The association between exposure to psychosocial work factors and mental health in older employees, a 3-year follow-up study

Bo M Havermans,Johannes R Anema,Irene L D Houtman,Allard J Van Der Beek,Trynke Hoekstra,Cécile R L Boot,Evelien P M Brouwers

doi:10.1007/s00420-017-1261-8

Abstract

PurposeUnfavourable exposure to psychosocial work factors threatens older employees’ mental health, and their sustained employment. This study assesses whether an improved compared to stable unfavourable and stable favourable exposure to psychosocial work factors is associated with a change in mental health in older employees at 3-year follow-up.MethodsThe current study used data from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (STREAM), in workers aged 45–65 years (n = 5249). Two-year (2010–2012) exposure was assessed for psychological demands, autonomy, support, mental load, and distributive justice. Linear regression analyses were performed to compare improved exposure to unfavourable psychosocial work factors with stable unfavourable and stable favourable exposure and mental health at follow-up (2013), corrected for confounders. Analyses were stratified for age groups (45–54 and 55–65 years) and gender.ResultsIn certain subgroups, stable unfavourable exposure to psychological demands, autonomy, support, and distributive justice was associated with a significantly lower mental health score than improved exposure. Stable favourable exposure to support was associated with a higher mental health score than improved support, whereas stable favourable exposure to autonomy was associated with a lower mental health score compared to improved exposure.ConclusionsThere is a longitudinal association between changes in exposure to psychosocial work factors and mental health. Improvement in unfavourable exposure to psychosocial work factors was associated with improved mental health. This is important information for organisations that consider deploying measures to improve the psychosocial work environment of older workers.

Highlights

Psychosocial work factors can be defined as social characteristics of the work environment that interact with individual, psychological factors (Theorell 2007), and are represented in influential work stress models, such as Job Demand-Control (-Support) Model (Johnson and Hall 1988; Karasek 1979), and the Job Demands-Resources model (Demerouti et al 2001)
These psychosocial work factors are associated with work stress, which can result in mental health problems (Netterstrom et al 2008)
Descriptive analyses were run with baseline data for gender, education, and marital status, and for general health, job security, psychosocial work factors, and mental health

Summary

Introduction

Psychosocial work factors can be defined as social characteristics of the work environment that interact with individual, psychological factors (Theorell 2007), and are represented in influential work stress models, such as Job Demand-Control (-Support) Model (Johnson and Hall 1988; Karasek 1979), and the Job Demands-Resources model (Demerouti et al 2001). These psychosocial work factors are associated with work stress, which can result in mental health problems (Netterstrom et al 2008). Exposure to unfavourable psychosocial work factors is associated with retirement plans and with early retirement in older workers (Thorsen et al 2012; van den Berg et al 2010), which puts strain on social security and public welfare (Harper 2014)

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Conclusion