A recent study conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) showed that workers’ perceptions of their poor health status were related to lack of paid sick time, their occupations and several psycho-social issues. Workers who held positions in human resources, marketing and business operations were more likely to say that their health status were poor or fair. Workers who reported the following issues were also more likely to claim fair to poor health status:
- Bullying at work
- Unemployment worries
- Lack of paid sick leave
- Difficulty managing family and work commitments
NIOSH researchers said that the recent data is a step in the right direction to establishing a connection between poor health and people in business operations. They hoped to identify the aspects of jobs that led to poor health, and they said that identifying those issues will help improve employee wellness and public health programs. Such programs would improve workplace interventions, employee well-being and input from workers.
The researchers gathered data from over 10,750 adults in the United States. Participants answered several open-ended questions regarding their job features and employment status. The study looked at five specific categories that characterizes jobs. These included type of pay or benefits, occupation, chemical or environmental hazards, work organization and workplace psycho-social factors. When analyzing psycho-social factors, researchers considered issues such as work and life balance, hostile work environments, job insecurity and similar problems. All respondents were asked to rate their health from poor to excellent, and they found notable connections between self-rated health and certain job characteristics.
When only one occupation was considered, people who worked in production were most likely to report poor or fair health. After the results were adjusted for family income, race, age and other socio-demographic factors, people who worked in business operations were 85 percent more likely than other groups to say that their health was poor or fair. These were some additional findings of interest:
- Workers who lacked paid sick time were 35 percent more likely to say that their health was fair or poor.
- Employees who had a hard time balancing work and family commitments were nearly 25 percent more likely to report fair or poor health.
- Workers who were concerned about unemployment were nearly 45 percent more likely to report fair or poor health.
- Employees who reported workplace bullying were over 80 percent more likely to say that their health status was poor or fair.
Researchers said that the other findings of the study showed how important work was for determining health status. Work issues influence every aspect of a person’s life in various ways from long work hours to hazardous chemical agents. Maintaining a balance between work and home life can be problematic for individual wellbeing when most issues are perceived negatively by workers.
Alan Wang is the President of UBF and serves as the lead consultant. He has delivered the UBF solution set throughout the world and is highly regarded for his areas of expertise. You can follow him on Twitter @UBFconsulting.