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Biomedical subjects

D Gimeno

Publications and source records attributed to D Gimeno.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

[Quality of medical diagnosis in sick leave certificates for non-occupational diseases and injuries].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of medical diagnosis in the sick leave certificate. DESIGN: Retrospective, observational study. SETTING: Castelldefels Primary Care Centre, Barcelona, Spain. MEASUREMENTS AND INTERVENTIONS: 205 sick leave episodes of patients reported as non-occupational diseases and injuries were analyzed. The diagnosis of the sick leave certificate was checked against the clinical report carried out by the same physician who made out the sick leave certificate. To assess the quality of medical diagnosis, sensitivity, positive predictive value and the percentage of positive agreement were calculated. The variability of these indicators was also assessed according to the duration of the sick leave episode. RESULTS: Simple agreement between the diagnoses of the sick leave certificate and the clinical report was 92%. The sensitivity of the sick leave certificate in relation to the clinical report by diagnostic group ranged from 75% to 97%; positive predictive value, from 81% to 100%; and the percentage of positive agreement, from 86% to 97%. Short-term sick leave episodes (< or =15 days) had lower values than long-term sick leave (>15 days). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that the quality of diagnosis on the sick leave certificate is high. The availability of more medical information about the reasons for the sick leave episode does not modify the quality of the diagnosis substantially.

Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures↗
PubMed2005

Organisational and occupational risk factors associated with work related injuries among public hospital employees in Costa Rica.

AIMS: To explore the relation between occupational and organisational factors and work related injuries (WRI) among public hospital employees in Costa Rica. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a stratified random sample of 1000 employees from 10 of the 29 public hospitals in Costa Rica. A previously validated, self-administered questionnaire which included occupational and organisational factors and sociodemographic variables was used. From the final eligible sample (n = 859), a total of 842 (response rate 98%) questionnaires were returned; 475 workers were analysed after excluding not-at-risk workers and incomplete questionnaires. WRI were computed for the past six months. RESULTS: Workers exposed to chemicals (RR = 1.36) and physical hazards (RR = 1.26) had higher WRI rate ratios than non-exposed workers. Employees reporting job tasks that interfered with safety practices (RR = 1.46), and a lack of safety training (RR = 1.41) had higher WRI rate ratios than their counterparts. Low levels of safety climate (RR = 1.51) and safety practices (RR = 1.27) were individually associated with an increased risk of WRI. Also, when evaluated jointly, low levels of both safety climate and safety practices showed the highest association with WRI (RR = 1.92). CONCLUSIONS: When evaluated independently, most of the occupational exposures and organisational factors investigated were significantly correlated with an increased injury risk. As expected, some of these associations disappeared when evaluated jointly. Exposure to chemical and physical hazards, lack of safety training, and low levels of safety climate and safety practices remained significant risk factors for WRI. These results will be important to consider in developing future prevention interventions in this setting.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The role of job strain on return to work after carpal tunnel surgery.

AIMS: To examine the impact of job strain (that is, high psychological job demands and low job control) on return to work and work role functioning at two months, six months, or both, following carpal tunnel release surgery. METHODS: A community based cohort of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) patients from physician practices was recruited between April 1997 and October 1998 throughout Maine (USA). 128 patients at two months and 122 at six months completed all relevant questions. A three level outcome variable indicated whether patients had: (1) returned to work functioning successfully, (2) returned to work functioning with limitations, or (3) not returned to work for health reasons. Two job strain measures were created: one, by combining psychological job demands and job control; and two, by dividing demands by control. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify predictors of the three level work outcome variable. RESULTS: After adjustment, workers with high demands and high control (active work) were less likely to successfully return to work (OR = 0.22; p = 0.014) at two months. Having a job with higher demands than job control (high strain) predicted not returning to work or returning to work but not successfully meeting job demands (OR = 0.14; p = 0.001), at six months. CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore the role of psychosocial work conditions, as defined by the Karasek demand-control model, in explaining a worker's return to work. Clinicians, researchers, and employers should consider a multidimensional and integrative model of successful work role functioning upon return to work. Moreover, since the evidence of the effects of work process changes on the reduction of CTS is very scarce, these findings point to the opportunity for collaborative workplace interventions to facilitate successful return to work.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Distribution of sickness absence in the European Union countries.

AIMS: To determine the sickness absence frequency in European Union (EU) countries. METHODS: Sickness absence was measured by questionnaire using the Third European Survey on Working Conditions. Employees were considered to have sickness absence if they reported to be absent at least one day in the past 12 months because of an accident at work, work related problems, or by other health problems. RESULTS: Sickness absence percentages were lower in Southern European countries compared with Central and Northern European countries, and, in general, slightly higher in men than in women. CONCLUSION: This is the first description of sickness absence in each of the 15 EU countries. Examination of the sickness absence patterning between EU countries could indicate countries where important lessons to reduce sickness absence are to be learned and diffused across the EU.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed2003

Spatial and seasonal variations of water quality in a Mediterranean catchment: the Llobregat River (NE Spain).

The Llobregat and Ter Rivers, typical Mediterranean catchments in Northeast Spain, supply water to more than 4.5 million inhabitants residing in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. The objective of this work is to study the factors that influence the surface water quality of Llobregat catchment. As such, spatial and temporal variations of more 50 water chemical parameters were monitored in 10 sampling sites for a period that extended from July 1996 to December 2000. The temperature, pH and conductivity were measured at sites, whereas metals were analysed using ICP-OES and ICP-MS instrumental techniques. The head waters of the Llobregat River catchment flow through detrital Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary rocks resulting in calcium bicarbonate-type water with low mineral content. The high water quality of the waterhead is deteriorated in the upper-middle part of the catchment due to: occurrence of evaporite-bearing geological formations, and the mining and industrial activities related to potash exploitation. As a result, an obvious increase in Na, K, Mg, Cl-, Br, Rb, and Sr concentrations is reported leading to a sodium (potassium) chloride water type. This saline hydrochemical fingerprint persists downstream. This important feature renders the low water quality of the Llobregat River to be adequate for drinking supply purposes. In addition, the industrial and residential activities, specially at the lower part of the catchment, increases P, B, Mn, Fe, Pb, Al, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As and Sb water concentrations.

Cities↗
PubMed2001

[Emotional disorders in the working population: an emerging problem in occupational health?].

BACKGROUND: To know the prevalence of emotional disorders in a working population. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Workers in four companies: construction (A), automobile components (B), electrical and electronic systems (C) and management services (D). The design of the study was cross-sectional with the GHQ-28 questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence fluctuated between 8,4% (A) and 24,0% (D). Sex, age, educational level and occupation showed significance differences in some companies. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest an important prevalence of emotional disorders that likely increase as there will be more firms of services.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Strategy for water analysis using ICP-MS.

The developed strategy permits determination in three steps of sixty-seven elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Sodium, Mg, Si, S, Cl, K, and Ca are determined in a first step; B, Al, P, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Ag, Cd, Sb, Ba, Hg, and Pb are determined in a second step; and Li, Be, Ti, V, Co, Ga, Ge, Br, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Sn, Te, I, Cs, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta, W, Pt, Au, Tl, Bi, Th, and U are analyzed in a third step. The figures of merit obtained are adequate to carry out water quality monitoring and other hydrochemical studies, such those based in the application of hydrochemical fingerprinting to water management.

Calibration↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Description of psychosocial risk factors in four companies].

OBJECTIVE: To describe the distribution of work-related psychosocial risk factor scores in four companies according to the personal and occupational characteristics of the workers. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of a sample of 890 workers in four companies who participated in this study voluntarily. The overall response rate was 34.5%. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to measure the presence of demand, control and social support according to the workers' perceptions. Statistical analyses were performed using median and dispersion measures of psychosocial risk factors for each company separately, as well as description of their distribution according to personal and occupational variables. RESULTS: The median score for social support was almost always equal to 5 for all four companies. However, there was greater variability in psychological demand (between 13 and 16), and for control (between 20 and 26). Comparison of the scores for social and occupational variables revealed similar values for social support but not for control and demand, which showed greater variation according to sex (men), age group (less than 40 years) and occupation (clerks). CONCLUSIONS: Although the low response rate could limit the validity of our results, this is the first study to value the distribution of work-related psychosocial risk factor scores in four companies in Spain. Variability among companies for different groups of workers was found. This study could be useful for future studies exploring the feasibility of defining reference values for use in preventive measures.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Analysis of the mechanisms of minor occupational injuries in the construction industry in Spain].

OBJECTIVES: The construction industry produces the highest number of occupational injuries in Spain (25.6%). Of these, 98.5% were minor injuries with 5 million workdays lost in 2000. This occurred even after the recent introduction of numerous health and occupational safety regulations. The objective of the present study was to identify the specific mechanisms of minor occupational injuries in the construction sector. METHODS: In 2000, there were 235,853 minor occupational injuries in the construction industry. From these, injuries in general construction and civil engineering were selected (n = 155,044). These injuries affected both the total number of workers in the sector as well as bricklayers and unskilled construction workers. Insurance and financial activities (n = 2,019) were selected as a reference economic sector. Minor occupational injuries due to nontraumatic processes (heart attack, etc.) were taken as a control group (n = 167), assuming that the risk of nontraumatic processes was independent of economic activities. Odds ratios (OR) were adjusted by age, sex, years of work experience, type of employment and company size through nonconditional logistic regression models. RESULTS: The mechanisms with the highest risk of minor occupational lesions in construction workers as a group compared with employees in the financial sector were projection of fragments (OR = 33.0; 95% CI, 15.3-70.8) and being struck by objects (OR = 18.2; CI 95%, 9.7-34.1). These were also the most specific mechanisms of injury in the subgroup of bricklayers and unskilled construction workers. CONCLUSIONS: Activities aimed at preventing minor occupational injuries in the construction sector should be orientated towards these mechanisms, especially projection of fragments despite the low frequency of this mechanism compared with that of other mechanisms. Case-control design is a useful alternative approach for research into occupational injuries.

Accidental Falls↗