Jesper Kristiansen

National Research Centre for the Working Environment · Psychosocial working environment

Violence and aggressive behavior are part of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Therefore, reducing BPSD might have positive effects on the wellbeing of older adults and direct care workers (DCW). This scoping review of reviews investigates to what extent interventions targeting BPSD integrate the ‘work environment perspectiv...

Background: Cognitive impairments are present in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) of psychosis and UHR individuals exhibit a hyperactive and dysfunctional HPA-axis. Increasing stress levels could potentially lead to cognitive impairments and no previous studies have examined the association between physiological stress biomarkers and cognition...

Introduction: Individuals at ultra high-risk (UHR) of psychosis exhibit significantly higher stress levels than healthy controls (HC). This study investigates how physiological stress measures differ between HC and UHR individuals and how physiological stress is associated with attenuated psychotic symptoms and changes over time in UHR individuals...

Objectives: To assess interactions between combinations of quantitative demands, emotional demands, unclear and contradictory demands, and violence/threats of violence in the prospective association with risk of long-term sickness absence (LTSA). Methods: We included 55 467 employees from the 2012, 2014 and 2016 waves of the Work Environment and...

Background: Night shift work often implies shorter sleep duration and this can lead to sleepiness, which has been associated with an increased risk of accidents and injuries. The aim is to study how the number of consecutive night shifts affects self-reported sleepiness. Participants and methods: The study was a quasi-experimental, within-subjec...

Objective Recovery after shift work is an important part reducing the health problems related to shift work. Heart rate variability (HRV) is an indicator of the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in the autonomic nervous system and can be used as a measure of recovery after night shifts. The aim of the study is to investigate...

Research funders and policymakers increasingly focus on societal benefits of their investments in research. Research institutions thus face increasing pressure to demonstrate their societal impact to prove their legitimacy and worth. To this end, research institutions need reliable, quantitative methods to measure societal impact. This article desc...

Night shift work suppresses excretion of melatonin, but little is known about the needed time for recovery. We aimed to compare levels of 6-sulfatoxy melatonin after three different night shift schedules, including recovery days. In a quasi-experimental, within-subject crossover study, 73 male police officers in Denmark collected morning urine afte...

Objective: To examine whether low leadership quality predicts long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in Denmark. Methods: Using Cox models, we estimated the association between exposure to low leadership quality and onset of register based LTSA (≥6 weeks) during 12-months follow-up among 53,157 employees without previous LTSA. Results: During 51,15...

Objectives The organization of night shift work affects sleep duration and quality. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the number of consecutive night shifts on sleep duration and quality among police officers with night shift work as part of their normal schedule. Methods This quasi-experimental, within-subject crossover stud...

Objectives The aims were to examine (1) the prospective association between perceived stress and sickness absence, and if this association (2) differed by sex, and (3) was stronger when only long-term sickness absence (≥ 31 days) instead of all-length sickness absence (≥ 1 day) was included. Moreover, different cut-points for the length of the sick...

This report is about the health and safety among young people (18-29 years) in Denmark. It is based on a representative sample of young employed people in Denmark. The survey on Working Environment and Health included 3.457 young people in 2016 (1.832 women and 1.625 men). In total 32.849 persons responded to the survey questionnaire. Young people...

Background Several rating scales assessing stress-related symptoms of exhaustion have emerged in recent years. However, more knowledge is needed about the performance of these rating scales in patients with stress-related disorders as well as in other patient groups. With the recently developed Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale (KEDS), we compar...

Background: The prevention and rehabilitation of multisite musculoskeletal pain would benefit from studies aiming to understand its underlying mechanism. Autonomic imbalance is a suggested mechanism for multisite pain, but hardly been studied during normal daily living. Therefore, the aim of the study is to investigate the association between mult...

Objectives A wide range of guidelines have been developed to prevent work-related mental health problems (MHP), but little is known about the quality of such guidelines. We systematically reviewed the content and quality of workplace guidelines aiming to prevent, detect, and/or manage work-related MHP. Methods We conducted systematic online and dat...

PurposeThe differential effect of occupational and leisure time physical activity on cardiovascular health is termed the physical activity health paradox. Cardiac autonomic modulation could bring insights about the underlying mechanism behind this differential effect. The aim was to compare heart rate variability (HRV) during different activities (...

Background Long-term environmental noise exposure has repeatedly been related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease at exposure levels as low as 35 dB(A). Occupational exposure levels are orders of magnitude higher than the environmental levels. We examined if blood pressure was increased during and subsequent to occupational noise exposure....

Today, urbanization presents a challenge to urban planning with regard to creating healthy living environments. The aim of this research is to gain further knowledge of the restorativeness of a best case urban and natural environment: that is a historic down town urban environment and forest environment located in an arboretum. The study has a cros...

Today, urbanization presents a challenge to urban planning with regard to creating healthy living environments. The aim of this research is to gain further knowledge of the restorativeness of a best case urban and natural environment: that is a historic down town urban environment and forest environment located in an arboretum. The study has a cros...

Aims To survey current, Danish industrial noise levels and the use of hearing protection devices (HPD) over a 10-year period and to characterise the association between occupational noise and hearing threshold shift in the same period. Furthermore, the risk of hearing loss among the baseline and the follow-up populations according to first year of...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of occupational noise (current and cumulative doses) and psychosocial work factors (psychological demands and decision latitude) on tinnitus occurrence among workers, using objective and non-self-reported exposure measures to prevent reporting bias. Methods: In a cross-sectional st...

Objective: The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to determine whether aerobic exercise during work hours affects cardiac autonomic regulation in cleaners characterized by high levels of occupational physical activity and poor cardiorespiratory fitness. Method: Eligible cleaners (n=116) were randomized to an aerobic exercise group...

Objectives Occupational and residential noise exposure has been related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Alteration of serum lipid levels has been proposed as a possible causal pathway. The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between ambient and at-the-ear occupational noise exposure and serum levels of total cholest...

Objectives Stress is a suspected cause of tinnitus and studies relying on self-reported stress measures have supported this hypothesis. Self-report studies may, however, have validity problems. The objective of this study was to investigate if salivary cortisol, as an objective indicator of stress activation of the HPA axis, was associated with tin...

Studies suggest that the psychological disorder arising after long-term stress differs from depression and anxiety disorders. In Sweden this stress-related condition is called exhaustion disorder (ED). ED is assigned the ICD-10 diagnostic code F43.8. The Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale (KEDS) has been developed in order to assist in diagnosing...

Night work is associated with a large range of acute health problems and possibly also health consequences in the long run. Yet, only very few field studies specifically investigate the effects of consecutive night shift on key physiological regulatory systems. In this field study, we investigated the effects of consecutive night shifts on three ho...

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to summarize the current knowledge from field studies on how many consecutive night shifts are required for adaptation of diurnal rhythms in cortisol, melatonin and heart rate variability (HRV) to night work. Methods: A systematic search of the databases PubMed and Web of Science resulted in 18 studies sele...

Among police officers in Denmark, we studied (i) how many consecutive night shifts participants preferred at baseline; (ii) preferences regarding three intervention conditions (two, four, and seven consecutive night shifts followed by the same number of days off/day shifts: '2 + 2', '4 + 4', '7 + 7') at follow-up; (iii) characteristics of participa...

Background: Depression and ischemic heart disease (IHD) are associated with persistent stress and autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction. The former can be measured by pressure pain sensitivity (PPS) of the sternum, and the latter by the PPS and systolic blood pressure (SBP) response to a tilt table test (TTT). Beta-blocker treatment reduces th...

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is generally associated with elevated risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Elderly and obese subjects may be particularly susceptible, although short-term effects are poorly described. Sixty healthy subjects (25 males, 35 females, age 55 to 83 years, body mass index > 25 kg/m2) were included in a cross...

Prolonged sitting is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases and mortality. However, research into the physiological determinants underlying this relationship is still in its infancy. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which occupational and leisure-time sitting are associated with nocturnal heart rate variabilit...

To investigate whether acoustical refurbishment of classrooms for elementary and lower secondary grade pupils affected teachers' perceived noise exposure during teaching and noise-related health symptoms. Two schools (A and B) with a total of 102 teachers were subjected to an acoustical intervention. Accordingly, 36 classrooms (20 and 16 in school...

We tested the hypothesis that pressure sensitivity of the sternum (PPS) is associated with autonomic nervous system (ANS) function as assessed by tilt table test (TTT). in patients with stable ischemic heart disease. (1) To evaluate an association between PPS and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR) responses to TTT; and (2) to test th...

This study compares the levels of algesic substances between subjects with trapezius myalgia (TM) and healthy controls (CON) and explores the multivariate correlation pattern between these substances, pain, and metabolic status together with relative blood flow changes reported in our previous paper (Eur J Appl Physiol 108:657–669, 2010). 43 female...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of atherogenic risk factors on hearing thresholds. In a cross-sectional study we analyzed data from a Danish survey in 2009-2010 on physical and psychological working conditions. The study included 576 white- and blue-collar workers from children's day care units, financial services and 10 m...

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, which is an important tool for activity assessment of the cardiac autonomic nervous system, very often includes the estimation of power spectra for series of interbeat intervals (IBI). Ectopic beats and artifacts have a destructive effect on the standard methods (Fourier transform, FFT) for frequency analysis....

Background: The overall purpose of the present study was to attain more insight in month-to-month variation of sleep duration and quality in order to improve design and interpretation of, e.g. epidemiological studies using sleep as outcome. Methods: The study design entailed monthly self-reports from 38 (26 women/12 men) daytime workers, who com...

The study investigated the noise exposure in a group of Danish school teachers. The aims were to investigate if noise posed a risk of impairment of hearing and to study the association between classroom acoustical conditions, noise exposure, vocal symptoms, and cognitive fatigue. Background noise levels, vocal load and speaking time were measured o...

Unlabelled: The validity of inclinometer measurements by ActiGraph GT3X+ (AG) accelerometer, when analysed with the Acti4 customised software, was examined by comparison of inclinometer measurements with a reference system (TrakStar) in a protocol with standardised arm movements and simulated working tasks. The sensors were placed at the upper arm...

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in physiological stress markers as a consequence of workplace reorganization. Moreover, we aimed to investigate changes in the psychosocial work environment (job strain, effortreward imbalance (ERI), in psychological distress (stress symptoms, perceived stress) and the mediating effect of these facto...

Background noise and room acoustics may impede social interactions by interfering with oral communication and other cognitive processes. Accordingly, recent research in school environments has showed that social relationships with peers and teachers are described more negatively in rooms with long reverberation times (RT). The purpose of this study...

Background: Chronic stress is prevalent in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and worsens the long-term prognosis. Chronic stress is vaguely defined, but is associated with depressive symptoms, reduced psychological wellbeing, and reduced quality of life (QOL). Stress seems to induce hyperalgesia.The aim of the present study was to evaluat...

Beyond noise annoyance and voice problems, little is known about the effects that noise and poor classroom acoustics have on teachers' health and well-being. The aim of this field study was therefore to investigate the effects of perceived noise exposure and classroom reverberation on measures of well-being. Data on self-reported noise exposure, jo...

Aims: To describe the distribution of subjective health complaints (SHCs) in a Danish working population and the associations between SHC and register based sickness absence. Methods: The study entailed 2876 men and 3574 women aged 18-59 years that constituted the 2005 panel in the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study (DWECS). All had completed...

Background: The aim of this study was to validate a triaxial accelerometer setup for identifying everyday physical activity types (ie, sitting, standing, walking, walking stairs, running, and cycling). Methods: Seventeen subjects equipped with triaxial accelerometers (ActiGraph GT3X+) at the thigh and hip carried out a standardized test procedur...

Psychosocial risk factors are often conceptualised as explanatory constructs that reflect environmental exposures. To date, the predominant method to operationally define such environmental exposures has been via self-report questionnaires (eg, the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ)1 ,2). However,...

Purpose: To investigate the association between self-reported exposure to disturbing noise and risk of long-term sickness absence (LTSA) for more than two consecutive weeks among office workers. Methods: LTSA was measured using register data that were linked to survey data from 2,883 office workers aged 18-59 who were surveyed in 2005 on exposur...

Background Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors is unevenly distributed among occupational groups. The working environment, as well as lifestyle and socioeconomic status contribute to the disparity and variation in prevalence of these risk factors. High physical work demands have been shown to increase the risk for cardiovascular disease and m...

This study investigated effects on comfort, symptoms, and office work performance of exposure to office noise. Forty-nine subjects who were employees working in open-plan offices participated in two full-day experiments simulating an ordinary work day; one day with and one day without exposure to pre-recorded office noise. Exposure to office noise...

A high proportion of school teachers report that they are disturbed by noise during teaching. The aim of the study was therefore to identify determinants of self-reported noise exposure and disturbance attributed to noise among secondary school teachers (n = 419) in 10 schools in Copenhagen, Denmark. The schools were selected to show contrasts in c...

To examine the association between autonomic regulation and length of pain-related sick leave in subjects receiving a cognitive behavioural therapy-based return to work intervention. Sixty-five persons (29 men, 36 women) on pain-related sick leave participated in the study. Electrocardiograms were recorded in the clinic during supine rest, passive...

We have previously observed that poor classroom acoustics (long reverberation time) and other work related conditions contribute to the perceived noise exposure of schoolteachers and the disturbance attributed to noise in the classroom. The present study aimed to investigate to what extent the self-reported noise exposure and disturbance attributed...

Background: Noise is a source of disturbance and annoyance among school teachers, even though the sound levels are well below the level associated with increased risk of hearing impairment. However, little is known about other effects associated with noise exposure in this group and to what extent the acoustic environment contributes. Objective: Th...

The current study analyzed the relationship between psychosocial work environment assessed by the Effort Reward Imbalance Model (ERI-model) and heart rate variability (HRV) measured at baseline and again, two years later, as this relationship is scarcely covered by the literature. Measurements of HRV during seated rest were obtained from 231 public...

The theory behind the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) presumes that the "objective" social environment is measurable via self-report inventories such as the JCQ. Hence, it is expected that workers in identical work will respond highly similar. However, since no studies have evaluated this basic assumption, we decided to investigate whether workers...

A number of small portable systems that can measure HRV are available to address questions related to autonomic regulation in free-living subjects. However, ambulatory HRV measurements obtained through use of these systems have not previously been validated against standard clinical measurements such as Holter recordings. The objective of this stud...

To examine the risk of sleep problems associated with work stress (job strain, job demands, and decision authority), worries and pain and to investigate the synergistic interaction between these factors and traffic noise. Sleep problems and predictor variables were assessed in a cross-sectional public health survey with 12,093 respondents. Traffic...

Noise in non-industrial workplaces is an increasing problem. Annoyance and complaints over noise are frequently reported in these workplaces, whereas the risk of hearing damage is usually not the major concern. An important question arises for this type of noise of low to moderate intensity; that is, if it could be a cause of increased sickness abs...

The current study analyzed the relationship between psychosocial factors measured at baseline and heart rate variability (HRV) and salivary cortisol measured at baseline and again, six years later. In 2002 and 2008, measurements of HRV and salivary cortisol at three time points were obtained from 70 healthy participants (48 women and 22 men). The a...

Objective: The study aimed at identifying risk factors of being disturbed by noise at work among teachers in public schools in Copenhagen, Denmark. Methods: Four hundred and nineteen teachers on 10 public schools in Copenhagen were invited to participate in the study. The schools were selected to represent contrasts with respect to classroom reverb...

This study examined the relationship between objective measures of hearing thresholds (HT) and distortion product oto-acoustic emissions (DPOAE) and self-reported hearing ability, tinnitus and hyperacusis. The participants were 50 opera-orchestral musicians that were at elevated risk of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Self rating of hearing abil...

The present study examined hearing impairment by measurements of hearing thresholds and distortion product oto-acoustic emissions (DPOAE) in a group of musicians that had an elevated risk of noise induced hearing loss. The measurements of DPOAE showed a clear reduction in musicians that otherwise only showed slight reductions in hearing thresholds...

The aim of this investigation was to study female workers active in the labour market for differences between those with trapezius myalgia (MYA) and without (CON) during repetitive pegboard (PEG) and stress (STR) tasks regarding (1) relative muscle load, (2) trapezius muscle blood flow, (3) metabolite accumulation, (4) oxygenation, and (5) pain dev...

Recently, it has become clear that the complexity of environmental health issues requires an approach that takes into account the complexities, interdependencies and uncertainties of the real world. An urgent issue that has surfaced is the need for accurate tools to better describe exposure characterization to environmental chemicals. By including...

Although ambulatory measurements of heart rate variability (HRV) are widely used, the reproducibility and seasonal variation of ambulatory sampled short-term HRV measurements in healthy participants has not been investigated before. In the present study we collected ambulatory ECGs from 19 healthy participants monthly for 12 months, and for a sub-g...

Although ambulatory measurements of heart rate variability (HRV) are widely used, the reproducibility and seasonal variation of ambulatory sampled short-term HRV measurements in healthy participants has not been investigated before. In the present study we collected ambulatory ECGs from 19 healthy participants monthly for 12 months, and for a sub-g...

Objectives To investigate the effects of cognitively demanding work tasks and office noise on heart rate variability (HRV), cardiovascular responses and electromyography (EMG) activity in the trapezius muscles. Methods Ten female volunteers were exposed to simulated open-plan office noise for 35 min (Leq 65 dBA), while engaged in cognitively demand...

Self-reported noise exposure is on the rise in Denmark. Little is known, however, about the social consequences, including sickness absence, of noise exposure. The aim of this paper was to investigate the association between self-reported noise exposure and long-term sickness absence. The association was investigated using the Cox proportional haza...

The trapezius muscle often develops pain as the result of repetitive and stressful work tasks although it is unclear to what extent this pain is due to alterations in muscle concentrations of algesic/nociceptive substances. Twenty women with chronic neck- and shoulder pain (TM) whose work required highly repetitive work tasks and 20 pain-free femal...

The origins of chronic muscle pain development and maintenance are debated regarding the relative contributions of peripheral nociception and central pain processing. Bradykinin (BKN) and kallidin (KAL) have been suggested to be algesic kinins involved in muscle pain. This in vivo study investigates whether there were significant differences in int...