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

Background: Ergonomics risk assessment tools are vital for evaluating awkward postures in various industries, with a primary focus on biomechanical factors. However, existing observational techniques often fail to meet specific postural loading criteria or are inadequate to establish validity, especially in agricultural settings. Enhancements in these tools have been guided by extensive literature reviews.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a new assessment tool, the Agricultural Ergonomics Risk Assessment (AERA), by utilizing electromyography (EMG) to classify postural loads and prioritize risks.

Method: This paper describes an experimental study utilizing EMG to analyze postural loads, emphasizing biomechanical factors and including an evaluation of individual and occupational risk factors associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The validity and reliability of AERA were assessed by five experts and thirty evaluators.

Results: The study revealed strong effects of varying loads and postures on muscle activation. A key finding was the application of biomechanical factors to assess risk levels associated with awkward postures, especially regarding the prevalence of MSD in the neck, trunk, and arm regions. The evaluation indicated a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.97 for precision in content validity of risk assessment criteria. Reliability tests comparing AERA with OWAS, RULA, and REBA yielded Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.99, 0.84, 0.93, and 0.88, respectively.

Conclusion: AERA's evaluation criteria incorporating specific and comprehensive risk factors produced the highest levels of test-retest reliability, making it a valuable screening tool for the agricultural sector.

Background: Although employment has been positively linked to quality of life, recent theorising suggests the need for a broadened conceptualisation of paid work incorporating dimensions of subjective work experience as a key social determinant of life satisfaction in people with disabilities. There is also a need for further examination on the underlying mechanism between work and wellbeing outcomes amongst people with disabilities.

Objective: In this study, we put forth the concept of meaningful work, and examined its associations with self-stigma, and life satisfaction in people with visual impairment.

Methods: A total of 302 people with visual impairment completed a survey in Hong Kong. We analysed the data using linear regression and mediation analyses.

Results: We found that meaningful work was positively associated with life satisfaction and negatively associated with self-stigma. Self-stigma was negatively associated with life satisfaction and mediated the association between meaningful work and life satisfaction.

Conclusions: The findings showed that meaningful work is a positive and important social determinant of life satisfaction among people with visual impairment, while self-stigma serves as an underlying mechanism.

Background: One of the most significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on human societies was the transformation of face-to-face training (F2F) into distance education (DE) processes.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate computer vision syndrome (CVS) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify the risk factors that may lead to increased incidence of CVS in university professors due to DE.

Methods: Using an online questionnaire, occupational and demographic information, hours of computer, laptop, smartphone, and tablet usage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were collected. In the second part, participants were asked to report the frequency of occurrence and severity of 16 CVS symptoms over the past year and the last 7 days. The third section of the questionnaire recorded CVS risk factors such as ergonomic status of workstations, during virtual live training (VLT) and offline content creation during the COVID-19 period.

Results: The prevalence of CVS was 9.03% before COVID-19 and 34.19% during COVID-19. The cumulative incidence of CVS was 25.48%. The mean ± SD of the CVS final score significantly increased before (6.82 ± 4.29) and during COVID-19 (8.48 ± 7.11) (p < 0.001). Associated factors with CVS revealed using Univariate analyses (OR >1; 95% CI 0.75-11.27, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: DE has led to increased prevalence and incidence of CVS in university professors during the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that associated factors with CVS such as increased usage time of smartphones can contribute to increase CVS in university professors.

Background: At a global scale, the impact of the manufacturing sector on the environment has led to the increased demand for the sustainable practices and strategies that help the businesses achieve environmental, social, and economic objectives particularly within the context of developing economies.

Objective: This paper addresses this gap by investigating the relationship between employees and firms' environmental performance in the manufacturing sector operating in a developing country, Pakistan-where the environmental focus is sparse and organizational structures rarely follow cross-functional systems.

Methods: Quantitative research was employed and SmartPLS technique was used to test the theoretical model with a valid response rate of 77 percent of senior and middle-level managers of manufacturing firms.

Results: Results revealed the significance of green HRM as direct effect with all constructs. And internal environment management mediates the relationship (β = 0.158; t--value = 3.458; p < 0.05; lower level = 0.077; upper level = 0.258) between green HRM and green health and Safety.

Conclusion: For sustainable performance, firms must transform their human resource into an environmentally responsible asset. Our findings provide practical implications for the managers of manufacturing firms where ethical monitoring of environmental management must be the prime concern of these firms.

Background: self-determination theory (SDT) posits that the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness affects employees' work-related psychological outcomes. Despite the wealth of studies addressing SDT in the workplace domain, little is known of the effect of each basic need to the work-related psychological outcomes of healthcare workers.

Objective: To evaluate the relative effect of each basic psychological need to occupational and physical therapists' work-related psychological outcomes.

Methods: Participants were 152 occupational and physical therapists who completed questionnaires tapping basic psychological needs satisfaction, well-being, work meaning, work satisfaction and compassion fatigue. A series of linear regressions were performed.

Results: Competence, relatedness toward co-workers, and relatedness toward patients were positive predictors of occupational and physical therapists' mental well-being. Autonomy and competence predicted job satisfaction. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness toward patients predicted work meaning. Autonomy and competence were significant negative predictors of compassion fatigue.

Conclusions: Study results demonstrate each basic psychological need makes its own influence to different psychological outcomes, highlighting the importance of supporting all three needs.

Background: Due to the emergence of smartphone addiction, as a 21th century phenomenon, investigating its subsequent negative effects is essential.

Objective: The present study aims to test the predicting effect of smartphone addiction on musculoskeletal discomfort in hand/neck region as well as cognitive failures.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed in which 533 smartphone users (60.2% females and 39.8% males; mean age: 35.9±11.0 years) participated. Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), Cognitive Failures Questionnaires (CFQ), Neck Disability Index (NDI) and Cornell Hand Discomfort Questionnaire (CHDQ) were used for data collection. Age, gender and occupational use of electronic devices were considered as socio-demographic factors. Independent t-test, chi-square, and logistic regression were used for data analysis.

Results: The overall prevalence of smartphone addiction was 37.9% among Iranian 20-61 years users. Addicted smartphone users were 3.3, 2.2, 2.9, and 2.8 times more likely to develop musculoskeletal discomfort in right hand, left hand, neck, and cognitive failures than non-addicted smartphone users. High occupational use of electronic devices predicted right-hand discomfort (by 2.6 times) as well as cognitive failures (by 3.4 times). Women were significantly more likely to develop all the studied outcomes. Age did not predict any of the studied outcomes.

Conclusions: Addiction to smartphones can lead to a sharp rise in the prevalence of neck and hand discomfort, as well as cognitive failures, particularly among working age people. This is concerning issue that requires effective preventive and corrective measures. Developing behavioral approaches to address this problem can help reduce its impact on society.

Background: Healthcare workers are an indispensable part of society, and a healthy mind and body are important to them, but today's exacerbation of psychological problems in healthcare, has attracted the attention of society.

Objective: This study spans two particular phases: the COVID-19 pandemic phase and the full liberalization of epidemic control. To explore trends in the mental health status of healthcare workers, particularly anxiety, depression and sleep quality, and to analyze the influencing factors and inform the development of interventions through data collection over three consecutive years.

Methods: A general information questionnaire, SAS, SDS, and PSQI were used to survey in-service healthcare workers in a regional tertiary care hospital for three consecutive years, and data were collected to cover multiple time points to observe trends in mental health and to synthesize and analyze potential influencing factors such as demographic characteristics.

Results: The SAS, SDS, and PSQI scores of the healthcare workers were significantly higher than the national norm. With psychological interventions, the incidence of depression and sleep problems decreased year by year, and the incidence of anxiety problems fluctuated little. Anxiety, depression and sleep problems are affected by a variety of factors, and healthcare workers whose gender is female, whose occupation is nurseing whose age is younger, whose job title is lower, and whose position is on the front line of epidemic prevention are more likely to have mental health problems.

Conclusions: This study identifies the severity and complexity of mental health problems among healthcare workers, analyzes their mental health needs and factors affecting mental health, and provides a scientific basis for providing psychological interventions.

Backgrounds: Touch screens have been extensively utilized in vehicle information systems; however, few studies have centered on the reduction of the touchscreen interaction task load and the increase of body discomfort when driving on unpaved roads. Objective: This study aimed to explore the relationship between the system interface elements' design features and interaction task load in vehicle simulated vibration environments. Method: Using a touch screen computer and E-prime software, we investigated the interaction task load and body parts discomfort of 18 participants in varied vibration frequency environments and interface design elements. Results: The results indicate that vehicle vibration significantly increases system interface interaction task load and causes greater discomfort for the operator. Conclusion: An appropriate increase in the physical size of the interface design features (visual stimulus materials and touch buttons) helps mitigate this negative effect of vibration. The research results can be used as a reference for the current universal design specification of vehicle information system interface in the vibration scenario of unpaved roads.

Background: While physical and mental health training guidelines have received much attention and scientific scrutinisation for traditional sports, these guidelines have not yet been developed for electronic sports (eSports). One important factor for developing these guidelines is to find appropriate ways to objectively measure performance and wellbeing of eSport participants through a combination of behavioural and physiological measurements.

Objective: To determine the effect of perceived discomfort on stress levels and task performance during racing simulation (eRacing) activities using physiological and behavioural measurements.

Methods: Discomfort and stress were analysed using questionnaires, electro-encephalography, electrocardiography, and galvanic skin response while 17 participants engaged in off-line Assetto Corsa racing simulation competitions.

Results: Discomfort slightly increased with prolonged seating, and perceived task difficulty significantly increased stress and self-assessed task performance. While significant differences could be observed in electro-encephalographic (EEG) alpha-, beta-band activity and galvanic skin responses (GSR) data, these were not correlated to perceived stress, discomfort, or performance.

Conclusions: This study showed the potential for using physiological measurements to monitor eSport player performance before, after and during eRacing activities. While no significant correlations with behavioural assessments were found, further studies could build on the suggested physiological markers to determine effects of competitive environments on eSport participants' wellbeing.