Recovery, work-life balance and work experiences important to self-rated health: A questionnaire study on salutogenic work factors among Swedish primary health care employees.
Lina Ejlertsson, Bodil Heijbel, Göran Ejlertsson and 1 others
PMID 29439377WHAT IT FOUND
Primary care staff who reported recovery, work-life balance, and positive work experiences rated their health higher.
Recovery during working hours was related to higher health ratings regardless of recovery outside work. This was an association, not proof of cause.
Key findings
01In the regression model, recovery had the strongest relationship to self-rated health (beta = 0.34), followed by work-life balance (beta = 0.25) and work experiences (beta = 0.20).
02Recovery during working hours was related to higher self-rated health regardless of recovery outside work.
03Recovery, work-life balance and work experiences were also the most important variables in all four professional groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study measured everything at the same time, so it cannot show that recovery, work-life balance or positive work experiences caused better self-rated health. All data came from self-report, so answers may reflect how people wanted to appear rather than objective workplace conditions. Some personal factors, such as lifestyle, household composition and ongoing illness, were not considered. The sample was limited to primary health care employees in a Swedish district, and managers and owners were excluded. No workplace intervention was tested, so the study does not show that changing these factors improves health.
Declared interests
The authors declared that they had no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing recovery during working hours will cause better health. The study found associations only, and it did not test an intervention.