Effectiveness of the Labour Inspection Authority's Regulatory Tools on Work Environment and Employee Health - Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Among Norwegian Home-care Workers

Changes in psychological distress HSCL-5

时间窗: Psychological Distress will be assessed 2 months prior to the interventions and 12 months post interventions

Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-5), is a self-administered 5-item instrument, each item is on a four-point scale ranging from 1="not at all" to 4="extremely". Participants are asked to assess symptoms during the past 2 weeks prior to answering the questionnaire. The average item score is calculated by dividing the total score of the number of items answered (ranging between 1.00 and 4.00).

Changes in self reported occupational exposures

时间窗: Self-Reported Occupational Exposures will be assessed 2 months prior to the interventions and 12 months post interventions

Psychosocial, organizational and mechanical factors at work will be assessed by the General Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social Factors at Work (QPSNordic) and with items adapted from the following questionnaire developed by Statistics Norway: "Working environment, survey on living conditions". The wording of the questions are typically: "how often in your job do you have to ... " (e.g. suppress emotions in order to appear neutral on the outside?), or "In the course of your work" ... (e.g. do you need to squat or kneel?). Level of exposure is assessed by frequency scoring on a five-point scale ranging from "1 = very seldom or never" to "5 = very often or always"

Changes in musculoskeletal pain

时间窗: Musculoskeletal Pain will be assessed 2 months prior to the interventions and 12 months post interventions

Self-reported intensity of pain in five anatomic sites; neck, shoulder, back, arm, and leg. Each question is phrased: "Have you been troubled by... (e.g. neck pain) the last 4 weeks? Response alternatives are: 1) "not troubled", 2) "a little troubled", 3) "rather intensely troubled" and 4)" very intensely troubled"

Changes in physician-certified absence from work, number of events (17 days or more) per 100 employee-years

时间窗: The absence rate will be assessed during the one year prior to the interventions and during the one year after the interventions

Data from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration's sickness benefit register. This register provides complete registrations of all sickness absence episodes-including the length and medical diagnosis-which are compensated by the national insurance sickness benefit. As a general rule, everybody working or living in Norway is covered by the Norwegian national social insurance.