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Claire C Caruso

Publications and source records attributed to Claire C Caruso.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Long working hours, safety, and health: toward a National Research Agenda.

BACKGROUND: A significant and growing number of people work long hours. Research examining impacts is limited, but raises concerns about risks to the worker, the family, the employer, and the community. The purpose of this report, which is authored by the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Long Work Hours Team, is to motivate and guide future research by proposing a framework for studying long work hours and discussing research gaps. METHODS: The NORA Long Work Hours Team examined research reports and literature reviews, and gathered input from a conference on long work hours organized by the Team and faculty from University of Maryland. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A framework is proposed for long work hours, including determinants, outcomes, and moderating factors of long work hours, suggesting that studies need to include more clear and complete descriptions of work schedules, worker characteristics, and the work environment, and need to consider a wider range of possible health, safety, social and economic outcomes for workers, families, employers, and the community. Additional studies are needed on vulnerable employee groups and those critical to public safety. More studies are also needed to develop interventions and test their effectiveness.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

Long hours of work in the U.S.: associations with demographic and organizational characteristics, psychosocial working conditions, and health.

BACKGROUND: There are relatively few studies of large national databases that contain information on working hours and health. The current study involved an analysis of data from a quality of work life (QWL) module developed for the 2002 General Social Survey. This module collected work and health data from a representative sample of the U.S. population (N=1,744). METHODS: Descriptive analyses were conducted for five groups based on total hours worked per week: part-time (1-34 hr/week), full-time (35-40 hr/week), lower overtime (41-48 hr/week), medium overtime (49-69 hr/week), and higher overtime (70+ hr/week). Multiple logistic regression examined the association between these five categories and several measures of health and well-being. RESULTS: Compared to full-time workers, the three groups of overtime workers were more likely to be male, white, and middle-aged, with higher levels of education and income. They were also more likely to be self-employed, salaried, work as independent contractors, have more than one job, and work split/irregular/on-call shifts. Although overtime work was characterized by higher levels of job stress and perceptions of overwork, it was also associated with increased levels of participation in decision making and opportunities to develop special abilities. Several significant associations emerged between hours of work and measures of health and well-being, particularly for respondents in the higher overtime group (70+ hr/week). CONCLUSION: Overtime workers differ from their part-time and full-time counterparts in several important areas. Some of these differences tended to increase with the number of overtime hours worked, suggesting a linear relationship. However, caution is warranted before generalizing the results of this study to specific occupations or workplaces.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Possible broad impacts of long work hours.

The paper summarizes research linking long work hours to a wide range of risks to workers, families, employers, and the community. The risks are theorized to stem from less time to recover from work, longer exposure to workplace hazards, and less time to attend to non-work responsibilities. Risks to workers include sleep deprivation, poor recovery from work, decrements in neuro-cognitive and physiological functioning, illnesses, adverse reproductive outcomes, and injuries. Risks to families include delayed marriages and child bearing, and obesity in children. Risks to employers include reduced productivity and increases in workers errors. Mistakes by fatigued workers have broad reaching impacts to the community: medical errors, automobile crashes with other drivers on the road, and industrial disasters that damage the environment.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2004

Relationship of work schedules to gastrointestinal diagnoses, symptoms, and medication use in auto factory workers.

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal (GI) complaints are common in shift workers. This study examines the relationship between work schedules and GI symptoms, medications, and diagnoses. METHODS: In a cross-sectional survey of 343 US auto factory workers, four work schedule variables were examined: assigned shift, number of hours worked, number of night hours, and schedule variability. Multiple regression tested the relationship between GI outcomes and work schedule variables while controlling for covariates. RESULTS: The evening shift was associated with more GI symptoms and GI diagnoses. Unexpectedly, more consistent work times were associated with having a GI diagnosis. As schedule variability increased the probability of GI medication use increased in low noise exposure. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that evening shift and widely varying work start and end times may increase risks for GI disturbances.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Critical elements of documentation for data-based research.

Scientific integrity and progress are enhanced by precise documentation of the conceptual development and information management aspects of research. Careful and complete documentation of the research process supports accurate reporting. The exercise of documenting data management activities provides an opportunity for nurse researchers to reflect on a study to guide current work and inform and enhance future research. The literature includes many references to the need for data management but contains little advice regarding the nuts and bolts of documenting data management activities. This article describes specific steps for documenting data-based research beginning with the study design and ending with data analysis. The documentation framework and examples presented are sufficient to guide the comprehensive record keeping required for complex studies and can be modified to meet the simpler needs of smaller research projects.

Clinical Nursing Research↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chronic effects of workplace noise on blood pressure and heart rate.

Environmental noise levels in the United States are increasing, yet there are few studies in which the nonauditory effects of workplace noise are assessed. In the current study, the authors examined chronic effects of noise on blood pressure and heart rate in 374 workers at an automobile plant. Data were collected from subjects prior to the start of their workshift. Participants completed questionnaires about diet, alcohol use, lifestyle, noise annoyance, use of hearing protection, noise exposure outside of the work environment, personal and family health histories, and demographic information. Resting blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index were obtained. Noise exposure levels were extracted retrospectively from company records for each participant for the past 5 yr. Summary statistics were generated for each variable, and the authors performed bivariate correlations to identify any unadjusted associations. The authors then completed statistical modeling to investigate the effects of noise on blood pressure and heart rate, after they controlled for other variables (e.g., gender, race, age). The authors controlled for confounding variables, after which use of hearing protection in high-noise areas was a significant predictor of a decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures. The results suggested that the reduction of noise exposure by means of engineering controls or by consistent use of hearing protection by workers may positively affect health outcomes.

Adult↗