Interrelations of work with health and wellbeing on a 50+ year old workforce assessed using longitudinal self-reports and actigraphy.

Authors

Athanasios Tsanas, Belinda Steffan, Billy Dixon, Kiersten Hay, Larissa Pschetz, Jakov Jandric, Wendy Loretto

Published in

Scientific reports. Volume 16. Issue 1. Jul 28, 2026. Epub Jul 28, 2026.

Abstract

Daily activities, work, and health are closely intertwined. We closely followed 45 participants aged 50-66 years working across different sectors in a year-long study, who completed a range of baseline, weekly, and monthly Participant Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). Participants self-reported on work-related aspects using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) and Workplace Wellbeing Question Bank (WWQB); wellbeing using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS); and sleep using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Additionally, they provided wrist-worn actigraphy data collected over three periods (each period ~ 35-40 days). In total, we collected 1901 PROMs entries and 5258 days of actigraphy data. We computed 55 actigraphy measures broadly assessing physical activity, sleep, and diurnal variability characteristics. We explored statistical associations between pairs of PROMs items and between PROMs items with actigraphy measures using correlations and cross-correlations to assess similarities. We built mixed-effects models to associate PROMs items and actigraphy measures with global PSQI and total WEMWBS. We found very strong associations (>|0.5|) between BJSQ items with total WEMWBS and global PSQI, highlighting certain work aspects affect sleep and overall wellbeing, whereas actigraphy analysis provided new insights uncovering sleep quality problems including disturbances and awakenings for most participants. Additionally, the mixed-effects models revealed that actigraphy-derived sleep measures are strongly associated with total WEMWBS and global PSQI providing complementary information to PROMs. Integrating longitudinal work-related self-reports and actigraphy can provide useful personalized wellbeing- and health-insights, and should likely be considered in future smart-health monitoring systems to promote healthy aging.

PMID:
42521717
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Jul 2026.

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