Impact of occupational stress and sleep quality on quality of life among biosafety laboratory staff in Xinjiang

Objective To explore the relationship between occupational stress, sleep quality, and quality of life among biosafety laboratory (BSL) staff in Xinjiang.

Methods In July 2022, the cluster sampling method was used to select 1 980 on-duty staff from biosafety laboratories in various regions of Xinjiang, and a questionnaire survey was conducted through the Questionnaire Star online survey platform with the Effort-Reward Imbalance Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale. Intergroup comparisons were made to evaluate the correlation between occupational stress, sleep quality, and quality of life. A structural equation model was established with AMOS 21.0 software to analyze the mediating effect of sleep quality between occupational stress and quality of life.

Results A total of 1 591 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective recovery rate of 80.4%. The detection rate of occupational stress was 87.0%, while the detection rate of sleep disorders was 37.1% in biosafety laboratory staff. The median (25%, 75% percentile) of quality of life scores was 56.76 (49.81, 62.12) points. The quality of life scores of staff with 30-39 years old, the bachelor's degree, 11-20 years of work experience, the intermediate professional title, and no exercise per week were lower (P < 0.05). The scores of occupational stress and sleep quality were negatively correlated with the quality of life scores (r_s=-0.435, -0.441, P < 0.01), and occupational stress was positively correlated with the scores of sleep quality (r_s=0.371, P < 0.01). The results of the structural equation model showed that both occupational stress and sleep quality had direct effects on quality of life (the standardized path coefficients were-0.17 and-0.52, respectively (P < 0.01). Occupational stress could indirectly affect quality of life through sleep quality (β=-0.29, P < 0.01, the mediating effect accounted for 63.0%).

Conclusions The higher the level of occupational stress and the sleep quality of BSL staff, the worse their quality of life will be. The biosafety laboratory arranges work tasks rationally, builds a good working system, and improves its quality of life.