Understanding Worker Well-Being Relative to High-Workload and Recovery Activities across a Whole Day: Pilot Testing an Ecological Momentary Assessment Technique

Abstract

Occupational health and safety is experiencing a paradigm shift from focusing only on health at the workplace toward a holistic approach and worker well-being framework that considers both work and non-work factors. Aligned with this shift, the purpose of this pilot study was to examine how, within a person, frequencies of high-workload and recovery activities from both work and non-work periods were associated with same day well-being measures. We analyzed data on 45 workers with type 1 diabetes from whom we collected activity data 5–6 times daily over 14 days. More frequent engagement in high-workload activities was associated with lower well-being on multiple measures including higher stress. Conversely, greater recovery activity frequency was mostly associated with higher well-being indicated by lower stress and higher positive affect. Overall, our results provide preliminary validity evidence for measures of high-workload and recovery activity exposure covering both work and non-work periods that can inform and support evaluations of worker well-being.