Biomedical subjects

F Curtis Breslin

Publications and source records attributed to F Curtis Breslin.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Workplace injury or "part of the job"?: towards a gendered understanding of injuries and complaints among young workers.

Epidemiological studies have found that teenage workers have higher occupational injury rates than adult workers, and that young males are a particularly high-risk subgroup. However, there have been few studies to date that have explored qualitatively young workers' everyday understandings and experiences of occupational health risks. Based on focus groups conducted with Canadian urban and suburban teenagers aged 16-18 years, this paper explores young workers' understandings and experiences of occupational health risks, and their gendered nature. The respondents were employed in a diverse range of jobs. The findings suggest that young workers experience a number of minor injuries and physical complaints related to their work. These injuries were typically seen as "part of the job" because they happened frequently and were of low severity. Also, the experience of these injuries as "part of the job" was informed by the young workers' perceived lack of control to improve or alter the conditions of their work. Furthermore, young workers' complaints and concerns were systematically discounted and this happened in a gendered fashion. Whereas the females emphasized how their complaints were actively disregarded by their superiors, males (and some females in male-dominated work settings) described how they stifled their complaints in order to appear mature among their (older) co-workers. Comparisons with qualitative studies of adult workers suggest that accepting some risks and injuries as "part of the job" is not peculiar to young workers. The implications of these findings for improving workplace safety for young workers are discussed.

Accidents, Occupational↗

PubMed2006

Depression and activity limitations: examining gender differences in the general population.

BACKGROUND: This study examines the relationship between major depression, subclinical depressive symptomatology and activity limitation in a representative sample of Canadian men and women, with a particular emphasis on examining gender differences. METHODS: Over a 4-year period, the three waves of data were collected from a representative sample of Canadian adults aged 18-60 beginning in 1994. A brief diagnostic interview for major depression, current limitations in home, work, and other activities (e.g., leisure), presence of each of 13 chronic medical conditions, and other sociodemographic information were gathered. Regression analyses adjusted for potential confounding of time-dependent and time-invariant covariates. These analyses were performed separately for men and women. RESULTS: Major depression had a significant adverse impact on all types of activities for the entire community sample, and this impact was generally robust when controlling for potential confounders. Gender differences were observed for leisure activities with depressed men showing a higher likelihood of limitation in these activities than depressed women. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide further evidence that major depression leads to impairments in a range of daily activities. Gender differences in the impact of depression on leisure activities may be important to consider in depression treatment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Age-related differences in work injuries: a multivariate, population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Many population-based studies find that the rate of work injuries is higher among adolescent and young adult workers compared to older adults. The present study examines age-related differences in work injuries, with an emphasis on adjusting for the potential confounding effects of job characteristics. METHODS: Age-related differences in work injuries were examined in a representative sample of 56,510 working Canadians aged 15 years and over. Respondents reported work-related injuries and job characteristics (e.g., occupation) in the past 12 months. Total hours worked in the past year were computed for each worker and accounted for in the logistic regressions. Analyses were stratified by gender. RESULTS: For men, adjusting for job characteristics substantially reduced, but did not eliminate the elevated risk status of adolescent and young adult workers. For women, only young adult women showed an elevated risk of work injury with job characteristics controlled. CONCLUSIONS: This is one of the few multivariate studies specifically examining contributors to age-related differences in work injuries in a population-based sample of workers. The substantial reduction in age-work injury association in the fully adjusted model suggests that differences in the types of jobs young workers hold play a critical role in their high-risk status.

Accidents, Occupational↗

PubMed2005

Part-time work and adolescent heavy episodic drinking: the influence of family and community context.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies on part-time work and alcohol use suggest that teenagers who work longer hours drink more heavily. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether family- and community-level factors moderate the relationship between part-time work hours and heavy episodic drinking. METHOD: Data were drawn from the Canadian Community Health Survey, a cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample of Canadians. The survey included 8,080 respondents 15-19 years of age who reported work hours and frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the past 12 months. These respondents were located in 136 counties or municipalities across Canada. RESULTS: On average, work hours were positively associated with the frequency of heavy drinking by teenagers in the past 12 months. At the community level, the proportion of teenagers in each community drinking any alcohol was independently and positively associated with respondents' frequency of heavy drinking. In terms of moderating effects, we found that the work hours-drinking association was weaker among youth from low socioeconomic status families. Examination of community-level factors indicated that longer work hours were more strongly associated with heavy episodic drinking in communities with high rates of teen alcohol abstinence. CONCLUSIONS: Although the cross-sectional data prohibit any firm conclusions on how family and community factors influence the work-alcohol use relationship, these data suggest that interventions to reduce heavy episodic drinking among teens should address the broader environmental as well as the individual determinants.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

A descriptive analysis of Canadian youth treated in emergency departments for work-related injuries.

Because labour laws and regulations protect minors by preventing them from working, this population is often excluded from labour data. However, work is common among Canadian youth. Young teens, and especially pre-teens, have informal employment arrangements such as odd jobs, yard work, babysitting and deliveries. Work injuries occurring in these informal employment arrangements are surprisingly frequent and not usually captured by traditional occupational health and safety data sources (e.g. workers' compensation claims). We analyzed data from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) and found 999 youths (5 to 17 years) who had suffered a work-related injury between 1995 and 1998. They were concentrated in two main areas: clerical/service and manual labour. Work-related injuries increased with age. Approximately one third of the youth experienced open wounds and 5.5 percent had animal bites. Collisions with someone or something were common, as were falls. Others or animals were frequently involved. For the majority of cases, the direct cause of injury corresponds to one of ten categories. Injuries and circumstances varied by occupation. Even informal work arrangements (e.g. delivering newspapers) contained hazards and these varied by workplace. The injuries of young workers have implications for future research, prevention efforts, health services policy and legislative and regulatory efforts.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Only one in three people with alcohol abuse or dependence ever seek treatment.

The proportion of respondents who had a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence who ever attended addiction treatment was determined using data from a Canadian population survey. Only one in three of these respondents had ever attended treatment for their alcohol concerns. Respondents' age and severity of alcohol problem (alcohol abuse versus dependence) were significantly associated with addiction treatment attendance.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Questioning the stability of sense of coherence--the impact of socio-economic status and working conditions in the Canadian population.

BACKGROUND: Much debate exists about the stability of the sense of coherence measure. This study examined changes in sense of coherence (SOC), and the variables associated with these changes, over a 4-year period, in a representative sample of the Canadian labour force (n=6,790). METHODS: Two methods were used to assess change in SOC: (1) Change outside of that which could be considered as indistinguishable from measurement error, and (2) Change of more than 10%, which was originally proposed by Antonovksy, the scales designer. RESULTS: Over the study period, 35.4% of the population reported changes in SOC outside the range we consider possible due to measurement error, with 58% reporting change greater than 10%. Unskilled occupations were associated with declines in SOC, with household income demonstrating a curvilinear relationship with decline in SOC in the female population only. None of the variables used predicted increases in SOC. CONCLUSIONS: Given the degree of change in SOC, and the representativeness of the study sample, we suggest that SOC has a large state component. Given this lack of stability, we recommend caution if using the SOC to represent a stable global orientation within a causal context.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Factors influencing the impact of unemployment on mental health among young and older adults in a longitudinal, population-based survey.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between unemployment and mental health. It particularly emphasized the potential differences in mental health status between younger workers entering the labor market and older workers with established laborforce involvement. METHODS: With the use of the National Population Health Survey in Canada, over 6000 respondents between 18 and 55 years of age in 1994 were followed up 2 years later. RESULTS: The results suggest that, among the 31- to 55-year-olds, becoming unemployed led to increases in distress and, to some extent, clinical depression at follow-up. This association between unemployment and mental health was not found among younger adults 18 to 30 years of age. Possible explanations for the null finding among young adults, such as decreased likelihood of low household income or increased likelihood of distressed young adults completely withdrawing from the workforce, were not supported. The notion that baseline mental health affects the chances of being unemployed at the time of a 24-month follow-up were partially supported. CONCLUSIONS: These findings from a representative sample suggest that both causation and selection processes lead to an association between unemployment and distress among older adults.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Part-time work and cigarette use among teenagers. Does age moderate this relationship?

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies on part-time work and substance use suggest that those teenagers working longer hours during the school year use cigarettes more frequently than those working less or not at all. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether age moderates the relationship between part-time work hours and smoking status. METHODS: This 1999 study consisted of a cross-sectional survey of 4,297 junior high and high school students aged 13 to 19 from 111 randomly selected schools in Ontario. RESULTS: Compared to not working at all,moderate (11 to 20 hours/week) to long (21+ hours) work hours was more strongly associated with the probability of being a smoker among young teenagers (13 to 16 years old). Work intensity was only weakly associated with cigarette use in late adolescence (17 to 19 years old). CONCLUSIONS: Working longer hours during school is associated with cigarette use, particularly among young teenagers. Although these cross-sectional data prohibit any firm conclusions regarding causality, the strong association observed among young teenagers increases the plausibility of early work transition being a risk factor for initiating smoking.

Adolescent↗