Jaana Laitinen

• Docent PhD, authorised nutritionist
• Reaearch Professor at Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of engaging leadership and work recovery among preparers of a major health-care and social services reform in Finland in 2022; to investigate whether engaging leadership was associated with work recovery; and to investigate whether engaging leadership alleviated the harmful effect...

Background Ethically challenging situations are one of the many stressors that strain eldercare employees. Aim The study aimed to examine (1) the mean levels of ethically challenging situations among eldercare employees in different Finnish eldercare service types and (2) the associations between organizational constraints and poor work-unit colla...

Employee turnover is a challenge for public sector employers. In this study, we used machine learning to develop and validate models to predict actualized turnover of Finnish public sector workers. The development cohort data (N=52 291) included 158 variables from 2018. We defined overall turnover (regardless of reason) and net turnover (excluding...

Purpose An “open communication culture” in the workplace is considered a key contributor to high-quality interaction and providing means to address problems at work. We study how the ideals of “open communication” operate in healthcare. Design/methodology/approach We use discourse analysis to investigate the audio-recorded data from 14 workshop te...

Aim To analyse whether the harmful effect of job demands on recovery can be alleviated by healthy lifestyle, psychological recovery experiences and job resources. We also describe their prevalence among employees in different types of eldercare service and in the health and social services sector in general. Design Cross‐sectional study. Methods...

Sosiaali- ja terveysala on kohdannut 2020-luvulla suuria muutoksia ja haasteita, mikä on kuormittanut alan esihenkilöitä. Hoitotyön esihenkilöiden työnkuvat ovat laajentuneet ja käyneet epäselviksi. Tutkimme vuonna 2022 kerättyjen hoitotyön esihenkilöiden haastattelujen (N=20) pohjalta, millaiset edellytykset esihenkilöillä on rajata ja hallita oma...

Aims To examine how a positive change in one to three psychosocial stressors (job demands, job rewards, and workplace social capital) influenced psychological distress. Methods The analysis included 3605 Finnish health and social services workers who completed surveys in 2019, 2020 and 2021. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the pro...

Objective To study the association between an advanced climacteric status at 46 years of age and current perceived work ability, the consequent 2-year accumulation of disability and unemployment days, and the 7-year incidence of disability pensions. Methods Study participants (n = 2,661) were recruited from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 s...

Eldercare workers experience higher levels of moral distress than other health and social care service workers. Moral distress is a psychological response to a morally challenging event. Very little is known about moral distress in the context of eldercare and about the mechanisms of preventing or mitigating moral distress. This qualitative study w...

This qualitative study delves into the interplay between coaching leadership and the utilization of strengths at both individual and team levels. Despite the acknowledged significance of this interplay, there is a scarcity of empirical qualitative research in this domain. Thus, this study aimed to address this gap by examining the prevalence and ef...

Tutkimus käsittelee vanhustyössä työskentelevien hoitajien moraalista toimijuutta moraalisissa ristiriitatilanteissa. Moraalisen toimijuuden rajoittumisen on esitetty olevan keskeinen tekijä eettisen kuormituksen synnyssä. Eettinen kuormitus on yhdistetty esimerkiksi heikentyneeseen työhyvinvointiin ja hoidon laatuun sekä hoitoalan pito- ja vetovoi...

Objective Ageing populations and poor care workforce availability are causing increasing job demands for home care nurses across Europe. While recovery from work helps sustain work ability and wellbeing, past research has relied mainly on self-reported measures of health, stressors, and recovery. This study aims to examine how objective and subject...

Objective The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the recovery from work in Finnish home care nurses with objective and subjective recovery measures. Methods Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) recordings were performed in home care nurses over a period of one work shift and the following night. Following the measurements, the...

Tutkimuksessa analysoitiin ja arvioitiin kahdella sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon alueella toteutettuja vanhusten hoidon työyhteisöissä käynnistettyjä kehittämiskokeiluja. Kokeilujen tavoitteena oli ehkäistä ja vähentää hoitajien kokemaa eettistä kuormitusta, kun työolot olivat muuttuneet yhä kiireisemmiksi resurssipulasta kärsivissä työyhteisöissä....

Background Psychosocial job stressor studies usually examine one exposure at a time and focus on individual workers. In this study we examined the accumulation of work stressors in work units and its association with psychological distress (PD) on work-unit level. We also investigated whether high workplace social capital modifies the effect. Meth...

Vanhuspalveluissa työn kuormitus on ollut suurta jo pidemmän aikaa, mikä korostaa työssä jaksamisen merkitystä. Tutkimuksemme tuottaa tietoa työn kuormitus­ ja voimavaratekijöistä vanhuspalveluissa ja niiden suhteesta huonoon työkykyyn. Tietoa voidaan hyödyntää ylläpidettäessä vanhuspalveluissa työskentelevien työkykyä ja jaksamista. Aineistona käy...

Health and social service workers face high levels of workload and job stressors, which can affect their health and well-being. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of workplace interventions that aim to improve their mental and physical health outcomes. This review summarizes the findings of randomized controlled trials (RCTs)...

Work in the health and social sector (HSS) is highly straining and therefore recovery from work needs to be promoted. Less is known on how job resources can be used to alleviate job strain and increase recovery from work. Thus, we analyzed the following: the association between job demands and work recovery; the connections of engaging leadership a...

https://www.julkari.fi/handle/10024/146367

Objective: Previous work ability studies have primarily focused on old workers and physical health. This study investigated how poor perceived work ability (PPWA) is associated with work-related factors in different health and social service (HSS) worker age groups. Design: Cross-sectional survey in 2020. Setting: HSS employees (general HSS an...

Objective This study investigated the physical workload of home care service workers and determined whether the different intensities of physical work strain experienced by home care nurses have different impacts on their recovery from work. Methods Physical workload and recovery were measured among 95 home care nurses based on heart rate (HR) and...

Elderly care practitioners are at specific risk of experiencing prolonged moral distress, which is associated with occupational health-related problems, low job satisfaction, and staff turnover. So far, little attention has been paid to the moral concerns specific to elderly care, a field whose importance is constantly growing as the populations in...

Background Work in the health and social care services (HSS) is very stressful and sickness absences are high. Nevertheless, little is known about their work stressors and work ability. The first aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of different work stressors and their accumulation among eldercare workers compared to general HSS workers...

Psychosocial job stressors increase the risk of mental health problems for the workers in health and social services (HSS). Although previous studies suggest that the accumulation of two or more stressors is detrimental to mental health, few studies have examined the synergistic interaction of accumulating job stressors. We examined survey response...

The aging of the population in Western countries will increase the use of social and health services in the future. Employees in eldercare are at risk for experiencing moral distress, which is associated with poor work ability. The causes and consequences of moral distress among eldercare workers remain undiscovered. This scoping review investigate...

Objective: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) presents with multiple comorbidities potentially affecting functioning. This was the first general population-based study to evaluate work ability, participation in working life, and disability retirement in middle-aged women with and without PCOS. Design: Cohort study. Methods: Women with PCOS (n=280) an...

Background: Studies on which persuasive features may work for different users in health contexts are rare. The participants in this study were microentrepreneurs. We built a persuasive mobile app to help them to recover from work. Representatives of this target group tend to be very busy due to work, which was reflected in their use of the app dur...

BACKGROUND Studies on which persuasive features may work for different users in health contexts are rare. The participants in this study were microentrepreneurs. We built a persuasive mobile app to help them to recover from work. Representatives of this target group tend to be very busy due to work, which was reflected in their use of the app durin...

Even though entrepreneurial work is stressful, health promotion interventions are seldom targeted at entrepreneurs, and we know little about how to reach and recruit this hard-to-reach group to such studies. We described and evaluated the recruitment process of a mobile health application intervention study aimed at enhancing work ability and recov...

Work in the health and social care sector is stressful, and work-related stress increases the risk of depression, anxiety, burnout, and sleep disorders. Although interventions to reduce stress and burnout at workplaces have been developed and studied, most studies have lacked the effectiveness to improve the situation. Thus, more knowledge on inter...

In face-to-face group counseling, active client participation contributes to the counseling agenda by a variety of social processes, but little is known about how video mediation shapes client participation. In this article, we use conversation analysis to investigate how transmission delay affects client participation in video-mediated group couns...

Abstract Background Association of physiological recovery with nutrition has scarcely been studied. We investigated whether physiological recovery during sleep relates to eating habits, i.e., eating behaviour and diet quality. Methods Cross-sectional baseline analysis of psychologically distressed adults with overweight (N = 252) participating in a...

In many countries, occupational health examinations are considered to have a central role in ensuring that employees’ health and work ability are maintained or enhanced. In contemporary Finland, the institutional goal of these examinations is to construct a health plan based on the client’s own aims, and in this paper we analyse how occupational he...

Objectives: The study aimed to develop and test the work ability literacy concept, and to evaluate the effect of a counselling training intervention on occupational health nurses' work ability literacy. We investigated how the occupational health nurses defined the concept of work ability literacy on both a personal level and when working with clie...

Entrepreneurs’ work has been characterized as demanding. Knowledge about job demands and resources associated with entrepreneurs’ work well-being is necessary to promote it. In this systematic qualitative review, we screened 1,870 studies, 27 of which were included in the final analysis. The first aim of this review was to identify the statisticall...

Aims: The potential benefits of workplace physical activity (PA) interventions are in improving both health and important workplace outcomes. Despite the differences in PA level between physically strenuous and inactive work, the literature reporting the effectiveness of the interventions does not usually differentiate physically active and inactiv...

Background Psychological processes can be manifested in physiological health. We investigated whether acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), targeted on psychological flexibility (PF), influences inflammation and stress biomarkers among working-age adults with psychological distress and overweight/obesity.Method Participants were randomized into...

Affiliative talk about personal experiences, that is, talk that supports the person's affective stance towards the experience, is important in all types of counselling. Often, however, this is not the only or even the main goal of the counselling. We investigate what interactional practices counsellors use to facilitate group members' affiliative t...

In this article, we examine comparative time-framed experience telling: episodes of interaction in health promotion group discussions in which one of the participants tells their experience and, in response, another participant tells their own experiences from separate moments or periods of their life and compares them. In so doing, group members r...

Although worksite interventions increase physical activity, little is known about their effects on work ability. The objective of this scoping review was to examine the extent, range and nature of interventions to promote work ability by increasing the physical activity or decreasing the sedentary time of sedentary workers in order to identify impl...

Drawing on conversation analysis, this study examines how peers respond to each other’s self-disclosures in group counseling interaction. Responses that display sharing and recognition of the experience normalize the experience and build an alliance among group members. This way, responses bring about social support. In addition, responses can offe...

Although the use of theories and evidence is often stressed in the development of health promotion interventions, this does not guarantee the success of an intervention. Thus, we need to reflect on intervention development processes that use different types of theories and evidence. In this paper, we provide a reflective discussion on how we identi...

People often have long-term personal goals regarding health behavior change. Recently, the processes for achieving these goals have begun to be supported through behavior change support systems and especially through their persuasive software features. In a multidisciplinary research project focused on helping micro-entrepreneurs to recover from wo...

Purpose To investigate the association between personal meaning of work and perceived work ability among middle-aged workers with physically strenuous or light work. We evaluated the course of perceived work ability from 31 to 46 years and examined the possible differences in the association between personal meaning of work and perceived work abili...

Vertaistuki on todettu vaikuttavaksi ohjauskeinoksi. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan vertaistukea vuorovaikutuksen mikrotasolla keskustelunanalyyttisen, vertailevan tapaustutkimuksen avulla. Aineisto koostuu viiden pienyrittäjänaisten vertaisryhmäohjausprosessin videoinneista. Näiden strukturoitujen, ratkaisukeskeisten ryhmien tarkoitus oli edist...

Background: Faster recovery from work may help to prevent work-related ill health. Aims: To provide a preliminary assessment of the range and nature of interventions that aim to improve recovery from cognitive and physical work. Methods: A scoping review to examine the range and nature of the evidence, to identify gaps in the evidence base and...

Työn reflektointi ja keskusteleva työkulttuuri ovat avainasemassa työyhteisöjen osaamisen kehittämisessä ja työkyvyn tukemisessa. Ohjaus on keino, jolla voidaan tukea sekä yksilöiden oman työn reflektointia että työyhteisön yhteisöllistä oppimista. Koska ohjaus perustuu keskusteluun, sen onnistuminen riippuu siitä, kuinka hyvin vuorovaikutus toteut...

Background Weight loss can prevent and treat obesity‐related diseases. However, lost weight is usually regained, returning to the initial or even higher levels in the long term. New counselling methods for maintaining lifestyle changes are urgently needed. Objectives An information and communication technology‐based health behaviour change support...

Background: Internal motivation and good psychological capabilities are important factors in successful eating-related behavior change. Thus, we investigated whether general acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) affects reported eating behavior and diet quality and whether baseline perceived stress moderates the intervention effects. Methods:...

Säännölliset terveystarkastukset ovat työterveyshuollon keskeinen toimintatapa. Vuosittain Suomessa tehdäänkin yli miljoona työterveystarkastusta. Niiden tavoitteena on työhön liittyvien sairauksien ja oireiden ehkäisy ja työntekijän terveyden ja työkyvyn tukeminen. Tämän tutkimuksen aineisto on hankkeesta, jossa työterveyshoitajia koulutettiin käy...

Ryhmän vuorovaikutus ja ryhmäläisten osallistumisen tavat ryhmämuotoisessa ohjauksessa Aija Logren1, Jaana Laitinen2, Johanna Ruusuvuori1 1Tampereen yliopisto 2Työterveyslaitos Tausta: Ryhmän keskusteluihin osallistumisen ajatellaan olevan olennainen tekijä ohjauksen tavoitteiden saavuttamisessa, mutta empiiristä tutkimustietoa ohjauksen vuorov...

Background Health policy papers disseminate recommendations and guidelines for the development and implementation of health promotion interventions. Such documents have rarely been investigated with regard to their assumed mechanisms of action for changing behaviour. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and Behaviour Change Techniques (BCT) Taxo...

Trajectories of confrontation in group counselling for diabetes prevention Confrontation is an activity that professionals can use strategically as a counselling technique. For example in psychotherapy, therapists can challenge the client either with a supportive disagreement that validates client’s emotional experience, respects client’s epistemic...

Reflective processing is a joint social action that develops in interaction. Using conversation analysis and discursive psychology, this article focuses on self-reflective turns of talk in group counselling for adults at risk of type 2 diabetes. We show how reflective processing unfolds in patterns of interaction, wherein group members take an obse...

Objective: This study examines how group members' questions shape member participation in health counselling and health education groups. Methods: The study applies conversation analytic principles as a method. The data consist of video-recorded health education lessons in secondary school and health counselling sessions for adults with a high r...

Supporting info item

Konfrontointi elintapaohjausryhmän jäsenten välillä Aija Logren & Johanna Ruusuvuori, Tampereen yliopisto; Jaana Laitinen, Työterveyslaitos Tässä esitelmässä kuvaamme, miten konfrontoiva vastausvuoro rakentuu siten, että sillä osoitetaan kokemuksen ymmärtämistä tai jakamista samalla kun haastetaan edellisessä vuorossa ilmaistuja oletuksia. Ammattil...

Excessive alcohol consumption is a major public health problem worldwide. Although drinking habits are known to be inherited, few genes have been identified that are robustly linked to alcohol drinking. We conducted a genome-wide association metaanalysis and replication study among >105,000 individuals of European ancestry and identified β-Klotho (...

Significance Alcohol is a widely consumed drug in western societies that can lead to addiction. A small shift in consumption can have dramatic consequences on public health. We performed the largest genome-wide association metaanalysis and replication study to date (>105,000 individuals) and identified a genetic basis for alcohol consumption during...

Background: The objective of this qualitative research is to analyze the role of group interaction in group counselling. Participation in group discussions is considered to be essential in order to achieve the aims of counselling. However, there is little empirical research on how these aims are pursued through interaction processes. The research q...

Background High alcohol consumption is a major cause of morbidity, yet alcohol is associated with both favourable and adverse effects on cardiometabolic risk markers. We aimed to characterize the associations of usual alcohol consumption with a comprehensive systemic metabolite profile in young adults. Methods Cross-sectional associations of alcoh...

The maintenance of normal body weight is disrupted in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) for prolonged periods of time. Prior to the onset of AN, premorbid body mass index (BMI) spans the entire range from underweight to obese. After recovery, patients have reduced rates of overweight and obesity. As such, loci involved in body weight regulation m...

Stress-related eating may be a potential factor in the obesity epidemic. Rather little is known about how stress associates with eating behavior and food intake in overweight individuals in a free-living situation. Thus, the present study aims to investigate this question in psychologically distressed overweight and obese working-aged Finns. The st...

Background Longitudinal studies on how temperament is related to alcohol use in general population are scarce. Objectives Finding relations with temperament and problematic alcohol use using prospective birth cohort data. Aims To investigate trends in self-reported alcohol consumption in adulthood. Methods In the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 19...

Background High alcohol consumption is a major cause of morbidity, yet alcohol is associated with both favourable and adverse effects on cardiometabolic risk markers. We aimed to characterize the associations of usual alcohol consumption with a comprehensive systemic metabolite profile in young adults. Methods Cross-sectional associations of alcoh...

Background: In recent decades, there has been an increase in the prevalence of childhood overweight in most high-income countries. Within northern Europe, prevalence tends to be higher in the UK compared with the Scandinavian countries. We aimed to study differences in body mass index (BMI) trajectories between large cohorts of children from UK an...

Explicit self-reflective turns in group counseling interaction Aija Logren, Jaana Laitinen, Johanna Ruusuvuori The role of self-reflection in behavior change has been seen essential in achieving the desired results. Encouraging client’s self-reflection and hence recognition of the need for a behavioral change, is considered an important behavior ch...

Reduced glomerular filtration rate defines chronic kidney disease and is associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), combining data across 133,413 individuals with replication in up to 42,166 individuals. We identify 24 new a...

Objective: To describe changes in alcohol use in relation to employment, education and relationship statuses in a general population sample in early midlife using prospective birth cohort data. Materials and methods: In the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (N=5621) alcohol use was studied in participants at two time points: ages 31 and 46. The...

Objective: To investigate the effect of adulthood obesity on work ability in early midlife during a 15-year follow-up. Methods: The study population included men and women (n = 5470), born in northern Finland in 1966. Participants evaluated their current perceived work ability compared with their lifetime best at the age of 46. Participants' wei...

Background Most of the few studies that exist on the longitudinal associations between health behaviors and work ability target to single health behaviors. Purpose To investigate how lifetime clusters of unhealthy behaviors associate with perceived work ability in early midlife. Methods The study population consisted of 46-year-old men and women (n...

To compare the effects of constructivism-based dietary group counseling transmitted through videoconferencing (VC) and face-to-face (FF) counseling on changes in eating behaviors. Altogether, 74 participants with high risk of type 2 diabetes were divided into FF and VC groups based on their place of residence in northern Finland. Constructivism-bas...

Significance Genetic factors play a major role in the development of human addiction. Identifying these genes and understanding their molecular mechanisms are necessary first steps in the development of targeted therapeutic intervention. Here, we have isolated the gene encoding Ras suppressor 1 (Rsu1) in an unbiased genetic screen for altered ethan...

Occupational psychosocial stress has been identified as a risk factor for obesity, whereas dietary habits have a key role in weight control. We examined whether dietary habits modify the association between occupational psychosocial factors and waist circumference. Data comprised 31-year-old men (n=2222) and women (n=2053) in the Northern Finland B...

To examine the associations between occupational psychosocial factors and obesity among 31-year-olds, adjusting for adolescent body mass index, physical strenuousness of work, and adverse health behaviors (ie, stress-related eating/drinking, leisure-time physical inactivity, smoking, and high alcohol consumption). The study population comprised 208...

Aim: According to previous studies, abstinence from alcohol increases the risk of disability retirement (DR). We studied whether former alcohol users' poor mental or physical health might have contributed to this result. Methods: Prospective population-based study of 3621 occupationally active Finns aged 30-55 years at baseline. Disability pension...

The FTO gene harbors variation with the strongest effect on adiposity and obesity risk. Previous data support a role for FTO variation in influencing food intake. We conducted a combined analysis of 16,094 boys and girls aged 1-18 years from 14 studies to examine: 1) the association between the FTO rs9939609 variant (or a proxy) and total energy an...

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci...

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci...

Objectives Maternal body mass index (BMI), birth weight, and preschool BMI may help identify children at high risk of overweight as they are (1) similarly linked to adolescent overweight at different stages of the obesity epidemic, (2) linked to adult obesity and metabolic alterations, and (3) easily obtainable in health examinations in young child...

Background Increased adiposity is linked with higher risk for cardiometabolic diseases. We aimed to determine to what extent elevated body mass index (BMI) within the normal weight range has causal effects on the detailed systemic metabolite profile in early adulthood.Methods and findingsWe used Mendelian randomization to estimate causal effects of...

Luopuminen terveydelle haitallisista tavoista saattaa olla vaikeaa, jos tarjolla ei ole riittävän houkuttelevia vaihtoehtoja. Mitä maskuliininen elämäntyyli tarkoittaa työhyvinvointiin liittyvän ohjauksen ja koulutuksen näkökulmasta?

Low plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentration is associated with high arterial blood pressure and hypertension risk, but whether this association is causal is unknown. We used a mendelian randomisation approach to test whether 25(OH)D concentration is causally associated with blood pressure and hypertension risk. METHODS In this mendelia...