title: Police job strain during routine activities and a major event.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Special police forces are exposed to periods of intense work stress in ensuring public order.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the relationship between the work context (routine work or special event) of special force policemen and psychological measures of job strain (demand-control) and effort-reward imbalance.
  
  
  METHODS
  All policemen assigned to the G8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, in July 2009 were invited to complete a questionnaire while engaged in routine work in January 2009 (Time A) and in June 2009 (Time B), while preparing for the special event.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participation rate in the questionnaire study was 292/294 (99%) members of the special police force. Measures of job strain (-0.39, P < 0.001) and effort-reward imbalance (-0.37, P < 0.001) decreased significantly from Time A to Time B. On average, demand decreased from 14.2 ± 1.9 to 12.6 ± 2.7 (P < 0.001), control increased from 11.8 ± 2.5 to 14.4 ± 3.4 (P < 0.001) and social support increased from 17.8 ± 2.9 to 19.0 ± 3.1 (P < 0.001). At the same time, effort decreased from 17.4 ± 3.2 to 11.8 ± 3.8 (P < 0.001), reward grew from 37.6 ± 5.5 to 45.5 ± 7.4 (P < 0.001) and overcommitment dropped from 7.1 ± 2.1 to 6.6 ± 1.7 (P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In special police forces, routine work may be significantly more stressful than a single critical event.
authors.affiliation: State Police Health Service Department, Ministry of the Interior, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garbarino
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Magnavita
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elovainio
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heponiemi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ciprani
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cuomo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergamaschi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007558:Italy; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D016495:Police; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires