Sven Setterlind

Internal Service Quality and the Psychosocial Work Environment: An Empirical Analysis of Conceptual Interrelatedness

Internal Service Quality and the Psychosocial Work Environment : An Empirical Analysis of Conceptual Interrelatedness

Psychosocial Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease, Their Importance Compared with Other Risk Factors and Gender Differences in Sensitivity

Background Few studies have focused on risk factors in womens lives concerning psychosocial factors and coronary heart disease (CHD). The present study is one of a series in which a wide range of psychosocial factors will be analysed with a focus on women. Women and men have been compared with respect to sensitivity to psychosocial risk factors regarding CHD. The importance of psychosocial risk factors for women, compared with biomedical risk factors has also been studied. Methods A questionnaire (The Stress Profile) was answered by 538 rehabilitation participants (97 women, 441 men) and a reference group (5308 women, 5177 men), aged 40-65 years. Psychosocial factors were investigated using means and b-coefficients. Comparisons between psychosocial and biomedical risk factors were made, with respect to the product of the β-coefficient and the standard deviation for each compared risk factor. Results Significant differences appeared concerning five areas: Work content, workload and control, physical stress reactions, emotional stress reactions and burnout. All showed that the relative sensitivity was larger for women than for men. Predictive psychosocial risk factors for women with respect to CHD were physical stress reactions, emotional stress reactions, burnout, family relationships and daily hassles/satisfactions, and they were on approximately the same level as biomedical risk factors. Conclusions Women appear to be more sensitive than men with respect to psychosocial risk factors for CHD, and the predictive ability of psychosocial risk factors shows great importance. Actions against unhealthy psychosocial conditions are recommended. Both presumptive CHD patients and others might benefit from preventive actions, and since women are more sensitive they will probably gain more than men. Conclusions. This study shows that women appear to be more sensitive than men with respect to psychosocial risk factors for CHD containing work content, workload and control, physical and emotional stress reactions and burnout. Our data also show a pattern, which could indicate that women experience more psychosocial pressure than men. When comparing predictive ability of psychosocial risk factors versus some traditional risk variables for CHD we could show the importance of such factors. Actions against unhealthy psychosocial conditions, especially in the work environment, are recommended for several reasons. Both presumptive CHD patients and others might benefit from such preventive actions, and since women are more sensitive they will probably gain more than men.

Serum lipids and mood in working men and women in Sweden.

STUDY OBJECTIVE--To explore the link between serum cholesterol and suicide by investigating the relation between serum lipids and depressive symptoms. DESIGN--This was a cross sectional study of the relation between serum cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides on the one hand and depressive symptoms as expressed in a questionnaire on the other. SETTING--An organisational development programme in industry with assistance from occupational health care. PARTICIPANTS--A total of 644 male and 261 female employees (mainly white-collar workers) participated. MAIN RESULTS--Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol values were lower in those men who, sometimes, often, or very often, had experienced low mood or glumness during the past month compared with those who had not. Serum triglyceride concentrations did not differ between the groups. In women, however, the serum triglyceride value, but not the total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol, was lower in those who reported low mood, depression, or anxiety during the past six months. CONCLUSIONS--Decreasing appetite as a consequence of depression in men would probably lead to both decreasing cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. Thus, these data indicate the presence of some other explanation for the relation between the level of LDL cholesterol and depressive symptoms in men.

Psychophysiological correlates of organizational change and threat of unemployment among police inspectors

The study examined psychosocial work-conditions and physiological reactions among thirty-six police inspectors (median age 45 years, 81% males) who participated in a reorganization. At this time, subjects were threatened by unemployment and had to reapply for their positions in a new police district. Data were collected during the reorganization and at three years follow-up, by means of questionnaires (Stress Profile) and blood samples. The blood samples were used to determine serum levels of gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT), glucose, lipids, prolactin, testosterone and cortisol. The results show a positive association betweenworry about employment and symptoms ofburnout during the reorganization. Mean scores for the Stress Profile sub-scalesworry about employment (p<.01) andwork-load (p<.05) decreased between measurements but an impairment inrelationships with management was noticed (p<.05). No significant changes were observed in terms of self-rated health complaints. Significant decreases in total cholesterol (p<.0001), LDL-cholesterol (p<.0001), LDL/HDL-ratio (p<.01), prolactin (p<.0001), as well as increases in testosterone (p<.01) and cortisol (p<.001) were observed for the whole sample. Glucose decreased with marginal significance (<.07). Controlling for age and gender, multivariate regression analyses showed that subjects who reported deteriorations insatisfaction with work manifested the most modest decreases in prolactin (p<.05). Also, the decrease in glucose was larger for subjects who experienced impairments in,satisfaction with work (p<.05), information (p<.05), task-oriented leadership, (p<.05), andrespect and dignity (p<.05). Subjects who perceived deteriorations in theethical and moral standards of the organization increased their cortisol level to a lower degree than their counterparts (p<.05). Favorable changes in employment status and psychosocial work environment seem to be related to improved physiological functioning.

Stress, burnout and coping: differences between women with coronary heart disease and healthy matched women.

Stress is becoming more significant for women, along with the increasing number of women in the workforce. The present study compared women with respect to burnout and coping abilities, and related to the impact of educational level on differences in coping strategies. Women with coronary heart disease reported a higher level of burnout and had the highest scores demonstrating lack of coping, which indicates lesser coping abilities. Differences concerning strain reduction, self-control and emotional distancing are discussed in terms of living conditions. We also discuss that in order to optimize the outcome of rehabilitation and prevention we need more research on women, of women and especially from women’s point of view.

Fired managers: Experiences from their own unemployment

This paper purports to enhance the understanding of stress and its effects on unemployed executives. The idea that unemployed managers perceive and confront stress differently from their employed colleagues is addressed. A sampling of 32 unemployed executives and managers was taken using The Stress Profile, to survey reasons for stress, coping ability, and response to stress. The profiled samples were then compared to a comparison group of 367 employed managers. The results showed that unemployed managers, when compared to their employed associates, tended to have less desireable family situations, more worries about finances, decreased perception of self and self-coherence, decreased coping ability, and heightened emotional and behavioral reaction to stress. The conclusion was that when dealing with stressors, unemployed managers experienced a decreased sense of psychological well-being and coping abilities as compared to employed managers.

An Experimental Study of Relaxation Training in Swedish Schools: Psychological and Physiological Results

In recent years there has been a growing interest in different techniques of tension control in many-fields, such as sport, education and medical treatment. In spite of this increased interest, it is remarkable that the amount of systematic research is small in relation to the frequency with which these techniques are used. This is particularly true with regard to research on children and adolescents, where few studies have been carried out. The studies that have been conducted have generally had a clinical approach and have usually been based on very few subjects. The situation is similar with regard to studies in school, where systematic large-scale investigations (Jacobson and Lufkin, 1968; Angers, Bilodeau, Bouchard, Tuthe, Mailhot, Trudeau and Vallieres, 1975; Engelhardt, 1976) are virtually non-existent. The lack of serious and well-documented research in the tension control area was one of the reasons why this project was started. Another, but quite different, reason was the belief that learning different kinds of tension control techniques could be of value for school pupils in our complex and often stressful modern society. A pilot study (Setterlind and Unestahl, 1978) showed some promising results, which strengthened the belief that such methods could be helpful in a variety of situations both in school and in leisure time. An important task in today’s schools ought to be to increase the pupils’ health consciousness by means of sport and other kinds of physical activity, to teach them the value of a well-balanced diet, the danger of drugs etc. These issues are usually emphasized in school curricula and other documents relating to the goals of education, but in Sweden, as in most other countries, the role of relaxation and other tension control techniques have been neglected (Setterlind and Patriksson, 1981).