Industrial Health最新文献

Employees' physical and mental health issues have intensified following the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in telecommunications. Organizational wellbeing is a holistic approach that is gaining prominence. This study aimed to investigate the level of organizational wellbeing at the individual level and associated factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 2,070 telecommunication workers in Thailand. Data collection employed a structured questionnaire comprising three sections: personal factors; occupational factors; and an organizational wellbeing assessment categorized into five domains including workplace physical environment and safety climate (9 items), workplace policies and culture (10 items), health status (10 items), work evaluation and experience (13 items), and home, community, and society (3 items). Data analysis involved both descriptive and inferential statistics. Bivariate analysis and multiple linear regression were performed. A total of 655 responses (31.6%) were collected. The mean score was 177.8 (SD=22.0). The analysis reported significant factors associated with organizational wellbeing scores comprising working more than 48 h per week (β=-5.8, 95% CI: -10.4 to -1.2) and sleeping duration of at least seven hours per day (β=4.4, 95% CI: 1.1 to 7.7). Workplaces should design wellbeing promotion programs that address these factors by encouraging adequate sleep and balancing working hours to enhance overall employee wellbeing.

The ability to adapt to night shift work varies greatly among individuals, but little is known about how personal traits and coping strategies interact to affect shift-work tolerance. This study aimed to identify how certain personal traits (e.g., flexibility, languidness, chronotype, and neuroticism) and behavioral and coping strategies influence shift-work tolerance. Additionally, it explored whether behavioral and coping strategies moderate the association between neuroticism and shift-work tolerance. In this cross-sectional study, nurses (N=297) working rotating shifts consisting of either three 8-h shifts or two 12-h shifts at two university hospitals and one training hospital in South Korea completed a survey on shift work. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis. Nurses with personal traits of lower flexibility, higher languidness, evening-oriented chronotypes, and higher neuroticism had less shift-work tolerance. Engagement-coping decreased fatigue, whereas disengagement-coping increased insomnia. Among those with higher levels of neuroticism, disengagement-coping further reduced alertness, while engagement-coping aggravated insomnia. Addressing the complex interplay between personal traits and coping strategies is essential to enhance adaptations to shift work without adverse consequences.

In the theoretical part of this article, we provide a brief introduction to different types of repeated measure designs and methods to analyze repeatedly measured data, with a particular focus on continuous time modelling of intensive longitudinal data (ILD) with N≥1 analysis. We built on the distinction between within-person versus between-person effects, and how this is addressed in static versus dynamic models. Further, we elaborate on the distinction between discrete time dynamic models versus continuous time dynamic models. In particular, we deal with continuous time structural equation models (CTSEM), and we provide a brief introduction into the underlying math. Since smart devices have become useful tools in monitoring health, we use the applied part of this article for explaining how to retrieve N=1 bivariate ILD from popular smart watches and how to prepare them for CTSEM (including N>1 multivariate extensions). We show how to specify a cross-lagged panel CTSEM using the R package ctsem, how to fit the specified model to the retrieved data, and how to interpret the results. Limitations of CTSEM are discussed, too. Monitoring and forecasting industrial health represent important issues for organizations.

This study investigated workplace toilet access related to lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) among women in the Korean workforce. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine demographic characteristics, occupational risk factors, and urinary tract symptoms among employed Korean women. Occupational risk factors included two survey questions about access to toilets at work. LUTS were assessed using the overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS) and international consultation on incontinence questionnaire-urinary incontinence short form (ICIQ-SF). Health-related productivity losses (HRPL) were estimated using the work productivity and activity impairment questionnaire for urinary symptoms (WPAI-US). Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the association between workplace toilet access and LUTS. In addition, generalised linear regression analysis was performed to assess HRPL according to workplace toilet access. Of the 1057 participants, 260 (24.6%) and 294 (27.81%) had overactive bladder and urinary incontinence, respectively. More than 50% reported poor access to toilet. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the lower the access to toilets in the workplace, the higher the incidence of LUTS and the higher HRPL. In conclusion, restricted access to toilets at work are associated with poor urinary health and loss of productivity.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's (MHLW) Investigative Committee on Risk Assessment for Preventing Impairment of Workers' Health Caused by Chemical Substances has investigated the carcinogenicity of chemical substances. This investigation led several chemicals to be regulated; however, the whole picture of the investigation remains unrevealed. To provide an overview of the investigated substances and their evaluation status, we collected documents on the MHLW website between 2009 and 2021, constructed a dataset from tables of some of these documents, integrated data from the constructed dataset with data from databases such as NITE-CHRIP, and then analyzed the data in the aspects of their chemical structure, chemical management law, evaluation method, and evaluation status. We found that most of the investigated substances were existing chemicals for which employers are exempt from hazard investigations under the chemical management laws and remained in the early phases of the investigation strategy developed by the Investigative Committee. Furthermore, a comparison of basic data for risk assessment on 45 substances under assessment revealed that some have the potential for harm to be regulated. This study highlights challenges and necessities of the Japanese government's chemical management initiative for chemicals that pose a high risk to humans.

We aimed to examine concurrent trajectories of occupational groups and level of sustainable working life, and individuals' characteristics as predictors for the trajectories. National register data from 81,388 Swedish twins born in 1925-1990 included occupational groups. To define the level of sustainable working life, employment, unemployment, sickness absence, and disability pensions in 2001-2016 were used. Group-based multi-trajectory modeling and multinomial regression for relative risks (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were applied. Five trajectory groups (4.4-20.8%) showed stable occupational groups and stable sustainable working life over time. Two trajectory groups had a decrease in sustainable working life: 6.1% were between being building and manufacturing worker, and mechanical manufacturing and transport worker, etc., and 8.7% were stable in occupations in administration and customer service clerks. One group (5.5%) had a stable sustainable working life but shifted from elementary occupations to occupations requiring an advanced higher education level. All studied factors played a role in belonging to the trajectory groups. To conclude, the concurrent changes over time in occupational groups and sustainable working life were stable. A few identified occupational groups had a decrease in sustainable working life over time, thus meriting support across working careers to remain in paid work.

School bullying victimization may deteriorate job satisfaction as well as life satisfaction. This study assessed the effects of school bullying on job satisfaction in middle-age. We used data collected in 1965 (when the participants were aged 7 years), 1969 (11 years), and 2008 (50 years), from a 50 year prospective study of the 1958 British Birth Cohort. Bullying victimization was rated via parental interviews when the participants were 7 and 11 years of age. A combined variable of bullying victimization (never, occasionally, and frequently) at these two ages was used. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to assess job satisfaction. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, adjusted for possible confounders, were conducted to clarify the association between school bullying and job satisfaction later in life. Of 4,879 middle-aged workers, 43% (occasionally bullied: 28%; frequently bullied: 15%) reported bullying-related victimization. No significant association was identified between school bullying and job satisfaction when job satisfaction was treated as a continuous variable; however, frequent bullying was significantly negatively associated with job satisfaction when job satisfaction was treated as a binary variable. Experiences of school bullying were more strongly reflected in life satisfaction than in job satisfaction. Future studies should examine the mechanism of this relationship.

This paper presents a new conceptual framework, and stepwise approach to populate it, for informing countermeasure development to support fitness-to-drive for professional drivers. Professional drivers are vital to the transport network; however, the job is demanding and drivers are vulnerable to impairments which may impact safe driving. Countermeasures are any action or activity that mitigates the impact or frequency of occurrence of driver impairment. The framework proposes countermeasures to be delivered across three time points: Operational (during shift), Tactical (immediately after shift) and Strategic (outside of on-shift) and at multiple system levels, e.g., driver, manager, enforcement etc. The framework was successfully pilot tested with three different professional driver use cases: autonomous shuttles, taxi, and garbage truck drivers. This structured approach to countermeasure design offers potential to improve driver health and enhance road safety. The work was conducted within PANACEA, an EU project, grant agreement number 953426.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between presenteeism and the level of satisfaction with the work environment in the anime industry. Data from the Animation Producers Survey 2023 were analyzed. A total of 366 laborers were included in this study. Presenteeism was assessed using the Work Functioning Impairment Scale (WFun). The satisfaction levels with eight items were evaluated, including current income level, income stability, working hours, workload, professional content, work relationships, job stability, and prospects for future work and work style. No significant differences were observed in the current income level and working hours, which were not according to the Effort-Reward Imbalance model, whereas those of other items were consistent with the model or the Job Demand-Control-Support model. Providing occupational health services tailored to the industry's characteristics is necessary for preventing occupational dysfunction among animators.

The aim of this scoping review was to provide an overview and classification of existing studies on strategies and measures to reduce the workload of nuclear industry main control room operators and emergency response organization personnel to support their wellbeing and functional capacity during crises. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) statement guidelines were followed. All the 49 studies included involved main control room operators. No studies were found on emergency response organizations. Forty studies addressed technical systems, interfaces and/or algorithms, 11 addressed guides, procedures and protocols, and three addressed training as workload management measures. Yet, only 11 studies evaluated the workload empirically. In conclusion, a large number of studies on technically oriented support measures, protocols and procedures was found. The empirical evidence on the effects of workload management measures was scarce. Further research is needed to truly evaluate the effects of these workload management strategies and measures on employees' workload, wellbeing, and functional capacity. Also, more research is needed on other measures such as management models, working hour arrangements, and social and psychological support measures. Further, the workload management of emergency response organization personnel should also be studied.