Trends in Work Conditions and Associations with Workers' Health in Recent 15 Years: The Role of Job Automation Probability

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2020 Aug 6

PMID 32751463

Citations 1

Authors

Wan-Ju Cheng

Li-Chung Pien

Tomohide Kubo

Yawen Cheng

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Job automation and associated psychosocial hazards are emerging workplace challenges. This study examined the trends in work conditions and associations with workers' health over time in jobs with different automation probabilities. We utilized data from six waves of national questionnaire surveys of randomly selected 95,762 employees between 2001 and 2016. The Job Content Questionnaire, the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, and the Self-Rated Health Scale were applied, and working time was self-reported. Automation probability was derived for 38 occupations and then categorized into three groups. Trends in work conditions and the associations between automation probability, work conditions and health were examined. We observed a 7% decrease in high automation probability jobs, an overall increase in job demands for and prevalence of shift work, and a decrease in job control. Workers with high automation probability jobs had low job demands, low job control and high job insecurity. Low automation probability was associated with burnout in logistic regression models. The odds ratio of job insecurity, long working hours, and shift work relating to health was higher in the later years of the surveys. In conclusion, there has been a decrease in high automation probability jobs. Workers employed in jobs with different levels of automation probability encountered different work condition challenges.

Citing Articles

Association between Workers' Anxiety over Technological Automation and Sleep Disturbance: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey.

Baek S, Yoon J, Won J Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(16).

PMID: 36011684 PMC: 9408459. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191610051.

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