Nübling et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:428 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/428 Table 1 Sociodemographic Characteristics and working schedule of Study Participants Total (incl. other professions in the sample); N = 889 HC; N = 412 GNH; N = 313 Gender Age Work hours per week On-call duties (n in last month) Night shifts (n in last month) Shared shifts (n in last month) Alternating shifts (n in last month) Male Female No answer - 30 years 30-39 years 40-49 years 50 + years No answer 35+ h/week 15 - 34 h/week <15 h/week no answer None/n.a. 1-5 6+ None/n.a. 1-5 6+ None/n.a. 1-5 6+ None/n.a. 1-5 6+ Sum may differ from 100% due to rounding. for general hospital care nurses (N = 1195) were performed. Differences between Home Care and Geriatric Nursing Homes Table 2 presents the results (means and SDs) for all scales for the two study groups and the profession speci- fic reference values for general hospital care nurses and the overall COPSOQ mean across all professions for all scales. Differences in means are indicated by a “+"-sign, if the study group value is minimally 5 points better than the reference value and by a “-” -sign if the group value is 5 or more points worse than the reference (the significance level of p < 0.01 is regularly reached when differences exceed 5 points). Please note, that the direc- tion of the interpretation varies, “higher” values are not necessarily “better” values - it depends on the content of the scale whether a value implicates a positive or nega- tive result of this aspect of the psychosocial work envir- onment; this evaluation is already done in the “+"- and “-” -signs. Comparisons of the scale means between the two study-groups showed mostly better values for the HC workers (indicated as “HC +”): quantitative demands, emotional demands and work-privacy conflict are lower, possibilities for development and predictability are 98 (11%) 779 (88%) 12 (1%) 112 (13%) 135 (15%) 324 (36%) 257 (29%) 61: (7%) 383 (43%) 359 (40%) 135 (15%) 12 (1%) 661 (74%) 172 (19%) 56 (6%) 750 (85%) 102 (11%) 37 (4%) 512 (58%) 281 (32%) 96 (11%) 457 (51%) 254 (29%) 178 (20%) 25 (6%) 385 (93%) 2 (1%) 56 (14%) 59 (14%) 180 (44%) 103 (25%) 14 (3%) 128 (31%) 196 (48%) 87 (21%) 1 (0%) 247 (60%) 124 (30%) 41 (10%) 372 (90%) 28 (7%) 12 (3%) 125 (30%) 207 (50%) 80 (20%) 217 (53%) 141 (34%) 54 (13%) higher, role conflicts are lower, quality of leadership and sense of community are higher and mobbing as well as job insecurity are rated lower in HC. On the other hand, workers in geriatric nursing homes show higher values for the amount of social relations at work - but this is the only aspect where GNH workers show better values than Home carers (indicated as “GNH +”). Differences between HC/GNH and General Hospital Care Comparisons of the results of the two study-groups with the COPSOQ reference value for general hospital care nurses (COPhosp) showed for the HC workers that the aspect of having less social relations at work appeared to be the only disadvantage: the amount (the scale assesses amount, not quality) of social relations at work is evaluated as being very low in the HC group. Positive results for the HC employees are lower values on all demands scales, higher workplace commitment, better predictability, fewer role conflicts, better quality of leadership, more social support, less mobbing, less job insecurity and a higher job satisfaction as an out- come factor. In the geriatric nursing homes we found the following differences compared to the COPSOQ reference value for General Hospital Care: the only negative point is lower self rated general health; positive results from the Page 5 of 12 49 (16%) 260 (83%) 4 (1%) 45 (14%) 61 (19%) 90 (29%) 95 (30%) 22 (7%) 191 (61%) 99 (32%) 19 (6%) 4 (1%) 263 (84%) 42 (13%) 8 (3%) 220 (70%) 69 (22%) 24 (8%) 234 (74%) 68 (22%) 11 (4%) 110 (35%) 96 (31%) 107 (34%)