Publications by authors named "France Kittel"
Objective: To examine the relation between long working hours and change in body mass index (BMI).
Methods: We performed random effects meta-analyses using individual-participant data from 19 cohort studies from Europe, US and Australia (n = 122,078), with a mean of 4.4-year follow-up.
Purpose: Increasing evidence shows the detrimental impact of high physical work demands for cardiovascular health and mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate the buffering effects of social support at work and job control in the relation between physical work demands and incidence of coronary events.
Methods: The study included 14,337 middle-aged men free from coronary heart disease (CHD) at baseline.
Background: In this longitudinal study the complex interplay between both job strain and bullying in relation to sickness absence was investigated. Following the "work environment hypothesis", which establishes several work characteristics as antecedents of bullying, we assumed that job strain, conceptualized by the Job-Demand-Control model, has an indirect relation with long-term sickness absence through bullying.
Methods: The sample consisted of 2983 Belgian workers, aged 30 to 55 years, who participated in the Belstress III study.
Association between psychosocial characteristics of work and presenteeism: A cross-sectional study.
Int J Occup Med Environ Health
January 2017
Objectives: This study aimed at investigating cross-sectional relationships between psychosocial characteristics of work and presenteeism in a sample of Belgian middle-aged workers.
Material And Methods: Data were collected from 1372 male and 1611 female workers in the Belstress III study. Psychosocial characteristics assessed by the use of self-administered questionnaires were: job demands, job control, social support, efforts, rewards, bullying, home-to-work conflict and work-to-home conflict.
Background: The persistent lack of evidence on causal mechanisms between social capital and health threatens the credibility of the social capital-health association. The present study aims to address this ongoing problem by investigating whether health behaviours (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Long working hours might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but prospective evidence is scarce, imprecise, and mostly limited to coronary heart disease. We aimed to assess long working hours as a risk factor for incident coronary heart disease and stroke.
Methods: We identified published studies through a systematic review of PubMed and Embase from inception to Aug 20, 2014.
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between average 24-hour ambulatory heart rate and all-cause mortality, while adjusting for resting clinical heart rate, cardiorespiratory fitness, occupational and leisure time physical activity as well as classical risk factors. A group of 439 middle-aged male workers free of baseline coronary heart disease from the Belgian Physical Fitness Study was included in the analysis. Data were collected by questionnaires and clinical examinations from 1976 to 1978.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To quantify the association between long working hours and alcohol use.
Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual participant data.
Data Sources: A systematic search of PubMed and Embase databases in April 2014 for published studies, supplemented with manual searches.
Introduction: Work engagement, an emerging concept in the field of positive psychology in the workplace is not well known in developing countries. Defined as a positive and and fulfilling mindset related to work, it recalls a positive attitude incentive of performance and need to be investigated. In the context of the socioeconomic crisis of health workers, and with the chronic issue of poor quality of data, this study was designed to identify the factors associated with work engagement among health workers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim was to study the impact of psychosocial risk factors on long-term sickness absence due to mental health problems (LSA-MH) or musculoskeletal disorders (LSA-MSD) in 2983 Belgian middle-aged workers.
Methods: Data were collected from 1372 male and 1611 female workers in the Belstress III study. Considered psychosocial risk factors were job demands, job control, social support, job strain, efforts, rewards, effort-reward imbalance and bullying.
The aim of this study was to assess the combined relationship of occupational physical activity and leisure-time physical activity with all-cause mortality among men, while accounting for physical fitness. The prospective Belgian Physical Fitness Study included 1,456 male workers aged 40-55 years who were free of coronary heart disease at baseline. Baseline data were collected through questionnaires and clinical examinations from 1976 to 1978.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine the association between self reported job insecurity and incident coronary heart disease.
Design: A meta-analysis combining individual level data from a collaborative consortium and published studies identified by a systematic review.
Data Sources: We obtained individual level data from 13 cohort studies participating in the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations Consortium.
Background: Job strain is associated with an increased coronary heart disease risk, but few large-scale studies have examined the relationship of this psychosocial characteristic with the biological risk factors that potentially mediate the job strain - heart disease association.
Methodology And Principal Findings: We pooled cross-sectional, individual-level data from eight studies comprising 47,045 participants to investigate the association between job strain and the following cardiovascular disease risk factors: diabetes, blood pressure, pulse pressure, lipid fractions, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, obesity, and overall cardiovascular disease risk as indexed by the Framingham Risk Score. In age-, sex-, and socioeconomic status-adjusted analyses, compared to those without job strain, people with job strain were more likely to have diabetes (odds ratio 1.
Objective: This study examines the multidimensional association between reciprocity at work and depressive symptoms.
Methods: Data from the Belgian BELSTRESS survey (32 companies; N = 24,402) were analyzed. Multilevel statistical procedures were used to account for company-level associations while controlling for individual-level associations.
Objectives: We examined the associations of job strain, an indicator of work-related stress, with overall unhealthy and healthy lifestyles.
Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis of individual-level data from 11 European studies (cross-sectional data: n = 118,701; longitudinal data: n = 43,971). We analyzed job strain as a set of binary (job strain vs no job strain) and categorical (high job strain, active job, passive job, and low job strain) variables.
Background: It is unclear whether a healthy lifestyle mitigates the adverse effects of job strain on coronary artery disease. We examined the associations of job strain and lifestyle risk factors with the risk of coronary artery disease.
Methods: We pooled individual-level data from 7 cohort studies comprising 102 128 men and women who were free of existing coronary artery disease at baseline (1985-2000).
The interplay of occupational and leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in affecting cardiovascular health is subject to debate. This study aimed to examine the independent and interacting associations of leisure time and occupational physical activity (OPA) with the incidence of coronary events within the BELSTRESS cohort. The study included 14,337 middle-aged men free from coronary heart disease at baseline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous research has shown that job characteristics, private life and psychosocial factors partially account for gender difference in work absences because of sickness. Most studies have analysed these factors separately. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether these explanatory factors act as mediators when they are considered simultaneously.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While moderate and vigorous leisure time physical activities are well documented to decrease the risk for cardiovascular disease, several studies have demonstrated an increased risk for cardiovascular disease in workers with high occupational activity. Research on the underlying causes to the contrasting effects of occupational and leisure time physical activity on cardiovascular health is lacking. The aim of this study was to examine the relation of objective and self-report measures of occupational and leisure time physical activity with 24-h ambulatory systolic blood pressure (BP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnfavorable work characteristics, such as low job control and too high or too low job demands, have been suggested to increase the likelihood of physical inactivity during leisure time, but this has not been verified in large-scale studies. The authors combined individual-level data from 14 European cohort studies (baseline years from 1985-1988 to 2006-2008) to examine the association between unfavorable work characteristics and leisure-time physical inactivity in a total of 170,162 employees (50% women; mean age, 43.5 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Published work assessing psychosocial stress (job strain) as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is inconsistent and subject to publication bias and reverse causation bias. We analysed the relation between job strain and coronary heart disease with a meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies.
Methods: We used individual records from 13 European cohort studies (1985-2006) of men and women without coronary heart disease who were employed at time of baseline assessment.
Background: The relationship between work-related stress and alcohol intake is uncertain. In order to add to the thus far inconsistent evidence from relatively small studies, we conducted individual-participant meta-analyses of the association between work-related stress (operationalised as self-reported job strain) and alcohol intake.
Methodology And Principal Findings: We analysed cross-sectional data from 12 European studies (n = 142 140) and longitudinal data from four studies (n = 48 646).
Background: Tobacco smoking is a major contributor to the public health burden and healthcare costs worldwide, but the determinants of smoking behaviours are poorly understood. We conducted a large individual-participant meta-analysis to examine the extent to which work-related stress, operationalised as job strain, is associated with tobacco smoking in working adults.
Methodology And Principal Findings: We analysed cross-sectional data from 15 European studies comprising 166,130 participants.
Objective: To examine the relationship between body mass index class, presenteeism, and prospective registered sickness absence.
Methods: Data were collected from 2983 Belgian workers. Presenteeism was assessed by a single question, evaluating the frequency of being at work, despite illness, during the preceding year.