1. Summary and Implications
Personal Health and Organizational Support as Reported by Different Occupations in Small Manufacturing Businesses
Mary Kay Hunt, MPH1, Deborah Hennrikus, PhD2, Lisa Brosseau, ScD, CIH3, Claudia Egelhoff, MSPH2, Marc Katz, MPH4, and Erika Pinsker, MPH2
1Community Health Research Consulting; 2School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota; 3School of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago; 4Division of Environmental Health, Minnesota Department of Health
Overview
Results
Summary and Implications
This project examines characteristics by occupation of workers employed in small manufacturing businesses ( employees).
Small businesses of this size employ 20% of private sector workers in the USA, 11% of whom work in manufacturing businesses.
The health of manufacturing workers is at double jeopardy: they are at risk from both occupational exposures and high rates of risky personal behaviors, such as tobacco use.
In addition, small businesses provide fewer worksite health programs.
Explicating the characteristics and perceptions of manufacturing employees will enable practitioners and researchers to develop customized integrated health protection / health promotion programs.
This is the first study to report this array of characteristics of employees of small manufacturing businesses by occupation.
There are occupational gradients in age, and education.
The highest rates of smoking are among production managers, production staff and support staff. These rates might be related to greater stress, job strain and lower levels of perceived organizational support among these groups.
Production managers may be in a position to serve as a communication channel between managers and production staff. Interventions customized to this group might result in leveraging this position to enhance intervention effectiveness.
Job Classifications and Socio-Demographic Characteristics
Health Risks
Methods
Data are from a baseline survey of all employees at 47 small manufacturing businesses recruited for a randomized controlled trial of a smoking cessation / work safety intervention in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.
Survey completion rate was 86% (2652 / 3072).
Analysis: Results for all variables other than demographic and job descriptors were adjusted for age, gender and company.
Perceptions of Organizational Support
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute for Drug Addiction (R01DA029092) and the National Cancer Institute (R25CA163184). Additional research investigators include Harry Lando and Peter Hannan. Additional research staff included Sarah Haas and Kari Scanlon.