COMPRESSED - A Longitudinal Study of Compressed Work Schedules Within the Health, Care and Welfare Services

The aim of COMPRESSED is to investigate the potential consequences of a compressed work schedule within the municipal health, care and welfare services.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: The Focus of the Study is Shift Work
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: No intervention

Detailed Description

The aim of COMPRESSED is to investigate the potential consequences of a compressed work schedule within the municipal health, care and welfare services.

A compressed work schedule is defined by an increase in numbers of hours per day, and a reduction of number of days per week. Compressed work schedules are advocated as a tool to reduce involuntary part-time contracts, and improve employee recruitment and retention, as well as improve employee health and quality of care.

However, the empirical support of such claims is limited, mixed, and suffers from several methodological shortcomings. There is a clear lack in studies investigating the potential moderating and mediating mechanisms, despite moderating variables such as shift intensity being likely to have an impact. In collaboration with unions and employers, COMPRESSED uses a longitudinal mixed method design, to investigate the short- and long-term consequences of compressed work schedules, as well as potential moderating and mediating variables. Each of the research questions will be addressed with complimentary methods in each of the work packages.

The project COMPRESSED will examine:

In-depth narrative interviews eliciting employees', employers', and patients'/users' own perceptions of consequences, moderators and mechanisms.

A retrospective intervention study using registry data, examining compressed work schedules implemented over the past 5 years.

A two year longitudinal survey looking at long-term effects and 4) a diary study across two weeks, looking at short-term effects.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 700000

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: N/A
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Employes within the municipal health, care and welfare service

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Employed within the municipal health, care and welfare services.

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

3

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Employees within the municipal health, care and welfare services; All employees within the municipal health, care and welfare services. No internvention. We investigate the relationship between caracteristics of their shift systems and potential outcomes.	Other: No intervention; No intervention
Employees within the municipal health, care and welfare services 2; Employees within the municipal health, care and welfare services, replying to a survey. Sample is drawn by representative unions. No internvention. We investigate the relationship between caracteristics of their shift systems and potential outcomes.	Other: No intervention; No intervention
Users of the municipal health, care and welfare services.; Users of the municipal health, care and welfare services.No internvention. We investigate the relationship between caracteristics of the shift systems worked and potential outcomes for users.	Other: No intervention; No intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Featigue	Fatigue General Fatigue scale from the Checklist of Individual Strength (CIS-20; Vercoulen et al., 1994)	2027
Mental health	Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-5)	2027
Generell helse	The general health measure from the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (Ware, 1992)	2027
Sickness absence	self-repport and regestry data	2027
Quality of care	From COPSOQ	2027
Care left undone	adapted from (Senek et al., 2020) and a measure by (Ball, Murrells, Rafferty, Morrow, & Griffiths, 2014) informed by the validated Basel Extent of Rationing of Nursing scale (Schubert et al., 2008).	2027
Intention to quit	(Kuvaas, 2006).	2027
Occupational commitment	(Tam, Korczynski, & Frenkel, 2002)	2027
Regestry-data	We will attempt to measure 1. Health, 2 recruitment and retention and 3. Quality of care, using registry data. And important part of the project will be to explore how these aspects are best measured using registry data. Their final operationalization is therefore not set.	2027

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Oslo Metropolitan University
• Collaborators: University of Oslo; The Research Council of Norway; Maastricht University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): June 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): February 1, 2025
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 12, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 20, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 22, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): March 24, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 24, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 22, 2023
• Last Verified: December 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 202316

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No