Emotional demands at work and risk of long-term sickness absence in 1·5 million employees in Denmark: a prospective cohort study on effect modifiers

Abstract

Background High emotional demands at work can affect employees' health and there is a need to understand whether such an association might be modified by other working conditions. We aimed to examine emotional demands at work as a risk factor for long-term sickness absence and analyse whether influence, possibilities for development, role conflicts, and physical demands at work might modify this risk.Methods We did a nationwide, population-based, prospective cohort study in Denmark and included employed individuals who were residing in Denmark in 2000, aged 30-59 years, who had complete data on age, sex, and migration background, with information on emotional demands and possible effect modifiers from job exposure matrices, and covariates and outcome (sickness absence) from population registers. Individuals with long-term sickness absence (≥6 weeks of consecutive sickness absence) between Jan 1, 1998, and Dec 31, 2000, and self-employed individuals were excluded. We assessed long-term sickness absence during a 10-year period from Jan 1, 2001, to Dec 31, 2010. Using Cox regression, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs and tested interaction as departure from additivity, estimating relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). Multivariable adjusted models included sex, age, cohabitation, migration background, and income.

Sources of Occupational Stress among Office Workers—A Focus Group Study

“…The EWCS [23] pays more attention to it in comparison to other frameworks and models. Neither the Job Demand-Control model [18] nor the Effort-Reward Imbalance model [19] include emotional demands in their models or corresponding questionnaires, which shows a clear shortcoming, since emotional demands at work can cause adverse health consequences such as higher risk of long-term absence due to illness [33].…”

Gender-Specific Aspects of Teachers Regarding Working Behavior and Early Retirement

“…The teaching profession is characterized by a complex structure of work demands and stressors. In addition to high mental, emotional, and psychosocial work load ( Shirom et al, 2009 ; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2017a ; Framke et al, 2021 ), the profession can be described by a high degree of autonomy. Compared to other occupational groups, there is an increased risk of stress-related psychosomatic and mental illnesses, including burnout ( Guglielmi and Tatrow, 1998 ; García-Carmona et al, 2019 ).…”

High Emotional Demands at Work and Poor Mental Health in Client-Facing Workers

“…The detrimental effects of emotional demands on employee well-being [ 10 ] negatively affected work engagement, including vitality at work [ 11 ]. In a Danish study, the combination of emotionally disturbing situations, emotionally demanding work and emotional involvement in work was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in risk of long-term sickness absence [ 12 ]; this combination was also associated with a 1.19 or 1.32-fold increase in risk of hospital-treated depressive disorder [ 7 ].…”

“…For example, according to the EWCS [ 2 ], the proportion of workers who hide emotions or handle angry clients was high for managers, professionals and technicians—a group that includes teachers and healthcare managers. Furthermore, past studies typically included only paid employees and excluded self-employed, unpaid family workers and informal employees such as independent contractors, even though they also interact with clients and have shown an increased risk of depression, anxiety and sleep disorders [ 6 , 8 , 9 , 12 , 19 ].…”