Schichtarbeit und Gesundheit in einem Großunternehmen der chemischen Industrie

Zusammenfassung

Hintergrund und Fragestellung: Schichtarbeit ist in unserer 24-h-Gesellschaft unabdingbar. Gleichzeitig belegen wissenschaftliche Arbeiten einen möglichen negativen Einfluss auf den Gesundheitszustand der Mitarbeiter. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde das Schichtsystem eines Großunternehmens der chemischen Industrie mit verschiedenen Studienansätzen untersucht.

Patienten und Methodik: An der Querschnittstudie nahmen 1494 gewerblich tätige Mitarbeiter teil (825 in Wechselschicht und 669 in Normalschicht). Im Rahmen eines Gesundheits-Checks wurde bei den Teilnehmern u. a. die Stresswahrnehmung und Einschätzung der eigenen Work-Life-Balance zwischen den beiden Arbeitszeitformen verglichen.

Ergebnisse: Die Mitarbeiter im Wechselschicht-System gaben seltener an, unter Termindruck zu leiden (p = 0,008) oder „gestresst“ zu sein (p = 0,01). Keine signifikanten Unterschiede zeigten sich im Hinblick auf andere Aspekte der Stresswahrnehmung sowie der eigenen Work-Life-Balance.

Folgerung: Entgegen der allgemeinen Einschätzung und Studienergebnissen aus der Vergangenheit fanden wir keinen negativen Einfluss des Wechselschicht-Systems auf die Stresswahrnehmung. Die Ergebnisse decken sich mit weiteren Ergebnissen verschiedener Studien (Kohorten- und Querschnittstudien) zum Schichtsystem des Unternehmens, die keinen Unterschied im Gesundheitszustand zwischen Wechselschicht- und Normalschicht-Mitarbeitern fanden.

Abstract

Background and objective: Shiftwork is an essential part of our society. At the same time scientific evaluations demonstrate possible negative effects of shiftwork on the health status of the employees. Against this background we performed different studies to evaluate these effects within the specific shift system in a large chemical site in Germany.

Methods and studygroup: To evaluate the impact of the different working times on job-related stress perception and work-life-balance we performed a cross-sectional study with 1494 blue collar workers (825 shift- and 669 day workers).

Results: Employees working in the rotating shift system reported lower frequencies of perceived time pressure (p = 0.008), and lower stress levels (p = 0.01), compared to the day workers. No significant difference was found with regard to work-life-balance and other aspects of job-related stress perception within both groups.

Conclusion: Against the general opinion and study-results in the past we did not find a negative effect of our shift-system on self-reported stress. These results are in accordance with results of other cohort-studies on the specific shift system within the company demonstrating no difference in the health status of our shift workers compared to day workers.

Schlüsselwörter

Schichtarbeit - Gesundheitszustand - chemische Industrie - Stresswahrnehmung - Work-Life-Balance

Keywords

shiftwork - health status - chemical industry - stress perception - work-life balance

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