[Psychosocial risks at work and occupational health]

Abstract

The changes on work processes and job design in recent decades are focused in the demographic, economic, political, and technological aspects. These changes have created new psychosocial risks at work that affect the health and quality of workplace, increasing stress levels among workers. The aim of this study is to present such risks, their consequences, and some recommendations to promote health at the workplace as a strategy to improve public health of the population. The study is divided into five points in which: (1) introduces the concept of risk factors and psychosocial work, (2) describes the main emerging psychosocial risks labor, (3) provides some information on the prevalence of psychosocial risks at work in Europe and its consequences, (4) recommendations for health promotion in the workplace, and (5) describes the objective of Occupational Health Psychology and concludes with the recommendations to promote psychosocial health in the workplace as a strategy to improve public health of the population.