Who we are
The research group on psychosocial risks, work organization and health at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (POWAH, by its English acronym) is a multidisciplinary group composed of public health professionals from both the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology. We are a relatively small but very active group, with ongoing ties to trade unions and other research groups in the fields of health and social sciences, both nationally and internationally. Among other activities, we have been part of the core team responsible for the adaptation and validation of the three Spanish versions of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ)—a tool designed to assess and improve the psychosocial work environment by changing working conditions; we have participated in the Spanish psychosocial risk surveys (2005, 2010, and 2016); as well as in the two editions of the COTS survey (2020, 2021), aimed at describing the working conditions and health status of salaried workers in the COVID context in Spain. Since 2022, POWAH has been part of the Institute for Labour Studies (IET) at the UAB.
Origin
The POWAH-UAB group was formally established in 2018, when it was accredited as a recognized research group by the Government of Catalonia (2017SGR958). Although the group could not be formally referred to as POWAH-UAB until that date, its members—and other collaborators not officially affiliated—had already been working together for many years as part of a collaboration between the Trade Union Institute of Work, Environment and Health (ISTAS) in Barcelona, at that time led by Dr. Salvador Moncada Lluís, and the Biostatistics Unit of the UAB.
Research lines
The research focus of POWAH-UAB is occupational health, more specifically, the study of the relationship between labor management practices, exposure to psychosocial risks at work, and their impact on workers’ health, from the perspective of social health inequalities with an intersectional approach. Some specific lines of research include:
- Relationship between labor management practices, exposure to psychosocial risks at work, and workers’ health.
- Class, gender, and age inequalities from an intersectional perspective.
- Promotion of psychosocial risk assessment at work and implementation of preventive measures.
- Study of specific populations, especially those that are vulnerable in the labor market.
- Methodological developments in the field of occupational health.
