Working conditions under multiple exposures: A cross-sectional study of private sector administrative workers

Office workers are increasingly exposed to physical and psychosocial risk factors.

To assess the association between environmental, physical and organizational working conditions and the physical and psychosocial well-being of a sample of private sector office workers.

Musculoskeletal pain was collected from a body map and the Disabilities of the Arms, Shoulders and Hands questionnaire. The short version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire enabled collecting information on six job related satisfaction and dissatisfaction subscales. A checklist for ergonomics in computer work guided the analysis of ergonomic factors and measurements were taken to characterize environmental conditions. Association between exposures and outcomes was calculated using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software.

Significant moderate positive association was found between dissatisfaction with job psychological demands and musculoskeletal pain in the upper body (0.40; p= 0.05), as well as between postural ergonomic mismatches and dissatisfaction with job insecurity towards the future (0.42; p= 0.04). A significant moderate negative association (-0,47; p= 0.02) was found as well between satisfaction with job social support and with leadership quality and location of the work station in an open-plan office as opposed to smaller office rooms.

The results show how raising awareness of the risk factors encountered in contemporary office work is still necessary to promote widespread improvement of working conditions, from both a physical and a psychosocial perspective.