Journal of occupational and environmental medicine最新文献

Objectives: Report the physical and mental health of a population-based cohort of Gulf War and Gulf Era veterans 30 years after the war.

Methods: A follow-up health survey of 12,377 Gulf War and Gulf Era veterans included questions about general, physical, mental, and functional health. Adjusted odds ratios weighted by final survey weights were calculated to determine risk of health conditions associated with deployment.

Results: Gulf War veterans report a higher prevalence of a range of physical and mental health conditions. The population has a significant burden of disease, including high body mass index and multiple comorbid conditions.

Conclusions: Three decades after deployment, Gulf War veterans experience a significantly higher prevalence of chronic health conditions. These findings describe the challenges faced by this population and reinforce the importance of addressing their ongoing healthcare needs.

Objectives: To analyze the association between compliance Canadian 24 Hour Movement Guidelines (24hrMG) recommendations and QoL of school teachers.

Methods: This obervational study with cross sectional design included total of 242 school teachers from 13 public schools were evaluated. QoL, sleep, sedentary behavior and physical activity were assessed using validated questionnaires. General Linear Model was employed to examine the association between QoL domains and 24hrMG, reporting unstandardized coefficients (β) along with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: Full adherence to the guidelines was associated with better QoL in physical limitations (β = 0.34; 95%CI 0.16-0.52), general health (β = 0.31; 95%CI 0.16-0.46), social aspects (β = 0.17; 95%CI 0.05-0.29), emotional limitations (β = 0.17; 95%CI 0.10-0.24), mental health (β = 0.20; 95%CI 0.13-0.28), and functional capacity (β = 0.22; 95%CI 0.16-0.29).

Conclusion: An association was observed between QoL and greater adherence to 24-hour MG among teachers.

Objective: To assess predictive relationship that cardiovascular disease (CVD) has on work-related shoulder injuries.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study quantifies relationships between CVD risk and subsequent incident cases of shoulder-related worker compensation (WC) claims in a large cohort of 34,369 commercial drivers. CVD risk was assessed using an expanded Framingham Risk score. Incident shoulder WC cases were identified. Relative risk (RR), hazard ratio (HR) and their associated 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) were calculated.

Results: Significant relationships between CVD risk scores and subsequent shoulder WC claims were observed. Participants in the highest CVD risk were significantly more likely to have a shoulder-related WC claim (RR = 6.70, 95% CI 2.03, 22.12), after adjustment for age, gender and Body Mass Index.

Conclusion: There may be a relationship between CVD risk and shoulder injuries and disorders.

Objectives: In 2023, OSHA began requiring large establishments (>100employees) to submit detailed case reports of injuries electronically. These reports have been organized into a publicly available data system, called the Injury Tracking Application(ITA).

Methods: We analyzed timestamps of 738,828 injuries to investigate injury patterns by month, weekday, hour, and daylight-saving time transitions in 2023 using quasi-Poisson rate regression and interrupted timeseries models.

Results: Injuries were not evenly distributed over time: certain months, days, and hours showed markedly higher rates. Injuries peaked around July and August. A 10 AM peak was observed across several industries. The fall daylight-saving shift increased injuries whereas the spring shift did not show a significant effect.

Conclusions: Understanding 'when' workplace injuries happen can inform timely interventions. This study is a proof-of-concept demonstration of how the newly released ITA case dataset from large establishments can be used to explore national-scale injury patterns.

Objective: This study assessed the ability of basic physiological metrics to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable heat strain.

Methods: A database of final core temperature (Tre), heart rate (HR), and skin temperature (Tsk) for 880 heat stress trials over a wide range of heat stress and clothing was created. Three case definitions based on Tre, HR, or fatigue were used to classify the trials as cases (unacceptable heat strain) or non-cases (acceptable heat strain). The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC) characterized the discrimination ability of 15 individual physiological metrics.

Results: Generally, AUCs ranged from 0.85 allowing acceptable sensitivity with poor specificity to 0.50 with no predictive power.

Conclusions: Tre, HR, and fatigue were independent limits of heat strain. A program of personal monitoring needs to recognize independent reasons to classify an exposure as unacceptable.

Objective: The aim of this study is to verify if outdoor workers exposure of low-dose of benzene in urban air may affect thyroid hormone levels.

Materials and methods: The study was conducted on a total sample of 334 subjects. Benzene's environmental monitoring has been performed through personal dosimeters, while for the biological monitoring we have measured the concentration of blood benzene, trans, trans-muconico (t,t-MA) urinary, acid S-fenilmercapturico urinary ( S-PMA) and on thyroid hormones. The statistical analysis was performed.

Results: statistic test shows that there is a negative correlation between blood benzene levels, t,t-MA urinary and FT3 FT4; there is a positive correlation between blood benzene t,t-MA urinary and TSH.

Conclusions: Occupational exposure to low dose of benzene in urban pollution can affect thyroid hormones levels in occupationally exposured workers.

Abstract: Dermal phenol exposures have the capacity to cause extensive chemical burns and systemic toxicity. Decontamination with low molecular weight (300-400 MW) polyethylene glycol (LMW-PEG) is recommended, but it is unclear if LMW-PEG is readily accessible. Our aim was to identify dermal exposures of phenol that were reported to a regional poison center and describe the types of decontamination agents used. We performed a a retrospective study of phenol exposures reported to a single poison center from 2002-2025. Dermal decontamination was performed in 14/17 (82%) of cases, utilizing LMW-PEG in 0/14 (0%), water in 7/14 (50%), high molecular weight PEG (HMW-PEG) in 1/14 (7%), both water and HMW-PEG in 5/14 (36%), and water and isopropanol in 1/14 (7%). No systemic toxicity was reported. Our findings suggest alternative measures such as water or HMW-PEG are effective for decontamination of dermal phenol exposures.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess perceived stress, sleep quality, and healthy eating attitudes among fire department personnel and to examine the relationships among these variables, working in various units of the department daily.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 188 participants. Data were collected using a sociodemographic form, the Bergen Shift Work Sleep Questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale (Short Form), and the Attitude Scale for Healthy Nutrition (ASHN).

Results: The ASHN total score was 75.84 ± 10.03, indicating generally positive nutrition attitudes. The Bergen score was 62.94 ± 19.15, reflecting moderate sleep disturbance. The Perceived Stress Scale score was 11.50 ± 2.61, showing moderate stress. Weak negative correlations were found between ASHN and the other scales, while Bergen and stress scores were positively correlated.

Conclusions: Overall, shift-based, stressful firefighting work negatively affected sleep and stress.

Objectives: This study examined the prevalence and risk factors for asthma among farm and ranch operators in seven Midwestern States, using surveillance data from 2018, 2020, and 2023.

Methods: Regression models were developed to identify predictors of asthma, including demographic factors, agricultural exposures, and physical activity.

Results: The overall prevalence of asthma was 4.7%. Asthma was significantly associated with respiratory exposures to grain, feed, or hay dust [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 2.14, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.74-2.63] and animal confinement dust [AOR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.35-2.21] after adjusting for demographics and worktime on farm/ranch.

Conclusion: The identified occupational risk factors highlight the importance of surveillance and targeted prevention among agricultural populations to further reduce the long-term respiratory exposures, particularly in animal confinement operations.