Can home care work be organized to promote musculoskeletal health for workers? Study protocol for the Norwegian GoldiCare cluster randomized controlled trial

BMC Health Services Research

Study Protocol

Svend Erik Mathiassen¹  Fredrik Klæboe Lohne²  Trine Minde Gellein²  Skender Redzovic²  Marius Steiro Fimland³  Andreas Holtermann⁴  Heike Fischer⁵ 

[1] Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, Department of Occupational Health Science and Psychology, University of Gävle, 80176, Gävle, Sweden;Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;Unicare Helsefort Rehabilitation Centre, Rissa, Norway;National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lerso Parkalle 105, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark;Trondheim municipality, Bergheim home care service, Postboks 2300 Torgarden, 7004, Trondheim, Norway;

关键词: Goldilocks work principle;    Workplace health promotion;    Occupational health;    Musculoskeletal pain;    Lower back pain;    Neck pain;    Shoulder pain;    Cluster-randomized controlled trial;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12913-022-08916-0

 received in 2022-11-07, accepted in 2022-11-30,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHome care workers perform physically strenuous tasks, in particular when handling patients with high care demands. Thus, musculoskeletal pain and sick leave is greater in this group than in the general population. To ease these issues, we will implement a Goldilocks Work intervention (GoldiCare), redistributing schedules between workers to achieve a “just right” weekly structure of physical work that can promote health. This protocol paper describes the content, design, implementation and evaluation of the cluster randomized controlled trial of the GoldiCare intervention in home care.MethodsThe cluster randomized controlled trial is a 16-week workplace organizational intervention implemented through operations managers at the home care units. The operations managers will be introduced to the Goldilocks Work Principle and a GoldiCare tool, to assist the operations managers when composing a “just right” distribution of work schedules throughout the week. The GoldiCare tool provides an overview of the physical strain for each shift, based on the number of patients and their need for care. We expect to include 11 units, which will be randomized to either intervention or control at a 1:1 ratio. Home care workers assigned to the control group will continue to work as normal during the intervention period. Musculoskeletal pain in neck/shoulder and lower back will be the primary outcomes and we will also evaluate the composition of physical behaviors as well as fatigue after work as secondary outcomes. We will collect data using (1) daily questions regarding musculoskeletal pain and fatigue after work, (2) 7 days of objective measurements of physical behavior, (3) questionnaires about the participant’s characteristics, health, and workplace psychosocial stressors and (4) information on the implementation of the GoldiCare tool. In addition, a process evaluation will be conducted using focus group discussions and individual interviews.DiscussionDue to the increasing aging population in need of care, measures that can improve the health of home care workers are paramount for the sustainability of this sector. This organizational intervention is based on information available nation-wide, and therefore has the potential to be scaled to all municipalities in Norway if proven effective.Trial registrationThis clinical trial was registered on 08/05/2022 under NCT05487027.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

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