Associations of effort-reward imbalance at work and reported symptoms in different groups of male and female public transport workers

Abstract

This study tests associations between stressful working conditions in terms of effort-reward imbalance and reported physical symptoms in public transport workers. The authors hypothesize that bus and subway drivers suffer from relatively highest level of ill health as compared to repair service workers and administrative personnel, and that a substantial part of this association is due to the imbalance experienced between high effort and low reward. 1,337 employees participated in this study. Measures of effort-reward imbalance were constructed from a large battery of standardized Likert-scaled items, and factor-based symptom scales were computed. In conclusion, stressful working conditions as defined by effort-reward imbalance are associated with high rates of reported symptoms in public transport workers, especially so in professional drivers.