Company Occupational Health Research Articles

HUBUNGAN RISIKO ERGONOMI DENGAN KELUHAN MUSCULOSCELETAL DISOREDER (MSDs) PADA KARYAWAN PT. INTIDRAGON SURYATAMA KABUPATEN MOJOKERTO

Unnatural work attitude is a discrepancy between the dimensions of the tool and work station and body size. In a long time there will be an accumulation of complaints and ends in muscle injury. The research objective is to find out complaintsMusculosceletal Disorderbecause of the ergonomic attitude of workers at PT. Intidragon Suryatama. This research is studycross sectional, a semiquantitative approach. Primary data collection through direct observationon the spot field observations, taking photos or pictures, interviews using the Nordic Body Map questionnaire on 96 workers. From 96 respondents, 31 respondents worked in ergonomic positions and 65 respondents worked not ergonomically. Of the 65 respondents whose work position was not ergonomic, as many as 6 respondents (10%) workers complained of mild MSDs complaints, most of the 49 respondents (75%) had moderate MSDs complaints and as many as 10 respondents (15%) had high MSDs complaints. The company's Occupational Health and Safety always creates an ergonomic work environment, provides ergonomic seating for employees.

COVID-19 cases among medical laboratory services staff in South Africa, 2020-2021: A cohort study.

Medical laboratory workers may have an increased risk of COVID-19 due to their interaction with biological samples received for testing and contamination of documents. Records of COVID-19 laboratory-confirmed positive cases within the medical laboratory service were routinely collected in the company's Occupational Health and Safety Information System (OHASIS). Surveillance data from the OHASIS system were extracted from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. An epidemic curve was plotted and compared to that for the country, along with prevalence proportions and incidence rates. The odds of COVID-19 infection were categorised by job and compared to the US Occupational Risk Scores. A logistic regression model assessed the risk of COVID-19 infection per occupational group. A total of 2091 (26% of staff) COVID-19 positive cases were reported. The number of COVID-19 cases was higher in the first wave at 46% (967/2091) of cases, than in the second wave 40% (846/2091) of cases. There was no significant difference in COVID-19 prevalence between male and female employees. The job categories with the most increased risk were laboratory managers [AOR 3.2 (95%CI 1.9-5.1)] and laboratory support clerks [AOR 3.2 (95%CI 1.9-5.2)]. Our study confirms that some categories of medical laboratory staff are at increased risk for COVID-19; this is a complex interaction between workplace risk factors, community interaction, socioeconomic status, personal habits, and behaviour. Targeted interventions are recommended for high-risk groups. OHASIS has the potential to generate data for surveillance of health care workers and contribute towards a South African risk profile.

Worker Health in Brazil

Occupational health and safety (OH&S) is related to the health, safety, and welfare issues in the workplace. It is guided by laws, standards, and programs aimed at making the workplace safer for workers, along with co-workers, family members, customers, and other stakeholders. Improvement in a company's occupational health and safety standards has the potential to improve the overall business environment and contribute to a better quality of work life. Brazil has historically reported high numbers of work accidents, which may have serious consequences to workers, resulting in permanent disability or even death. The country has also been developing some very successful policies related to worker health during the last years. The objectives of this paper were to analyze the evolution of statistics of work accidents in Brazil and the impact of some demographic and work variables in these numbers. Although there is a high incidence of workplace accidents in Brazil, there has been a reduction in the incidence of accidents, death, and accident-driven retirement. Despite the identified progress the situation is still extremely worrying. Responsibility for the construction, promotion and maintenance of a safe work environment should be shared by everybody - organizations, workers, unions, health system, among others, as being safe at work is a central aspect for quality of life.

Measuring Employee Risk for Burnout

Objective: Employee mental health is now moving into the fast lane as companies realize that presenteeism costs and mental ill-health related issues have a negative correlation to company productivity and overall engagement. Furthermore, burnout or mental exhaustion tends to significantly afflict the most productive and motivated employees within the company, so proactively identifying such risk is sustainably advantageous for continuous operations. The objective of the study is to examine the reliability and validity of the Risk for Burnout Measure to proactively identify an employee’s potential risk for burnout within a cohort from various companies in Sweden. The Study Design and Setting: Empowerment for Participation (EFP) batch of assessments, consisting of 110 questions, is used to measure employee motivation, stress, defense routines and motivational positioning or adaptability on an individual and aggregate level within a company. This study looks at the reliability and validity of a composite of thirty questions extracted from the EFP batch to effectively measure the status of an individual in relation to a potential risk for Burnout or Mental Exhaustion Syndrome. N = 69 is a cohort of personnel from three small companies and an unbound group (employed but not belonging to a group from a company). Originally, the EFP battery was used to proactively monitor, track and identify (in a preventive context) measures that enhance individual wellbeing and engagement in a company population. Results: EFP showed excellent reliability (α = 0.929 based on Standardized Items) and statistically significant Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (95% confidence interval (CI = 0.950; p < 0.001)), as well as an internal validity of 92.8% and an external validity of 91.2%. Significant correlations with normal distributions for degrees of Risk for Burnout were found within the cohort: No Evidence (31.9%), Low Risk (44.9%), Moderate Risk (18.8%), High Risk (4.3%), and Burned-out (0%) where diagnoses or and the use of SSRI anti-depressives highly correlated to 95.7% within the High Risk group (CI = 0.950; p < 0.001). Conclusion: The findings indicate that the Risk for Burnout derived from the EFP Batch of Assessments is an excellent tool for companies to predict employee distribution Risk for Burnout within their operational environment. Providing companies with the knowledge to predict mental exhaustion prior to affliction, affords companies the ability to proactively launch preventative measures thereby staving off an inevitable diagnosis. Providing company Occupational Health departments with a practical early identification tool to sustainably manage employee risk reduces presenteeism costs, improves psychological well-being, and helps to enhance engagement at work.

The International Classification for Human Functioning, Disability and Health in e-Health of Bulgaria

Abstract The study is based on the National Science Program 'eHealth in Bulgaria (e-Health)', funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. Partnership Contract No. D-01-200/16.11.2018 Issue In the last years in Bulgaria has been working hard to improve the information and communication environment through the National Science Program 'e-Health'. The links between the health of working people and the social and environmental determinants of public health are best identified by the WHO through the International Classification for Human Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). In Bulgaria, about 650 occupational health services (OHSs) that use heterogeneous software products. Description of the Problem A targeted study of the ICF's capabilities opens the horizon to integrate social and environmental health factors in an increasingly aging and morbid workforce, with people with disabilities, and with electronic access to social and medical services. The creation of an electronic system for dynamic monitoring of any change in human functioning health of workers and their determinants, allows the OHS, the organs of workability expertise to make the right decisions in work placement. Results A scientific toolkit has been developed for the introduction of the ICF Module for updating the electronic health integrated dossier for all STMs with a view to applying the common methodology of EUROSTAT, EC, Directorate-General F5 for the consolidation of occupational disease data and other health problems in functioning, disability and health to working people. Lessons The ICF module supports both the company's occupational health and safety policy, the OHS, and the implementation of a higher class electronic network, a challenge that inevitably faces the digitalisation of every European country. The module contributes to the extension and refinement of information. Data will be provided on priority risk factors that have harmed workers' health. Key messages The ICF module creates opportunities for rapid and correct measures to ensure good occupational health. The ICF module creates opportunities for rapid and correct measures people with disabilities in a changing demographic and health environment.

Occupational Health Nursing: Competence and experience to achieve the safety, health and well-being of the working population.

From 1953, with the appearance of the Company Occupational Health Technical Assistant Specialist, until 2005, with the recognition of the specialty of Occupational Health Nursing, socio-cultural and technological changes have determined the evolution of work, its processes and conditions, but have also specified the occupational risks to which workers are exposed, as well as how to organize prevention, safety and occupational health. Occupational Health Nursing is defined as a nursing specialty that addresses the health status of individuals in their relationship with the workplace, in order to achieve the highest level of physical, mental and social well-being of the working population, taking into account the individual characteristics of the worker, the job and the socio-labour environment in which they develop. Occupational Health Nursing undertakes its basic functions through the surveillance of workers' health, and constitutes, beside Occupational Medicine, the basic health unit, which in turn is part of the prevention services of both public and private companies. Today there are about 9,000 specialists in Occupational Health Nursing in Spain, an insufficient number to guarantee the prevention of accidents at work and occupational diseases, the early detection of occupational pathology, the promotion of health through modification of lifestyles and the improvement of the well-being of the Spanish working population. Occupational Health Nursing is aware of the challenges that it must face in the coming years and therefore, it relies on competences as fundamental as teaching, management and research to integrate into interdisciplinary projects in occupational health that provide solutions to increasingly complex health and safety problems at work.

S6 Supermarket bakers asthma: a report of three successive rounds of surveillance

In 2006, we set up a surveillance programme with a large UK supermarket employing almost 4000 “scratch” bakers (who mix dough and bake bread from scratch using raw ingredients) in around 350 stores. We report here the analysis of the programme through to 2010. The company occupational health provider screened all bakery workers for respiratory symptoms every other year, using a initial questionnaire (Level 1), with positive responders completing a subsequent, more detailed telephone-administered questionnaire (Level 2). Those who reported work-related nasal or respiratory symptoms were asked to provide a serum sample for specific IgE to bakery antigens. Those with positive specific IgE to flour or α-amylase (>0.35 kU/l) were directly referred for a specialist opinion. Abstract S6 table 1 shows the results of three surveillance rounds in 2006, 2008 and 2010. The frequency of work-related symptoms, sensitisation and disease across the three rounds of surveillance were remarkably constant. Measured prevalence is low (0.3–2 in 1000 bakers) although this figure is likely to be an underestimate; a previous study in the same workforce has demonstrated a reluctance to report symptoms and incomplete response rates.1 This system of surveillance is efficient but has thus far not been effective in reducing the incidence of occupational allergy.

Employment and breast cancer: a meta-ethnography

The purpose of this synthesis is to examine the qualitative evidence on the lived experience of breast cancer survivors in relation to return to work. An in-depth search of the literature was undertaken from 1999 until July 2010. Ten relevant papers emerged that reflected the aims of the synthesis. A meta-ethnographic approach was used to synthesise papers. Four concepts emerged that reflected the return to work, these included influencing factors, sickness absence, work ability and work-related problems and experiences of return to work. Further synthesis of concepts led to the development of four final interpretations. These included breast cancer and employment, treatment-induced physical impairment, employer comprehension of breast cancer and fear of work-related failure. These interpretations indicate that employers need to be educated on the work capabilities of cancer survivors post treatment. Improved support facilities are needed for cancer survivors which are supported by European employment legislation and guidance offered by company occupational health departments. Moreover, health care professionals could become more involved in the education of breast cancer patients with regard to the timing of returning to work.

Psychological symptoms and subsequent sickness absence

Mental health problems are associated with sickness absence (SA). The present study aimed at establishing which symptoms-distress, depression, anxiety, or somatization-at which symptom levels were associated with SA frequency and duration. Moreover, a number of possible confounders or effect modifiers were taken into account. A survey was completed by 3,678 employees of a large Dutch telecom company. Symptoms were measured using the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire (4DSQ). SA data were registered by the company's occupational health service during the 12months' period following the survey. Poisson regression was used to analyze the number of SA spells (SA frequency). Negative binomial regression was used to analyze the total number of SA days (SA duration). In the bivariate analyses distress, depression, anxiety, and somatization impacted on SA frequency and duration. In the multivariate analyses, anxiety and depression turned out not to be directly associated with SA, suggesting that the effect of anxiety and depression was due to the association between anxiety/depression and distress/somatization. Regarding the SA frequency, the rate ratio for 'subclinical' distress was 1.13 (95% CI 1.03-1.25), for 'clinical' distress 1.26 (1.08-1.47), for 'subclinical' somatization 1.34 (1.23-1.46), and for 'clinical' somatization 1.69 (1.46-1.95). Regarding the SA duration, the count ratio for 'subclinical' distress was 1.15 (95% CI 0.91-1.44), for 'clinical' distress 1.50 (1.04-2.16), for 'subclinical' somatization 1.34 (1.10-1.64), and for 'clinical' somatization 1.45 (1.04-2.03). Somatization and distress are key to understand why depression and anxiety are related to SA.

Cost-effectiveness of Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy at a company occupational health clinic in Japan.

Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a common disorder that follows a chronically relapsing course. Many clinical trials have proven the efficacy of H2-blockers in the long-term management of chronic relapsing PUD. On the other hand, 30% of patients with duodenal ulcer (DU) receiving maintenance therapy with H2-blockers experience ulcer recurrence yearly. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is now recognized as the major cause of PUD. We estimated the cost-effectiveness of H. pylori eradication in comparison to maintenance therapy with H2-blocker in a 1-year period at a company occupational health clinic. Ninety-nine with PUD tested for H. pylori were positive. Forty-nine patients received H. pylori eradication, and the remaining 50 patients were treated with ranitidine (RAN) 150 mg for 1 year according to their demands. H. pylori was successfully eradicated in 42 patients (86%), and 41 (98%) of these 42 patients remained free of symptoms for the remainder of the study period. The lifetable probability of ulcer recurrence during 1 year was significantly lower for patients who received eradication (6.1%) compared with those who received RAN alone (24.0%). The total cost for H. pylori eradication was lower than that for maintenance therapy along our study design (102,664 yen vs 150,356 yen). A decision tree was illustrated and the total cost were calculated by using sensitivity analysis. When we used baseline probabilities in sensitivity analysis, the total cost for eradication was lower than that for maintenance therapy (104,647 yen vs 154,468 yen). H. pylori eradication is cost-effective therapy for patients with PUD in comparison to maintenance therapy with RAN at an on-site occupational health clinic in Japan.

Managing industrial health - National Power turns liabilities into assets

A detailed study by the Health &amp; Safety Executive revealed that accidents and illness at work are costing UK employers a staggering total of over £16.5 billion per annum, the equivalent of about £30 each month per employee. No matter what size the company, this level of expenditure has a significant effect on the balance-sheet, typically representing between 5% and 10% of annual profits. For a large corporate concern operating within the private sector with a workforce of several thousand, such severe haemorrhaging of the company&apos;s financial lifeblood could well prove to be a terminal condition if it remained untreated. The author discusses the action taken by National Power to alleviate the problems. A pro-active approach was taken to occupational health concerns and a dedicated company Occupational Health Service was established, based on the existing medical centres at the company&apos;s power stations and main sites. The new service was given two principal objectives. The first was to ensure that all employees should be in the best possible health, so that their attendance and performance would not be affected and that their working lives would not be shortened through ill health or premature death. The second objective was to provide authoritative advice to the company on all health-related matters.

AN ORGANIZED APPROACH TO THE CONTROL OF HAZARDS TO HEALTH AT WORK

Shell U.K. has an approach which facilitates the implementation of its occupational hygiene programme in its many locations. The main elements of the system are Company Policy, Standards, Methods and Management. The Policy sets the scene and is rigorous in its aims. The new COSHH legislation has emphasized particular duties which have influenced the approach. The Company Occupational Health Guidelines [Guidelines on Health at Work for Shell in the U.K. Shell U.K. Ltd, London (1989)] set the standards for control of exposure, among other things, and the Company adopts appropriate methods to achieve them. Of particular note is the Company's COSHH Programme [Implementation of the Shell U.K. Policy on the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. Shell U.K. Ltd, London (1989)] which applies to all hazards to health (including physical and biological agents) in the workplace. Its introduction has been given full corporate support and is in the process of implementation. Appropriate procedures have been introduced for assessments of risk and for work histories. Guidance has been given on competence, reflecting a philosphy based on a team approach using local resources to the full, supported by corporate resources as required. The awards of the British Examining and Registration Board in Occupational Hygiene (1987) are used as the professional standard. Because of difficulties in obtaining basic hazard data, an internal core hazard data system (CHADS) [Core Hazard Data System. Shell U.K Ltd, London (1989)] has been introduced. The whole programme is managed through Occupational Hygiene Focal Points (OHFP) which represent local activities but also participate in corporate strategy. Through them the multidisciplinary approach is promoted, working in conjunction with local and sector Medical Advisers. Work done by the central Occupational Hygiene Unit is recorded and the reports are used for time management and recovery of costs. In its entirety, the approach is being used successfully to implement a comprehensive occupational hygiene programme in a diversified and dispersed industrial organization.

Guide to Development of an Industrial Medical Records System

This “Guide to Development of an Industrial Medical Records System” was developed by the Committee on Industrial Medica. Records of the American Medical Association Council on Occupational Health. Part TV, the concluding section, illustrates and describes some of the forms which are used in large company occupational health programs, and which can be extremely helpful in small plant programs. Covered in the first three parts of the Guide were basic principles and objectives; matters of confidentiality and professional responsibility; history, examination, and status reports, and the recording and using of statistical information.