NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Comprehensive Health Research Centre, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
J Occup Health. 2021 Jan;63(1):e12299. doi: 10.1002/1348-9585.12299.
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed working at home (WAH) into the exclusive mode of working for many European workers. Although WAH will likely remain after COVID-19, its consequences on workers' health are unclear. This study examines the association of WAH and the change of four mental health (MH) domains.
We used data from the last wave of the Survey on Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe, collected in June and July 2020 on European people aged 50 and older. We restricted our analysis to people aged 50-65 who were working before COVID-19 (N = 7065). We modeled the risk of worsening of depression and anxiety feelings, sleeping trouble, and feelings of loneliness as a function of the working situation (usual setting, at home and usual setting, at home only), using logistic regressions. A first model adjusted for sociodemographic variables, a second one adding country fixed effects, and the last one adding the stringency of COVID-19-related restrictions.
WAH was significantly associated with a worsening of all MH symptoms. Nevertheless, when the stringency index was factored in, no significant association of WAH was found with any of the health outcomes except for anxiety feelings (+4.3% points). However, the increased anxiety feelings among people in WAH were not greater than the one observed among nonworkers.
Our findings show that WAH was not a major cause of mental health deterioration among European mature adults during the first month of the pandemic. Further evidence is needed on WAH under post-COVID-19 "normal" circumstances.
COVID-19 大流行将居家办公（WAH）转变为许多欧洲工人的唯一工作模式。尽管 COVID-19 后 WAH 可能仍然存在，但它对工人健康的影响尚不清楚。本研究考察了 WAH 与四个心理健康（MH）领域变化的关联。
我们使用了欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查的最后一波数据，该调查于 2020 年 6 月和 7 月在欧洲 50 岁及以上的人群中进行。我们将分析仅限于在 COVID-19 之前工作的 50-65 岁人群（N=7065）。我们使用逻辑回归模型，将抑郁和焦虑感、睡眠问题和孤独感恶化的风险作为工作情况（通常设置、在家中以及仅在家中）的函数进行建模。第一个模型调整了社会人口统计学变量，第二个模型加入了国家固定效应，最后一个模型加入了 COVID-19 相关限制的严格程度。
WAH 与所有 MH 症状的恶化显著相关。然而，当考虑到严格指数时，WAH 与任何健康结果都没有显著关联，除了焦虑感（增加 4.3%）。然而，WAH 人群中增加的焦虑感并不大于非工作人群。
我们的研究结果表明，WAH 不是 COVID-19 大流行第一个月欧洲成年人大心理健康恶化的主要原因。需要进一步的证据来证明 COVID-19 后“正常”情况下的 WAH。
