Skip to main content
PMC home page
Occupational and Environmental Medicine logoLink to Occupational and Environmental Medicine
. 2002 Jun;59(6):356–361. doi: 10.1136/oem.59.6.356

Job stress, fatigue, and job dissatisfaction in Dutch lorry drivers: towards an occupation specific model of job demands and control

E M de Croon 1, R Blonk 1, B C H de Zwart 1, M Frings-Dresen 1, J Broersen 1
PMCID: PMC1740302  PMID: 12040108

Abstract

Objectives: Building on Karasek's model of job demands and control (JD-C model), this study examined the effects of job control, quantitative workload, and two occupation specific job demands (physical demands and supervisor demands) on fatigue and job dissatisfaction in Dutch lorry drivers.

Methods: From 1181 lorry drivers (adjusted response 63%) self reported information was gathered by questionnaire on the independent variables (job control, quantitative workload, physical demands, and supervisor demands) and the dependent variables (fatigue and job dissatisfaction). Stepwise multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the main effects of job demands and job control and the interaction effect between job control and job demands on fatigue and job dissatisfaction.

Results: The inclusion of physical and supervisor demands in the JD-C model explained a significant amount of variance in fatigue (3%) and job dissatisfaction (7%) over and above job control and quantitative workload. Moreover, in accordance with Karasek's interaction hypothesis, job control buffered the positive relation between quantitative workload and job dissatisfaction.

Conclusions: Despite methodological limitations, the results suggest that the inclusion of (occupation) specific job control and job demand measures is a fruitful elaboration of the JD-C model. The occupation specific JD-C model gives occupational stress researchers better insight into the relation between the psychosocial work environment and wellbeing. Moreover, the occupation specific JD-C model may give practitioners more concrete and useful information about risk factors in the psychosocial work environment. Therefore, this model may provide points of departure for effective stress reducing interventions at work.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (118.9 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beurskens A. J., Bültmann U., Kant I., Vercoulen J. H., Bleijenberg G., Swaen G. M. Fatigue among working people: validity of a questionnaire measure. Occup Environ Med. 2000 May;57(5):353–357. doi: 10.1136/oem.57.5.353. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bültmann U., de Vries M., Beurskens A. J., Bleijenberg G., Vercoulen J. H., Kant I. Measurement of prolonged fatigue in the working population: determination of a cutoff point for the checklist individual strength. J Occup Health Psychol. 2000 Oct;5(4):411–416. doi: 10.1037//1076-8998.5.4.411. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cohen S., Wills T. A. Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychol Bull. 1985 Sep;98(2):310–357. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Demerouti E., Bakker A. B., Nachreiner F., Schaufeli W. B. A model of burnout and life satisfaction amongst nurses. J Adv Nurs. 2000 Aug;32(2):454–464. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01496.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Elders L. A., Burdorf A. Interrelations of risk factors and low back pain in scaffolders. Occup Environ Med. 2001 Sep;58(9):597–603. doi: 10.1136/oem.58.9.597. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Fox M. L., Dwyer D. J., Ganster D. C. Effects of stressful job demands and control on physiological and attitudinal outcomes in a hospital setting. Acad Manage J. 1993 Apr;36(2):289–318. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Frese M. Social support as a moderator of the relationship between work stressors and psychological dysfunctioning: a longitudinal study with objective measures. J Occup Health Psychol. 1999 Jul;4(3):179–192. doi: 10.1037//1076-8998.4.3.179. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kristensen T. S. Job stress and cardiovascular disease: a theoretic critical review. J Occup Health Psychol. 1996 Jul;1(3):246–260. doi: 10.1037//1076-8998.1.3.246. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Landsbergis P. A., Schnall P. L., Deitz D., Friedman R., Pickering T. The patterning of psychological attributes and distress by "job strain" and social support in a sample of working men. J Behav Med. 1992 Aug;15(4):379–405. doi: 10.1007/BF00844730. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Orris P., Hartman D. E., Strauss P., Anderson R. J., Collins J., Knopp C., Xu Y., Melius J. Stress among package truck drivers. Am J Ind Med. 1997 Feb;31(2):202–210. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199702)31:2<202::aid-ajim10>3.0.co;2-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Sluiter J. K., van der Beek A. J., Frings-Dresen M. H. The influence of work characteristics on the need for recovery and experienced health: a study on coach drivers. Ergonomics. 1999 Apr;42(4):573–583. doi: 10.1080/001401399185487. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Spector P. E., Chen P. Y., O'Connell B. J. A longitudinal study of relations between job stressors and job strains while controlling for prior negative affectivity and strains. J Appl Psychol. 2000 Apr;85(2):211–218. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.85.2.211. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Van Yperen N. W., Snijders T. A. A multilevel analysis of the demands--control model: is stress at work determined by factors at the group level or the individual level? J Occup Health Psychol. 2000 Jan;5(1):182–190. doi: 10.1037//1076-8998.5.1.182. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Vercoulen J. H., Swanink C. M., Fennis J. F., Galama J. M., van der Meer J. W., Bleijenberg G. Dimensional assessment of chronic fatigue syndrome. J Psychosom Res. 1994 Jul;38(5):383–392. doi: 10.1016/0022-3999(94)90099-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Vercoulen J. H., Swanink C. M., Fennis J. F., Galama J. M., van der Meer J. W., Bleijenberg G. Prognosis in chronic fatigue syndrome: a prospective study on the natural course. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1996 May;60(5):489–494. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.60.5.489. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. de Jonge J., Mulder M. J., Nijhuis F. J. The incorporation of different demand concepts in the job demand-control model: effects on health care professionals. Soc Sci Med. 1999 May;48(9):1149–1160. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00429-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. van der Weide W. E., Verbeek J. H., van Dijk F. J. Relation between indicators for quality of occupational rehabilitation of employees with low back pain. Occup Environ Med. 1999 Jul;56(7):488–493. doi: 10.1136/oem.56.7.488. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Occupational and Environmental Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES