Impact of the Health Status of Workers on Their Fatigability and Vulnerability to Occupational Risk Factors

Abstract

Introduction: To improve the reliability of predictive models of workers’ health risk, it is necessary to take into account individual characteristics of workers, especially their age and health status. Fatigability should be used to identify and assess vulnerability of an employee to effects of external factors. Objective: To study quantitative patterns of the relationship between the health status of workers and their fatigability and vulnerability to occupational risk factors. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in 2016–2021 and involved 751 industrial workers, 750 healthcare professionals, 193 educators, and 229 public catering employees, who underwent a medical examination and a standardized medical and environmental survey at the North-West Public Health Research Center in St. Petersburg. We assessed vulnerability of employees to such occupational factors as the workload, effort-reward imbalance, noise, microclimate, air quality, and lack of free (nonworking) time. We also assessed and compared the relative risk of vulnerability for workers with/without health disorders. Results: We established increased vulnerability to occupational risk factors in the workers with chronic diseases and health deterioration observed during the previous year. Occupational factors were ranked by the criterion of vulnerability (fatigability) for those with the impaired health status. Conclusions: Health impairments of the employees revealed in the course of periodic medical examinations induce a 1.2–2.5-fold increase in the frequency of vulnerability to most occupational risk factors. Deteriorating health causes a fold increase in the frequency of vulnerability to all occupational factors considered. All workers’ health disorders under study cause a 1.3 to 12-fold increase in vulnerability to the workload.