O-138 in-Home Work Environment for Home Care Workers Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction Challenges due to high workload have been reported for home care workers. However, the personnel’s working environment is little studied. The aim of our study is to investigate the in-home work environment challenges for home care workers. Methods Two cross-sectional studies were conducted in 2017 and 2021 (before and during the Covid-19 pandemic) in three Swedish regions. Thirty municipalities were invited to the study, 16 municipalities participated in the first study and 22 municipalities in the latter. Home care workers in municipalities answered a questionnaire including 10 work environment-related problems at the home care recipients’ home (five-point scale from “Several times per day” to “Rarely/Never”). We compared problems between surveys using Student’s t-test. Results In both surveys, approximately 2,000 persons were invited, 1,154 (56%) responded in 2017 and 630 (31%) responded in 2021. There was a statistically significant increase in the proportion of staff reporting daily problems with a poor bed (29% vs. 37%), small toilet (40% vs. 50%), smoking (24% vs. 30%), pets (19% vs. 25%), poor cleaning equipment (8% versus 12%), relatives/friends (4% versus 7%), hot/cold house (20% versus 70%), intoxicated user (3% versus 6%) and verbal abuse (2% against 5%) during the pandemic. The trends differed between regions. Discussion Work environment problems were common for home care workers in the recipients’ houses, and they were further exacerbated during the pandemic. Interestingly, the challenges increased the most in the region with lowest mortality during the pandemic. Conclusion Efforts are needed to strengthen the personnel’s working environment.