Determination of the relevance of occupational fatigue to sleep quality and pain and investigation of the effectiveness of health education in yarn factory workers

Occupational fatigue is a situation that reduces the quality of life in workers and causes stress increase, coronary heart disease, depression, burnout, and impaired sleep quality. The purpose of this study is to conduct the Turkish reliability and validity study of the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale (OFER) for determining the occupational fatigue in shift workers, determine the correlation of occupational fatigue with sleep quality and pain, and assess the effect of health training. This methodological and randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectivity of the health training applied for 302 workers in Şanlıurfa Organized Industrial Zone between January and July 2018 to eliminate their occupational fatigue. The questionnaire of the study included the questions on socio-demographic information and shift works. The Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale (OFER) and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) were used to measure occupational fatigue, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess sleep quality, and The Short Form Mcgill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) was used to assess pain. The Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale mean scores of the workers were found as follows: 45.81 ± 31.15 for chronic fatigue, 59.63 ± 23.48 for acute fatigue, and 52.18 ± 17.37 for recovery. After the first assessment, 30 people were randomly determined as the training group and 30 people as control group. Health training was provided to the training group and the results were assessed again after eight weeks. A significant decrease in chronic fatigue and acute fatigue subscales in the training group and a significant increase in recovery subscale were determined (p<0.05). In providing workplace healthcare services, it is highly important to determine the occupational fatigue and plan and apply health training related to this subject. It was also determined that the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale was a reliable and valid instrument in Turkish society.