Biomedical subjects

Brenda Lobb

Publications and source records attributed to Brenda Lobb.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Tolerance of shift work.

This study aimed to explore criteria for shift work tolerance and to investigate the relationships between personality traits and states and shift work tolerance. Eighty-nine policemen and police women completed a questionnaire, once during consecutive night shifts and again during rotating shifts, and their responses were used to assess anxiety, emotional control, positive and negative affect, health complaints, sleep quality, difficulties in social and domestic life, and perceptions about shift work. Both the criteria for tolerance and the relationship between tolerance and personality varied according to shift type. Night shift tolerance involved four factors--somatic health, flexibility, sleep and sleep need--while rotating shift tolerance involved three factors--somatic health, flexibility and fatigue. Tolerance of shift work was associated with anxiety, repressive emotional style and mood. During night shifts, anxiety was the most influential personality factor for the somatic health and sleep dimensions of shift tolerance. During rotating shifts, positive and negative moods, rather than trait personality factors, were important predictors of the somatic health and fatigue shift tolerance dimensions. These results suggest a mechanism for more effective matching of workers to suitable shift schedules.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Trespassing on the tracks: a review of railway pedestrian safety research.

INTRODUCTION: Train-pedestrian collisions have been shown to be the leading cause of fatality in train-related accidents worldwide, yet there is remarkably little research in this area. METHOD: In this paper, the major types of railway transportation accident research are briefly highlighted to indicate the general context of research concerning train-pedestrian collisions, which are then reviewed. Themes emerging from the diverse research are identified, the various strategies that have been proposed for prevention of railway pedestrian accidents are discussed, and the empirical evidence for their efficacy examined in the light of the much more extensive literature on road pedestrian accidents. Finally, it is proposed that application of current theory in behavioral and cognitive psychology may usefully inform future research in transportation safety.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2004

Load carriage for fun: a survey of New Zealand trampers, their activities and injuries.

Much of the published research investigating the physiological, biomechanical and psychological impact of load carriage by backpack has studied young, fit males carrying loads for an hour or less. The resultant body of knowledge may not be appropriate to the increasing numbers of middle-aged and older men and women who are taking up or returning to tramping as a recreational activity. In this study, members of 11 tramping clubs throughout New Zealand were surveyed to discover their personal characteristics, characteristics of tramping trips undertaken and injuries sustained. Significant numbers of men and women over 30, 40 and 50 years of age and with generally sedentary lifestyles reported occasional tramping during which they carried backpacks weighing up to 29% of their body weight for more than five hours over 11-15 km/day. Injuries were reported by 74%, with sprains being the most common injury type and knees, ankles and feet the most frequent location of injury. These findings may have implications for route planning and the design of interventions to reduce injuries, health care, training, tracks, equipment and footwear, and demonstrate the need for further research to investigate the risks and requirements of recreational trampers.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

An evaluation of four types of railway pedestrian crossing safety intervention.

This study evaluated a programme of interventions designed to reduce the incidence of illegal and unsafe crossing of a rail corridor at a city station by boys on their way to and from the adjacent high school in Auckland, New Zealand. The boys were observed crossing before, during, and after implementation of each intervention; in addition, surveys were carried out before and after the programme to discover the boys' attitudes. Rail safety education in school, punishment for every unsafe crossing (continuous punishment), and punishment occasionally for unsafe crossing (intermittent punishment) were associated with significant decreases in unsafe crossing compared with that observed prior to any intervention. General communications about rail safety were not associated with significant decreases in unsafe crossing. When interventions were examined consecutively, unsafe crossing was significantly reduced between the communications and education phases, and even more so between education and continuous punishment, but there was no statistically significant difference in frequency of unsafe crossing between continuous and intermittent punishment. It was concluded that punishment may be more effective in reducing unsafe behaviour in this type of situation than targeted education, and is much more effective than communications to heighten awareness.

Accident Prevention↗

PubMed2002

International variation in ethics committee requirements: comparisons across five Westernised nations.

BACKGROUND: Ethics committees typically apply the common principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence and justice to research proposals but with variable weighting and interpretation. This paper reports a comparison of ethical requirements in an international cross-cultural study and discusses their implications. DISCUSSION: The study was run concurrently in New Zealand, UK, Israel, Canada and USA and involved testing hypotheses about believability of testimonies regarding alleged child sexual abuse. Ethics committee requirements to conduct this study ranged from nil in Israel to considerable amendments designed to minimise participant harm in New Zealand. Assessment of minimal risk is a complex and unreliable estimation further compounded by insufficient information on probabilities of particular individuals suffering harm. Estimating potential benefits/ risks ratio and protecting participants' autonomy similarly are not straightforward exercises. SUMMARY: Safeguarding moral/humane principles should be balanced with promotion of ethical research which does not impede research posing minimal risk to participants. In ensuring that ethical standards are met and research has scientific merit, ethics committees have obligations to participants (to meet their rights and protect them from harm); to society (to ensure good quality research is conducted); and to researchers (to treat their proposals with just consideration and respect). To facilitate meeting all these obligations, the preferable focus should be promotion of ethical research, rather than the prevention of unethical research, which inevitably results in the impediment of researchers from doing their work. How the ethical principles should be applied and balanced requires further consideration.

Behavioral Research↗