Work-A Journal of Prevention Assessment & Rehabilitation最新文献

Background: Technological advancements and the COVID-19 crisis have accelerated the adoption of telework, impacting employees' work dynamics. Moreover, an aging workforce emphasises the need for sustainable employability. With reference to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, this study explores how telework relates to job demands and job resources and, subsequently, to sustainable employability.

Objective: The present study investigates the repercussions of increased telework on employees' sustainable employability. Hypotheses posit direct and indirect (i.e., mediated) relationships, providing insights for evidence-based telework policies.

Methods: Data from 552 government employees was collected through an online survey. Data collection occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when widespread teleworking was prevalent. A path model was employed to analyse associations between telework, job demands (specifically work pressure), job resources (social support, workplace communication, and role clarity), and sustainable employability dimensions, including vitality, work ability, and employability.

Results: Our path model reveals that heightened telework was associated with elevated work pressure and diminished role clarity. Surprisingly, a positive association emerges between work pressure and sustainable employability. Notably, no significant relationship is found between telework, social support, and workplace communication. Role clarity is likely to be pivotal, positively influencing vitality and employability.

Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into the effects of telework on job demands, resources, and sustainable employability. The unexpected positive association between work pressure and sustainable employability challenges conventional stressor paradigms. The relationships between telework, job demands, job resources, and sustainable employability uncovered in this study can contribute to evidence-based teleworking policies and strategies that support employee health and employability amidst evolving work structures.

Background: Self-perception of oral health is a recognized indicator, based on a single question. Association among oral health and socioeconomic status has been well established, however in Brazil, no results were found on the relation with type of insertion in labor market.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of negative self-perception of oral health and associated factors, according to gender among Brazilian workers population, in 2019.

Methods: The National Health Survey, nationwide household-based survey, carried out in 2019, was used as source of data. Absolute and relative frequencies were calculated to understand the distribution of variables of interest and characterize the sample (n = 54,343). Binary logistic regression was used in the analyses. Odds ratio (OR) was estimated using a 95% confidence interval in bivariate and multivariate analyses.

Results: The prevalence of negative self-perception of oral health was 29.3%; in that, 31.0% among men and 27.2% among women. Compared to formal employees, the chance of negative self-perception of oral health among the informal workers was almost 20% higher among men and 13% among women after adjusting for all confounding factors. Unemployed women were 33% more likely to have negative self-perception of oral health.

Conclusions: Self-reported unemployment increased the chance of a negative self-perception of oral health among women; however, the same effect was not observed among men. Why is there a difference? The association between informal work and negative SEOH is relevant in the Brazilian context of work deregulation and growth in the number of people without access to formal employment. The results suggested addressing employment conditions in adult oral health promotion actions, with emphasis on gender differences.

Background: COVID-19 has adversely affected the different aspects of work and society. Due to the decline in economic activity globally, employees were exposed to conditions in which they were forced to work for reduced working hours leading to an increase in time-related underemployment.

Objective: The goal of the present study was to determine the extent of time-related underemployment and the rate of unutilized labor resource in the Agro-based Industry.

Method: This study was conducted with 500 middle-level and lower-level executives working in the Textile Industry and Food and Beverage Industry. Time-related underemployment is defined as a situation in which employees worked for less than 48 hours per week and were available and willing to work for additional hours. It was measured with both objective and subjective measures. Data was analyzed through percentages, mean, t-test, independent t-test, and chi-square.

Results: Results showed that time-related underemployment in the Food and Beverage Industry was 5.00% as compared to the Textile Industry with 3.08%. The majority of employees were moderately underemployed both in the Textile Industry and Food and Beverage Industry. The rate of unutilized labor resource was more in Textile Industry (9.9%) as compared to Food and Beverage Industry (9.2%). However, the difference in both the industries was found to be insignificant (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: COVID-19 has exposed many workers to the disadvantageous position of working fewer hours than the pre-determined threshold hours for full-time work. Therefore, proper strategies need to be adopted to properly use the labor resource of the economy.

Background: In workplaces heavily reliant on visual tasks, various factors can significantly influence an individual's performance, necessitating the use of reliable tools to identify and mitigate these factors.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a swift assessment method for visual ergonomics and lighting conditions, evaluating its validity in real-world scenarios.

Methods: The questionnaire's content validity was determined by a panel of experts using the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI). Construct validity was assessed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and latent class analysis (LCA). Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The RAVEL index, derived from the calculated effect coefficients of items, classified total scores through receiver operator curves (ROCs).

Results: The rapid assessment method, comprising two parts with 30 items, demonstrated acceptable reliability with CVR, CVI, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α) at 0.75, 0.87, and 0.896, respectively. The EFA on the first part's 22 items identified three factors, confirmed by CFA. The LCA on the second part's eight items revealed that a two-class model best fit the data, with Bayesian information criterion (BIC) = 24249, 17, Akaik information criterion (AIC) = 2179.89, and an entropy R-squared of 0.83, indicating appropriate subject classification based on the model. The RAVEL score was categorized into three levels, with optimal cut points of 55 and 63.

Conclusions: In conclusion, the study demonstrated that this method based on visual ergonomics serves as a rapid and reliable tool for assessing visual ergonomic risks of display users in the workplace.

Background: The accurate processing of auditory signals holds significant importance in military occupations and can be adversely affected by exposure to noise.

Objectives: This study investigates the correlation between annual noise exposure (ANE) and military personnel's auditory attention and hearing loss.

Methods: This study assessed 220 military personnel serving in an armored brigade unit. The Noise Exposure Questionnaire (NEQ) was employed to quantify annual noise exposure, while the Dichotic Digits Test (DDT) was used to measure auditory attention. Additionally, the study examined the hearing threshold of personnel across frequencies ranging from 500 to 8000 Hz.

Results: The mean ANE among the personnel was 76.80±7.26 dB, and the average number of correct responses in the Dichotic Digits Test (DDT) was 73.74±4.85. The results of the correlation analysis indicated a significant inverse relationship between annual noise exposure and auditory attention (P < 0.001), as well as a notable direct correlation between personnel's annual noise exposure and hearing loss across all frequencies (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the increase in annual noise exposure has increased the rate of hearing loss in both ears and decreased the auditory attention of military personnel.

Background: Being in a state of high occupational stress may disrupt the metabolic balance of the body, thus increasing the risk of metabolic diseases. However, the evidence about the relationship between occupational stress and metabolic syndrome was limited.

Objectives: To explore the association between occupational stress and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in employees of a power grid enterprise.

Methods: A total of 1091 employees were recruited from a power grid enterprise in China. Excluding those who failed to complete the questionnaire and those who had incomplete health check-ups, 945 subjects were included in the study. Assessment of occupational stress was used by job demand-control (JDC) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) questionnaires, respectively. The information on body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were collected. The levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and fasting blood glucose (FBG) in the fasting venous blood samples were measured. Logistic regression analysis and multiple linear regression methods were used to analyze the correlation between JDC and ERI models of occupational stress, metabolic syndrome, and its components, respectively.

Results: The prevalence of MetS was 8.4% and 9.9% in JDC and ERI model high occupational stress employees, respectively. ERI model occupational stress and smoking are significantly associated with the risk of MetS. ERI ratio was significantly associated with lower HDL-C levels. Gender, age, marital status, smoking, high-temperature and high-altitude work were significantly associated with metabolic component levels.

Conclusion: Our study revealed a high detection rate of occupational stress in both JDC and ERI models among employees of a power grid enterprise. ERI model occupational stress, demanding more attention, was associated with the risk of MetS as well as its components such as HDL-C.

Background: Confined space work poses a significant threat to worker safety and health, especially in industrial environments like petrochemical plants and refineries. These environments present additional hazards beyond those inherent to confined spaces, such as high pressures, temperatures, and exposure to toxic, flammable, and combustible substances.

Objective: This study aimed to apply the Deparis method (Participatory Risk Diagnosis) to confined space work in the oil and gas industry. The goal was to identify the key risk factors involved from the perspective of the workers themselves, propose risk reduction measures where feasible within the Deparis framework, and highlight factors that require more sophisticated methodologies for risk mitigation.

Methods: The study employed the Deparis method to assess 20 different working conditions. The survey yielded a range of results, encompassing issues with readily achievable on-site solutions to more intricate challenges requiring specialized expertise and resources.

Results: The Deparis method successfully identified risk factors present in the tasks from the workers' perspective. The application of risk reduction measures proposed by the method allowed for the criticality of most factors to be reduced to acceptable levels. However, certain critical areas, such as physical space constraints, task organization, communication with confined space workers, and exposure to chemical and biological hazards, were found to require alternative approaches to achieve the desired safety levels.

Conclusions: The study underscores the effectiveness of the Deparis method as a valuable tool for evaluating risks in confined space operations and advocates for its broader adoption due to its demonstrated efficacy. Additionally, the study highlights the need for further research and development of more sophisticated risk mitigation strategies for specific critical areas in confined space work within the oil and gas industry.

Background: Pianists often suffer from postural related problems due to prolonged sitting and awkward postures. Despite the fact that postural related problems are common among pianists, there is only one study found by the authors, which applied RULA to assess pianists' postures, without any modification to the original RULA worksheet. None of the other existing literature has applied this postural assessment tool to assess the pianists' overall posture. There is no existing Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) checklist that exactly fits into the context of piano playing, at least not without some modifications.

Objective: To propose a Rapid Upper Limb Assessment for Pianists (RULA-p) for postural assessment, which will allow pianists to identify awkward postures (if any) during piano playing, thus, achieving healthful playing for injury prevention.

Method: This study modified (i) the muscle use score; and (ii) the force/load score, from the existing RULA as a rapid assessment for pianists' posture.

Results: We proposed the modified RULA for pianists (RULA-p) in the worksheet format.

Conclusion: Overall, this study is intended to further expand the existing literature on the early prevention of pianists' PRMDs.

Background: Teaching will bring work stress and affect emotions, as well as require a high level of professional identity. However, few have examined trilateral relationships between work stress (in terms of challenge-hindrance stress), professional identity, and emotional labor among Chinese preschool teachers during COVID-19.

Objective: Based on the conservation of resource theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress, emotional labor, and professional identity, as well as explore the mediating effects of professional identity between job stress and emotional labor among Chinese preschool teachers.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, with 753 preschool teachers completing a self-report questionnaire. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 and included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation effect testing.

Results: Research indicated that 1) challenge-hindrance stress was positively correlated with surface acting (r = 0.21, p < 0.01, and r = 0.28, p < 0.01) but negatively correlated with the expression of naturally felt emotions (r = -0.08, p < 0.05, and r = -0.12, p < 0.01); 2) Challenge-hindrance stress was negatively correlated with professional identity (r = -0.08, p < 0.05, and r = -0.20, p < 0.01); 3) Professional identity exhibited positive correlations with the three dimensions of emotional labor (r = 0.12, p < 0.01; r = 0.64, p < 0.01; and r = 0.56, p < 0.01) and partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor.

Conclusion: The study underscored that challenge-hindrance stress affected emotional labor directly and indirectly through the mediating role of professional identity. Interventions focusing on alleviating work stress and promoting professional identity through comprehensive training could effectively mitigate emotional labor among preschool teachers.