Abstract

BackgroundFaced with the challenge of population aging, a prolonged working life is increasingly important in today’s society. Maintaining work ability of employees is one of the effective ways to cope with the challenges to sustainability of the workforce presented by population aging. Researchers have shown ongoing interest in exploring the determinants of restricted work ability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of work stress on work ability among power supply workers in Guangdong, China.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among power supply workers during August 2014 to September 2014. A total of 805 subjects were enrolled in the study. Work stress was assessed by the Job Content Questionnaire and the Effort Reward Imbalance Questionnaire. Work ability was assessed by the Work Ability Index (WAI). The structural equation model was applied to test the relationship between different work stress components and work ability simultaneously using the Job Demands-Resources model as a framework.ResultsJob resources (measured by job control, reward and social support) were positively and directly associated with work ability (β = 0.70, P < 0.001). The association between job demands and work ability was also statistically significant (β = −0.09, P = 0.030). In addition, the findings also supported previous studies in that job demands were correlated with job resources (β = −0.26, P < 0.001).ConclusionsOur findings suggest that decision makers and health care providers should consider increasing job resources available to power supply workers. Consideration of organizational changes related to the design of the job task also would be useful to improve the employees’ work ability.

Highlights

  • Faced with the challenge of population aging, a prolonged working life is increasingly important in today’s society

  • High job strain was experienced by 28.7 % participants, and 19.4 % of the employees reported an ER ratio >1

  • We found a negative relationship between job demands and job resources

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Summary

Introduction

Faced with the challenge of population aging, a prolonged working life is increasingly important in today’s society. Maintaining work ability of employees is one of the effective ways to cope with the challenges to sustainability of the workforce presented by population aging. The Job Content Questionnaire, based on the Job Demand-Control-Support model, demonstrates that employees who have high job demands while simultaneously having little control of their work are in a high job-strain situation. This model argues that work stress increases when the level of social support decreases. Previous studies showed that decreases of work ability were related to high job strain due to high demand and low control [8]. The negative association between ERI and work ability have been supported by both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies [9, 10]

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