[Sanitary-hygienic evaluation of working conditions of female telephone operators working with video display terminals].
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The relationship between working conditions and arterial hypertension (blood pressure greater than or equal to 140.90 Hg) during pregnancy has been studied from a representative sample of births in France in 1981. The study sample consisted of 2,587 women who had worked beyond the first trimester of pregnancy. The rate of arterial hypertension was 11%: it was higher for women who had to carry heavy loads or who worked in noisy environment, even if known risk factors of hypertension were taken into account. This relationship is obvious for women who were exposed for a long time--working hours or length of employment. Noise and carrying heavy loads seem related to arterial hypertension at different stages of the pregnancy, as if the physiological processes related to these two working conditions were different.
We examined pain prevalence (general/body sites) and its characteristics/consequences among a randomised sample of women from the general population between 18 and 64 years (n=3,616). We also scrutinised associations between pain and various factors (e.g. socio-economic) by means of multivariate logistic/linear regression analyses. The women completed a questionnaire assessing various areas (e.g. pain). The design was cross-sectional and data were collected during 8 consecutive weeks. Sixty-three per cent of women reported pain during the last 3 months, of which 65% during more than 3 months. The multivariate analyses revealed associations between various socio-economic factors (e.g. financial strain) and pain in general/all studied body sites. In addition, psychosocial work conditions (i.e. work strain and social support) were significantly related to pain. Moreover, the multivariate analyses conducted among women with pain indicated relationships between socio-economic/psychosocial work conditions, and pain characteristics (e.g. intensity) and consequences (i.e. disability). A large number of women from the general population suffer from pain, in particularly prolonged pain. Women in a deprived socio-economic situation not only run a higher pain risk, but also experience their pain as more severe/disabling than their more privileged counterparts. Improvements of, for example, the socio-economic status among women living in deprived social and material circumstances, along with improved working environment may be crucial to reduce women's pain problems.
AIMS: To analyse the effects of age and occupational factors on both the incidence and the disappearance of chronic neck and shoulder pain after a five year follow up period. METHODS: A prospective longitudinal investigation (ESTEV) was carried out in 1990 and 1995 in seven regions of France. A random sample of male and female workers born in 1938, 1943, 1948, and 1953 was selected from the occupational physicians' files. In 1990, 21 378 subjects were interviewed (88% of those contacted), and 87% were interviewed again in 1995. Chronic neck and shoulder pain satisfying specific criteria, and psychosocial working conditions were investigated by a structured self administered questionnaire and a clinical examination. RESULTS: Prevalence (men 7.8%, women 14.8% in 1990) and incidence (men 7.3%, women 12.5% for the period 1990-95) of chronic neck and shoulder pain increased with age, and were more frequent among women than men in every birth cohort. The disappearance rate of chronic neck and shoulder pain decreased with age. Some adverse working conditions (repetitive work under time constraints, awkward work for men, repetitive work for women) contributed to the development of these disorders, independently of age. Psychosocial factors seemed to play a role in both the development and disappearance of chronic neck and shoulder pain. Data did not show specific interactions between age and working conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The aging of the workforce appears to contribute to the widespread concern about chronic neck and shoulder pain. A better understanding of work activity regulation of older workers can open up new preventive prospects.
A hygienic assessment of the working conditions at the open-cast mines of KATEK and YuYaUK showed that the conditions were better at KATEK than at the Neryungrin mine, due to milder climate, non-transport system of stripping, wheel-type trenching, and railway transport in the mining areas. No cases of occupational disease were registered. The working conditions and the character of work may influence the general morbidity, in particular the development of cardiovascular disease. The efficacy of health promotion actions is analysed and recommendations on further improvement of the working conditions are presented.
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effect of working conditions, occupational stress, and antenatal leave on risk of small-for-gestational age and premature births in Mexico City. METHODS: Over a 3-month period, 2663 (96.2%) of 2767 women who gave birth at three major hospitals and worked at least 3 months during pregnancy were interviewed shortly after delivery. After the exclusion of multiple gestations and birth defects, 261 (10.0%) small-for-gestational-age and 288 (11.0%) preterm births were identified. RESULTS: For small-for-gestational-age births, working more than 50 hours a week (odds ratio [OR] = 1.59), standing more than 7 hours a day (OR = 1.40), and no antenatal leave (OR = 1.55) were associated with an increased risk. Women with no antenatal leave were also much more likely to give birth prematurely (OR = 3.04). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, arduous working conditions and lack of antenatal leave benefits were found to increase the risk of poor birth outcome in Mexican women. Enforcement of existing antenatal leave laws and provision of comparable benefits for the uninsured may reduce the incidence of small-for-gestational-age births and prematurity.
BACKGROUND: This study investigated the association of working conditions and lifestyle with the development of increased serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in Japanese workers. METHODS: A follow-up study was carried out on workers of a telecommunication enterprise who received their first annual health check-up between 1992 and 1996, when they were between 40 and 54 years of age. Workers who had high serum GGT (> or =60 IU/L in males, > or =30 IU/L in females), a past history of disease, or current illness at their first check-up were excluded from the analysis. In total, the study included 15,586 workers. The association between working conditions and lifestyle and development of increased serum GGT (> or =60 IU/L in males, > or =30 IU/L in females) was investigated by pooled logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: In males, body mass index, consumption of alcohol (<2 times/week, 2-5 times/week, >5 times/week), smoking (<20 cigarettes/day, > or =20 cigarettes/day), rarely taking three meals a day, marked preference for salty meals, and little preference for vegetables were positively associated with the development of increased serum GGT. Preferences for fatty meals (marked, moderate) were negatively associated with the development of increased serum GGT. In females, age and BMI were positively associated with the development of increased serum GGT. CONCLUSIONS: Applying a new statistical analysis to this retrospective cohort study of 5 years, we revealed the health influences of alcohol consumption, smoking and eating habits on increased serum GGT. On the other hand, this study indicated that shift work or other working conditions are not significant risk factors for increased serum GGT.
Comprehensive evaluation of work conditions of workers of different occupational groups (bulldozer, excavator and boring machine operators, embroideresses) helped create a new parameter of occupation harmfulness evaluation: mean arithmetic value and root-mean-square digression. The main parameters of transitory disablement morbidity were found connected with the integral parameter of harmful environmental factors, which helped define the morbidity increase per 1 harmfulness grade for men and women and predict the morbidity levels of workers depending on their work conditions.
Since 1978, France's Ministry of Labour and the National Statistical Institute (INSEE) have carried out four large-scale sample surveys on working conditions among approximately 20,000 workers, questioned by survey-takers at home, that provide invaluable descriptive information on how work is changing. The last survey published was from 1998, and the 2005 survey is being processed at the time of writing. Taking a lead from this example among others, the European Commission tasked the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions to carry out similar surveys in EU countries in 1990, 1995, 2000, and now 2005. Between them, these surveys portray an alarming situation where workers are seeing their working conditions getting worse. Another survey using a different methodology, carried out by occupational doctors during health checks on 50,000 workers--the Sumer survey, from the French acronym for the health risk screening program--done for the Ministry of Labour in 1994 and 2003, points to the same general trends. In both France and the broader European Union (EU), physical demands and risks are not lessening, mental workload is growing, working hours are more diverse and less regular, work paces more demanding, compressed deadlines reduce job predictability and task discretion. . . . But at the same time, workers report having more leeway in discharging responsibilities that have expanded due to the rise in skill levels and new forms of work organization.
In this article, we describe methods which have been applied in the compilation of the Atlas of Health and Working conditions by Occupation. First, we discuss the need for information systems to identify problems concerning working conditions and health. Such information systems have an exploratory purpose, being deployed to identify work risks in companies, groups of occupations and sectors of industry, and can also be a starting point for the generation of hypotheses on the causes of adverse health effects. In the Netherlands, occupational health services gather questionnaire data about work and health as part of periodical occupational health surveys. In the atlas, aggregated questionnaire data for 129 occupations with male employees and 19 occupations with female employees are presented. In this article, we explain the methodology used to compare occupations with regard to each item in the questionnaire. We then discuss applications of these occupational ranking lists. The cross-sectional nature of the data collection, various forms of selection and the limited size of some occupational populations have to be taken into account when interpreting the results. Occupational ranking lists can be applied in the allocation of resources and in the design of scientific research. The overviews for each occupation, presented in the second half of the atlas, provide an occupational profile of existing problems with respect to work and health. These profiles are used as basic information to develop a practical policy on working conditions and health.
Exploring selected working conditions and performance in nursing homes suggests that high and low performers can be determined based on both quantitative and qualitative findings.
Work conditions at IR-lasers production are associated with exposure to a complex of hazards including laser irradiation, psychoemotional strain, visual strain.
OBJECTIVE: The aim was to analyse gender and occupational differences in the psychosocial working conditions of general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses (DNs) in Sweden. DESIGN: A stratified random sample of GPs (n = 566) and DNs (n = 554) from four county councils in Sweden. The overall participation rate was 83%. SETTING: Primary health care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A mailed questionnaire comprising 10 items providing demographic data and 36 items on psychosocial working conditions was used. The questionnaire had been tested for validity and reliability. A factor analysis included five items: strains and symptoms, professional content, social support at work, workload and job control. RESULTS: Professional content was the most positively rated aspect, whereas workload was the most negatively rated. GPs perceived a higher workload and lower social support than did the DNs. Female GPs scored significantly more negatively than both male GPs and female DNs did in four out of the five factors. Female GPs reported a high workload, low job control and low social support at work. Female DNs, too, reported a high workload, relatively low job control but fairly strong social support. CONCLUSION: Female GPs perceived more unfavourable psychosocial working conditions than both male GPs and female DNs did in the same organisational setting.