of 56) and minor employees (34.8% or 61 out of 175) were not happy with their poor pay. The health department was described as ‘decidedly the best of all government departments’ by 43.3% (76 out of 175) of the minor employees and as ‘better than most other government departments’ by 56.8% (21 out of 37) of the nurses, while 54.4% (19 out of 35) of the medical practitioners failed to find any differences between the health sector and other government sectors. The majority (62.1%) have expressed job satisfaction. Respondents' views on occupational environment, immediate supervisor, community relationships, personal problems and key factors affecting work performance were very significantly diverse among the difference occupations (P < 0.001).     

乡镇卫生院职工工作满意度及影响因素分析

目的：了解乡镇卫生院职工工作满意度,并分析其主要影响因素,为提高乡镇卫生院服务水平提供参考依据。方法：采用分层抽样的方法,抽取连云港市2个县,对其8家乡镇卫生院的234名医务人员进行问卷调查,并运用因子分析和Logistic回归分析筛选出主要影响因子以及社会学影响因素。结果：回收有效问卷215份,有效应答率为91.9%,总体满意得分为2.51分,影响职工工作满意度的主要因子依次为医院管理及人文制度、工作环境及工作报酬2个;影响职工工作满意度的社会学因素依次为文化程度、行政职务、专业职称。结论：乡镇卫生院应当从完善人文制度、加强基础设施、提高医务人员工资与待遇等方面增强自身的内涵建设,提高职工工作满意度。     

Job stress and mental health of child-counseling office workers

In Japan, consultations concerning child abuse cases are increasing rapidly, and the mental health of child-counseling office workers, who must deal with them, has emerged as an issue. To measure the state of mental health of these workers, and to clarify the characteristics of their job-related stress, we sent a questionnaire to 69 workers of child-counseling offices in Ibaraki Prefecture and obtained responses from 45. (1) Their job environment was characterized as high demand/low control/low reward. (2) The mean score of GHQ-12 of the subjects was 5.9 +/- 3.6, indicating a very poor state of mental health. (3) Stress due to physical and verbal assaults by the parties involved in the cases and the psychological burden of intervention were found to be related to their poor mental health. Along with measures to prevent such assaults, training in intervention techniques, supervision, and care for psychological trauma are needed for child-counseling office workers.     

Job characteristics and blood coagulation factors in Korean male workers

This study examined the possible relationship between Karasek's job strain model and blood coagulation factors VII and VIII as risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Korean male workers. Based on the postulation of the model, we invited 160 male workers (40 people each subgroup) using a stratified sampling from the base population (n = 1071). In univariate analyses, decision latitude was negatively related to blood coagulation factors VII and VIII. Work demand was positively related to coagulation factor VIII, but not to factor VII. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that job strain was associated with blood coagulation factor VIII after controlling for smoking, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol. These results indicate that job characteristics may be related to blood coagulation, and contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease with other classical risk factors.     

Job satisfaction of home health social workers in the environment of cost containment

This national survey examined the job satisfaction of 228 home health social workers in the restrictive reimbursement environment of the Medicare interim payment system. Administrators' helpfulness in resolving ethical conflicts between patient access to services and agency financial priorities contributed significantly to greater satisfaction in regression analysis. Supervisors' helpfulness in resolving the conflict moderated the difficulty of resolving the conflict. The frequency with which workers believed they had to compromise professional ethics contributed significantly to less satisfaction. Implications for practitioners, supervisors, administrators, and educators are discussed.     

Job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover in health care social workers

The findings of two consecutive surveys of job satisfaction and burnout in national samples of health care social workers are presented. Between 1979 and 1989, there were significant increases in the proportion of social workers employed in private versus public agencies, in quantitative workload, and in social workers' perceptions of the challenges presented by their jobs. Role conflict and role ambiguity, lack of comfort, and dissatisfaction with financial rewards emerged as significant predictors of depersonalization and burnout. However, a significant increase in social workers' feelings of personal accomplishment also occurred, and high challenge emerged as a significant predictor of sense of effectiveness.     

Perceived health and its correlation with depression and subjective symptoms of nurses and care workers

The objective of this study was to identify psychological and physical health characteristics of nurses and care workers employed at a psychiatric hospital and to characterize depressive symptoms by means of correlation analysis. Subjects were 89 nurses and 78 care workers employed at a psychiatric and rehabilitation hospital in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. They responded to a structured questionnaire, the Total Health Index (THI). Mean scores of the four THI scales, Vague Complaints, Respiratory, Depression and Neurotics, of all the 167 study subjects were significantly higher than those of three reference groups. The smoking rate was almost two times higher than that of adult Japanese women. These results may be attributed to psychological stress these workers suffer in their daily human service. However, we found little difference in THI scores based on shift work or responsibilities (nursing vs. care taking). Our findings suggest that it is necessary to provide these workers some support for stress management. THI scores that correlated most strongly with the Depression score were Mental Instability, Irregularity of Life, Irritability, and Vague Complaints (correlation coefficients were 0.75, 0.54, 0.53, and 0.52, respectively). THI scores that correlated most weakly with the Depression score were Digestive, Respiratory, and Mouth and Anal (correlation coefficients were 0.35, 0.34, and 0.32, respectively). Depression in our subjects appeared to be related exclusively to vague psychological symptoms rather than organ-specific symptoms.     

Interindividual differences in personality and behavior and subjective health problems in shift workers]

A total of 604 experienced shift workers were administered a battery of questionnaires in order to examine the relationships between the shift workers' features and subjective health complaints taken as signs of intolerance to shift work. The individual difference measures included: hard-driving and competitiveness, speed and impatience, relaxed, efficiency, flexibility of behaviour, evening, rigidity of sleeping habits, vigorous, languidness, inveterate, flexibility of habits, neuroticism, extraversion, lie-scale, age and work experience. The subjective health complaints included: generally poor health, musculo-skeletal, respiratory and psychosomatic-digestive complaints, and digestive problems. Correlation and multiple regression analyses showed that in workers some personality features and patterns of behaviour were related to the subjective health complaints. More health complaints were placed by workers who were emotionally unstable, less relaxed, inefficient, rigid (e.g. unable to control the behavioral arousal level), hard-driving and competitive, speedy and impatient (A-types), rigid in sleeping and other life habits, languid, older and with longer shift work experience.     

Job loss and depression: the role of subjective expectations

Although the importance of expectations is well documented in the decision-making literature, a key shortcoming of the empirical research into effects of involuntary job loss on depression is perhaps its neglect of the subjective expectations of job loss. Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study surveys we examine whether the impact of job loss on mental health is influenced by an individual's subjective expectations regarding future displacement. Our results imply that, among older workers in the age range of 55-65 year, subjective expectations are as significant predictors of depression as job loss itself, and ignoring them can bias the estimate of the impact of job loss on mental health.     

成都市农民工的口腔健康状况调查

目的了解成都市16岁及以上农民工的口腔健康状况,为制定农民工口腔疾病的预防干预措施提供研究基础。方法采用应答推动抽样方法,抽取成都市农民工579名并进行问卷调查,采用χ²检验进行分析。结果成都市农民工龋齿、缺齿、义齿患病率分别为35.58%、32.99%和15.03%;近一年调查对象牙龈出血、牙齿/牙龈痛、牙齿敏感、口腔异味、口腔溃疡、咀嚼困难/吞咽不适的阳性率分别为58.38%、50.78%、51.47%、48.01%、40.24%和29.71%;近一年曾使用药物缓解口腔疾病的调查对象占24.18%,曾因口腔问题就医的占17.27%。结论成都市农民工口腔健康状况较差,因口腔问题用药和就医率很低。应加强成都市农民工口腔卫生的指导以及相关疾病预防、保健工作,完善口腔卫生服务体系和保障机制,提高其口腔健康水平。     

Job stress and job dissatisfaction of home care workers in the context of health care restructuring.

Changes in the social organization of home care work due to health care restructuring have affected the job stress and job dissatisfaction of home care workers. This article reports the results of a survey of 892 employees from three nonprofit home care agencies in a medium-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Survey results are complemented by data from 16 focus groups with 99 employees. For the purposes of this study, home care workers include both office workers (managers, supervisors, coordinators, office support staff, and case managers) and visiting workers (nurses, therapists, and visiting homemakers). Focus group participants indicated that health care restructuring has resulted in organizational change, budget cuts, heavier workloads, job insecurity, loss of organizational support, loss of peer support, and loss of time to provide emotional laboring, or the "caring" aspects of home care work. Analyses of survey data show that organizational change, fear of job loss, heavy workloads, and lack of organizational and peer support lead to increased job stress and decreased levels of job satisfaction.     

Indigenous and non-indigenous child oral health in three Australian states and territories

Objectives. To explore the prevalence and severity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous child dental disease in relation to age, sex, residential location and socio-economic status in three Australian states and territories.

Design. Children aged 4–14 years who were enrolled in a school dental or screening service in New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, Australia, were randomly selected to take part in this cross-sectional study. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess outcomes.

Results. A total of 328,042 children were included, of which 10,517 (3.2%) were Indigenous. Some 67.1% of Indigenous children lived in rural areas and 47.3% lived in areas of high disadvantage. About 37.5% of 4- to 10-year-old Indigenous children had no experience of dental disease in the primary dentition while 70.7% of 6- to 14-year-old Indigenous children had caries-free permanent dentitions. The mean number of decayed, missing and filled primary teeth (dmft) of Indigenous 4- to 10-year-old children was 2.9 (SD; 3.4) while the mean DMFT of Indigenous 6- to 14-year-old children was 0.8 (SD; 1.6). Across all age-groups, Indigenous children living in the most deprived areas had higher dmft and DMFT levels than their more socially advantaged counterparts, while rural-dwelling Indigenous children had higher levels of dental disease experience than metropolitan-dwelling Indigenous children. After adjusting for potential confounding, Indigenous children aged 4–10 years were over twice as likely to have caries in the deciduous dentition than similarly aged non-Indigenous children (OR: 2.25, CI: 2.14–2.36), and 6- to 14-year-old Indigenous children were over one and a half times more likely to have decay in the permanent dentition (OR: 1.68, CI: 1.60–1.77) than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

Conclusion. Indigenous children experienced higher caries prevalence and severity than non-Indigenous children, irrespective of other socio-demographic factors. Factors concerning Indigenous social capital may have influenced our findings.     

Ethnicity,work-related stress and subjective reports of health by migrant workers: a multi-dimensional model

Objectives: This study integrates different aspects of ethnicity and work-related stress dimensions (based on the Demands-Resources-Individual-Effects model, DRIVE [Mark, G. M., and A. P. Smith. 2008. “Stress Models: A Review and Suggested New Direction.” In Occupational Health Psychology, edited by J. Houdmont and S. Leka, 111–144. Nottingham: Nottingham University Press]) and aims to test a multi-dimensional model that combines individual differences, ethnicity dimensions, work characteristics, and perceived job satisfaction/stress as independent variables in the prediction of subjectives reports of health by workers differing in ethnicity.

Design: A questionnaire consisting of the following sections was submitted to 900 workers in Southern Italy: for individual and cultural characteristics, coping strategies, personality behaviours, and acculturation strategies; for work characteristics, perceived job demands and job resources/rewards; for appraisals, perceived job stress/satisfaction and racial discrimination; for subjective reports of health, psychological disorders and general health. To test the reliability and construct validity of the extracted factors referred to all dimensions involved in the proposed model and logistic regression analyses to evaluate the main effects of the independent variables on the health outcomes were conducted.

Results: Principal component analysis (PCA) yielded seven factors for individual and cultural characteristics (emotional/relational coping, objective coping, Type A behaviour, negative affectivity, social inhibition, affirmation/maintenance culture, and search identity/adoption of the host culture); three factors for work characteristics (work demands, intrinsic/extrinsic rewards, and work resources); three factors for appraisals (perceived job satisfaction, perceived job stress, perceived racial discrimination) and three factors for subjective reports of health (interpersonal disorders, anxious-depressive disorders, and general health). Logistic regression analyses showed main effects of specific individual and cultural differences, work characteristics and perceived job satisfaction/stress on the risk of suffering health problems.

Conclusion: The suggested model provides a strong framework that illustrates how psychosocial and individual variables can influence occupational health in multi-cultural workplaces.     

Job control, job demands, social support at work and health among adolescent workers

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate physical and psychological dimensions of adolescent labor (such as job demands, job control, and social support in the work environment), and their relation to reported body pain, work injuries, sleep duration and daily working hours. METHODS: A total of 354 adolescents attending evening classes at a public school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, answered questionnaires regarding their living and working conditions (Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire, 1998), and their health status. Data collection took place in April and May 2001. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine relations among variables. RESULTS: Psychological job demands were related to body pain (OR=3.3), higher risk of work injuries (OR=3.0) and reduced sleep duration in weekdays (Monday to Thursday) (p<0.01). Lower decision authority in the workplace (p=0.03) and higher job security (p=0.02) were related to longer daily working hours. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that besides physical stressors, psychological factors are to be taken into account when studying adolescent working conditions, as they may be associated with negative job conditions and health effects.     

Factors affecting subjective symptoms of VDT workers

In 1983, 285 (male: 129, female: 156) VDT workers and 60 (male: 30, female: 30) control subjects were examined in order to detect the factors affecting the subjective symptoms of VDT workers. Biological information (for example: sex, age), life histories, information about VDT work, tests (for example: visual acuity), symptoms and interferences to daily life of VDT workers and control subjects were collected. The following results were obtained. Female VDT workers experienced more fatigue from commuting to work, stiffness in shoulders, distant blurred vision complaints of visual acuity and sum of the scores of ocular complaints than female control subjects. Only among female VDT workers, the longer the daily working hours, the greater were their ocular symptoms. A remarkable relationships were observed between psychological burden factors (for example: self-control of VDT work, sensation of excessive VDT work) and subjective symptoms of the VDT workers (both sexes). In particular, VDT workers who considered VDT work to be excessive had marked by greater subjective symptoms than those who did not.