The association between disturbed sleep and increased risk of occupational injury has been observed in several cross‐sectional and case–control studies, but prospective evidence is lacking. We examined prospectively whether sleep disturbances predicted occupational injuries in a large population of Finnish public sector employees. A total of 48 598 employees working in 10 municipalities and 21 hospitals in various parts of Finland were included. Sleep disturbances were assessed with the four‐item Jenkins Sleep Problems Scale. Records of sickness absence due to occupational injury during the year following the survey were obtained from employers’ registers. A proportion (9076; 22%) of participants reported disturbed sleep, and 978 (2.4%) had a recorded occupational injury. After adjustment for socio‐demographic characteristics, the odds ratio (OR) for occupational injury was 1.38 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.87] times higher for men with experiences of disturbed sleep than for those without sleep disturbances, but not significant for women. Of the sub‐dimensions of sleep disturbances, the OR for occupational injury was 1.69 (95% CI 1.26–2.26) for women with difficulties initiating sleep, but not significant for men. These associations remained after additional adjustment for work stress, sleep length, obesity, alcohol use and mental health. This study suggests that sleep disturbances are a significant predictor of occupational injuries even after accounting for a range of covariates.

Background: A previous review showed that high stress increases the risk of occupational injury by three- to five-fold. However, most of the prior studies have relied on short follow-ups. In this prospective cohort study we examined the effect of stress on recorded hospitalised injuries in an 8-year follow-up. Methods: A total of 16,385 employees of a Finnish forest company responded to the questionnaire. Perceived stress was measured with a validated single-item measure, and analysed in relation recorded hospitalised injuries from 1986 to 2008. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models to examine the prospective associations between work stress, injuries and confounding factors. Results: Highly stressed participants were approximately 40% more likely to be hospitalised due to injury over the follow-up period than participants with low stress. This association remained significant after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, occupational status, educational level, and physical work environment. Conclusions: High stress is associated with an increased risk of severe injury.

Making Sense of Industrial Accidents: The Role of Job Satisfaction

Background: Although injuries at school are an important issue in public health, environmental factors in schools and school yards have seldom been the focus of school injury research. The goal of our investigation was to examine the effect of environmental factors on school injuries. Methods: Nine comprehensive Finnish schools registered school injuries over a period of two school years. Injuries were classified as being associated with environmental factors, suspected environmental factors, and others. The consensus between two independent classifiers was 81%. Results: A total of 722 injuries were classified. In 11.6% of these injuries, the physical environment factor was evident, and in 28.1% of the injuries, physical environment was suspected of being a contributory risk factor. Thus the physical environment of the school was a contributing factor in over a third (39.7%) of injuries occurring in the school, on the school yard or during the journey to or from school. In this study, conducted in Finland, ice on the ground was mentioned most frequently as an environmental risk factor. Conclusions: In Finland, the Nordic weather conditions are not taken into account in the school yard and playground plans as they ought to from the safety point of view. An initiative has been launched on a mandatory wintertime master plan for every school yard.