Abstract

ObjectivesThe health effects of telework, which was introduced extensively in the immediate context of the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis in Japan, on teleworkers, their families, and non‐teleworkers, are unknown. Accordingly, we developed a rapid health impact assessment (HIA) to evaluate positive and negative health effects of telework on these groups and recommended easily implementable countermeasures.MethodsImmediately after an emergency was declared in Japan, we implemented a rapid, five‐step HIA. We screened and categorized health effects of telework for the three above‐mentioned groups, extracting their content, directionality, and likelihood. Following a scoping exercise to determine the HIA’s overall implementation, five experienced occupational health physicians appraised and prioritized the screened items and added new items. We outlined specific countermeasures and disseminated the results on our website. A short‐term evaluation was conducted by three external occupational health physicians and three nurses.ResultsFollowing screening and appraisal, 59, 29, and 27 items were listed for teleworkers, non‐teleworkers, and family members of teleworkers, respectively, covering work, lifestyle, disease and medical care, and home and community. Targeted countermeasures focused on the work environment, business management, communications, and lifestyles for teleworkers; safety and medical guidelines, work prioritization, and regular communication for non‐teleworkers; and shared responsibilities within families and communication outside families for family members of teleworkers.ConclusionThe HIA’s validity and the countermeasures’ practical applicability were confirmed by the external evaluators. They can be easily applied and adapted across diverse industries to mitigate the wider negative effects of telework and enhance its positive effects.

Highlights

  • The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection was first reported in Japan on January 16, 2020,1 and in February 2020, it was named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization

  • The first was the view that this health impact assessment (HIA) focused on health effects concerning employees who have begun to telework as a response to the crisis and not on the general health effects of telework

  • During the screening process for developing an HIA for evaluating the impacts of the surge of telework in the wake of COVID-19 in Japan, a number of positive and negative health effects were assumed to apply to teleworkers, nonteleworkers, and family members of teleworkers

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Summary

Introduction

The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection was first reported in Japan on January 16, 2020,1 and in February 2020, it was named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. Prior to the declaration of the emergency, some businesses had already initiated a switch to telework for some of their activities. Regardless of company size, many business employees began to telework after the emergency was declared. In Japan, telework has mainly been discussed as a method of reducing working hours and preventing overwork. The reason is that a number of business operators have introduced telework without adequately attending to technical issues such as the information technology environment and security. Japan's labor contracts are based on working hours in principle, and many operators have not yet made comprehensive arrangements relating to their personnel and labor systems for implementing telework

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