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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1489178

Work conditions and determinants of health status among industrial shift workers: A cross-sectional study

Provisionally accepted
Sasha Javanmardi Sasha Javanmardi 1*Ludwig Rappelt Ludwig Rappelt 1,2Christian Baumgart Christian Baumgart 1Daniel Niederer Daniel Niederer 3Lars Heinke Lars Heinke 1Jürgen Freiwald Jürgen Freiwald 1
  • 1 University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
  • 2 German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 3 Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigated potential health status differences among forging, manufacturing, and logistics workers.We included 403 participants (age: 41 ± 12 years) from a medium-sized steel company (forge: 64, manufacturing: 299, logistics: 99). Health status was multifactorial assessed: 1) Frequency of musculoskeletal complaints (German Pain Questionnaire). 2) Pain intensity, physical and psychological load (visual analog scales (VAS) 0-100 points). 3) Occupational moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), total MVPA, and sedentary behavior (Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ)). 4) Quality of life (Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)). Between-group effects were analyzed via one-way ANOVAs with post-hoc Tukey correction.308 workers (76.4%) reported at least one musculoskeletal issue. A significant between-group difference was revealed for left shoulder (F(2,40)= 5.40; p= .008; ω²= .17), occupational MVPA (F(2,368)= 9.49; p< .001; ω²= .04) and total MVPA (F(2,368)= 6.90; p=.001; ω²=.03). Post-hoc tests revealed a difference (p≤ .007) between manufacturing (left shoulder: n=22; 42.5 ± 24.8; occupational MVPA: n=219; 6978 ± 5137 METs min/week; total MVPA: n=219; 8471 ± 5390 METs min/week) and logistics workers (left shoulder: n=14; 70.4 ± 26.3 au; occupational MVPA: n=96; 9640 ± 4605 METs min/week; total MVPA: n=96; 10856 ± 4680 METs min/week). No other between-group differences were observed.Variations in health disparities across work conditions were observed. Yet, clear distinctions between work conditions and health outcomes remain a challenge. Effective interventions should be focused on job-specific and personalized health profiles rather than a stratification of work conditions to enhance health, productivity, and workforce sustainability.

    Keywords: Workplace health promotion, Occupational health2, occupational hazards3, musculoskeletal disorders4, job-profile5

    Received: 31 Aug 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Javanmardi, Rappelt, Baumgart, Niederer, Heinke and Freiwald. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sasha Javanmardi, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

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