The influence of age on the distribution of self-rated health, burnout and their associations with psychosocial work conditions

Objective: Self-rated health (SRH) and burnout are commonly used health indicators. This study was designed to examine the age-specific patterns of SRH and burnout and their correlations with self-reported disease symptoms, and to investigate the moderating effects of age on the associations of psychosocial work conditions with these two health measures. Methods: Study subjects were 20,454 male and 16,875 female employees from 2 representative surveys conducted in 2007 and 2010 in Taiwan. SRH was assessed by a single item and burnout was assessed by the general burnout subscale of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). Psychosocial work conditions including working hours, psychological and physical job demands, job control, job insecurity and workplace justice were assessed by a validated questionnaire. Results: Older workers were at higher risk for poor SRH which was correlated with the presence of multiple disease symptoms. In contrast, employees aged 30-40 years had higher burnout which was strongly correlated with emotional disturbance. Among all the examined work factors, low workplace justice was found to be the most predominant predictor for poor SRH and high burnout, and the associations were more profound in younger workers than in older workers. Conclusion: SRH and burnout were differentially related to age, and there were evidences of moderating effects of age on the associations between psychosocial work conditions and health. Researchers and health practitioners should pay attention to the influence of age when using the measures of SRH and burnout as indicators to detect health risk in association with adverse psychosocial work conditions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.