Do working environment interventions reach shift workers?

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Sociology of Work
• Workplace Psychology

Background:

• Shift work is associated with increased physical and psychosocial stressors compared to day work.
• Workplace interventions are crucial for prevention but may not effectively reach shift workers.
• Understanding reach disparities is key to equitable occupational health strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if workplace interventions reach shift workers less effectively than day workers.
• To investigate if leadership quality explains differences in intervention reach between shift and day workers.
• To inform targeted strategies for improving intervention accessibility for shift workers.

Main Methods:

• Utilized questionnaire data from 5361 female care workers in Denmark.
• Assessed usual working hours, leadership quality, and self-reported participation in workplace interventions.
• Analyzed interventions for stress reduction, work hour reorganization, and procedural improvements.

Main Results:

• Shift workers reported less access to workplace interventions compared to day workers.
• Night workers had lower odds of gaining flexibility (OR 0.5) and participating in procedural improvements (OR 0.6).
• Leadership quality partially explained the lower reach of interventions among fixed evening workers.

Conclusions:

• Shift workers face significant barriers to accessing workplace interventions.
• Leadership quality appears to influence intervention reach, particularly for evening shift workers.
• Future research should focus on generalizing these findings and developing methods to effectively reach shift workers with tailored interventions.