OTS Panel: A cohort study to explore the relationship between work organization and health in Spain

Introduction: It is well known that work has a great influence on the well-being of workers. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems evident that work organization, in particular, plays a key role to face and control a pandemic. Consequently, it is essential to establish specific and sustainable tools to further study the relationship between work organization and workers’ health. The aim of this paper is to describe the study design and baseline data of the OTS PANEL (“OTS” stands for “Work Organization and Health” in Spanish).
Methods: Panel-type cohort study to be carried out annually applying an online self-administered questionnaire. Work organization and health indicators and their corresponding questions were selected through a multistep process carried out by a team composed by professionals of different disciplines. The sample is composed of n =1824 salaried workers, aged 25–64, residing in Spain.
Results: Mean response time was 17.4 ± 7 min (median 15.8). 84.6 % of the indicators had percentages of missing values lower than 3 %, with labor market insecurity being the highest (5.8 %). We compute 39 indicators in which, except for a few cases, women and manual workers show consistently worse results.
Conclusions: OTS PANEL can represent a valuable information source in Spain to contribute to generate solid evidence for research and for decision-making to improve the living and health conditions of the working population.