Background Occupational stress is major health risk factor in occupational population. It is reported to be associated with sleep disturbance. Sleep disorder is associated with increased risks of obesity, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. Many occupational hazards in working environment and long-term shif work lead to occupatonal stress, insomnia, and other adverse health effects of steel workers.
Objective This cross-sectional study aims to explore the association between occupational stress and insomnia in steel workers, and provide a theoretcal basis for improving health level and sleep quality of steel workers.
Methods A total of 5 769 steel workers who took part in the annual health examinaton of a steel company from February to October 2017 in Hebei Province were enrolled for this study. Gender, age, educatonal level, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, employment time, shift work, and other demographic, behavioral, or job characteristics were collected using questonnaire interviewed fact-to-face by trained interviewers. The Chinese brief version of Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) was used to evaluate occupatonal stress, and the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) was used to evaluate insomnia. Logistc regression analysis was used to explore the relatonship between occupatonal stress and insomnia afer excluding the influence of selected demographic factors, behavior indicators, and job characteristcs.
Results Of the 5 769 partcipants, most were male (91.2%). The mean age of all partcipants was (42.9±8.6) years. The prevalence rate of insomnia in the steel workers was 33.8%. The univariate analysis results showed that the steel workers with alcohol consumpton of 13- 33.9 g/d, monthly family income less than 2 000 yuan, shif work, and regular employment contract had a lower prevalence of insomnia than the others (P < 0.05). The steel workers with high occupatonal stress, high effort, low reward, and high over-commitment had a higher prevalence of insomnia than the others (P < 0.001). Afer combining the subgroups of occupatonal stress and over-commitment, a signifcant difference in the prevalence rate of insomnia was found among the four combinatons (P < 0.001), and the highest rate was 46.9% in the high stress-high over-commitment group. The results of logistc regression analysis demonstrated that the steel workers with high occupatonal stress had a higher risk of insomnia (OR:1.68; 95%CI:1.45-1.94) than those with low occupatonal stress; those with high over-commitment had a higher risk of insomnia (OR:1.23; 95%CI:1.09-1.38) than those with low over-commitment; those with high occupatonal stress and over-commitment had a higher risk of insomnia (OR:2.11; 95%CI:1.80-2.48) than those with low occupatonal stress and over-commitment.
Conclusion Occupatonal stress is a risk factor of insomnia in the steel workers. Corresponding strategies and measures are required to relieve occupatonal stress and reduce insomnia rate of steel workers.
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