IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i7p3907-d779320.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Association between Long Working Hours and Psychological Distress: The Effect Modification by Request to Stay Home When Sick in the Workplace during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Ayako Hino

    (Department of Mental Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Akiomi Inoue

    (Institutional Research Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Kosuke Mafune

    (Department of Mental Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Mayumi Tsuji

    (Department of Environmental Health, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Seiichiro Tateishi

    (Disaster Occupational Health Center, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Akira Ogami

    (Department of Work Systems and Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Tomohisa Nagata

    (Department of Occupational Health Practice and Management, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Keiji Muramatsu

    (Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • Yoshihisa Fujino

    (Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan)

  • on behalf of The CORoNaWork Project

    (Membership of The CORoNaWork Project is provided in the Acknowledgments.)

Abstract

The effect of workplace infection control measures required by the COVID-19 pandemic on the association between long working hours and psychological distress has not yet been fully revealed. This study investigated the effect of requesting to stay home when sick (RSH) on the association between long working hours and psychological distress. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in December 2020 among participants who had previously registered with a Japanese web survey company. A total of 27,036 workers completed a self-administered questionnaire which assessed usual daily overtime work hours. RSH was assessed using an original single-item scale, while psychological distress was measured with the K6 scale. After the interaction effect of overtime work hours and RSH on psychological distress was tested, we conducted stratified analyses using RSH. The statistical analysis demonstrated a significant interaction effect ( p for interaction < 0.001). When we conducted stratified analyses, the odds ratios increased with longer working hours, both with and without RSH groups; however, the risk of long working hours causing psychological distress was greater in the latter group (odds ratio = 1.95 [95% confidence interval: 1.62–2.36] than in the former group (odds ratio = 1.73 [95% confidence interval: 1.55–1.93]). We found that working without RSH could strengthen the association between long working hours and psychological distress. Our findings contribute to preventing the deterioration of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayako Hino & Akiomi Inoue & Kosuke Mafune & Mayumi Tsuji & Seiichiro Tateishi & Akira Ogami & Tomohisa Nagata & Keiji Muramatsu & Yoshihisa Fujino & on behalf of The CORoNaWork Project, 2022. "Association between Long Working Hours and Psychological Distress: The Effect Modification by Request to Stay Home When Sick in the Workplace during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:3907-:d:779320
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3907/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3907/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kumar, S. & Quinn, S.C. & Kim, K.H. & Daniel, L.H. & Freimuth, V.S., 2012. "The impact of workplace policies and other social factors on self-reported influenza-like illness incidence during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(1), pages 134-140.
    2. Marianna Virtanen & Stephen A Stansfeld & Rebecca Fuhrer & Jane E Ferrie & Mika Kivimäki, 2012. "Overtime Work as a Predictor of Major Depressive Episode: A 5-Year Follow-Up of the Whitehall II Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-5, January.
    3. Virtanen, Marianna & Jokela, Markus & Madsen, Ida E.H. & Magnusson Hanson, Linda L. & Lallukka, Tea & Nyberg, Solja T. & Alfredsson, Lars & Batty, G. David & Bjorner, Jakob B. & Borritz, Marianne & Bu, 2018. "Long working hours and depressive symptoms: systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual participant data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 3, pages 239-250.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sato, Kaori & Kuroda, Sachiko & Owan, Hideo, 2020. "Mental health effects of long work hours, night and weekend work, and short rest periods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    2. Tenshi Watanabe & Jiro Masuya & Shogo Hashimoto & Mina Honyashiki & Miki Ono & Yu Tamada & Yota Fujimura & Takeshi Inoue & Akiyoshi Shimura, 2022. "Long Working Hours Indirectly Affect Psychosomatic Stress Responses via Complete Mediation by Irregular Mealtimes and Shortened Sleep Duration: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-8, May.
    3. Zesen Qian & Lingran Yuan & Shuo Wang & Qizheng Zhang & Binlei Gong, 2021. "Epidemics, Convergence, and Common Prosperity: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(6), pages 117-138, November.
    4. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Chi Zhang & Shunsuke Managi, 2020. "Impact of Gaps in the Educational Levels between Married Partners on Health and a Sustainable Lifestyle: Evidence from 32 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-20, June.
    5. Tara L Upshaw & Chloe Brown & Robert Smith & Melissa Perri & Carolyn Ziegler & Andrew D Pinto, 2021. "Social determinants of COVID-19 incidence and outcomes: A rapid review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, March.
    6. Robert Rudolf, 2014. "Work Shorter, Be Happier? Longitudinal Evidence from the Korean Five-Day Working Policy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1139-1163, October.
    7. Krista Ruffini & Aaron Sojourner & Abigail Wozniak, 2021. "Who'S In And Who'S Out Under Workplace Covid Symptom Screening?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(2), pages 614-641, March.
    8. Andreas Kakolyris & Juan J. DelaCruz & Christos I. Giannikos, 2022. "COVID-19, Race/Ethnicity, and Age: the Role of Telemedicine to Close the Gaps on Health Disparities," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 241-251, December.
    9. Florian Junne & Martina Michaelis & Eva Rothermund & Felicitas Stuber & Harald Gündel & Stephan Zipfel & Monika A. Rieger, 2018. "The Role of Work-Related Factors in the Development of Psychological Distress and Associated Mental Disorders: Differential Views of Human Resource Managers, Occupational Physicians, Primary Care Phys," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Sachiko Kuroda & Isamu Yamamoto, 2019. "Why Do People Overwork at the Risk of Impairing Mental Health?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1519-1538, June.
    11. Eva Urbón & Carlos Salavera, 2023. "Emotional Education as Coping Strategy for Exhaustion and Dysfunctional Eating Habits," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-12, August.
    12. Xiaodong Guan & Bingyu Ni & Jingyuan Zhang & Chunxia Man & Zheng Cai & Wenshuang Meng & Luwen Shi & Dennis Ross-Degnan, 2020. "The Impact of Physicians’ Working Hours on Inappropriate Use of Outpatient Medicine in a Tertiary Hospital in China," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 443-451, June.
    13. Moeller, Julia & Ivcevic, Zorana & White, Arielle E. & Menges, Jochen & Brackett, Marc A., 2018. "Highly Engaged but Burned Out: Intra-Individual Profiles in the US Workforce," OSF Preprints h6qnf, Center for Open Science.
    14. Kamerāde, Daiga & Wang, Senhu & Burchell, Brendan & Balderson, Sarah Ursula & Coutts, Adam, 2019. "A shorter working week for everyone: How much paid work is needed for mental health and well-being?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    15. Hiroyuki Kikuchi & Yuko Odagiri & Yumiko Ohya & Yutaka Nakanishi & Teruichi Shimomitsu & Töres Theorell & Shigeru Inoue, 2020. "Association of overtime work hours with various stress responses in 59,021 Japanese workers: Retrospective cross-sectional study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, March.
    16. Rubia R. Valente & Brian J. L. Berry, 2017. "Acculturation of Immigrant Latinos into the U.S. Workplace: Evidence from the Working Hours-life Satisfaction Relationship," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 451-479, June.
    17. Aurora B. Le & Abdulrazak O. Balogun & Todd D. Smith, 2022. "Long Work Hours, Overtime, and Worker Health Impairment: A Cross-Sectional Study among Stone, Sand, and Gravel Mine Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-9, June.
    18. James L. Doti, 2021. "Examining the impact of socioeconomic variables on COVID-19 death rates at the state level," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 15-53, April.
    19. Naomi J Anderson & David K Bonauto & Z Joyce Fan & June T Spector, 2012. "Distribution of Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) by Occupation in Washington State, September 2009–August 2010," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-10, November.
    20. Lee, Jungmin & Lee, Yong-Kwan, 2016. "Can working hour reduction save workers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 25-36.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:3907-:d:779320. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.