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NIOSH - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

NIOSH Safety and Health Topic:

Stress at Work

   

Stress at Work

Breaking pencil
 

Overview

Primary themes in the NIOSH's job stress research program are: 1) to better understand the influence of what are commonly-termed "work organization" or "psychosocial" factors on stress, illness, and injury, and 2) to identify ways to redesign jobs to create safer and healthier workplaces. Following below are specific examples of research topics at NIOSH that fall within these two broad themes.

  • Characteristics of healthy work organizations
  • Work organization interventions to promote safe and healthy working conditions
  • Surveillance of the changing nature of work
  • Work organization interventions to reduce musculoskeletal disorders among office operators
  • Work schedule designs to protect the health and well-being of workers
  • The effects of new organizational policies and practices on worker health and safety
  • Changing worker demographics (race/ethnicity, gender, and age) and worker safety and health
  • Work organization, cardiovascular disease, and depression
  • Psychological violence in the workplace
  • The interplay between workplace psychosocial and musculoskeletal risk factors


In addition, the NIOSH program also includes the following:

  • sponsorship of conferences on work, stress and health
  • support of graduate level training in occupational health psychology at national universities
  • publication of educational documents on work, stress and health

Job Stress and NORA


In 1996, NIOSH has established an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners from industry, labor, and academia to develop a national research agenda on the "organization of work." Work organization refers to management and supervisory practices, to production processes, and to their influence on the way work is performed. (In this sense, the study of work organization and health subsumes the field of job stress.) This initiative is part of a broader, collaborative effort by NIOSH external partners to spearhead a "National Occupational Research Agenda" (NORA) to guide occupational safety and health research into the next decade, not only for NIOSH, but for the entire U.S. occupational safety and health community. During its tenure, the organization of work team has conferred with academic, industry and labor stakeholders to identify essential research and other requirements to better understand how work organization is changing, the safety and health implications of these changes, and prevention measures. This effort culminated in the NIOSH report "The Changing Organization of Work and the Safety and Health of Working People."

NIOSH Books & Videos about Stress

Working with Stress Video

A brief introduction to work stress issues for the worker and manager. Topics include the causes of job stress, physical and psychological effects, and what can be done to minimize job stress. The video is available in both DVD and VHS formats, and can also be viewed online. (17 minutes)


Stress... At Work Booklet

This booklet highlights knowledge about the causes of stress at work and outlines steps that can be taken to prevent job stress.


The Changing Organization of Work... NORA Report

This report was developed as the first attempt in the United States to develop a comprehensive research agenda to investigate and reduce occupational safety and health risks associated with the changing organization of work. Four areas of research and development are targeted in the agenda.


Stress Management in Work Settings

This publication summarizes the scientific evidence and reviews conceptual and practical issues relating to worksite stress management. It is a collection of original contributions that address current issues and problems in the field.


Worker Health Chartbook 2004: Anxiety, Stress, and Neurotic Disorders
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2004-146 (2004)
Provides data for anxiety and stress disorders based on magnitude and trend, age, sex race/ethnicity, severity, occupation, and industry.

NIOSH Webpages on Stress

NIOSH Occupational Health Psychology


National Occupational Research Agenda


NIOSH Quality of Worklife Questionnaire


APA/NIOSH Work, Stress and Health '99 Conference


NIOSH Work Stress Publications

Additional Stress Resources

NIOSHTIC-2 search results on Job Stress
is a searchable bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and journal articles supported in whole or in part by NIOSH.

Other Work Stress Resources