Psychological job demands as a risk factor for common cold in a Dutch working population.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the effect of Psychological Job Demands (PJD) on the occurrence of the clinical symptoms of common cold.


METHODS
Subjects, participating in a large prospective cohort study on psychological determinants of fatigue at work, were asked to fill in a questionnaire on the occurrence of common cold during the previous four months. High PJD were considered as a potential risk factor. Other factors such as age, gender, and having young children were considered as potential confounders.


RESULTS
In logistic regression analysis, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for having a recent cold in subjects reporting high PJD vs. those reporting low PJD was 1.20 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08-1.33). A higher risk emerged among those with young children (OR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.47-1.96), those having a history of asthma (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.28-2.22), or being under the age of 40 (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.14-1.43) and among smokers (OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.09-1.38).


CONCLUSIONS
The results support an association between PJD and common cold. In spite of the almost inevitable shortcoming of a large cohort study using questionnaires, this study gave us the opportunity to study the relationship between common cold and work-related factors in a nonexperimental setting with participants observed in a natural environment with all the normal everyday hassles.
Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. dcl.mohren@epid.unimaas.nl
D C
DC
Mohren
G M
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Swaen
P J
PJ
Borm
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A
Bast
J M
JM
Galama
D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003139:Common Cold / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires