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. 2017 Aug 14:10:167-175.
doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S139756. eCollection 2017.

Health promotion, psychological distress, and disease prevention in the workplace: a cross-sectional study of Italian adults

Tiziana Ramaci  1 , Monica Pellerone  1 , Caterina Ledda  2 , Venerando Rapisarda  2
Affiliations

Health promotion, psychological distress, and disease prevention in the workplace: a cross-sectional study of Italian adults

Tiziana Ramaci et al. Risk Manag Healthc Policy. .

Abstract

Background: Job insecurity resulting from new types of employment contracts, together with organizational dynamics such as restructuring and internationalization, is emerging as an important source of organizational and individual stress, often transforming the workplace into a hostile and, above all, extremely demanding context from a psychological point of view.

Materials and methods: The aim of this study was to identify the possible relationships between individual and organizational dimensions of work (such as engagement, autonomy, personal and collective efficacy at work, and satisfaction) and their impact on stress levels. The survey involved 120 Italian workers: 72 females (60%) and 48 males (40%), with a mean age of 41.8 years ±7.31 years. The groups of participants were selected on the basis of employment contract type (traditional or atypical) to emphasize potential differences. The study was conducted using a set of self-administered questionnaires, including the Psychological Stress Measure and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.

Results: The data show that personal and collective efficacy at work correlates negatively with stress, which in turn correlates negatively with engagement and satisfaction. The results support the hypothesis that job insecurity could be considered a strong predictor of poor health.

Conclusion: The study should be considered as a preliminary assessment prior to studies of broader interventions to increase quality of life.

Keywords: autonomy; efficacy; organizational process; satisfaction; stress; well-being; workers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors declare that the present research has not had commercial or financial relationships that could be represented as a potential conflict of interest. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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