Norström Fredrik, Bölenius Karin, Sahlén Klas-Göran, Zingmark Magnus, Pettersson-Strömbäck Anita
Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Umeå, 901 87, Sweden.
Department of Nursing, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2025 Jan 24;25(1):137. doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-12161-y.
The in-home work environment is the main work environment for home care workers, but it has only been sparsely studied. Our aim was to investigate the in-home work environment for home care workers by exploring challenges that arise regardless of a pandemic and by investigating Covid-19-specific challenges.
Two cross-sectional studies were conducted, one before (2017) and one during the pandemic (2021/2022) in three Swedish regions (Jämtland/Härjedalen, Västerbotten and Västernorrland), in which 1,154 (58%) out of 2,000 and 629 (33%) of 1,900 invited home care workers participated, respectively. Participants responded to a questionnaire asking about 10 problems associated with the in-home work environment as well as Covid-19-related challenges. Comparisons were conducted between regions and between study years using univariable analyses.
Daily problems with the in-home work environment were common before the pandemic, and they increased statistically significantly during the pandemic for, among other things, non-ergonomic beds (29% vs. 37%), impractical bathrooms (40% vs. 50%), indoor smoking (24% vs. 31%), and pets (19% vs. 25%). There were major concerns about the risk of getting infected with Covid-19 for both staff (42%) and the home care recipients (50%). There were statistically significant differences between regions, e.g. many problems were more common in the Västerbotten region than in the other two regions during the pandemic, while challenges with protective equipment was most common in the Västernorrland region.
In-home work environment problems are common for home care workers and worsen in a more strained situation. Efforts are needed to strengthen the work environment for home care workers.
家庭护理人员的主要工作环境是居家工作环境，但对此的研究却非常稀少。我们的目的是通过探究无论疫情与否都会出现的挑战以及调查新冠疫情特有的挑战，来研究家庭护理人员的居家工作环境。
在瑞典的三个地区（耶姆特兰/哈耶达伦、西博滕和北博滕）分别于疫情前（2017年）和疫情期间（2021/2022年）进行了两项横断面研究，2000名受邀的家庭护理人员中有1154名（58%）参与了2017年的研究，1900名中有629名（33%）参与了疫情期间的研究。参与者回答了一份问卷，问卷询问了与居家工作环境相关的10个问题以及与新冠疫情相关的挑战。使用单变量分析在不同地区和不同研究年份之间进行了比较。
居家工作环境的日常问题在疫情前就很常见，在疫情期间，非符合人体工程学的床（29%对37%）、不实用的浴室（40%对50%）、室内吸烟（24%对31%）和宠物（19%对25%）等问题在统计学上显著增加。工作人员（42%）和家庭护理接受者（50%）都非常担心感染新冠病毒的风险。不同地区之间存在统计学上的显著差异，例如在疫情期间，许多问题在西博滕地区比其他两个地区更常见，而防护设备方面的挑战在北博滕地区最为常见。
居家工作环境问题在家庭护理人员中很常见，在更紧张的情况下会恶化。需要努力加强家庭护理人员的工作环境。
