Employees? work breaks and their physical and mental health: Results from a representative German survey

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of three characteristics of work break organization, namely skipping work breaks, interruptions of work breaks, and meal break duration, and their relationships with physical and mental health. We used data from the BAuA-Working Time Survey 2017, a representative workforce survey in Germany, and restricted the sample to 5979 full-time employees. Logistic regression analyses were conducted with in total five health complaints as dependent variables: back pain and low back pain, pain in the neck and shoulder region, general tiredness, faintness, or fatigue, physical exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion. Many employees often skipped their work breaks (29%) and experienced break interruptions (16%). Frequent skipping of work breaks was significantly positively, that is detrimentally, related to all five health complaints and frequent interruptions of work breaks also, except for neck and shoulder pain. Meal break duration was significantly negatively, that is beneficially, related to physical exhaustion.

Automated summary

This study investigated the prevalence of work break characteristics and their relationships with physical and mental health. Employees often skipped work breaks and experienced interruptions. Skipping work breaks was detrimentally related to all health complaints, while interruptions were related to most complaints. Meal break duration was beneficially related to physical exhaustion.