Work and health characteristics of oral health providers who stay healthy at work – a prospective study in public dentistry

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conditions for sickness presence and sickness absence for (A) Healthy group, (B) Semi healthy group and (C) Unhealthy group.

Table 2. Comparison between subgroups; (A) Healthy Group (Healthy) (n = 66), (B) Semi Healthy group (Semi healthy) (n = 45), (C) Unhealthy Group (Unhealthy) (n = 57) concerning work ability and musculoskeletal pain in percent (%).

	2012			2014			Comparisons within 2012 and 2014
Variable	a) Healthy	b) Semi healthy	c) Un healthy	a) Healthy	b) Semi healthy	c) Un healthy	a	b	c
Good work ability in relation to physical demands	59%	47%	19%<a,b***	65%>b,c***	31%	23%		n.s
Good work ability in relation to mental demands	56%	64%	32%<a,b**	58% >c **	42%	32%		n.s
Good prognosis of staying in work	99%	100%	98%	99%	96%	95%		n.s
No sleep problems due to work	83%	89%	90%	89%	87%	84%		n.s
No Pain, during past 12 months:
Neck	49% >c***	29%	14%	63% >c***	38% >c**	12%		n.s
Shoulders	59% >b**, >c***	31%	12%	55% >c***	33%	19%		n.s
Elbows	89%	80%	72%	86%	73%	79%		n.s
Wrists, hands	70% >c***	58%	37%	79%>c**	58%	51%		n.s
Upper back	73%	64%	53%	80% >c**	58%	58%		n.s
Lower back	61% >b** , >c**	36%	37%	61% >b**, >c**	36%	32%		n.s
Lower extremity (one or both hip, knee, ankle)	46%	56%	35%	61% >c***	56% >c**	23%		n.s

*<0.05, **<0.01, ***<0.001.

Table 3. Physical and psychosocial work place conditions work posture, precision demands, perceived exertion psychosocial demands, work control, social support, good leadership, WEMS, SHIS in percent (%).

	2012			2014			Comparisons within groups between 2012 and 2014
	(A) Healthy	(B) Semi healthy	(C) Unhealthy	(A) Healthy	(B) Semi healthy	(C) Unhealthy
Variable	%	%	%	%	%	%	A	B	C
Good work posture	21%	4%	9%	8%	4%	7%	**
Low precision demands	2%	0%	2%	2%	0%	5%
Low perceived exertion	58%^>,b,c **	29%	30%	62%	58%	33%^<a,b**		**
Low psychosocial demands	49%	42%	21%^<a,b**	44%	33%	27%
Good work control	55%	64%	56%	64%	64%	67%
Good social support	99%	98%	98%	99%	89%	95%
Good leadership	70%	61%	44%	74%	60%	75%			***
Good WEMS	53%	49%	40%	15%	16%	7%	***	**	***
Good SHIS	52%	44%	49%	72%^>b,c***	29%	21%			**

**<0.01, ***<0.001.

Table 1. Characteristics of participants (n = 168) in frequencies (n), percentages (%), and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) and median and Quartiles (Q1, Q3) for each group; (A) Healthy Group, (B) Semi Healthy Group and (C) Unhealthy Group.

	Healthy Group			Semi Healthy Group			Unhealthy Group
	2012 (n = 66)			2012 (n = 45)			2012 (n = 57)
Variables	n	%	CI95%	n	%	CI95%	n	%	CI95%	p value
Gender
Woman	62	94	88–99	39	87	76–96	48	84	74–93	n.s
Man	4	6	2–12	6	13	4–24	9	16	7–26
Age
Younger than 40 years	12	19	9–29	11	24	13–38	11	19	11–30	n.s
40–49 years	12	19	9–29	5	11	2–22	14	25	14–35
50–60 years	34	52	42–65	21	47	7–33	26	46	33–58
Older than 60 years	7	10	5–20	8	18	7–29	6	10	4–19
Profession
Dental hygienist	9	14	6–21	7	16	7–27	8	14	5–23	n.s
Dentist	17	26	15–36	13	29	16–42	18	32	19–46
Dental nurse	40	61	49–73	25	56	42–69	31	54	42–68
Clinic size
Small clinics (fewer than 10 employees)	4	6	2–12	3	7	0–16	5	9	2–16	n.s
Medium clinics (between 11 and 20 employees)	35	53	41–65	15	33	19–49	30	53	40–67
Large clinics (more than 20 employees)	27	41	29–53	27	60	44–73	22	39	26–51
	Median		Q1–Q3	Median		Q1–Q3	Median		Q1–Q3
Years in dental service	22		5–31	20		9–34	25		11–32	n.s
Working hours per week	37		32–40	40		33–40	37		30–40	n.s

Table 4. Multinomial regression analyses in 2012 for ‘explanatory in variables’ to belonging to the subgroups of Healthy and semi healthy Group.

Variables	B	S.E	Wald Chi-square	p Value	Exp (B)	CI 95%
Healthy group
No pain in the neck	2.59	0.78	10.94	0.001	13.37	2.9–62.2
No pain shoulders	−0.64	0.81	0.62	0.43	0.53	0.1–2.6
No pain elbows	0.23	0.74	0.09	0.76	1.25	0.3–5.3
No pain hand wrists	0.84	0.61	1.93	0.16	2.32	0.7–7.6
No pain upper back	0.45	0.67	0.44	0.51	1.56	0.4–5.8
No pain lower back	0.24	0.60	0.16	0.69	1.28	0.4–4.2
Low exertion after work	1.24	0.60	4.32	0.04	3.46	1.1–11.1
Good work posture	1.68	1.31	1.64	0.20	5.39	0.4–70.7
Good work precision	−0.03	1.58	0.00	0.98	0.97	0.0–21.5
Good work control	0.61	0.61	0.99	0.32	1.83	0.6–6.0
Low psychosocial demands	0.33	0.62	0.28	0.60	1.39	0.4–4.7
Good physical work ability	2.08	0.88	5.63	0.02	7.99	1.4–44.5
Good mental work ability	−0.84	0.90	0.86	0.36	0.43	0.1–2.5
Good WEMS (dichotomised, good = 148 score or more)	−0.44	0.91	0.24	0.63	0.64	0.1–3.9
Good SHIS (dichotomised, good = 53 score or more)	2.45	0.71	11.97	0.001	11.57	2.9–46.3
Can be left at work with regard to health	−1.18	1.75	0.45	0.50	0.31	0.0–9.6
Are satisfied with regard to work satisfaction and work environment	0.31	0.79	0.16	0.69	0.73	0.2–3.4
Good leadership	−0.59	0.65	0.83	0.36	0.56	0.2–12.0
Have no sleep problems	2.56	0.92	7.71	0.005	12.92	2.1–78.7
Semi healthy group
No pain in the neck	1.89	0.69	7.56	0.006	6.65	1.7–25.7
No pain shoulders	−0.05	0.67	0.006	0.94	0.95	0.3–3.5
No pain elbows	−0.54	0.61	0.79	0.38	0.58	0.2–1.9
No pain hand wrists	−0.04	0.52	0.006	0.94	1.04	0.4–2.9
No pain upper back	−0.82	0.56	2.10	0.15	0.44	0.2–1.3
No pain lower back	0.16	0.56	0.08	0.78	1.17	0.4–3.5
Low exertion after work	1.36	0.54	6.40	0.01	3.88	1.4–11.1
Good work posture	0.35	1.33	0.07	0.79	1.42	0.1–19.1
Good work precision
Good work control	0.60	0.57	1.13	0.29	1.82	0.6–5.5
Low psychosocial demands	0.68	0.57	1.39	0.24	1.97	0.6–6.0
Good physical work ability	0.03	0.79	0.001	0.97	1.03	0.2–4.9
Good mental work ability	0.88	0.72	1.51	0.22	2.41	0.6–9.8
Good WEMS (dichotomised, 148 score or more)	0.17	0.84	0.04	0.84	1.18	0.2–6.1
Good SHIS (dichotomised, good = 53 score or more)	−0.34	0.63	0.28	0.60	1.40	0.4–4.8
Can be left at work with regard to health	−0.05	1.17	0.002	0.97	0.95	0.1–9.4
Are satisfied with regard to work satisfaction and work environment	0.46	0.64	0.51	0.48	1.58	0.5–5.6
Good leadership	−0.75	0.58	1.66	0.20	0.47	0.2–1.5
Have no sleep problems	1.00	0.73	1.90	0.17	2.72	0.7–11.3

The reference category is the Unhealthy group = 1.

Bold-italic value signifies odds ratio, Exp (B).