Introduction

Multiple factors of workers such as their health influence their work performance. Mobile communication has been intertwined with daily routines and its use has expanded. The objective of this study was to identify the association of perceived performance adjusted to worker health with mobile use.

Method

The Work Role Functioning Questionnaire and the Mobile Related Experiences Questionnaire (CERM) were applied to 114 workers in the footwear and services industry. They also recorded their main pathologies, general characteristics, seniority at work, number of hours worked/week and their opinion regarding the use of mobile phones at work. We performed the Pearson test to evaluate the association between variables considering the normal distribution of data. The dependent variable was the work performance perceived and adjusted to the health status of the worker, as independent variables were considered the age, seniority at work and hours worked per week. Comparisons were made according to whether they were professional or non-professional employees. For the comparison of continuous variables between the groups, we performed unpaired Student t test or Mann-Whitney U test according to the data distribution and chi square for comparison of proportions. A p <0.05 value is considered significant.

Results

70 (61.4%) reported that it is necessary to use the mobile phone in the workplace primarily for communication with staff of the work team, information required at work and as a tool to locate formats, suppliers, etc. In the total group of workers, the mobile use conflict factor showed a negative correlation with the output demands (r=-0.243; p= 0.01), mental (r=-0.267; p= 0.005), physical (r=-0.204; p= 0.03) and the total score of work performance (r=-0.219; p= 0.02). The use of communication was negatively correlated with social demands (r=-0.197; p= 0.03). The total CERM score showed negative association with the total score of the work performance (r=-0.197; p= 0.03) and all its factors except physical demands (r=-0.162; p= 0.08). In women, lower BMI, number of hours worked per week, number of children, couple's years and social demands were identified.

Conclusion

Excessive use of mobile phones is inversely associated with perceived work performance in footwear and service workers.