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Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology
Published in: Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology 1/2012

Open Access 01-12-2012 | Research

Assessing and improving health in the workplace: an integration of subjective and objective measures with the STress Assessment and Research Toolkit (St.A.R.T.) method

Authors: Chiara Panari, Dina Guglielmi, Aurora Ricci, Maria Carla Tabanelli, Francesco Saverio Violante

Published in: Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology | Issue 1/2012

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Abstract

Background

The aim of this work was to introduce a new combined method of subjective and objective measures to assess psychosocial risk factors at work and improve workers’ health and well-being. In the literature most of the research on work-related stress focuses on self-report measures and this work represents the first methodology capable of integrating different sources of data.

Method

An integrated method entitled St.A.R.T. (STress Assessment and Research Toolkit) was used in order to assess psychosocial risk factors and two health outcomes. In particular, a self-report questionnaire combined with an observational structured checklist was administered to 113 workers from an Italian retail company.

Results

The data showed a correlation between subjective data and the rating data of the observational checklist for the psychosocial risk factors related to work contexts such as customer relationship management and customer queue. Conversely, the factors related to work content (workload and boredom) measured with different methods (subjective vs. objective) showed a discrepancy. Furthermore, subjective measures of psychosocial risk factors were more predictive of workers’ psychological health and exhaustion than rating data. The different objective measures played different roles, however, in terms of their influence on the two health outcomes considered.

Conclusions

It is important to integrate self-related assessment of stressors with objective measures for a better understanding of workers’ conditions in the workplace. The method presented could be considered a useful methodology for combining the two measures and differentiating the impact of different psychological risk factors related to work content and context on workers’ health.
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Metadata
Title
Assessing and improving health in the workplace: an integration of subjective and objective measures with the STress Assessment and Research Toolkit (St.A.R.T.) method
Authors
Chiara Panari
Dina Guglielmi
Aurora Ricci
Maria Carla Tabanelli
Francesco Saverio Violante
Publication date
01-12-2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology / Issue 1/2012
Electronic ISSN: 1745-6673
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6673-7-18

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