A shorter workday as a means of reducing the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders

Longitudinal relationship of work hours, mandatory overtime, and on-call to musculoskeletal problems in nurses

“…As time off diminishes, for example, workdays with less than 10 hr off in between, nurses have fewer opportunities to heal or recover to baseline. In one intervention study, shorter work hours markedly decreased neck, shoulder, and back pain [Wergeland et al, 2003]. …”

Are work organization interventions effective in preventing or reducing work-related musculoskeletal disorders? A systematic review of the literature

“…Bongers et al (13) found inconclusive evidence on the effectiveness of added rest breaks for preventing neck and upper limb problems. We rated two of their nine studies low-quality and therefore they were not included in our evidence synthesis (65,66). Several of their other studies did not meet our selection criteria, either because loss to followup was >50% (67) or the publication date was outside the scope of our review.…”

Workhours in relation to work stress, recovery and health

“…The results showed that the week with overtime was associated with decreased sleep, more symptoms of fatigue and exhaustion, and an increase in sleepiness at the end of the week. There are some company-based interventions that have studied the effects of a reduction in workhours from 7 or more to 6 hours (115)(116)(117). In an intervention study among female health care workers, a decrease in workhours (to a 6-hour workday) resulted in improvements in the social life of the workers and in moderate improvements in well-being when the group was compared with a reference group with no changes in workhours (117).…”

“…In an intervention study among female health care workers, a decrease in workhours (to a 6-hour workday) resulted in improvements in the social life of the workers and in moderate improvements in well-being when the group was compared with a reference group with no changes in workhours (117). In another study, a shift to 6-hour workdays was followed by a reduction of neck-shoulder and back pain in three separate organizations when fulltime payment of the workers was retained (115). According to Anttila (116), the benefits of shorter workhours were the most apparent in regard to social life, but they also introduced some positive effects on the perceived stress of the workers.…”