Dataset Information

Police officers' work-life balance, job satisfaction and quality of life: longitudinal effects after changing the shift schedule.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To evaluate mental health-related outcomes of police officers 5.5 years after implementing a new alternating shift schedule which was supposed to improve their health and work-life balance.

Design

Pre-post study design with a baseline survey at the beginning of the piloting of the new shift schedule in 2015 and another survey 5.5 years later in 2020.

Setting

Police departments of a German metropolitan police force piloting the new shift schedule.

Participants

116 shift-working police officers out of a population of 1673 police officers at the follow-up date.

Interventions

New shift schedule based on occupational health recommendations.

Outcomes measures

Work-life balance, job satisfaction and quality of life.

Methods

Mixed analyses of variances were used to test the hypotheses of within-subject and between-subject differences regarding time and gender.

Results

We found partly significant differences between the baseline and follow-up survey for work-life balance (F(1, 114) = 6.168, p=0.014, η_p² = 0.051), job satisfaction (F(1, 114) = 9.921, p=0.002, η_p² = 0.080) and quality of life (F(1, 114) = 0.593, p=0.443, η_p² = 0.005). Neither significant differences between male and female police officers nor interaction effects of time and gender were found.

Conclusion

An increase was found for each of the three outcomes 5.5 years after implementing the new shift schedule. The results contribute to the current state of research on mental health-related outcomes of working conditions in shift work. On this basis, recommendations for designing shift schedules can be deduced to promote mental health and job satisfaction for employees in shift work.

SUBMITTER: Rohwer E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9490605 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Police officers' work-life balance, job satisfaction and quality of life: longitudinal effects after changing the shift schedule.

Rohwer Elisabeth E Velasco Garrido Marcial M Herold Robert R Preisser Alexandra Marita AM Terschüren Claudia C Harth Volker V Mache Stefanie S

BMJ open 20220920 9

<h4>Objectives</h4>To evaluate mental health-related outcomes of police officers 5.5 years after implementing a new alternating shift schedule which was supposed to improve their health and work-life balance.<h4>Design</h4>Pre-post study design with a baseline survey at the beginning of the piloting of the new shift schedule in 2015 and another survey 5.5 years later in 2020.<h4>Setting</h4>Police departments of a German metropolitan police force piloting the new shift schedule.<h4>Participants< ...[more]

PMID: 36127115

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Project description:Few studies have examined shiftwork adaptation among police officers or potential differences in disease biomarkers among adapted and maladapted shiftworkers. This study characterized shiftwork adaptation among 430 police officers from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study. Police officers working fixed night shifts with symptoms characteristic of adaptation and maladaptation were identified using latent class analysis (n = 242). Two approaches were applied, one with police-specific symptoms and another using more general symptoms as shiftwork adaptation indicators. Biomarkers of inflammation, heart rate variability, and cardiometabolic risk were then compared between shiftwork adaptation groups, and with officers working day shifts, after adjusting for confounding. When analyses included police-specific symptoms, maladapted shiftworkers (n = 73) had more self-reported stress, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and less social support than adapted shiftworkers (n = 169). Using more general symptoms, maladapted officers (n = 56) reported more stress and depression, and less social support than adapted officers (n = 186). In police-specific models, adjusted (least-squares) means (± standard error) of circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentrations in maladapted officers (0.8 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml]) were modestly elevated relative to adapted shiftworkers (0.7 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p = .09) and relative to permanent day workers (0.5 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p ≤ 0.01), and leptin levels in maladapted officers (9.6 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml]) exceeded those in the adapted (9.4 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p ≤ 0.01) and day shift groups (9.4 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p = .03). In the general model, adjusted mean tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) concentrations among maladapted officers (5.6 ± 0.23 pg/ml) exceeded the adapted (4.8 ± 0.2 pg/ml, p ≤ 0.01) and day workers (5.0 ± 0.2 pg/ml, p = .04), and insulin among maladapted officers was higher (2.4 ± 0.1 ln[uu/ml]) than the adapted group (1.8 ± 0.1 ln[uu/ml], p = .03). No differences were observed for the other biomarkers. The results suggest that maladaptation among police officers working fixed night shifts may lead to increases in leptin, insulin, IL-6, and TNF-α; however, the cross-sectional design and possible residual confounding preclude interpretation of cause and effect. Prospective studies are planned to further characterize the relationship between shiftwork maladaptation and biomarkers of chronic disease risk in this police officer cohort.

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Dataset Information

Police officers' work-life balance, job satisfaction and quality of life: longitudinal effects after changing the shift schedule.

Objectives

Design

Setting

Participants

Interventions

Outcomes measures

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Police officers' work-life balance, job satisfaction and quality of life: longitudinal effects after changing the shift schedule.

Similar Datasets

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