[Psychosocial factors and health status of employees]

An issue of relationship between exposure to psychosocial factors and health status of employees is presented in this review. It is difficult to find hard evidence that could reliably confirm this relationship. Methodological difliculties encountered in measuring psychosocial factors and health effects and in designing research procedures are responsible for equivocal study results. However, a huge number of articles presenting the results of numerous studies make us convinced that many human organs are targets of dangerous impact of stress evoked by job conditions. Bearing in mind that work processes and working conditions become more and snore stressogenic. one can expect that in the near future psychosocial factors will form a group of the most dangerous health hazards. Therefore, it is an urgent challenge facing the occupational health service (OHS) to adapt its system of prevention to the specificity of threats, and thus better protect employees against harmful impact of the psychosocial factors.