gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Work-related stress is an important determinant of emotional wellbeing and has a huge impact on health. Working conditions and work organization of office workers in particular have changed considerably during the past decades, in part due to the intensive use of the information and communication technologies. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence and determinants of work-related stress, and work-related coping strategies within two white collar populations conducted in the same setting in the years 1996 and 2015.

Methods: All employees ≥18 years of age (n=276) working at a health insurance company located in Ulm, Germany, were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey in 1996. Between May and July 2015, the study was repeated with employees of the same company, working in two branches (in the meantime two neighbourly branches had merged together), in the cities of Ulm and BiberachGermany. Again, all employees (n=492) were invited to participate. Work-related stress was assessed with the effort-reward-imbalance questionnaire at both occasions. Additional screening instruments for depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7) and somatization (Patient Health Questionnaire, somatic symptom scale) were used in the second wave only. We conducted descriptive and multivariable logistic regression analyses, the latter to assess associations between demographic and employment related factors with effort-reward imbalance.

Results: In total, about the same number of employees (n=211 and n=200) participated in the two studies (overall response was 76.1% in 1996, and 40.2% in 2015). The majority of the respondents were female (73.0% and 85.5%). Compared to the first study, much more participants worked part-time in 2015 (14.3% vs. 44.9%) and educational attainment was higher in the 2015 survey. Despite such differences in employment conditions the prevalence of work-related stress was equally high in both waves of the survey (mean ERI=0.6, standard deviation (STD)=0.3 in both studies, mean intrinsic effort=67.9, STD=8.2 in 1996 vs. mean=66.7, STD=7.8 in 2015). When analyzing the difference between full-time and part-time workers the following results were seen: full-time employees mean ERI=0.6, STD=0.3 in 1996 and in 2015, respectively; part-time employees mean ERI=0.5, STD=0.2 in 1996 vs. mean ERI=0.6, STD=0.2 in 2015. Furthermore, full-time employees showed an intrinsic effort of mean=68.1, STD=8.3 in 1996 and of mean=67.2, STD=7.7 in 2015, and part-time employees an intrinsic effort of mean=67.3, STD=8.8 in 1996 and of mean 66.1, STD=7.9 in 2015. Furthermore, a strong association of high intrinsic effort with somatization (which was evaluated in 2015 only) became apparent (Odds ratio adjusted 3.8; 95% confidence intervals 1.5-9.4).

Discussion: Our results rely on data from two independent cross-sectional surveys from the same health insurance company at two points of time (years 1996 and 2015). Notably, in spite of a considerably changed working environment during the past 20 years, overall no large differences between the two study populations with regard to work-related stress were found, nor in experienced imbalance between occupational effort and reward nor in intrinsic effort. This was also the case after stratification for employment status. However, the difference in response has to be considered.

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