The socio ecological model states that individual behaviors at work are shaped by the interactions between individual employees and their work environments. This study used citizen science to gain insights into which elements of the built, social, and organizational environment in an office and surrounding neighborhoods in two Swedish cities were perceived as barriers to or facilitators of healthy and sustainable behaviors at work. Participants in the eight-week Sustainable Office Intervention pilot study (SOFIA) (n = 33) were cluster-randomized into an experimental arm (sustainable lifestyle) or a control intervention arm (healthy lifestyle). They used the Our Voice Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool mobile app to document contextual elements at their workplaces. In total, 114 photos and text-based narratives were recorded, and four themes emerged: built environment, building design, office ergonomics, and food and beverages. Eighteen percent of the photos were linked to pro-environmental behaviors, all exclusively captured by the experimental arm. Twelve barriers and solutions for improving the workplace environment were identified during discussions with participants in both arms. The findings provide insights for designing or renovating office spaces and urban planning to promote healthier and more sustainable lifestyles for office workers.

Office workers spend most of their working time being sedentary, contributing to a sedentary lifestyle that increases the risk of developing disease and disability. A gradual decline in cardiorespiratory fitness among adults, along with increased rate of non-communicable diseases across developed countries, makes the workplace an important opportunity for promoting healthy behaviors. This study aimed to investigate: how office companies in Sweden organize and provide workplace health promotion services related to physical activity; the companies' vision for providing workplace health promotion; and potential facilitators and barriers. Nine informants from eight companies participated in the study, and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected by semi-structured interviews. Informants were selected through purposive sampling in collaboration with eight companies in the office market, including companies that own and develop office buildings, shared workspaces, interior design, sustainable solutions, or consult on issues related to the office sector. The framework method was used to analyze the data in a flexible and systematic way. The results showed that workplace health promotion is implemented to maintain employee health, productivity, and employee branding. Also, a significant number of financial resources, organizational support and office space are devoted to workplace health promotion. Convenience and easy access to storage and fitness facilities are key facilitators. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of employees' engagement in developing and improving workplace health promotion and addressing work-life balance constraints that hinder a healthy lifestyle. Removing barriers on an organizational level may improve the usage of workplace health promotion related to physical activity among office employees.

The high level of stress among teachers is a frequently reported problem globally but less is known about how demands and resources among teachers affect depressive symptoms, and to what extent gender differences in these conditions can explain potential differences in depressive symptoms. The present study investigated gender differences in teachers’ self-reported depressive symptoms, and differences in their demands and resources in both work and home spheres. Associations between demands and resources, respectively, and depressive symptoms as well as gender differences in these associations were examined. Results from univariate and parallel growth modelling (N = 1,022), using data from six time points (2008 to 2018), found higher levels of depressive symptoms, higher emotional and quantitative work demands, and more time doing unpaid work among female teachers, whereas male teachers reported more time on leisure activities. Emotional and quantitative work demands were associated with depressive symptoms at baseline, and these associations also developed in parallel over time. Leisure time had a negative association with depressive symptoms at baseline. There were no gender differences in the strength of these associations. Findings suggest that gender differences in teachers’ depressive symptoms could be attributable to women’s greater demands in the work sphere and fewer resources in the home sphere than men as opposed to their being more vulnerable to workplace stressors.

Background: Teachers constitute an occupational group experiencing high levels of stress and with high sick-leave rates. Therefore, examining potentially protective factors is important. While prior research has mainly focused on the link between teachers’ own experiences of their work environment and stress-related outcomes, it is also possible that colleagues’ perception of the work environment and their possibilities for dealing with work-related stress contribute to influencing individual teachers’ stress. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers’ reports of high job strain (i.e. high demands and low control) and sense of coherence (SOc), as well as the concentration of colleagues reporting high strain and high SOc, were associated with perceived stress and depressed mood. Methods: The data were derived from the Stockholm Teacher Survey, with information from two cross-sectional web surveys performed in 2014 and in 2016 (N=2732 teachers in 205 school units). Two-level random intercept linear regression models were performed. Results: High job strain at the individual level was associated with higher levels of perceived stress and depressed mood, but less so for individuals with high SOc. furthermore, a greater proportion of colleagues reporting high SOc was associated with lower levels of perceived stress and depressed mood at the individual level. Conclusions: High SOC may be protective against work-related stress among teachers. Additionally, the proportion of colleagues reporting high SOC was related to less individual stress, suggesting a protective effect of school-level collective SOC.

The safety and health of many workers employed in micro-enterprises (with less than 10 employees) is poor, and legal arrangements related to working environments remain a considerable challenge in these enterprises. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how Swedish occupational safety and health (OSH) inspectors perceive themselves as inspectors and their role as bureaucratic regulators when meeting micro-enterprises. In the study, 11 Swedish inspectors were interviewed and asked to reflect on their role as inspectors, how they perceive themselves as inspectors and what their role is as bureaucratic regulators when inspecting micro-enterprises. The qualitative content analysis revealed one theme-a balancing act-and three categories: one inspector, many roles; interactions with micro-entrepreneurs; and exercise the profession as an inspector. The results showed that OSH inspectors experience challenges in meeting the requirements of street-level bureaucracy while addressing the needs of micro-enterprises. In conclusion, OSH inspectors need organisational support to develop inspection models and enforcement styles tailored to micro-enterprises, as this could ease their work and contribute to better inspection outcomes. The implications of this study include a need for increased competence about working environment issues in micro-enterprises, development of enforcement styles among the inspectors, emphasis of the importance of specific governmental projects for OSH and development of models in this enterprise group. Additionally, development of micro-enterprise managers' competence and ability to handle issues related to the working environment and health were also important.

Background: Balancing work and family demands is often a challenge. Family and job responsibilities may affect many aspects of health, and sleep is an important issue. Work-family conflict (WFC) refers to situations where it is difficult to reconcile family and professional demands. WFC can act in two directions: work-to-family conflicts occur when job demands interfere in family life; family-to-work conflicts arise when family demands interfere with job performance. This study evaluated whether dimensions of WFC-time- and strain-related, work-to-family conflict; family-to-work conflict; and lack of time for self-care and leisure due to work and family demands-were cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with sleep complaints, by gender.

Methods: The sample comprised 9,704 active workers (5,057 women and 4,647 men) from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Standardized questionnaires were used to collect data. WFC was measured at baseline (2008-2010), and sleep complaints were measured at baseline and approximately 4 years after the first visit (2012-2014). To test the association between the four WFC dimensions and sleep complaints, crude and multiple logistic regressions were conducted to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. The adjusted model included age, education, marital status, hours worked and work schedule.

Results: Mean age at baseline was 48.2 years. Most participants were educated to University degree level (54.5%), married (68.2%) and worked <= 40 h/week (66.1%). At baseline, 48.3% of women and 41.1% of men reported sleep complaints. Frequent WFC was reported by women and men, respectively, as follows: time-related work-to-family conflict (32.6 and 26.1%), strain-related work-to-family conflict (25.3 and 16.0%), family-to-work conflict (6.6 and 7.6%) and lack of time for self-care (35.2 and 24.7%). For both women and men, time- and strain-related work-to-family conflicts and conflicts for lack of time for self-care were cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with sleep complaints. The findings also suggest a weaker and non-significant association between family-to-work conflict and sleep complaints.

Conclusions: The statistically significant associations observed here underline the importance of reducing WFC. In the modern world, both WFC and sleep problems are increasingly recognized as frequent problems that often lead to ill health, thus posing a public health challenge.

Purpose: In a patient with clinically significant hyponatremia without other clear causes, thiazide treatment should be replaced with another drug. Data describing to which extent this is being done are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors that may be of importance for the withdrawal of thiazide diuretics in patients hospitalized due to hyponatremia.

Methods: The study population was sampled from a case-control study investigating individuals hospitalized with a main diagnosis of hyponatremia. For every case, four matched controls were included. In the present study, cases (n = 5204) and controls (n = 7425) that had been dispensed a thiazide diuretic prior to index date were identified and followed onward regarding further dispensations. To investigate the influence of socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors, multiple logistic regression was used.

Results: The crude prevalence of thiazide withdrawal for cases and controls was 71.9% and 10.8%, respectively. Thiazide diuretics were more often withdrawn in medium-sized towns (adjusted OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.21-1.90) and rural areas (aOR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.40-2.34) compared with metropolitan areas and less so among divorced (aOR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53-0.97). However, education, employment status, income, age, country of birth, and gender did not influence withdrawal of thiazides among patients with hyponatremia.

Conclusions: Thiazide diuretics were discontinued in almost three out of four patients hospitalized due to hyponatremia. Educational, income, gender, and most other sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors were not associated with withdrawal of thiazides.

In this study, 11 Swedish occupational safety and health (OSH) inspectors were interviewed about their views of and experiences interacting with micro-enterprises (1-9 employees). The qualitative content analysis found one theme, “Falling outside the system”, and three subthemes, “The inspector—shaped by specific standards”, “The bureaucrat and the micro-entrepreneur—two separate worlds”, and “System faults and system changes”. According to the inspectors, the Swedish OSH regulatory system, with inspectors on the front line, neglects the specific needs, circumstances and characteristics of micro-enterprises. Therefore, we suggest revising the OSH regulatory system and following inspection methods and enforcement styles to better address the needs of micro-enterprises.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to examine to what extent human service work and family caregiving is associated with emotional exhaustion and sickness absence, and to what extent combining human service work and family caregiving is associated with additional odds. Methods: Data were derived from participants in paid work from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, year 2016 (n = 11 951). Logistic regression analyses were performed and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals estimated for the association between human service work and family caregiving, respectively, as well as combinations of the two on one hand, and emotional exhaustion and self-reported sickness absence on the other hand. Interaction between human service work and family caregiving was assessed as departure from additivity with Rothman's synergy index. Results: Human service work was not associated with higher odds of emotional exhaustion, but with higher odds of sickness absence. Providing childcare was associated with higher odds of emotional exhaustion, but lower odds of sickness absence, and caring for a relative was associated with higher odds of both emotional exhaustion and sickness absence. There was no indication of an additive interaction between human service work and family caregiving in relation to neither emotional exhaustion nor sickness absence. Conclusions: We did not find support for the common assumption that long hours providing service and care for others by combining human service work with family caregiving can explain the higher risk of sickness absence or emotional exhaustion among employees in human service occupations.

This study uses a person-centered approach to distinguish between subpopulations of self-employed individuals using multidimensional well-being indicators. Data were obtained from European Social Survey including a sample of 3461 self-employed individuals from 29 European countries. The analysis has empirically identified six distinct profiles named 'unhappy', 'languishing', 'happy', 'satisfied', 'passionate', and 'flourishing'. The profiles were associated with significant differences in well-being, health and work-related variables. The results highlight the heterogeneity of the self-employed population, and describe the complex-both hedonic and eudaimonic-character of the well-being concept in this population.