Striking a Balance: Work-Health-Personal Life Conflict in Women and Men with Arthritis and its Association with Work Outcomes

Purpose To examine men and women’s perceptions of inter-role balance/imbalance in work, arthritis, and personal roles and its association with demographic, health and employment factors, including job stress, career satisfaction, job disruptions, absenteeism and perceived productivity losses. Method...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of occupational rehabilitation 2014-09, Vol.24 (3), p.573-584
Main Authors: Gignac, Monique A. M., Lacaille, Diane, Beaton, Dorcas E., Backman, Catherine L., Cao, Xingshan, Badley, Elizabeth M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis
Arthritis
Arthritis - epidemiology
Arthritis - psychology
British Columbia - epidemiology
Career development
Careers
Chronic diseases
Chronic illnesses
Clinical Psychology
Conflict (Psychology)
Conflicts
Employment
Employment - psychology
Environmental Health
Factor analysis
Fatigue - epidemiology
Fatigue - psychology
Female
Gender differences
Health Psychology
Humans
Internal-External Control
Job Satisfaction
Job stress
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Occupational health
Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine
Ontario - epidemiology
Orthopedics
Osteoarthritis
Perceptions
Personnel Staffing and Scheduling
Rehabilitation
Risk assessment
Role
Roles
Sex Factors
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Women
Womens health
Work life balance
Work Schedule Tolerance - physiology
Work Schedule Tolerance - psychology
Worker absenteeism
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Summary:Purpose To examine men and women’s perceptions of inter-role balance/imbalance in work, arthritis, and personal roles and its association with demographic, health and employment factors, including job stress, career satisfaction, job disruptions, absenteeism and perceived productivity losses. Methods Participants were employed, aged ≥40 years and diagnosed with osteoarthritis or inflammatory arthritis. They were recruited through community advertising and rheumatology clinics in two Canadian provinces. Respondents completed a 35–45 min telephone interview and a 20-min self-administered questionnaire assessing role perceptions [(arthritis negatively impacts work (A → W); work/personal life negatively impact arthritis (W/P → A); work as a positive role (W +))], demographic, health and work context information. Analyses included exploratory factor analysis and multivariate regressions. Results Findings revealed similarities between men ( n  = 104) and women ( n  = 248) in health, work and role perceptions, although women reported more benefits of working with arthritis (W+) than men. Some gender differences were found in factors associated with inter-role perceptions highlighting the importance of children, fatigue, unpredictable work hours, job control, and workplace activity limitations. Role perceptions were associated with work outcomes but only one perception, W/P → A, interacted with gender. Among men, greater perceptions that work and personal demands interfered with managing arthritis were associated with more job disruptions. Conclusions This study revealed negative and positive inter-role perceptions related to working with a chronic illness and associations with work outcomes. It highlights potentially modifiable factors that could assess risk and inform interventions to improve role balance and working experiences.
ISSN:1053-0487
1573-3688
DOI:10.1007/s10926-013-9490-5