Public Health Research Group, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
Occup Med (Lond). 2011 Oct;61(7):503-8. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqr124. Epub 2011 Sep 2.
Work ability is predicted by age- and work-related psychosocial hazards; however, its association with work experience has not been studied. Work ability has not been studied in prison environments as well.
To describe work ability and its associates among prison workers.
A cross-sectional study was carried out in two prisons in Spain, one large and one medium prison, randomly selected from 17 in total. Prison workers were randomly administered a voluntary anonymous questionnaire to measure work ability [Work Ability Index (WAI)], work-related psychosocial hazards (Spanish version of COPSOQ), sociodemographic, lifestyle and work-related variables.
Four hundred and forty-one workers (54%) participated. Results confirmed that older and more experienced workers (analysis of variance analysis) and workers in large prisons (t-student) presented significantly lower WAI scores. Quantitative and emotional demands, family work conflict, low work control, low autonomy, low social support from colleagues and stress had negative significant associations with WAI. Age, which highly correlated with work experience (Spearman's r = 0.85), had significant association with WAI (beta = -0.62). In the stepwise linear regression, the association between age and WAI lost statistical significance after controlling for work experience, which maintained significant correlation with WAI (beta = -0.37).
The apparent association between age and WAI was confounded by work experience. Interventions to improve work ability among prison workers may benefit from results of this study to focus their efforts on the risk groups in such a psychologically demanding work environment rarely examined in previous research.
工作能力可由年龄和与工作相关的心理社会危害来预测；然而，其与工作经验的关系尚未得到研究。监狱环境中也尚未研究工作能力。
描述监狱工作者的工作能力及其相关因素。
在西班牙的两所监狱（一所大型监狱和一所中型监狱）中进行了一项横断面研究，这些监狱是从总共 17 所监狱中随机选择的。监狱工作人员被随机发放一份自愿匿名问卷，以测量工作能力[工作能力指数（WAI）]、与工作相关的心理社会危害（COPSOQ 西班牙语版）、社会人口统计学、生活方式和与工作相关的变量。
共有 441 名工作人员（54%）参与了研究。结果证实，年龄较大和经验较丰富的工人（方差分析）以及在大型监狱工作的工人（学生 t 检验）的 WAI 评分明显较低。定量和情绪需求、家庭工作冲突、低工作控制、低自主权、低同事社会支持和压力与 WAI 呈负相关。与工作经验高度相关的年龄（Spearman r = 0.85）与 WAI 呈显著相关（β = -0.62）。在逐步线性回归中，在控制工作经验后，年龄与 WAI 之间的关联失去了统计学意义，而工作经验与 WAI 仍保持显著相关性（β = -0.37）。
年龄与 WAI 之间的明显关联被工作经验所混淆。改善监狱工作者工作能力的干预措施可能会受益于本研究的结果，以便在这种以前的研究很少涉及的心理要求很高的工作环境中，将精力集中在风险群体上。
