The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) has designed a smartphone app to help employees understand workplace stress.

The Measure Workplace Stress app, available at http://www.ohcow.on.ca/MITApp, was designed by OHCOW with help from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. The app allows users to fill out the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire and have their responses automatically scored, OHCOW said in information posted on its website.

After starting the app, the user is asked to respond to 25 screens of questions about work demands, organizational factors, relationships, workplace values, health and safety concerns, stress symptoms and offensive behaviours. Some examples of questions include:

• Do you have enough time for your work tasks?
• Do you have a large degree of influence concerning your work?
• How often do you get help and support from your nearest superior?
• How well are safety concerns managed? and
• Have you been exposed to bullying at the workplace during the last 12 months?

After users answer the questions, each item is scored in comparison to a reference population so they can see how they compare. “For items where your score is worse than the reference population, you can click on an icon that takes you to a pop-up that describes some ideas on dealing with that particular factor,” the information said.

Although stress is a normal part of life and work, too much can lead to debilitating health effects, including depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and other mental illnesses or injuries, said information from the Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) in Toronto. Research also suggests that stress is a significant contributing factor to health conditions ranging from the common cold and musculoskeletal disorders to heart disease and cancer.

The WHSC noted that mental illnesses, which account for approximately 30 per cent of short- and long-term disability claims in Canada, are estimated to cost the Canadian economy more than $50 billion annually. The direct cost to businesses in lost productivity and turnover is estimated at more than $6 billion.