两位学者 电子游戏软件社会工作学院 收到1美元.700万美元 National Institute for Occupational Safety 和 Health to 电子游戏正规平台 the link between work 和幸福 for a pair of long-term research projects.
Erika安息日 和 卡尔Halvorsen will carry out the research in partnership with the 哈佛工作、健康和幸福中心, where interdisciplinary teams of scholars work to protect 和 promote the health of workers.
“健康的其他社会决定因素, 比如种族主义或污染, are really hard for any one individual or group to address 和 control,安息日说。, an associate professor who studies workplace stress. “But the power of 电子游戏正规平台ing 和 intervening at work is that managers 和 other leaders in organizations have the ability to change policies 和 practices that improve people’s health.”
Sabbath 和 her colleagues at BC received a five-year, $1.拨款600万元予 电子游戏正规平台 how the working conditions at two large hospitals within the 马萨诸塞州布里格姆综合网络 affect the health 和幸福 of 40,000 workers. 这个项目, 叫做波士顿医院工作人员健康电子游戏正规平台, builds on past research that focused on the health 和幸福 of 22,000 nurses 和 nursing assistants at the two hospitals.
Sabbath says the next phase of the project will zero in on nearly every employee, 包括低工资, 少数民族, 还有运送病人的移民工人, 准备食物, 和清洁. The research team, which includes Halvorsen, law professor 院长桥本和生物统计学家 马特Gregas, will analyze troves of administrative data 和 survey a subset of 3,000 workers to better underst和 how policies 和 项目 affect employees depending on their age, 比赛, 种族, 并支付.
Sabbath says one particular finding from the previous phase of the project helped to shape the new agenda. High-wage nurses 和 low-wage nursing assistants both took part in a program that trained participants to transport equipment 和 lift patients more safely, 她回忆说, 但只有护士的受伤率有所下降. 结果, 她说, is that the gap in injury rates among high-wage 和 low-wage workers grew even though the overall health of the workforce improved.
“This was a light bulb moment for thinking about how interventions affect people differently,安息日说。, who was named principal investigator of the 电子游戏正规平台 in 2015. “Seeing that evidence made us wonder about other health interventions 和 whether we might see the same effect in this phase of the 电子游戏正规平台.”
Sabbath 和 her team will soon begin to look at which workers take advantage of the state’s new 育儿假法该法案于今年1月生效. Under the law, parents receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child.
“It turns out that it’s very complicated administratively to navigate it,” Sabbath says. “So, do high-wage workers now take even more paid leave 和 low-wage workers less, so the gap grows? Or will it eventually turn out to be the other way around?”
As the COVID-19 p和emic continues to shine a light on the link between the health of hospital workers 和 their ability to provide quality care, 萨巴斯急于开始新的电子游戏正规平台. “It’s really important to figure out how to protect 和 promote the health of this workforce,她说。. “They have been stretched to the brink during this last year, 和 it feels like that’s going to keep going for some time.”
Halvorsen 和 his colleagues at BC will 电子游戏正规平台 older workers, many of whom are 保持工作 比以往更长. They plan to focus on how employer-provided health insurance, 参加工作场所的退休储蓄计划, 和 the ability to reduce hours contribute to the health 和幸福 of workers 50 和 up.
电子游戏正规平台 has found that working later in life can be 对你的健康和经济都有好处. But many workplace policies 和 benefits are not designed with older workers in mind, Halvorsen说, an assistant professor who studies productive aging.
“If one of our goals is to help people stay in the workforce for as long as they choose,他说, “那么我们就需要制定更好的工作场所政策, 项目, 以及旨在帮助他们的福利.”
回来ed by a two year, $97,300 grant, Halvorsen, Sabbath, 和 research statistician 梅丽莎McTernan 将分析六波来自 健康及退休电子游戏正规平台, which surveys nationally representative samples of Americans 50 和 older every two years. 从2024年开始, 三人组将分析超过30个,来自12个国家的000次观测,000名有工作的成年人居住在超过9,000户家庭.
Halvorsen hopes to pinpoint the workplace benefits 和 policies that contribute to longer, 工作内外的健康生活. He is especially interested in exploring the link between workplace flexibility 和 employee retention.
“If you’re able to reduce the number of hours you're working, do you like your job better? And does that mean that you’re more likely to stay in the workforce longer?他说. “Having older adults stay on longer is important simply because they have a lifetime of accumulated knowledge that is lost the moment they leave.”
Halvorsen 和 Sabbath hope that their research will go on to shape policies that enhance worker health, 安全, 和幸福. 萨巴斯说哈佛中心, 哪个是四个电子游戏正规平台项目的所在地, will create policy briefs 和 set up presentations with key stakeholders to share their findings.
“The center is a driving force for occupational health, policy, 和 research,她说。. “Having BC play such a big role in terms of the leadership of the projects really positions the school to have a big impact.”