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Multiple environmental and psychosocial work risk factors and sleep disturbances

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Abstract

Background

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple psychosocial and environmental work risk factors and sleep disturbances.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 workers in a brick factory in Iran. The health and safety executive (HSE) tool, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Stop-Bang questionnaire were used to determine psychosocial factors, subjective sleepiness, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), respectively. Standard objective methods were used to assess the environmental risk factors, including noise, light, heat stress, and respirable particles.

Results

Most psychosocial and all environmental work factors were moderately to highly correlated to the ESS score. There were also moderate correlations between the demands (including work load, work patterns, and work environment), role (including a clear understanding of the employees about their role in the organization), and lighting variables and the Stop-Bang score. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that job control, wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), and respirable dust were predictive of an ESS score indicating abnormal sleep status and noise was predictive of a Stop-Bang score predictive of OSA.

Conclusions

The results suggest that stressors, especially noise, heat stress, and respirable dust, are related to the employees' indices of sleep disturbance independent of other potential workplace confounding factors. These results can highlight the importance of considering multiple psychosocial and environment work risk factors for implementing occupational health and ergonomics interventional programs to prevent sleep disturbances in the workforce.

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Acknowledgements

This study was conducted with financial support from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (97-01-42-17320). The authors would like to thank Ms. A. Keivanshekouh at the Research Improvement Center of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences for improving the use of English in the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Reza Kazemi.

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This study was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the Ethical Guidelines for Medical and Health Research Involving Human Subjects of the Ministry of Health, Iran. The protocol was also approved by the Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medicine Science (IR.SUMS.REC.1397.568).

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The participants were informed about the study purposes, their autonomy, and confidentiality of the responses and data handling.

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Mokarami, H., Gharibi, V., Kalteh, H.O. et al. Multiple environmental and psychosocial work risk factors and sleep disturbances. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 93, 623–633 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01515-8

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