| Abstract: | The prevalence of job stress,distribution of major job stressors, andthe association of job stress withmultiple self-reported health complaintswere examined among call centeroperators of two telecommunicationcompanies. Information ondemographics, health status, perceivedjob stress levels, major job stressors andpsychosocial job characteristics wereobtained by a self-administeredquestionnaire. The prevalence ofmusculoskeletal complaints, visualfatigue, and discomfort of throat werefound to be the most pronounced andprevalent complaints after prolongedworking at call centers. Higher levels ofperceived job stress were found amongsubjects who were female, and thosewith length of employment over 2 years. Dealing with difficult customers wasranked as the most important jobstressor of operators across twotelecommunication companies. Afteradjustment for gender and length ofemployment, operators who perceivedhigher levels of job stress hadsignificantly increased risks of multiplehealth problems, including discomfortsof eyes, ears, throat, respiratory organs,cardiovascular system, digestive organs,renal organs, and musculoskeletalsystem. Stratified analyses showed thatthe strength of the associations withhealth risks between male and femalewere different. In male operators, theassociations for levels of perceived jobstress and health complaints were notstatistically significant betweenlow-stress operators and higher levels ofjob stress operators. Female operators,but not male, with high level job stressexperienced significant increase inhealth complaints. |
