Factors Of Working Conditions Research Articles

Basic Factors of the Information Requirement and Workload in Nuclear Power Plants' Working Conditions

The evaluation of the information requirement and the workload is a part of Periodic Safety Review (PSR) for Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). The information requirement means detail elements of the essential information during performing some tasks. And also, the workload can be defined as the amount of work per hours during the operation of those tasks.The purpose of this study is to estimate the correlation among the basic factors for working conditions, which include the information requirement and the workload, and to offer basic information of working environments. The basic factors include the frequency of task, the importance of task, number of working person, the time consumption for working, the working environment, the assistant of tool, and the requirement level of training to perform the task. The basic factors of working conditions were composed by technical references. We used 179 tasks (in 3 sites) which were selected from the officially managed procedures and related to the safety and representation of each division.

Work characteristics and lifestyle as predictors in the development of chronic non-specific lung disease among elderly municipal employees.

This study prospectively evaluated factors of working conditions and lifestyle in the development of chronic non-specific lung disease (CNSLD). Baseline data were collected in 1981 from 5386 municipal employees born in 1923-35 who had no diagnosed CNSLD. The subjects were studied again in 1985 with a postal questionnaire. The predictors of CNSLD were selected by multivariate logistic regression analysis. 159 (3%) reported the development of CNSLD confirmed by a physician. During the 4.6 year follow up period the average annual incidence was 6.5/1000 subjects. In men the logit model followed was: smoking (odds ratio (OR) 1.17, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.06-1.29), tight work schedule (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.03-1.65), loss of a close friend (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.13-4.31), and retirement of a spouse (OR 3.31, 95% CI 1.35-8.11). In women the selected risk factors were: smoking (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.01-1.38), atopy (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.12-3.53), physically heavy work (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.09-2.29), poor physical working conditions such as heat, cold, changing temperature (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.13-1.75), and infrequent communication with other people at work (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.05-1.49). The differences in the predictors of the incidence of CNSLD between men and women were partly explained by different smoking habits, frequency of atopy, and working conditions. In men the significance of life events (loss of close friend and retirement of wife) need further investigation.