Exploring the Link between Work Addiction Risk and Health-Related Outcomes Using Job-Demand-Control Model.

Frédéric Dutheil,Martial Mermillod,Bruno Pereira,Thomas Cornet,Laurie Mondillon,Fares Moustafa,Georges Brousse,Daniela Pfabigan,Hortense Ravoux,Julien S Baker,Morteza Charkhabi,Jeannot Schmidt,Samuel Dewavrin,Sihui Han

doi:10.3390/ijerph17207594

Abstract

Purpose of the study: Work addiction risk is a growing public health concern with potential deleterious health-related outcomes. Perception of work (job demands and job control) may play a major role in provoking the risk of work addiction in employees. We aimed to explore the link between work addiction risk and health-related outcomes using the framework of job-demand-control model. Methods: Data were collected from 187 out of 1580 (11.8%) French workers who agreed to participate in a cross-sectional study using the WittyFit software online platform. The self-administered questionnaires were the Job Content Questionnaire by Karasek, the Work Addiction Risk Test, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale and socio-demographics. Data Analysis: Statistical analyses were performed using the Stata software (version 13). Results: There were five times more workers with a high risk of work addiction among those with strong job demands than in those with low job demands (29.8% vs. 6.8%, p = 0.002). Addiction to work was not linked to job control (p = 0.77), nor with social support (p = 0.22). We demonstrated a high risk of work addiction in 2.6% of low-strain workers, in 15.0% of passive workers, in 28.9% of active workers, and in 33.3% of high-strain workers (p = 0.010). There were twice as many workers with a HAD-Depression score ≥11 compared with workers at low risk (41.5% vs. 17.7%, p = 0.009). Sleep quality was lower in workers with a high risk of work addiction compared with workers with a low risk of work addiction (44.0 ± 27.3 vs. 64.4 ± 26.8, p < 0.001). Workers with a high risk of work addiction exhibited greater stress at work (68.4 ± 23.2 vs. 47.5 ± 25.1) and lower well-being (69.7 ± 18.3 vs. 49.3 ± 23.0) compared with workers at low risk (p < 0.001). Conclusions: High job demands are strongly associated with the risk of work addiction. Work addiction risk is associated with greater depression and poor quality of sleep. Preventive strategies should benefit from identifying more vulnerable workers to work addiction risk.

Highlights

Workaholism is a public health concern [1,2,3] with putative deleterious health outcomes among workers [1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
161 workers simultaneously responded to the Work Addiction Risk Test (WART) and the socio-demographic questionnaires, 183 responded to both the WART and the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), and 187 to the WART and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale
We demonstrated a prevalence of work addiction risk that was five times higher in workers with strong job demands

Summary

Introduction

Workaholism is a public health concern [1,2,3] with putative deleterious health outcomes among workers [1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Workaholism known as work addiction risk [1,4,14,15,16,17,18,19] is mostly defined as “a compulsion or an uncontrollable need to work incessantly” [1,2]. The differentiating feature a workaholic behavior from similar behaviors, such as work engagement, is the excessive involvement of the individual in work when it is not required or expected [19] This internal need, known as a behavioral disorder [4], is a crucial element in identifying workaholics [3,8,9,10,16,20,21,22] and meets the general criteria of addiction [2,3,4,23].

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Conclusion