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Is effort–reward imbalance at work associated with different domains of health functioning? Baseline results from the French CONSTANCES study

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Abstract

Purpose

Despite its importance a comprehensive assessment of health functioning has rarely been included in epidemiological investigations of work-related health outcomes. In this study, we analyzed associations of a health-adverse psychosocial work environment with a comprehensive set of subjective and objective measures of health functioning that cover the three domains of affective, cognitive, and physical functioning.

Methods

Baseline data from the French CONSTANCES cohort study were used with a sample of 24,327 employed men and women aged 45–60. Psychosocial work environment was measured by the short version of the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) questionnaire. Measures of health functioning were depressive symptoms, semantic fluency, verbal memory, walking speed, standing balance and lung function.

Results

First, we replicated main psychometric properties of the ERI questionnaire in the French cohort. Second, ERI scales revealed consistent associations with depressive symptoms, but less consistent links to cognitive and physical function. Among men, we observed an association of stressful work with reduced lung function.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated consistent associations of stressful work in terms of effort–reward imbalance with affective functioning in a large sample of male and female employees. Relationships with physical functioning were less consistent and restricted to men, and cognitive functioning was only marginally associated with stressful work. We also established the psychometric properties of the French short version of the ERI questionnaire, thus offering a tool for guiding and harmonizing further research in this field.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Sebastien Bonenfant, Jian Li, Peter Obert and Céline Ribet.

Funding

This research is supported by funding from the German research foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG, project number SI 236/15-1 and WA 3065/4-1). The CONSTANCES Cohort project is funded by the “Caisse nationale d’assurance maladie des travailleurs salaries” (CNAMTS) and benefits from a grant from ANR (ANR-11-INBS-0002). CONSTANCES is also partly funded by MSD, AstraZeneca and Lundbeck.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senior Professorship on Work Stress Research, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Johannes Siegrist

  2. Institute of Medical Sociology, Centre for Health and Society, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Morten Wahrendorf & Hanno Hoven

  3. INSERM UMS 11, Paris, France

    Marcel Goldberg & Marie Zins

  4. Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

    Marcel Goldberg & Marie Zins

Authors
  1. Johannes Siegrist
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  2. Morten Wahrendorf
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  3. Marcel Goldberg
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  4. Marie Zins
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  5. Hanno Hoven
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanno Hoven.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Ethical considerations

CONSTANCES has obtained authorization from the French National Data Protection Authority (“Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés”) and was approved by the National Council for Statistical Information, the National Medical Council, and the Institutional Review Board of the National Institute for Medical Research17 INSERM.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The analyses were carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available due to legal restrictions, but applications for data access can be submitted in the context of calls for proposals. For more information about how to make use of the CONSTANCES cohort, see http://www.constances.fr/index_EN.php.

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Siegrist, J., Wahrendorf, M., Goldberg, M. et al. Is effort–reward imbalance at work associated with different domains of health functioning? Baseline results from the French CONSTANCES study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 92, 467–480 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-018-1374-8

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