Job stress among workers who telecommute during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Japan: a cross-sectional study

Ikegami, K.; Baba, H.; Ando, H.; Hino, A.; Tusji, M.; Tateishi, S.; Nagata, T.; Matsuda, S.; Fujino, Y.

Objectives: The work system reform and the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan have prompted efforts toward telecommuting in Japan, and there has been little research regarding the stress and health effects of telecommuting. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between telecommuting and job stress among Japanese workers. Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study. Methods: In December 2020, during the 'third wave' of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Internet-based nationwide health survey of 33,087 Japanese workers (CORoNaWork study) was conducted. Data for 27,036 individuals was included as 6,051 individuals provided invalid responses. We analysed a sample of 13,468 office workers from this database. We classified participants into four groups according to telecommuting frequency and compared the subscale of the Job Content Questionnaire and subjective job stress among these groups: high-frequency, medium-frequency, and low-frequency telecommuters group and non-telecommuters group. We used a linear mixed model and ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results: There was a significant difference in the score of job control of the JCQ among the four groups after adjusting for multiple confounding factors. The high-frequency telecommuters group had the highest job control score. Regarding the fluctuation score of subjective job stress, the high- and medium-frequency telecommuters groups were significantly lower than those of the non-telecommuters group after adjusting for multiple confounding factors. Conclusion: We found that high-frequency telecommuting was associated with high job control. This study suggests that the widespread adoption of telecommuting as a countermeasure to the public health challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may also have a positive impact on job stress.