Work : a journal of prevention, assessment, and rehabilitation
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Comparative Study
Hospitalization for lifestyle related diseases in long haul drivers compared with other truck drivers and the working population at large.
Personal lifestyle and working conditions are closely linked for long haul truck drivers. We compare lifestyle related diseases in long haul drivers with other drivers of goods and the working population at large. Standardized hospital treatment ratios (SHR) for lifestyle related diseases were compared for long haul truck drivers and other truck drivers to the working population at large. ⋯ No major differences in lifestyle related diseases were found in long haul drivers compared to other truck drivers with the exception of a significant lower risk for alcohol-related diseases and a possibly higher risk for lung cancer in long haul drivers. It is concluded that diseases related to excess caloric intake or lack of exercise may be a problem for truck drivers. This risk is preventable and of importance both in occupational medicine as in public health.
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The aim of the present study was to examine the cross-sectional and 2-year longitudinal associations between perceived organizational justice, self-rated health and burnout. ⋯ The global justice construct showed better goodness-of-fit indices than the threefold justice construct but a differentiated organizational justice concept could give valuable information about health related risk factors: if they are structural (distributive justice), procedural (procedural justice) or inter-personal (interactional justice). The two approaches to study organizational justice should therefore be regarded as complementary rather than exclusive.
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Workers who experience fire in the workplace are faced with disruption to their work routine, as well as the emotional strain of the fire. In the broader occupational stress literature, researchers have suggested that social support will be most effective at reducing the negative effects of stressors on strain when the type of support matches the type of stressor being experienced (either instrumental or emotional). This study was a preliminary investigation into employee responses to less routine stressors, such as workplace fires, and the role of different sources of social support in predicting coping effectiveness. ⋯ Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 33 employees who had recently experienced a significant fire in their workplace. Results suggested that the type of stressors experienced and the type of support were mismatched, but despite this, coping effectiveness was generally moderate to high. There was mixed support for predictions about the effects of social support-no moderating effect of group identification on coping effectiveness was observed for measures of workplace support, although it did moderate the effects of family support on this adjustment indicator.
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This study collected staff responses to an occupancy quality survey before, and 6 and 22 months after, St. Paul Children's Hospitals and Clinics (CHC) replaced an open bay (OB) with a private room (PR) neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) design. Staff interview responses and task activity observations also were collected. ⋯ Results for the 22-month PR survey indicate essentially no meaningful changes in rankings of occupancy quality from the 6-month survey, suggesting no consolidation of quality gains in the intervening 16-month period. Written comments pertaining to private room NICU design issues by survey respondents, targeting problems with unit operations, may explain this finding. Collectively, the findings suggest that NICU operational management was not effectively modified to deal with the new design, and that an OB to PR NICU transition requires a systems approach to macroergonomic challenges imposed by the new design.
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In the UK mountain rescues are carried out by highly trained volunteers in all weather conditions and at any time of the day/night. They interface with other services when they hand over the casualty to either land or air ambulances. The design of the stretcher is important to the safety of both the volunteers and casualties. ⋯ All the stretchers produced shoulder discomfort with the Split Thomas and MacInnes 6 lowering the postural risks through the use of skids/wheel in the carrying phase. The key design features for future MR stretchers include: reduced unloaded weight (e.g. light weight materials and mesh platforms); undercarriage system to reduce the carrying load; adjustable handles at the front and back positions; flexible carrying system with an optional harness attachment; ease of assembly in adverse environmental conditions; large carrying capacity. It is suggested that military emergency evacuation should be considered in addition to mountain rescue tasks to identify a larger commercial market for development.