Industrial Health最新文献

Activity-based workplaces have become increasingly prevalent in many organizations. However, research on their implementation regarding perceived productivity within the public sector remains limited. The study's purpose was to examine differences in perceived productivity, and perceived physical and psychosocial work environment factors, among public sector office employees in activity-based workplaces, in association with the amount of perceived concentration-demanding work. The study was conducted by two surveys responded during the spring 2024 by 450 respectively 320 employees in one Swedish municipality. The results were analyzed by analysis of variance, correlation- and regression analysis. The results indicate that employees with a high amount of perceived concentration-demanding tasks reported lower perceived productivity and experienced poorer perceived physical and psychosocial working environment. Notably, regression analyses revealed that particularly lack of privacy and dissatisfaction with work premises were significantly associated with lower perceived productivity. These findings underscore the importance of considering work task requirements when implementing public sector activity-based workplaces to mitigate potential productivity losses. Further qualitative and quantitative research is needed, particularly those with a longitudinal design, to increase knowledge about how different concentration-demanding work tasks are affected by work in activity-based workplaces.

This study aimed to explore women's health literacy components related to planned pregnancy and infertility treatment use. A nationwide internet survey was conducted in February 2018 among 2,596 Japanese female full-time workers aged 18-49. Of these, 1,262 women who had desired pregnancy were analyzed. Data included a health literacy scale, pregnancy timing, and infertility treatment access. Logistic regression analysis examined the associations. As the results, the high health literacy group was significantly associated with both achieving pregnancy at the desired time (odds ratio [OR]: 1.87) and accessing infertility treatment (OR: 1.78). Specifically, the subscale "knowledge about the female body" was significantly related to achieving pregnancy at the wanted time (OR: 1.91), and "sexual health discussion with partners" was associated with access to infertility treatment (OR: 2.79) (p<0.05). These findings suggest that improving female body knowledge and partner communication are key for reproductive health education and preconception care.

Mental disorders occur frequently in physicians owing to overwork and poor psychosocial work environment. This study aimed to investigate the circumstances, characteristics, and background factors affecting mental disorders in physicians. Basic data such as sex, age at onset, alive or dead, occupation, name of disease, industrial accident recognition factors, load factors other than working hours, and overtime hours (for 31 cases of mental disorders and suicides for 11 years from 2010-2020) were obtained from the Japan Research Center for Overwork-Related Disorders database. The results showed 13 cases of suicide (41.9%) and 21 cases of mood disorders (67.7%). As for the factors recognized as industrial accidents, "extreme long working hours" related to overwork accounted for 6 cases (20.7%), and "quantity and quality of work" accounted for 27 cases (93.1%). Furthermore, clinical residents comprised 14 cases (45.2%) of the 31 mental disorder cases and 7 cases (53.8%) of the 13 suicide cases. Therefore, measures to prevent overwork and suicide in clinical residents are urgently needed in the context of mental disorder in physicians.

Working in hospitals as healthcare workers is inherently stressful, which indirectly affects employees' adherence to procedures for infection prevention and control (IPC). While ample research exists on IPC practices, the majority neglects the psychosocial aspects of work, particularly job characteristics and safety-related organizational climates. This study utilized a two-wave multilevel panel study design with a 4-month interval, involving 379 participants across 23 critical care units in Malaysian hospitals. Grounded in the Conservation of Resources theory, we examined how job demands (i.e., workload, emotional demands, and job complexity) influence IPC practices and how three types of safety climate constructs-safety climate, psychosocial safety climate, and psychological climate-moderate the effects of job demands on IPC. Contrary to our predictions, none of the job demands were directly associated with IPC practices. However, we found that only the safety climate moderated the relationships between workload and job complexity with IPC practices. These findings suggest that each type of safety climate uniquely buffers the effects of specific job demands on IPC practices. Hospital management should implement tailored interventions to serve distinct functions in mitigating the impact of job demands on IPC adherence.

This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Japanese workers, focusing on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and different types of work (desk work, in-person work, physical labor, and unemployment), as well as various demographic factors. Using a web-based survey conducted in February 2021, we collected data from 19,941 workers aged 20-65 yr. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) was used to measure workers' fear, with analysis focusing on the total score and two subfactors: emotional fear reactions (Factor 1) and symptomatic expressions of fear (Factor 2). The findings showed that fear of COVID-19 was significantly higher among unemployed individuals and those with serious mental illness, identifying these groups as particularly vulnerable. Our analysis also suggests that broad occupational categories, such as "physical labor", can mask the distinct risks faced by specific subgroups, including frontline care workers. The results suggest that intervention strategies tailored to the specific needs of these vulnerable groups should be developed to provide adequate support in a future pandemic, along with enhanced mental health services. By elucidating variations in fear levels across worker populations, this study contributes to the formulation of effective public health strategies in response to global health crises.

The occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) of industry is a key issue in reducing risks and accidents in the workplace. A study to evaluate the OHSMS factors in the perception of workers in Nakhon Ratchasima province using a questionnaire of 937 people from 13 types of industries. The results showed confirmed of questionnaire met the recommended criteria and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) between observable with variables of safety management found safety management's Goodness of fit indicators. The perception of safety management in industry found that most safety officers were aware of occupational health and safety policy focuses on loss prevention and control and compliance with the law (99.51%) that had the highest influence on safety management (β=0.432) while most employees were aware of communication back to management to jointly promote safe working practices and appointment of safety committee and safety officer (91.13%) that had the highest influence on safety management (β=0.327). The study on OHSMS in industrial sectors found that safety officers focus on policy compliance and risk prevention, while employees emphasize communication and safety committees. Discrepancies in safety perceptions highlight the need for better alignment between officers and employees. The study suggests combining compliance-focused programs with proactive employee engagement to strengthen safety culture. Future research should explore the impact of these approaches on accident rates and employee satisfaction across sectors.

The Dhokra manufacturing process involves long hours of constrain sitting posture with highly precession-based tasks. Comparative assessment was done to find the effectiveness of the new workstation. The objective of this study is to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) among Dhokra handicraft artisans by analysing the existing workspace and redesigning a new workstation with ergonomic consideration to improve working postures. This study consists of three phases. In the first phase, ergonomics study of existing hand crafting process of Dhokra handicraft was evaluated. Based on the findings, a new proposed workstation was considered consisting of sitting anthropometric body dimensions and reachability aspects. In the second phase, a new workstation prototype was developed considering anthropometric dimension and tested against grid board to optimize the dimensions for the final working prototype for the artisans. Finally, in the third phase, a comparative study of the workstations was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the new workstation. Artisans reported a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain symptoms with age in upper body part, lumber, and buttocks. Results of ergonomic assessment showed the current work setup is poorly designed. A new optimised sit workstation considering ergonomic principle works effectively reducing MSD during prolonged working activity. Lack of ergonomic principles in the existing work setup is responsible for the artisan's discomfort and the prevalence of MSD.

Nurses working night shifts often face some health issues and cognitive decline. This study aimed to determine whether night shifts affected sleepiness, fatigue, and automatic auditory cognition during holidays and following night shifts. Subjective sleepiness was measured using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale, objective sleepiness and fatigue were measured using the Psychomotor Vigilance Test, and automatic auditory cognition was measured using duration mismatch negativity. All measurements were conducted twice: during holidays and following night shifts. Statistical analyses were performed using the Shapiro-Wilk, Wilcoxon signed-rank, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. In all participants, the mean Stanford Sleepiness Scale score and Psychomotor Vigilance Test reaction time following the night shift were significantly higher than those during holidays. However, the peak latency and amplitude of duration mismatch negativity did not significantly differ between during holidays and following night shifts. Similar results were obtained for most age groups (except for the 20s group). In summary, sleepiness and fatigue significantly increased following night shifts compared with during holidays, but these changes did not affect automatic auditory cognition. Age had no significant impact on sleepiness, fatigue, or automatic auditory cognition.

Nurses are at increased risk of making professional errors due to a combination of interrelated factors. We investigated the effects of sleepiness, fatigue, psychological hardiness, and demographic factors on the frequency of medical errors among active nurses. A cross-sectional study was conducted including 346 (47.7% males) nurses from two hospitals in Tehran, Iran. All participants had at least a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. A machine-learning model showed good performance in predicting the frequency of occupational errors with an average (SD) root mean squared error of 2.82 (0.55), mean absolute error of 1.57 (0.38), and R-squared of 0.53 (0.19). Nurses with higher hardiness showed fewer errors, while those with greater sleepiness and fatigue reported more. Experience and age were negatively correlated with error frequency. This study provided insights into nurse well-being and patient safety and highlighted the complex relationships between psychological and physiological factors in occupational errors.

Premenstrual disorders (PMDs) in working women are reported to be associated with absenteeism and presenteeism, but few studies have considered their severity from a broad range of manifestations and investigated its impact on absenteeism and presenteeism simultaneously within the same population consisting of various occupations. Thus, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 2,987 premenopausal women working across Japan using a self-administered survey that included items on absenteeism and presenteeism due to premenstrual symptoms and symptom severity. Multivariate analyses were used to examine the association between PMD severity, absenteeism (being away from work) and presenteeism (decreased work performance). Results demonstrated that PMD severity was strongly associated with both absenteeism and presenteeism irrespective of age, socioeconomic background, and work-related factors. Those with moderate to severe forms of PMDs had a two-fold risk of absenteeism and 18-30% worse presenteeism compared to a milder group. Furthermore, two-thirds of women with severe PMDs reported ≥30% performance reduction without absenteeism, indicating that the impact of PMDs was more significant for presenteeism than absenteeism. Our study results suggest the importance of widely promoting education and treatment of PMDs regardless of sociodemographic factors and working conditions for securing the workforce through the advancement of working women.