Work/ family demands and cardiometabolic risk and sleep duration in extended care employees: multilevel findings from the Work, family and Health Network

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2015

Journal / Book Title

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Abstract

The study investigates the associations of work-family conflict and other work and family conditions with objectively-measured outcomes cardiometabolic risk and sleep duration in a study of employees in nursing homes. Multilevel analyses are used to assess cross-sectional associations between employee and job characteristics and health in analyses of 1,524 employees in 30 extended care facilities in a single company. We examine work and family conditions in relation to two major study health outcomes: 1) a validated, Framingham cardiometabolic risk score based on measured blood pressure, cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), body mass index (BMI), and self-reported tobacco consumption, and 2) wrist actigraphy-based measures of sleep duration. In fully-adjusted multi-level models, Work-To-Family conflict, but not Family-to-Work conflict was positively associated with cardiometabolic risk. Having a lower-level occupation (nursing assistants vs. nurses) was also associated with increased cardiometabolic risk, while being married and having younger children at home was protective. A significant age by Work-To-Family conflict interaction revealed that higher Work-To-Family conflict was more strongly associated with increased cardiometabolic risk in younger employees. With regard to sleep duration, high Family-To-Work Conflict was significantly associated with shorter sleep duration. In addition, working long hours and having younger children at home were both independently associated with shorter sleep duration. High Work-To-Family Conflict was associated with longer sleep duration. These results indicate that different dimensions of work-family conflict (i.e., Work-To-Family Conflict and Family-To-Work Conflict) may both pose threats to cardiometabolic risk and sleep duration for employees. This study contributes to the research on work- family conflict suggesting that Work-To-Family and Family-To-Work conflict are associated with specific outcomes. Translating theory and our findings to preventive interventions entails recognition of the dimensionality of work and family dynamics and the need to target specific work and family conditions.

DOI

10.1037/a0039143

Published Citation

Berkman LF, Liu SY, Hammer L, Moen P, Klein LC, Kelly E, Fay M, Davis K, Durham M, Karuntzos G, Buxton OM. Work-family conflict, cardiometabolic risk, and sleep duration in nursing employees. J Occup Health Psychol. 2015 Oct;20(4):420-33. doi: 10.1037/a0039143. Epub 2015 May 11. PMID: 25961758; PMCID: PMC4586296.

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