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ROC curve for the multivariable model predicting good to excellent work ability. X-axis: probability of false-positive predictions ; Y-axis: probability of true-positive predictions. AUC = 0.81 (95 % CI 0.75–0.86)
Source publication
Background Workers’ health surveillance
(WHS) programs commonly measure a large number of
indicators addressing health habits and health risks. Recently,
work ability and functional capacity have been included
as important risk measures in WHS. In order to
address work ability appropriately, knowledge of associations
with work and health measures i...
Citations
... A second type of job demand is broad mental demands (e.g., van den Berg et al., 2008), which also includes cognitive demands (e.g., Mache, Danzer, Klapp, & Groneberg, 2013), quantitative demands (Mache et al., 2013;Riedel et al., 2015), and mental workload (van Holland, Soer, de Boer, Reneman, & Brouwer, 2015). The results investigating the relationship between mental job demands and WA are mixed. ...
... On the other hand, smoking tobacco is negatively related to WA , 2001. Alcohol consumption and WA has also been examined, however there has been mixed results for alcohol consumption, with some research finding a positive relationship (e.g., Karttunen & Rautiainen, 2011;Tuomi et al., 2001) and other research observing no relationship (e.g., Airila et al., 2012;van Holland et al., 2015;Tuomi et al., 1997). Although a negative relationship would also be expected for heavy alcohol consumption, the frequency of reported heavy drinking by the participants in the studies was extremely low, which could explain why this relationship was not observed. ...
There is a growing literature investigating aging and work due to increasing numbers of older working adults. One emerging research line has focused on work ability (WA), or workers' functional capacity to meet work demands, including the antecedents of WA and how WA affects work attitudes, performance, and retirement. Our article provides the first comprehensive multidisciplinary (e.g., medicine, psychology, management) review of the WA literature to date. In our review, we discuss the evolution and limitations of WA measurement and conceptualization that could limit future advancements in WA research, integrate WA with organizational and lifespan development theories, synthesize the extant WA literature using the job demands and resources model as an organizing framework, describe interventions focused on promoting and maintaining WA, and provide recommendations for future WA research. This review aims to offer greater understanding of how WA should be situated within the workplace literature and the processes by which workers determine their ability to continue working over their lifespan, ultimately leading to the development of workplace interventions and policies to address these profound changes in workforce demographics.
... The workers of meat industry are exposed to several occupational health hazards namely: low temperatures and relative air humidity, the high noise exposure, the presence of biological and parasitological factors, etc. (Picard M., 2008;Pascolini D., 2009). Studies (Berry J. van Holland, 2015;Hristova Lidiya, 2016;McLean D., 2004; Rodilla José María Ramada, 2016; Shaprov M.N., 2013) have shown that working conditions in the meat industry contribute to the development of musculoskeletal, respiratory systems diseases and have a negative impact on the workers life quality and increasing health care costs. Scientific data connected with the study of occupational health hazards and risk assessment of the meat workers in Republic of Moldova is very limited. ...
... Secondary On top of the health hazards come societal developments such as an aging workforce and rising retirement age [6]. Higher age is an indicator for lower work ability [7]. This calls for intervention programs aimed at sustainable employability by reducing sickness absence and improving/maintaining work ability. ...
... Participants and non-participants differed on age, job tenure, and gender. Differences in age and job tenure can be ascribed to the invitation strategy, which deliberately targeted workers of 50 years and older in plants B2 and E. First inviting these older workers to the POSE program was a strategic choice of the company, because these workers were considered a more vulnerable group [7,44]. Although sickness absence rates among participants in the present study were at company average, rates were lower in evaluated non-participants. ...
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive workers’ health surveillance (WHS) program on aspects of sustainable employability and cost-benefit. Methods A cluster randomized stepped wedge trial was performed in a Dutch meat processing company from february 2012 until march 2015. In total 305 workers participated in the trial. Outcomes were retrieved during a WHS program, by multiple questionnaires, and from company registries. Primary outcomes were sickness absence, work ability, and productivity. Secondary outcomes were health, vitality, and psychosocial workload. Data were analyzed with linear and logistic multilevel models. Cost-benefit analyses from the employer’s perspective were performed as well. Results Primary outcomes sickness absence (OR = 1.40), work ability (B = −0.63) and productivity (OR = 0.71) were better in the control condition. Secondary outcomes did not or minimally differ between conditions. Of the 12 secondary outcomes, the only outcome that scored better in the experimental condition was meaning of work (B = 0.18). Controlling for confounders did not or minimally change the results. However, our stepped wedge design did not enable adjustment for confounding in the last two periods of the trial. The WHS program resulted in higher costs for the employer on the short and middle term. Conclusions Primary outcomes did not improve after program implementation and secondary outcomes remained equal after implementation. The program was not cost-beneficial after 1–3 year follow-up. Main limitation that may have contributed to absence of positive effects may be program failure, because interventions were not deployed as intended.
... In particular, slaughterhouse employees have been singled out as high-risk cases for adverse health effects (Dillard, 2008;Fitzgerald, 2010;MacNair, 1999;Van Holland, Soer, De Boer, Reneman, & Brouwer, 2015). ...
... Slaughterhouse work is characterised by high staff turnover, absenteeism, and disciplinary actions (Broadway, 2007;Dalla, Ellis, & Cramer, 2005). This is due to the physically demanding and often monotonous nature of the work (Van Holland et al., 2015). Workers have to contend with an inherently hazardous work context since they handle dangerous cutting tools at extreme production speeds (Fitzgerald, 2010;Human Rights Watch, 2004). ...
... In summary, the slaughterhouse presents a work context with an undercurrent of violence, persistent trauma, stringent and monotonous production routines, health hazards, and physical strain (Van Holland et al., 2015). In the South African context, these working conditions are coupled with the previously mentioned fact that employees originate from the lower socio-economic spectrum of society. ...
Slaughterhouses constitute a unique work setting exposing employees to particular physical and psychological health challenges. Research that focuses on the well-being of slaughterhouse employees is limited, and the aim of this study was to explore their well-being by conducting a hermeneutic phenomenological study of specifically the slaughterfloor employees’ work-life experiences. The study was conducted in a South African commercial abattoir setting. Thirteen slaughterfloor employees and two managers of the slaughterfloor section participated in unstructured interviews. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach to data analysis was adopted following the stages of a naïve reading, a structural thematic analysis, and a comprehensive understanding. Data analysis resulted in four process-related themes representing the different stages of becoming a slaughterer, (mal)adjusting to slaughter work, coping with and maintaining the work, and living with the psycho-social consequences of slaughter work. Results facilitate an understanding of how employee well-being manifests in each of these stages of being a slaughterfloor employee. The risk potential of employees suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome was evident throughout the stages of being a slaughterfloor employee and offers a useful diagnostic framework to facilitate employee well-being assistance. Slaughterhouse management should develop a holistic focus addressing employee well-being needs evident in each of the stages of being a slaughter worker and by extending well-being interventions to the broader communities that the slaughterhouse functions in.
The aim was to assess arterial stiffness and work ability index (WAI) after a night shift in hospital healthcare workers in the emergency department. A prospective study which included 96 health care workers (47 nurses and 49 physicians) consisted of a questionnaire compiled for this study and two arteriographic measurements, the first in basal conditions and the second after a night shift. Work ability was assessed by the WAI Questionnaire short version. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Short Form was used to assess physical activity in leisure time. More than 90% of respondents have arterial stiffness values ≤ 9 m/s (within normal range) before and after shift work. Healthcare workers working in the emergency department have, on average, a very good work ability index (ranging from 37 to 43) both before and after the shift. After shift work, there was no statistically significant change in arterial stiffness. Meanwhile, WAI decreased after shift work from 42.02 ± 4.64 to 37.97 ± 4.98, P<0.001. In the multivariate linear regression model, variables age (β=0.38, P<0.001) and male sex (β=0.22, P=0.027) positively predicted an increase in arterial stiffness. In the multivariate linear regression model, only the variable shift work evaluation score negatively predicted an increase in WAI (β=−0.20, P=0.044). Although healthcare workers in the hospital emergency department have a very good WAI, after each night shift there is a decline in the WAI, so measures to preserve work ability should be introduced and continuously implemented.
The aging of the industrialized workforce has spurred research on how to support people working later in life. Within this context, the concept of work ability, or an employee’s ability to continue working in their job, has been introduced as an explanatory mechanism for understanding employee disability, wellbeing, attitudes, and behavior. However, the work ability concept has evolved across disparate literatures with multiple, content-diverse measures and often with little consideration of theory or examination of its nomological network. Using the job demands–resources model as a framework, we present a meta-analytic summary (k = 247; N = 312,987) of work ability’s correlates and potential moderators of these relationships. Taken together, we found consistent negative relationships between job demands and work ability, and consistent positive relationships between job and personal resources and work ability. Work ability was also associated with important job outcomes including job attitudes and behaviors such as absenteeism and retirement. Measures of work ability that include both perceived and objective components generally showed stronger relationships than did exclusively perceptual measures, and occupation type was a significant moderator of certain relations between work ability and its correlates. We supplemented this meta-analysis with a primary data collection to examine differences between perceived work ability and the conceptually similar variables of self-efficacy and perceived fit, demonstrating that perceived work ability can explain incremental variance in job- and health-related variables. Our discussion focuses on the value of the work ability construct for both research and practice and future directions for work ability research.
Organizations are challenged to retain older workers, however knowledge on how this should be done is scattered. The aim of this paper is to integrate knowledge on the actions organizations can take to facilitate the extension of working lives by identifying and examining the effectiveness of Human Resource Management activities directed at the extension of working lives. To this end a systematic review was conducted, which identified 110 peer-reviewed and unpublished empirical articles concerning the influence of job demands, job resources and Human Resource practices on the ability, motivation and opportunity to work(ing). The results indicate that offering job resources has a positive effect on the ability, motivation and opportunity to continue working. Furthermore, work ability was found to be most negatively related with job demands whereas employability was most positively related with developmental practices. The paper concludes by suggesting directions for future research and practical implications to encourage evidence-based practice.
No Brasil, no Parana, a producao de alimentos de origem animal e uma das atividades economicas que mais contrata forca de trabalho, mas, tambem, e uma das que mais contribui para a ocorrencia de adoecimentos, porem ainda se tem pouco conhecimento sobre os transtornos mentais. Trata-se de uma pesquisa epidemiologica de carater descritivo acerca de transtornos mentais e comportamentais em trabalhadores de industrias de abate de suinos, aves e outros pequenos animais do estado do Parana. Foram utilizados dados secundarios da Previdencia Social brasileira, de 2008 a 2014. Os resultados apontaram que a maioria dos trabalhadores incapacitados tem entre 28 e 38 anos, sao mulheres e apresentam prevalencia de depressao. Houve prevalencia do beneficio auxilio-doenca previdenciario em detrimento do auxilio-doenca por acidente de trabalho, que possui nexo com o trabalho. Alem disso, reducao anual dos beneficios acidentarios concedidos. Conclui-se que ha dificuldade dos trabalhadores em obter o reconhecimento da doenca como decorrente do trabalho, especialmente quando caracterizadas como transtornos mentais.
