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M.T. dos Santos Guimarães1, R.S. Alves1, R.S. Padula2
1Universidade Cidade de São Paulo, Masters and Doctoral Programs in Physical Therapy, São Paulo, Brazil, 2Universidade Cidade de São Paulo, Department of Physical Therapy - Masters and Doctoral Programs in Physical Therapy, São Paulo, Brazil
Background: Work breaks schedules are breaks complementary to those regulated by laws, applied with the aim of promoting rest for workers. Providing beneficial effects on outcomes such as musculoskeletal pain/discomfort, muscle fatigue and productivity.
Purpose: To define and characterize the rest intervals applied during workday in the context of workers' health in general.
Methods: The searches were performed in PubMed, Embase, Cinahl, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane using the search terms: employer health costs, employment, job, labor, occupational groups, occupational health, occupational health services, work, work hours, workers, working environment, workplace, breaks, microbreaks, micropause, pause, relative rest time, rest, rest break, rest break scheduling, rest interval, shift work schedule, work-rest schedules, ergonomics e human factors. Studies were included that addressed the work breaks intervals applied to the worker's health context, and of these, excluding studies that did not performed workplace. There was no restriction on the study design, language, and year of publication. The methodological quality analysis was performed using the instrument developed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the United States.
Results: In total 62 studies involving different occupations in the field of office, health, agriculture, industrial and others (in which tasks were assigned that did not fit in the mentioned areas) were selected. The analysis of these studies showed the following results. The main terms used to name work breaks schedule were Rest/Rest break, Break/Pause/Intervals, Micropause, Macropause e Microbreaks. The terms Break/ Pause/ Intervals were the most used among selected studies. We found proportional application of the two types of work breaks, with sixteen studies using active breaks, and twenty studies using passive breaks. Seventeen of the sixty-two studies reported the frequency of application of breaks, reporting variations between one to twelve daily rest breaks. The duration of the break’s application, showing great variability in all field, from less than 01 min to 100 min within similar occupations. The task-break cycle reported by twenty-seven studies demonstrated the inconsistency of basic cycles, from short 40-second task cycles / 08-second break to long 200-minute task cycles / 40-minute break in the office area, and between 15 minutes of task / 06 minutes of break and 120 minutes of task / 15 minutes of break in the industrial tasks.
Conclusion(s): The findings of this systematic review confirm that the elements that make up the protocols for rest breaks established in the literature have great variability and do not follow a protocol even for similar occupational tasks. The lack of standardization of terms, and the different protocol of breaks for the same occupation, makes its standardized characterization impossible, and may directly interfere with the health outcomes of workers.
Implications: Identifying the main elements of the rest-break protocol allows physiotherapists to identify the existing inconsistency and create interventions strategies to standardize the protocols applied according to different occupations and occupational tasks.
Funding, acknowledgements: Study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior- Brazil (CAPES)- Finance Code 001
Keywords: Rest break, Occupational health, Ergonomics
Topic: Occupational health & ergonomics
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: Universidade Cidade de São Paulo
Committee: Ethics commitee of Universidade Cidade de São Paulo
Reason: Systematic review
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
