Background: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple psychosocial and environmental work risk factors and sleep disturbances.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 workers in a brick factory in Iran. The health and safety executive (HSE) tool, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Stop-Bang questionnaire were used to determine psychosocial factors, subjective sleepiness, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), respectively. Standard objective methods were used to assess the environmental risk factors, including noise, light, heat stress, and respirable particles.
Results: Most psychosocial and all environmental work factors were moderately to highly correlated to the ESS score. There were also moderate correlations between the demands (including work load, work patterns, and work environment), role (including a clear understanding of the employees about their role in the organization), and lighting variables and the Stop-Bang score. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that job control, wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), and respirable dust were predictive of an ESS score indicating abnormal sleep status and noise was predictive of a Stop-Bang score predictive of OSA.
Conclusions: The results suggest that stressors, especially noise, heat stress, and respirable dust, are related to the employees' indices of sleep disturbance independent of other potential workplace confounding factors. These results can highlight the importance of considering multiple psychosocial and environment work risk factors for implementing occupational health and ergonomics interventional programs to prevent sleep disturbances in the workforce.
Keywords: Ergonomics; Heat stress; Job stress; Light; Noise; Respirable dust; Sleep disorders.