Except for psychological complaints, workers with a longstanding health condition generally perform well while being at work. Nevertheless, the likelihood of taking sick leave is increased. Among work-related factors, psychosocial work characteristics have the strongest relation with productivity loss, mostly with performance while at work.

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Purpose This longitudinal study examined ‘normal’, ‘reversed’, and ‘reciprocal’ relationships between (1) physical activity and work-related fatigue; and (2) physical activity and task demands. Furthermore, the effects of across-time change in meaningful physical activity groups on levels of employees’ work-related fatigue and task demands were studied. These groups were based on employees’ compliance with the international physical activity norm.MethodsTwo waves with a one-year time lag of a national representative survey on the quality of work, health, and well-being among Dutch employees were used (N = 2275). Longitudinal effects were tested using Structural Equation Modelling. Meaningful physical activity groups were compared using group-by-time analysis of covariance.ResultsSupport was found for reciprocal relations between physical activity and work-related fatigue. It was found that an increase in physical activity is associated with a decrease in work-related fatigue over time and that an increase in work-related fatigue is associated with a decrease in physical activity over time. No significant longitudinal relations were found between physical activity and task demands. Employees whose compliance with the physical activity norm changed over time showed fairly stable levels of work-related fatigue and task demands.ConclusionsThe current findings provide evidence for the potential role of physical activity in the prevention and reduction in work-related fatigue. However, results also indicate that fatigued workers, who would benefit most from physical activity, are less physically active. Our results further indicate that relying on changes in compliance to the physical activity norm may not be the most suitable way to examine changes in work-related fatigue.

Study aimWe hypothesise that due to a lower quality of working life and higher job insecurity, the health and work-related attitudes of temporary workers may be less positive compared to permanent workers. Therefore, we aimed to (1) examine differences between contract groups (i.e. permanent contract, temporary contract with prospect of permanent work, fixed-term contract, temporary agency contract and on-call contract) in the quality of working life, job insecurity, health and work-related attitudes and (2) investigate whether these latter contract group differences in health and work-related attitudes can be explained by differences in the quality of working life and/or job insecurity.MethodsData were collected from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2008 (N = 21,639), and Hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance and cross-table analysis.ResultsTemporary work was associated with fewer task demands and lower autonomy and was more often passive or high-strain work, while permanent work was more often active work. Except for on-call work, temporary work was more insecure and associated with worse health and work-related attitude scores than permanent work. Finally, the quality of working life and job insecurity partly accounted for most contract differences in work-related attitudes but not in health.ConclusionsEspecially agency workers have a lower health status and worse work-related attitudes. Job redesign measures regarding their quality of working life and job insecurity are recommended.

Chronic diseases result in substantial productivity loss due to sickness absence. Given the ageing population, the proposed increase in the state pension age and an increase in sedentary lifestyle and obesity, the prevalence of chronic diseases may be expected to rise. Coordinated efforts to maintain and improve the health of the working population are necessary to minimize socioeconomic consequences.