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Biomedical subjects

J Pokorski

Publications and source records attributed to J Pokorski.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Internal and external factors influencing time-related injury risk in continuous shift work.

Time-related accident risk in shift work may be attributed to internal factors, such as fatigue, level of performance, sleep propensity, and to some external factors, like shift system, physical and social environment. Six hundred and sixty-eight events in the metallurgical industry have been analysed in terms of time of day, time on task, consecutive day of the shift block, day of the week, and season. The injury rate was similar on all shifts but more severe accidents happened in the nighttime. Somewhat more injuries occurred in the second half of the shift, in the second part of a shift block, and in summer compared with winter. There were fewer injuries at weekends.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed1995

The effects of nightwork on psychological changes during the menstrual cycle.

This study investigated whether the temporal stress of working at night interferes with nurses' experience of different phases of the menstrual cycle. Twenty-four, rotating-shift nurses recorded data on a hand-held computer at the start and end of each day and every 2 hours during their shifts for a period of 28 days. The measures included a sleep diary, self-ratings of mood and symptoms, and two cognitive performance tasks. Using a pooled time series analysis, it was found that some of the self-report measures showed a significant interaction between type of shift worked and menstrual cycle phase. For example, alertness was found to be lower towards the end of the night shift during the premenstrual phase compared to other phase and shift combinations. However, some of the measures showed only main effects of cycle phase or were non-significant. Retrospective measures from a larger sample showed an association between the number of nights worked per year and duration of premenstrual and menstrual problems, and severity of premenstrual problems. The results suggest that nightwork may alter some aspects of nurses' psychological experience of the menstrual cycle.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

[Chrono-type as a factor of shiftwork tolerance in women].

Almost all physiological and psychological functions of human beings reveal circadian variations. The parameters of those rhythms differ in various subjects dependently on their individual diurnal characteristics, named here chrono-type. The difference in phase of maximal arousal is particularly apparent so that it implies the distinction between the morning and the evening types. The comparative study of both chrono-types was done with regard to the subjective health, sleep disorders and disturbances, attitudes towards shiftwork and physical fitness as measured by indirect prediction of the maximal oxygen uptake. In spite of differences in the bedtime and awaking time, representatives of morning and evening type did not differ when considering the amount of sleep. Both groups slept about one hour less than subjectively required. The analysis of sleep disorders (during days with various shifts and days off) showed that their configuration was different in compared groups. Morning types more often woke before proper time and suffered from frequent mid-sleep awakenings. They had also more difficulties in falling asleep and felt tired after awakening when working night shift. Evening types reported more often difficulties in awakening (independently on work shift) and complained low well-being or tiredness after awakening when working morning or afternoon shift and during days off. The percentage of morning types reporting various sleep disturbances of external (noise, daylight) or internal (hunger, nervousness) origin was 13 to 74. The corresponding figures for evening types were 4 to 52%. Subjective health was assessed with use of a list of 74 symptoms. It was found that morning individuals significantly more frequently reported fevers and sub-febrile states, itching in heart region, pains or tightness in heart region when nervous and musculoskeletal pains. No significant differences in gastrointestinal complaints were found. Analysis of typical circulatory, respiratory and musculoskeletal syndromes revealed the lower frequency of circulatory and musculoskeletal complaints and more respiratory symptoms in evening types. This latter could be considered as the result of prevalence of smokers in this group. The prediction of maximal oxygen uptake with use of indirect Astrand-Rhythm method showed significantly higher values in evening types. Taking into account that the result of this method is based on the heart rate response to submaximal load--it is highly probable that the difference observed is due to chrono-type related difference in phase of circadian rhythm of heart rate reaction to the load applied on the same time of the day. Both studied groups differed significantly as to the percentage of persons approving the work in shifts.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1989

Acute toxicity of benzene in rats at different periods of day and in different light/dark regime.

Acute toxicity of benzene expressed by survival time and mortality percentage of rats varied in circadian manner. Survival time of rats maintained under standard light/dark (L/D) conditions was significantly shorter when benzene was injected at 20.00 or 24.00, than at 08.00. Simultaneously, mortality of rats was reversed. Inversion of L/D regime of exposure to continuous light abolished all those effects. Rats exposed to continuous darkness showed significantly longer survival time when benzene was administered at 12.00 or 24.00 than when it was injected at 04.00. Generally, acute toxicity of benzene in rats exposed to light was markedly less pronounced than in animals exposed to darkness.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Gender, ageing, and shiftwork intolerance.

The study investigated the hypothetical differences between male and female shiftworkers in their susceptibility to shiftwork-related health and social problems, with the special reference to the role of the age factor. The comparison concerned two matched-for-age-and-occupation groups of men and women, each of 83 persons, selected from the larger studied population of more than 700 workers in a Polish steel plant. The subjects were crane-operators employed in the same forward-rotated, three-shift, four-team shift system, 4:4:4 with shift changes at 06:00, 14:00, 22:00; and 48 h off following each shift block. The investigation comprised a battery of questionnaires on demographic characteristics, sleep quantity and quality, subjective health complaints, and opinions on shiftwork. The analysis of data revealed that men slept more than women, especially when working on the afternoon and night shifts. The differences became more striking and significant for all work shifts and days-off when related to declared individual sleep requirements. Women experienced more sleep disturbances than men and suffered more frequently from drowsiness during work, especially when working the morning shift. The ratings of subjective health were lower in women, with exception of respiratory complaints. Women generally suffered more than men from symptoms considered as specific to the 'intolerance syndrome', i.e. psychoneurotic, digestive, circulatory, and those of chronic fatigue. However, after passing the 'critical decade' of 40-50 years their subjective health generally improved, whereas in males one observed the consequent deterioration of health with advancing age. Women more often complained about their health and went to see the doctor, but on the other hand, they did not tend to quit shiftwork as often as did their male counterparts.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nurses' health, age and the wish to leave the profession--findings from the European NEXT-Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In many industrialised countries the number of workers with low health is expected to increase in the nursing profession. This will have implications for occupational health work in health care. The European NEXT-Study (www. next-study. net, funded by EU) investigates working conditions of nurses in ten European countries and provides the opportunity to evaluate the role of health with respect to age and the consideration of leaving nursing. METHODS: 26,263 female registered nurses from Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, England, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia were eligible for analysis. RESULTS: In most countries, older nurses considered leaving the profession more frequently than younger nurses. 'Health' was--next to 'professional opportunities' and 'work organisational factors'--strongly associated with the consideration of leaving nursing. However, more than half of all nurses with low health wanted to remain in the profession. This group reported rather positive psychosocial working conditions--but also the highest fear for unemployment. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that 'the nurse with low health' is reality in many health care settings. Both positive supporting working conditions but also lack of occupational alternatives and fear of unemployment may contribute to this. Current economic, political and demographic trends implicate that the number of active nurses with low health will increase. Occupational health surveillance will be challenged by this. But NEXT findings implicate that prevention also will have to regard work organisational factors if the aim is to sustain nurses' health and to enable nurses to remain healthy in their profession until retirement age.

Adolescent↗