Skip to main content
Top

Open Access 07-05-2024 | Original Article

Association between work-related factors and health behaviour clusters among Finnish private-sector service workers

Authors: Elviira Lehto, Liisa Uusitalo, Tiina Saari, Ossi Rahkonen, Maijaliisa Erkkola, Jaakko Nevalainen

Published in: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

We examined how work-related factors associate with several health behaviours that appear together among the large, but less-studied, blue- and pink-collar worker group, which is characterized by low education and income levels.

Methods

In 2019, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among private sector service workers (n = 5256) in Finland. We applied two-step cluster analysis to identify groups on the basis of leisure-time physical activity, sleep adequacy, frequency of heavy drinking, smoking status, and frequency of fruit, vegetable and berry consumption. We examined the associations with work-related factors, using multinomial regression analyses and adjusting for confounding factors.

Results

We identified six clusters labelled as Moderately Healthy (28% of the participants), Healthy – Vigorous Exercise (19%), Sedentary Lifestyle (16%), Inadequate Sleep (15%), Mixed Health Behaviours (15%), and Multiple Risk Behaviours (8%). Those who perceived their work to be mentally or physically strenuous more commonly belonged to the Inadequate Sleep and Multiple Risk Behaviours clusters. Time pressure made belonging to the Inadequate Sleep, Mixed Health Behaviours, and Multiple Risk Behaviours clusters more likely. Those who were dissatisfied with their work more often belonged to the Healthy – Vigorous Exercise, Inadequate Sleep, and Multiple Risk Behaviours clusters.

Conclusion

In addition of finding several considerably differing health behaviour clusters, we also found that adverse working conditions were associated with clusters characterized by multiple risk behaviours, especially inadequate sleep. Private-sector service workers’ working conditions should be improved so that they support sufficient recovery, and occupational health services should better identify co-occurring multiple risk behaviours.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
go back to reference Chiu T, Fang D, Chen J et al (2001) A Robust and Scalable Clustering Algorithm for Mixed Type Attributes in Large Database Environment. In: Proceedings of the Seventh ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, pp 263–268 Chiu T, Fang D, Chen J et al (2001) A Robust and Scalable Clustering Algorithm for Mixed Type Attributes in Large Database Environment. In: Proceedings of the Seventh ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, pp 263–268
go back to reference De La Portero S, Cebrino J, Sanz-Valero J, Ronda E (2021) Trends in Diet Quality and Related Sociodemographic, Health, and Occupational Characteristics among Workers in Spain: Results from three Consecutive National Health surveys (2006–2017). Nutrients 13:1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020522CrossRef De La Portero S, Cebrino J, Sanz-Valero J, Ronda E (2021) Trends in Diet Quality and Related Sociodemographic, Health, and Occupational Characteristics among Workers in Spain: Results from three Consecutive National Health surveys (2006–2017). Nutrients 13:1–16. https://​doi.​org/​10.​3390/​nu13020522CrossRef
go back to reference Huijts T, Gkiouleka A, Reibling N et al (2017) Educational inequalities in risky health behaviours in 21 European countries: findings from the European social survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. Eur J Public Health 27(63–72). https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw220 Huijts T, Gkiouleka A, Reibling N et al (2017) Educational inequalities in risky health behaviours in 21 European countries: findings from the European social survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. Eur J Public Health 27(63–72). https://​doi.​org/​10.​1093/​eurpub/​ckw220
go back to reference IBM Corp (2021) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows IBM Corp (2021) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows
go back to reference National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (US) Office on Smoking and Health (2014) The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta (GA) National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (US) Office on Smoking and Health (2014) The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta (GA)
go back to reference Östergren O, Martikainen P, Tarkiainen L et al (2019) Contribution of smoking and alcohol consumption to income differences in life expectancy: evidence using Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish register data. J Epidemiol Community Health (1978) 73(334). https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-211640 Östergren O, Martikainen P, Tarkiainen L et al (2019) Contribution of smoking and alcohol consumption to income differences in life expectancy: evidence using Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish register data. J Epidemiol Community Health (1978) 73(334). https://​doi.​org/​10.​1136/​jech-2018-211640
go back to reference Rasmussen CL, Palarea-Albaladejo J, Bauman A et al (2018) Does physically demanding work hinder a physically active lifestyle in low socioeconomic workers? A compositional data analysis based on accelerometer data. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15:1306. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071306 Rasmussen CL, Palarea-Albaladejo J, Bauman A et al (2018) Does physically demanding work hinder a physically active lifestyle in low socioeconomic workers? A compositional data analysis based on accelerometer data. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15:1306. https://​doi.​org/​10.​3390/​ijerph15071306
Metadata
Title
Association between work-related factors and health behaviour clusters among Finnish private-sector service workers
Authors
Elviira Lehto
Liisa Uusitalo
Tiina Saari
Ossi Rahkonen
Maijaliisa Erkkola
Jaakko Nevalainen
Publication date
07-05-2024
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
Print ISSN: 0340-0131
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1246
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-024-02069-9