Health Status Of Employees Research Articles

Integrating Workforce Health Into Employer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts.

Our collective experience with COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter has heightened awareness of deeply embedded racial and socioeconomic disparities in American businesses. This time, perhaps, sustained change is within reach. As organizations advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, an often overlooked focus of is the health status of employees and their families, where equitable access to high-value health benefits offerings should be available to all. This commentary provides guidance for employers to expand their DEI initiatives to include employee and family health and well-being as a central outcome measure. Employers should ensure that DEI efforts incorporate equitable benefits design, and objectively assess benefit design impact on healthcare utilization and cost. Additionally, employers must appreciate the workplace as a significant determinant of health-for lower income workers, in particular-with review of policies and practices to mitigate any discriminatory negative health or well-being impact. Further, race and ethnicity data should be incorporated in health benefits data analysis to understand more clearly the differential outcomes of health management offerings on these different sub-populations. Finally, social needs data should be incorporated into strategic benefits planning to better understand gaps and opportunities to foster greater benefits equity. The provided recommendations can support employer goals of achieving greater equity and value in workforce health, measurably contributing to business success.

CURRENT TRENDS IN THE HEALTH STATUS OF EMPLOYEES OF RIVER, SEA AND MIXED VESSELS (RIVER-SEA) SWIMMINGS

The purpose of the study. To study the health status of employees of the sea, river fleet and mixed river — sea navigation on the basis of the results of mandatory periodic and preliminary medical examinations.Materials and methods. The results of inspections of 2048 employees became the materials of the investigation. Results. There is a high incidence of respirator, endocrine and cardiovascular diseases, which is formed against the background of exposure to a number of risk factors, primarily smoking and high blood pressure. Conclusion. The most important component of health protection for this contingent of employees is the quality of preliminary and periodic medical examinations, the results of which will allow timely identification of chronic noncommunicable diseases and form a set of necessary rehabilitation measures.

Understanding Needs, Breaking Down Barriers: Examining Mental Health Challenges and Well-Being of Correctional Staff in Ontario, Canada.

Mental health challenges appear to be extremely prolific and challenging for correctional service employees, affecting persons working in community, institutional, and administrative correctional services. Focusing specifically on correctional workers employed by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, we shed light on their interpretations of the complexities of their occupational work and of how their work affects staff. Using a qualitative thematic approach to data analyses, we show that participants (n = 67) encounter barriers to treatment seeking, which they describe as tremendous, starting with benefits, wages, and shift work. We let the voices of staff elucidate what is needed to create a healthier correctional workforce. Recommendations include more training opportunities and programs; quarterly, semiannual, or annual appointments with a mental health professional who can assess changes in the mental health status of employees; offsite assessments to ensure confidentiality; and team building opportunities to reduce interpersonal conflict at work and increase moral by improving the work environment.

Pharmacy, employee health lead health system's exposure response.

At Baystate Health in Western Massachusetts, the pharmacy department and Employee Health Services (EHS) work together to provide a consistent response whenever there is an occupational exposure to pertussis, bacterial meningitis, or other infectious diseases. Erin Taylor, assistant director of acute care pharmacy services at Baystate Medical Center (BMC) in Springfield, said in early February that the response protocol was developed after the 5-hospital system performed a gap analysis to review recent exposure incidents. Before then, she said, “there just was no standard process.” “We were all scrambling at the last minute and really not providing a valuable service to our employees,” she said. The new process includes well-defined procedures and documentation to track the health status of employees who are involved in exposure events. Taylor said the intent was to meet the needs of BMC and the health system’s smaller regional hospitals. She said one of the problems the group had to address was how to bill for medications used in the exposure response.

Analysis of occupational health in Egypt

Egypt is an important node in the construction of the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", China and Egypt have conducted all-round cooperation in various fields such as industry, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure construction. With the continuous deepening of economic and trade cooperation between China and Egypt, the occupational health status of employees of the two countries will be paid more and more attention. This article analyzes the status of occupational health in Egypt, in order to explore the space for exchange and cooperation between China and Egypt in the field of occupational health.

Revalence of musculoskeletal disorder and association with general health status in boroujen beekeepers 1397

Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders are among the main occupational and work-related diseases with different impacts on general health status of employees. Present study was performed for assessment of association between general health and musculoskeletal disorders among beekeepers of Boroujen.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, beekeepers were selected by census, in 2017. Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire and general health questionnaire (GHQ28) were used to collect data. Then, the obtained data were analyzed using SPSS- software.Results: Mean of Ggeneral health score was (51.25±12.92) which was suspected to have disorders, and somatic, depression, social and anxiety indices were 12.4± 3.62, 11.43± 4.08, 14.05± 2.63 and 12.55± 4.15, respectively. Also, the most frequent musculoskeletal symptom, during the past 7 days, during the past 12 months, the deterrence of work in the past year was low back pain and knee pain. Although mean of general health score in beekeepers was poorer than normal. No significant correlations were found between general health and musculoskeletal disorder (p-value>0.05). Age, BMI, work experience were risk factor for musculoskeletal disorder.Conclusion: Findings of our study showed that beekeepers were suspected to have general health disorders and the most frequent musculoskeletal disorder was low back pain and knee pain.

USE OF NEURAL NETWORKS IN SAFETY MANAGEMENT AT THE WORKPLACE OF EMPLOYEES WITH DISABILITY

The problem of safety management at the workplaces of workers with disabilities is one of the key issues when solving the problem of employment of a person with stable functional changes in his health status at the workplace in an enterprise conditions. An employer who, according to legislation, is responsible for ensuring safe work conditions at the workplace, in most cases connects the employment of a person with a disability with a possible increase of the injury level. The rational selection of the workplace, taking into account the limitations of life activity caused by human health, makes it possible to formalize this process, giving the employer the opportunity to make well-grounded decisions subject to safety requirements. The article discusses the basic principles of developing and using an artificial neural network in solving the issue of selecting a workplace for a person with a disability that may have different life-limiting, in order to reduce the degree of discrepancy between the employee's health status and specifics of work activity. Network input signals are conditioned by the life limitations of a person with disability. The output signals of the neural network are the coefficients that characterize the level of discrepancy in the employee's employment at the workplace, which is characterized mainly by physical activity, mental activity, or psycho-emotional and sensory activity. The use of artificial neural networks is a perspective direction in managerial decision-making, particularly in the field of workplace safety for workers with disabilities. The principle of creation an artificial network allows to take into account the life limitation of a person with stable functional changes in health status, as well as to provide sufficient efficiency and flexibility of the management decision-making process, taking into account the context of production activity. Keywords: human with disability, occupational safety, neural network, management

Women in the Workplace: Promoting Healthy Lifestyles and Mitigating Weight Gain during the Preconception, Pregnancy, and Postpartum Periods.

Overweight and obesity before, during, and after pregnancy are associated with adverse outcomes for mothers and their offspring. Workplaces have been identified as important settings for improving health and wellbeing. However, the value of workplace interventions for women across the reproductive life stages has yet to be realized. This paper aims to explore the potential of workplaces to facilitate healthy lifestyle behaviors, prevent further weight gain, and devise tailored interventions for working women, specifically during the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum periods. Workplaces can be used to engage women, including preconception women, who are detached from clinical settings. Potential benefits of workplace health promotion for women and employers include improved employee wellbeing, productivity, and corporate competitiveness. However, workplaces also need to overcome implementation barriers such as activity scheduling and availability. A systems approach may address these barriers. Consequently, designing and implementing workplace health promotion interventions to meet the specific needs of working women of reproductive age will necessitate collaboration with a range of key stakeholders across all stages of intervention design. Given that these women make up a considerable proportion of the workforce, workplaces can help optimize the health status of employees and prevent excess weight gain during the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum periods.

Comprehensive Evaluation System of Occupational Hazard Prevention and Control in Iron and Steel Enterprises Based on A Modified Delphi Technique.

The study designs a comprehensive evaluation system for the prevention and control of occupational hazards, calculates its weight coefficient, and provides a potential strategic and effective tool for the scientific evaluation of occupational hazards in the iron and steel enterprises. The system was established through induction and analysis of relevant literature, personal interview, theoretical analysis, Delphi expert consultation, and special group discussions. Using an improved analytical hierarchy process fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model and on the basis of the improved Delphi expert investigation, the weight of the operability comprehensive evaluation index system is constructed. A three-level index system is established on the basis of harmful factors of occupational activities, health status of employees, protection facilities of occupational hazards, occupational health management, and so on. The index system structure is 4-20-95, and the weight coefficients of the four dimensions are 0.2516, 0.2428, 0.2550, and 0.2506. The recovery rate of the questionnaire was 82.5%, 100.0%, and 100.0%. The effective rates were 75.0%, 100.0%, and 100.0%. Conversely, the expert authority coefficients of the four dimensions are 0.875, 0.769, 0.832 and 0.800. Results show that the consistency factors of the four dimensions are statistically significant. Cronbach’s α coefficient, standardized Cronbach’s α coefficient, and split-half reliability of the comprehensive evaluation index system are 0.959, 0.950, and 0.810, respectively. After factor analysis, four common factors were extracted on the basis of expert opinions, and the cumulative variance was 63.1%. The comprehensive evaluation system for the prevention and control of occupational hazards in the iron and steel enterprises proposed by the study is relatively complete and reasonable.

Смысложизненные ориентации и биопсихологический возраст сотрудников уголовно-исполнительной системы

The article presents the results of the study of the life-meaning orientations of the penitentiary system staff and how they are related to their biopsychological age. The sample consisted of 70 individuals - 42 men and 28 women. The average age of the staff was 31 and their average length of service was 7.6 years. The study used "The Purpose-in-Life orientations" test (Leontyev D.A), the "Spirituality" scale in the "Resilience of adults" method (Makhnach A.V.) and the psychobiological age research method by Abulkhanova K.A. and Berezina T.N.. For statistical treatment of data we used t-test for independent samples, correlation and multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the study indicate that men have higher indicators of biological and psychological age, accelerated rate of biological aging. The health status of employees improves as they become more spiritual, achieve life goals, increase productivity, and are satisfied with self-realization. The following factors serve as predictors of biological age and rapidity of ageing: gender, length of service, life goals, acceptance of life events and psychobiological maturity.

Justifi cation of occupational risk management model in polyurethane foam production

Introduction. Employees of production of polyurethane foams (PUF) are exposed to various harmful occupational factors that cause an increased risk of respiratory disorders, nervous system, cancer.The aim of the study was to substantiate the occupational risk management system aimed at its reduction on the basis of the analysis of working conditions and health of employees of modern production facilities of PUF.Materials and methods. The characteristics of working conditions at 5 modern PUF productions are given on the basis of the analysis of a large amount of laboratory and instrumental research of occupational factors; the state of workers’ health in the production of PUF was assessed by the results of periodic medical examination over a number of years. For risk assessment, indicators of odds ratio, relative risk, etiological fraction of occupational factors in a group of 5 years of work experience or more compared to a group of 0–4 years of work experience for men and women in nosological forms were calculated with an assessment of differences in 95% confidence intervals and the magnitude of chi-square (c2 ).Results. Working conditions in the production of PUF are characterized by exposure to a complex of chemicals, of which the most significant are isocyanates and amines. Workers are also affected by factors such as increased noise, the severity of work. Working conditions in the production of polyurethane foam are evaluated as harmful to the first to third degrees. The increased risk of development of diseases of endocrine, nervous, respiratory systems and musculoskeletal system in workers was revealed, the level of which increases with the increase of work experience in the production of PUF. The requirements to the organization of the production process, monitoring of working conditions, improvement of medical care aimed at the prevention of violations of the health status of employees are substantiated.Conclusions. Modern production of PUF is characterized by a complex of harmful occupational factors that have an adverse impact on the health of employees, which requires the introduction of a unified model of occupational risk management aimed at reducing it.

Investigation of Occupational Hazards in Transport Wharf of Liquid Chemicals

Abstract: Occupational health management of liquid chemical transport wharf is still in its infancy, in order to grasp the occupational health status of employees in the industry and improve the occupational health management level of employees, taking the liquid chemical transport wharf of an enterprise as the investigation object, according to the relevant domestic occupations. Hygiene standards, using the combination of on-site occupational hygiene survey and workplace occupational hazard factors detection, identify the occupational hazard factors of the wharf, and detect the degree of hazard. The survey results show that the overall occupational health of the wharf is basically good, but the noise index is slightly exceeded. It is suggested to further improve the occupational health management level of the wharf by improving the protection technology and strengthening the administrative management.

Physical Exercise Behavior and Effect of Photovoltaic Enterprise Employees

In order to improve the physical health of employees in high­pressure working environment, this paper investigates the behaviour and effects of physical exercise of photovoltaic companies. Firstly, the article expounds the physical health status of employees in China’s photovoltaic enterprises, then enumerates the research results of the physical exercise behaviour and effects of employees at home and abroad, and uses the mixed Gaussian model to study the behaviour and effect of photovoltaic employees’ physical exercise. Specific measures to promote active physical exercise for employees are proposed. Finally, the article uses the multi­level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to evaluate the rationality of the measures. The results of the evaluation show that the measures proposed in the paper have positive effects on the health of photovoltaic employees.

A worksite physical activity program and its association with biopsychosocial factors: An intervention study in a footwear factory

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a worksite physical activity program on psychophysiological and social factors. MethodsA worksite physical activity program included 1113 workers from a footwear factory in northeastern Brazil. The participants were classified based on their frequency of attendance in the program. The dependent variables were psychophysiological factors, including the relief of musculoskeletal pain, the improvement of physical and psychological well-being, perceived difficulty in performing tasks, and willingness to work; and social factors related to interpersonal relationships among employees. The obtained data were processed, and the analysis of the correlations between the variables was modeled using ordinal logistic regression. ResultsThe frequency of physical activity was a determining factor for the effectiveness of the intended outcomes for all analyzed variables. The participants who attended more weekly exercise sessions were twice as likely to experience relief of musculoskeletal pain, 74% more likely to report psychophysiological well-being, 30% less likely to have difficulties in performing tasks, and 87% more likely to perceive improved interpersonal relations. ConclusionsRegular physical activity is associated with consistent benefits for work dynamics and the health status of employees and effectively and rapidly improves the desired outcomes. Relevance to industryWorksite physical activity programs are used as strategies to prevent diseases and address complications caused by exposure to occupational risk factors. However, data on the effects of these interventions that consider the frequency of physical activity and work-related social factors are inconsistent.

Wages, Health Insurance Benefits, and Worker Sorting Under Asymmetric Information

Employer-sponsored health insurance is the single largest source of health insurance in the USA. In this paper, we explore a model that treats a firm as a de facto insurance company. More specifically, we model a firm as both a producer of goods for an output market and a health insurance company for their employees. The model accounts for the joint provision of wages and health insurance, including the possibility of asymmetric information in employee health status. With this structure, a firm can choose to pay their workers in some combination of cash wages and health insurance. We characterize optimal employment contracts and show that the Rothschild–Stiglitz model results under asymmetric information extend to employer provided insurance. We also find that employment-based insurance offers pooling options that are typically not available when insurance is sold as a standalone product, suggesting a stability to employer-based insurance that is not dependent on the tax system.

Missing at work – Sickness-related absence and subsequent career events

Sickness-related absence can be viewed as indicator of an employee's health status or work effort. In both cases, absence may affect the employee's career. Evidence from German panel data reveals a significantly negative (positive) link between short-term sickness-related absence and the probability of a subsequent promotion (dismissal). Instrumental variable analyses suggest no causality in this context. We find no evidence of systematic gender differences in the link between absence and subsequent instances of mobility. Throughout our analysis, we give special attention to the role of health. According to our evidence, health appears to play no significant role for individual career advancement.

The Impact of Worker Health Promotion on the Knowledge, Attitude and Health Status of Employees of Universitas Indonesia in 2017

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Sub-health Screening Management of Employees Based on Brain Evoked Potential Analysis

The difficulty in concentrating attention is one of the clinical manifestations of sub-health status. In order to use the event-related potentials (ERP) technology to reveal the health status of employees, this study selects a classic clinical experimental paradigm continuous operation test. Brain evoked potential experiment is adopted to examine the changes in attention in electrophysiological indicators under different conditions and behavioral indicators such as reaction time are comprehensively analyzed. The results show that the Brain evoked potential indicator and behavioral indicator under single and dual task have different degrees of difference. In particular, the amplitude of P300 in Brain evoked potential is significantly different, which can represent the changes of attention objectively and sensitively. It can be seen that the detection means of sub-health status of employees can use the reaction time and Brain evoked potential as a supplement to objective physiological indicators.

The Lifestyle Habits and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factor Profiles of Staff Within a Provincial Tertiary Institution in South Africa

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a rising burden in many parts of the world including South Africa. There is a strong relationship between CVD, type II diabetes and obesity. The CVD risk and health status of employees in tertiary institutions remains of high concern, as limited studies have been conducted in this area.OBJECTIVES: The study objectives were to determine the: CVD risk factor profile; possible risks of other NCDs; and lifestyle habits i.e. physical activity, nutritional/dietary habits, tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption of university employees.METHODS: A cross-sectional design was conducted on academic and non-academic (professional) staff members from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Purposive sampling of staff within the School of Health Sciences were selected to participate in this study. The data collection included health/fitness screening questionnaires, selected anthropometric measurements and non-fasting blood tests.RESULTS: Seventy-five staff members with a mean age of 39.71 years old voluntarily participated in this study. A significant number of staff members presented with a moderate CVD risk profile. Body fat percentages were significantly higher for females than for males. In addition waist circumference measures indicated possible risks for Type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The overall lifestyle habits were adequate to poor.CONCLUSION: There is an imperative need for workplace health interventions to improve CVD risk profiles and the susceptibility to other NCD’s among staff in tertiary institutions.

Participants’ Perspectives of a Worksite Wellness Program Using an Outcome-Based Contingency Approach

Worksite wellness programs in the U.S. are increasingly common. Social workers in healthcare and administration should familiarize themselves with the various wellness programs and the impact they have on workers and organizations. This study examined a worksite wellness outcome-based contingency approach (WWOCA). This approach bases individual employee health insurance discounts on each participant achieving biometric goals. A mixed-method explanatory approach was used. Quantitative health measures of participants (n = 397) and six focus group discussions (n = 45) were conducted using a convenience sample. Results indicate that over half of the participants met their work-based health goals (i.e., body measurements at the average or excellent rankings) with increases from 56% in year one to 87% in year two and 90% by year three. However, focus group participants expressed a high sense of failure in relation to health goal attainment, frustration with loss of the financial incentive, and stress and anxiety linked to negative feedback about their body measurements. These results suggest that many participants’ self-worth was negatively impacted when participants had difficulty conforming to worksite wellness standards. Social workers in healthcare and administration will need to advocate for worksite wellness programs that promote human dignity and avoid discriminating based on employee health status.