Working hours, sleep, and fatigue in the public safety sector: A scoping review of the research

Source avec lien : American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 65(11). 10.1002/ajim.23407

Le secteur de la sécurité publique comprend les agents chargés de l’application de la loi (LEO), les agents pénitentiaires (CO), les pompiers (FF), les pompiers de forêt (WFF) et les services médicaux d’urgence (EMS), tels que définis dans le programme national de recherche sur les professions (NORA) du National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dans ces professions, le travail par quarts, les quarts de longue durée et les heures supplémentaires excessives sont courants. Notre objectif était d’identifier les lacunes de la recherche concernant les heures de travail, le sommeil et la fatigue chez ces travailleurs.

Background The public safety sector includes law enforcement officers (LEO), corrections officers (CO), firefighter service (FF), wildland firefighting (WFF), and emergency medical services (EMS), as defined in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Across these occupations, shiftwork, long-duration shifts, and excessive overtime are common. Our objective was to identify research gaps related to working hours, sleep, and fatigue among these workers. Methods We used a scoping review study design that included searches of MEDLINE, Embase, CAB Abstracts, Global Health, PsychInfo, CINAHL, Scopus, Academic Search Complete, Agricultural and Environmental Science Collection, ProQuest Central, Cochrane Library, Safety Lit, Homeland Security Digital Library, and Sociological Abstracts using a range of occupational search terms and terms related to working hours, sleep, and fatigue. Results Out of 3415 articles returned from our database search, 202 met all inclusion criteria. Six common outcomes related to working hours, sleep, and fatigue emerged: sleep, fatigue, work performance, injury, psychosocial stress, and chronic disease. Nearly two-thirds (59%, n = 120) of the studies were observational, of which 64% (n = 77) were cross sectional and 9% were (n = 11) longitudinal; 14% (n = 30) of the studies were reviews; and 19% (n = 39) were experimental or quasi-experimental studies. Only 25 of the 202 articles described mitigation strategies or interventions. FFs, LEOs, EMS, and WFFs were the most studied, followed by COs. Conclusions In general, more longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to enrich the knowledge base on the consequences of long working hours, poor sleep, and fatigue in the public safety sector. Few experimental studies have tested novel approaches to fatigue mitigation in diverse sectors of public safety. This gap in research limits the decisions that may be made by employers to address fatigue as a threat to public-safety worker health and safety.

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