[Job-Related Health Check for Employees Aged 45 and Older: Is there a Need for Carers?]

Purpose: High levels of physical and psychological stresses experienced by those in the care profession can have a negative impact on their health. The pilot project "Health Check for Carers in the region of Karlsruhe" offered nurses aged 45 and above - based on their self-assessed ability to work using the Work Ability Index (WAI) - the opportunity to participate in a job-related health check, based on their work ability index result. This study looks at the occupational and health situation of older carers, the (subjective) need for a Ü45 health check and draws a comparison between particpants and non-participants.

Methods: 1,466 nurses between 45 and 52 years of age were invited to participate in an Ü45 occupational health check and were surveyed in writing afterwards. 202 questionnaires formed the data basis (49 participants and 153 non-participants in the health check). A descriptive analysis was carried out and group differences were analyzed using Chi2- and rank sum tests.

Results: The main stress factors of the caregivers were organizational circumstances, high work intensity and insufficient remuneration. Illnesses or health problems of the musculoskeletal system and the psyche were the most widespread of all issues. 18.6% of the respondents were rather or very dissatisfied with their current state of health. 39.1% considered their physical health and 27.6% their mental health to be at high or very high risk from their current job. 25.9% of the care workers considered it very unlikely and 32.4% as rather unlikely that they would be able to work in nursing until they reached retirement age. A need for health check was expressed by 63.0%. Group differences between participants and non-participants were shown by a significantly higher burden due to musculoskeletal disorders (p=0.0002), health satisfaction (p=0.0053), subjective need for a health check (p<0.0001) and occupational stress factors, which included physical working activities (p=0.0035), managing many tasks simultaneously (p=0.0380), dealing with cognitively impaired patients (p=0.0095) and suffering/dying patients (p=0.0164).

Conclusion: Care workers reported a high level of stress at work and frequent health impairments. There is a clear need for an occupational health check for this age group in this field of work.