Prepared for Home-Based Telework? The Relation between Telework Experience and Successful Workplace Arrangements for Home-Based Telework During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: This article focuses on the perceived effects of home-based telework during the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to five outcomes (job satisfaction, burnout, work-family conflicts, technostress, and social isolation) and how these are affected by workplace arrangements and telework experience. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey data from employees in the IT, finance, and insurance sector collected during the COVID-19 crisis ( N = 808) were used for the study. RESULTS: Outcomes are most negatively affected by feelings of surveillance and most positively affected by suitably equipped offices. Organizational teleworker support is most strongly related to job satisfaction. Experienced teleworkers report better outcomes, because of improved support, less perceived surveillance, and better equipped home stations. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptation of management strategies avoiding surveillance and suitable setups of home offices to reconcile work and private spheres are key to well-being of teleworkers.

Escape or activate? Pathways of work stress on substance use.

BACKGROUND: Research on the spillover effects of work stress on substance use have mainly focused on the concept of escapist substance. OBJECTIVE: Building on the concept of self-endangering work behavior, we expand this stress-theoretic view with a presenteeism path of work-induced substance use. Contrary to emotion-based disengaging coping strategies associated with escapist use, we argue that high job demands may also promote problem-focused engagement coping, where substances are used for activation. METHODS: A structural equation model was used to analyze both assumed pathways of stress-induced substance use with survey data from a random sample of n = 411 employees. RESULTS: We confirmed that high job demands are directly related to escapist substance use, but indirectly related to activating substance use, mediated by presenteeism behavior. Both types of substance use are reduced in organizations with high psychosocial safety climate, but increase with higher competitive climate. Social support is related to reduced activating substance use. Males show a stronger tendency for the escapist path, whereas the presenteeism path is more prevalent in women. CONCLUSION: Work stress may not only induce substance use as a disengaging emotional coping strategy, but also as an active problem-focused coping strategy, where employees engage in substance use to continue their efforts necessary for work-related goal attainment. A psychosocial safety climate may provide opportunities for intervening on the "cause of causes" of substance use. Moreover, due to the higher prevalence for activating substance use in female workers, previous research may have underestimated women's risks for work-induced substance use.

Home-Based Telework and Presenteeism: New Lessons Learned From the Covid-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research found increased sickness presenteeism (working despite sickness) associated with home-based telework. The Covid-19 pandemic offers new insights into mechanisms, as a large proportion of the workforce was forced to work from home, irrespective of organizational and individual predispositions. METHODS: A path analysis based on survey data from a sample of teleworkers collected during the Covid-crisis was performed. RESULTS: We found no general relationship between telework and sickness presenteeism. However, employees with telework experience before the pandemic use telework more often for work intensification which is associated with increased sickness presenteeism. As teleworking before the pandemic is associated with indirect work control (goal-directed management), indirect effects of such work organizations on presenteeism were confirmed. CONCLUSION: As hypothesized in prior research, indirect work control may increase self-endangering behavior which is amplified by telework.

Is it feasible to assess self-reported quality of life in individuals who are deaf and have intellectual disabilities?

PURPOSE: There is consensus that Quality of Life (QOL) should be obtained through self-reports from people with intellectual Disability (ID). Thus far, there have been no attempts to collect self-reported QOL from people who are deaf and have ID. METHODS: Based on an established short measure for QOL (EUROHIS-QOL), an adapted easy-to-understand sign language interview was developed and applied in a population (n = 61) with severe-to-profound hearing loss and mild-to-profound ID. Self-reports were conducted at two time points (t1 and t2), 6 months apart. The Stark QOL, an established picture-based questionnaire, was also obtained at t2 and three Proxy ratings of QOL (from caregivers) were conducted for each participant at t1. RESULTS: Self-reported QOL was successfully administered at both time points for 44 individuals with mild and moderate ID (IQ reference age between 3.3 and 11.8 years). The self-reports showed sufficient test-retest reliability and significant correlations with the Stark QOL. As anticipated, self-reported QOL was higher than proxy-reported QOL. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were good for self-reported QOL. CONCLUSION: Reliable and valid self-reports of QOL can be obtained from deaf adults with mild-moderate ID using standard inventories adapted to the linguistic and cognitive level of these individuals.

Subjective Estimation of Health Literacy-What Is Measured by the HLS-EU Scale and How Is It Linked to Empowerment?

A recently published study introduced a new instrument (HLS-EU) for the measurement of health literacy (HL) and comparative data at population level for this measure across eight European Union (EU) countries, and revealed significant differences in HL at population level. The HLS-EU instrument consists of items that aim to assess respondents' estimation of difficulties regarding different health-related tasks, and it is therefore a measure of subjective HL. With help of a two-step approach, the present study, which was conducted in Austria, aimed to investigate individual experiences and factors that are associated with high or low values of subjective HL as measured by the HLS-EU scale. In a first step, qualitative data from 20 cognitive interviews for the short version of the HLS-EU scale were analyzed. In a second step, the preliminary results of the qualitative analysis were validated with the help of a standardized survey (n = 800). Results show that subjective HL may be grounded either in high empowerment, including high personal and social skills and resources, or in a lack of health-related experience and reduced critical contemplation but high trust in the health system, which is paired with paternalistic preferences. As a conclusion, it is recommended that research should acknowledge the heterogeneous and multidimensional nature of subjective HL.

Determinants of presenteeism prevalence and propensity: Two sides of the same coin?

Research on the determinants of sickness presence can be based on employees' number of sickness presence days or employees' propensity to "opt" for presenteeism in case of sickness. This study compares associations between potential determinants and presenteeism in cross-sectional data from a sample of Austrian employees by considering days of sickness absence and presence and an estimator for sickness-presence propensity as outcome variables. The sets of significant determinants for the number of sickness presence days and propensity were found to be overlapping, but not equivalent. Whereas determinants of the number of days can help to identify groups with high presenteeism prevalence, determinants of propensity can help to identify factors that restrict the decision process in case of sickness. With respect to possible interventions aimed at reducing presenteeism, results relating to both perspectives should be considered.

Sickness presence, sick leave and adjustment latitude.

OBJECTIVES: Previous research on the association between adjustment latitude (defined as the opportunity to adjust work efforts in case of illness) and sickness absence and sickness presence has produced inconsistent results. In particular, low adjustment latitude has been identified as both a risk factor and a deterrent of sick leave. The present study uses an alternative analytical strategy with the aim of joining these results together. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, a random sample of employees covered by the Upper Austrian Sickness Fund (N = 930) was analyzed. Logistic and ordinary least square (OLS) regression models were used to examine the association between adjustment latitude and days of sickness absence, sickness presence, and an estimator for the individual sickness absence and sickness presence propensity. RESULTS: A high level of adjustment latitude was found to be associated with a reduced number of days of sickness absence and sickness presence, but an elevated propensity for sickness absence. CONCLUSIONS: Employees with high adjustment latitude experience fewer days of health complaints associated with lower rates of sick leave and sickness presence compared to those with low adjustment latitude. In case of illness, however, high adjustment latitude is associated with a higher probability of taking sick leave rather than sickness presence.

Effects of social networks on the quality of life in an elder and middle-aged deaf community sample.

This article endeavors to investigate the role of social networks in contributing to the quality of life of an elder and middle-aged Deaf population. In particular, it poses the question of whether a certain network composition (deaf and hearing network persons) provides positive resources to improve quality of life and attempts to identify moderating and mediating connections between social networks and quality of life. Based on the data collected in a survey of 107 members of the Deaf community aged 45-81 years, it was possible to ascertain the fact that a larger social network is significantly associated with a higher quality of life, but the size of the deaf network is principally decisive. The hypothesis that a bicultural network composition would have a particular positive effect on the quality of life could not be confirmed. Findings revealed that the effect of deaf network size on the quality of life is mediated by personal resources concerning self-efficacy and communication skills. Moreover, evidence was sound for the functional equivalence of social and personal resources, which suggests that potential negative effects of reduced personal resources on the quality of life could possibly be compensated by a larger deaf network and vice versa.

Mental distress and quality of life in a deaf population.

BACKGROUND: High risks of mental illness within the deaf community are reported. The assessment of the level of mental distress and quality of life in the deaf community is difficult due to communication problems in spoken and written language. The deaf community is characterized by the use of sign language. METHODS: A new measure of acceptable reliability using sign language is described. The interactive computerised package including special versions of the World Health Organisation's Brief Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF), the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and five subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) was administered to a large community sample of deaf people (n = 236), and results were compared with normative data for German-speaking hearing people. RESULTS: The deaf sample has a significantly poorer quality of life than the general population for the physical and psychological domains (p < 0.01) as measured by the WHOQOL-BREF. However, in the domain of social relationships, no significant difference (p = 0.19) was demonstrated. All findings with the GHQ-12 and the BSI show much higher levels (p = 0.01) of emotional distress among the deaf. CONCLUSION: Although a poorer quality of life and a higher level of mental distress are demonstrated, the similarity to the general population in the domain social relationships shows that this does not affect all domains. These findings show the need for easily accessible health services for the deaf which offer sensitive communication with them.

An innovative and reliable way of measuring health-related quality of life and mental distress in the deaf community.

BACKGROUND: Structured assessment of quality of life and mental distress in deaf people is difficult for various reasons. This paper describes the development and reliability of an interactive computer-based assessment package for measuring quality of life and psychological distress in the deaf population. METHODS: The Brief version of the WHO Quality of Life (WHOQOL) Questionnaire, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) had been translated into sign-language and videotaped. A total of 236 members of the deaf community in Upper Austria participated by responding to a programme consisting of self-administered written and videotaped test-items presented to them on a notebook computer. The reliability of the various assessments was established on this large community sample. RESULTS: When reliability of the versions for the deaf was compared with that of written versions of the same measures in general population samples, it was found to be somewhat lower, although still in an acceptable range, for the WHO-QOL and the GHQ-12. For the BSI, the reliability was even higher than that of the general population. CONCLUSIONS: For deaf individuals whose preferred communication is sign language, quality of life and mental distress can be effectively and reliably assessed with the use of carefully translated and adapted common instruments.