Specific Job Research Articles

Transformation of Vocational Skills for Doormat Craftsmen from Persons with Disabilities using Assistive Technology

Vocational skills in an inclusive society are needed in business trips within an organization. Pusat Pemberdayaan Disabilitas Mitra Sejahtera (PPDMS) is an organization of persons with disabilities that is productive in producing patchwork mat products in quite a large capacity. This research wants to reveal how assistive technology in their business can change their vocational skills before and after knowing technology. This study uses a qualitative approach with a unique case of doormat crafts at PPDMS in Gunungkidul Regency. The research subject is the organizational chart, including the chairman and members involved in the production of doormats. The results of this study indicate that their vocational skills underwent a significant transformation after assistive technology was introduced. Before they learn assistive technology, their skill is to weave mats with the help of conventional looms. Developing more modernly, the use of mechanization with non-machine looms accessible for persons with disabilities has changed weaving skills to weaving skills complemented by skills in spinning threads. Developing even more rapidly, engineering technology-based vocational skills create job specifications for persons with disabilities. The users of these semi-automatic machines must be skilled and understand the machine mechanization system. This research implies that with the existence of assistive technology, the transformation of vocational skills goes hand in hand with developments in technology and science.

"I'm too old for this!": A prospective, multilevel study of job characteristics, age, and turnover intention.

Deciding to leave a job is often foreshadowed by burgeoning job dissatisfaction, which is in turn often attributed to characteristics of the job and work environment. However, while we know that job characteristics influence job satisfaction, health, and motivation, their associations with turnover intention is less clear. Moreover, despite aging workforces, an understanding of how working conditions influence workers across the lifespan is lacking. Therefore, drawing on job design theories and bridging turnover- and aging research, we studied 15 specific job characteristics to determine whether they predicted turnover intentions, and whether the predictive value was modified by age. Data were collected from various public and private enterprises in Norway. Moderated multilevel regressions were conducted cross-sectionally (N = 12,485) and prospectively over 2 years (N = 5,504). Most work factors were associated with turnover intention at both the individual and work unit levels. A social climate of support, trust, and encouragement was most strongly inversely associated with turnover intentions, while role conflict was most strongly positively associated with turnover intentions. Organizational climate, leadership styles, and job control were more important with age while job demands, predictability and role stressors were more important to younger workers. Ten individual level- and four work-unit level factors predicted turnover intentions prospectively, suggesting turnover intentions due to poor working conditions persisted in employees that did not quit. Our results highlight several specific, modifiable job characteristics that are likely to affect turnover intentions, and the impact of certain factors specifically for older workers.

Characterizing Nanoparticle Release Patterns of Laser Powder Bed Fusion in Metal Additive Manufacturing: First Step Towards Mitigation Measures.

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is a well-known Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology with a wide range of industrial applications. Potential occupational exposures to metal nanoparticles (NP) as by-products could occur in these processes, and no cogent occupational exposure limits are available. To contribute to this assessment, a monitoring campaign to measure the NP release pattern in two metal L-PBF facilities was carried out in two academic laboratories adopting L-PBF technology for research purposes. The monitored processes deal with two devices and three feedstock types, namely stainless steel (AISI 316L), aluminium-silicon alloy (A357) and pure copper, which are associated with different levels of industrial maturity. Prolonged environmental and personal real-time monitoring of NP concentration and size were performed, temperature and relative humidity were also measured during environmental monitoring. The measurements reveal a controlled NP release of the monitored processes, resulting in an average reduced exposure of the operators during the whole working shift, in compliance with proposed limit values (20 000 n cm-3 for density >6000 kg m-3 or 40 000 n cm-3 for density <6000 kg m-3). Nonetheless, the monitoring results show release events with an increase in NP concentration and a decrease in NP size corresponding with several actions usually performed during warm-up and cleaning, leading to exposures over 40-50 000 n cm-3 during a considerable time interval, especially during the manufacturing of pure copper powder. The results show that the actions of the operators, boundary conditions (relative humidity) and set-up of the L-PBF device have an impact on the amount of NP released and their size. Several release events (significant increase in NP concentration and decrease in NP size) are identified and associated with specific job tasks of the workers as well as building conditions. These results contribute to the definition of NP release benchmarks in AM processes and provide information to improve the operational conditions of L-PBF processes as well as safety guidelines for operators.

Conscientiousness and cognitive skills in security sphere: Associations and configurations

In balancing the mission of state security forces and bodies, private security guards are expected to provide partial fulfillment to society’s sturdy desire for safety and security. They exert responsibility for protecting housing and commercial communities, as well as institutions and critical infrastructure systems, including manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and health and educational facilities. Acknowledging that these individuals must possess specific capabilities for a satisfactory level of performance, this study aims to empirically explore how those capabilities interact to obtain a good fit for their job. In order to accomplish this objective, the paper scrutinizes the insights of 94 Colombian security guards. It examines the potential associations (through a partial least squares-structural equation modeling) and configurations (through a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) between the personality trait of conscientiousness and two relevant cognitive skills: mental agility and visual memory. The findings revealed coincidences and contradictions between techniques and addressed constructs’ arrangements to understand how individual capabilities are associated with work outcomes. Even though conscientious individuals tend to perceive strong compatibility with the security job, the skills under study display signs of being contingent on obtaining the same work attachment effect. This study concludes that a security guard’s job specification must privilege the possession of a conscientiousness trait and, if possible, self-perception of proficiency in cognitive skills, such as mental agility and visual memory, to obtain a correct fitting for the job.

Analisis Perencanaan dan Rekrutmen Guru pada Dinas Pendidikan Kabupaten Lombok Tengah

This study uses a naturalistic qualitative approach to describe the management of human resources for educators at the Education Office of Central Lombok Regency in a complete, natural and in-depth manner. The Education Office of Central Lombok Regency in planning and recruiting educators by evaluating and analyzing the needs of teacher shortages in each school based on the teacher needs proposed by the school principals. Then coordinate in the form of meetings, meetings and joint deliberation in order to propose planning for educators proposed by the school. Planning for the needs of educators (teachers) at the Education Office of Central Lombok Regency, includes two things: (1) the planning process for teacher needs aims to ensure the fulfillment of needs in organizational units, planning is carried out by analyzing internal and external factors, such as resource and teacher needs . After the planning is done, it is known that the required manpower with a certain level of ability or skill is known; (2) analysis of teacher needs. The planning starts from the analysis of currently available teacher resources. The analysis includes two things, namely; job descriptions and job specifications. A job description describes the tasks or work performed, while a job specification includes the skills and abilities needed to carry out the task. In terms of recruitment of educators, the Education Office of Central Lombok Regency is based on the needs of educators by using academic, administrative, health and qualification selections that have been determined, in its implementation it still depends on the provisions of the Education and Training Personnel Agency (BKPP) of Central Lombok Regency. its nature is only to plan human resources and propose employees who have been previously planned, while the recruitment process is carried out by the regional personnel agency. Thus the Education Office of Central Lombok Regency as one of the organizations or institutions implementing regional autonomy authority in the field of education, has a very strategic function in managing the implementation of the education system.

Assessing the Needs of the Quantum Industry

Background: Quantum information science and technology (QIST) has progressed significantly in the last decade, such that it is no longer solely in the domain of research labs, but is now beginning to be developed for, and applied in, industrial applications and products. With the emergence of this new quantum industry, a new workforce trained in QIST skills and knowledge is needed. Research Questions: To help support the education and training of this workforce, universities and colleges require knowledge of the type of jobs available for their students and what skills and degrees are most relevant for those new jobs. What are these jobs, skills, and degrees? Methodology: We report on the results from a survey of 57 companies in the quantum industry, with the goal of elucidating the jobs, skills, and degrees that are relevant for this new workforce. Findings: We find a range of job opportunities from highly specific jobs, such as quantum algorithm developer and error correction scientist, to broader jobs categories within the business, software, and hardware sectors. These broader jobs require a range of skills, most of which are not quantum related. Furthermore, except for the highly specific jobs, companies that responded to the survey are looking for a range of degree levels to fill these new positions, from bachelors to masters to Ph.D.s. Contribution: With this knowledge, students, instructors, and university administrators can make informed decisions about how to address the challenge of increasing the future quantum workforce.

스펙 사전을 활용한 직무 바퀴 연구

This study aims to find the specifications necessary for the job by analyzing the reviews of employment success and failure in YouTube. Numerous video data are accumulating due to the creator craze. The current study analyzed YouTube video subtitles, searched by job names. Voice data in the video was crawled with text subtitles using “script display” function of Youtube to extract spec keywords for each job through text mining. After crawling, this study constructed Wheel of Job that connects job specifications to the National Competency Standards (NCS) job list. This study looked into 50 job specifications related to information technology (IT), and a lot of preparations were made for related specifications such as developers, networks, job-related certificates, clouds, and databases. This study revealed that IT jobseekers needed to prepare a multidisciplinary perspective such as marketing, analytics, consulting, and planning among the actual necessary specifications. In addition, This study is expected to provide the roadmap for the job preparation process through the Wheel of Job.

Does perceived overqualification lead employees to further knowledge hiding? The role of relative deprivation and ego depletion

PurposeThis study aims to examine how perceived overqualification (POQ) influences employee knowledge hiding (KH) behaviors. This study further investigates the mediating effect of relative deprivation (RD) and the moderating effect of ego depletion (ED), jointly leading to moderated-mediation analysis.Design/methodology/approachHaving used a time lag, a total of 850 hotel employees participated in Time 1, and data was gathered from 732 hotel employees in Time 2. Using PROCESS macro, a moderated-mediation analysis was performed to examine the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThis study’s findings display that POQ has a positive impact on KH. Moreover, RD plays a mediating role and ED has a moderating role in the direct and indirect associations between POQ and KH.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that hospitality and tourism (H&T) practitioners need to structure job positions, particularly job descriptions and specifications, by considering employee qualifications. They could encourage qualified employees to participate in the decision-making process which can increase the likelihood of their knowledge sharing and naturally limit KH behaviors.Originality/valueIn addition to adding to the burgeoning literature on POQ in the H&T sector, this study advances research on the RD and ED theories by statistically analyzing the link between POQ and employee KH. By considering RD as a mediator, a better comprehension is provided concerning “how” POQ associates with employee KH. By introducing ED as a moderator, researchers could better understand “when” POQ significantly associates with employee KH.

A comparative analysis of data literacy competency frameworks

Data literacy is regarded as a critical competence for the 21st century as the range of skills and knowledge needed to handle data is now essential in our personal and professional lives. There is a widening gap between the demand for a data-literate workforce and the supply of properly trained individuals with data skills. This gap is increasingly recognized by universities, with some now prioritizing data skills for students to ensure that they are fully equipped for the future. Higher education has recognized data literacy as an important learning outcome to help students survive and thrive in this complex job market.There have been efforts to develop a data literacy competency framework to enhance our understanding of conceptions of data literacy and demonstrate how required data literacy skills and knowledge should be characterized. Such data literacy competency frameworks are found in multiple disciplines, including information science, computer science, and statistics. They serve as a descriptive tool that outlines and integrates the knowledge and skills needed to perform a specific job within the workforce and a guide for curriculum development and self-assessment tool for the students. This poster presentation will illustrate the preliminary results of a comparative analysis of data literacy competency frameworks to identify a set of common core competencies.

Employers’ Perceptions of Challenges and Strategies in Hiring, Retaining, and Promoting Employees With Physical Disabilities

Disability is a common component of human diversity, yet people with disabilities (PWD) are underrepresented in the workplace despite known benefits to PWD and companies alike. There is an urgent need to promote inclusion of PWD in the workplace. The purpose of this study was to explore employer-perceived challenges and strategies for employing, retaining, and promoting people with physical disabilities (PWPD) and to describe the policies, supports, and job accommodations they provide to PWPD. We administered a cross-sectional, online survey to employers in the Midwestern United States ( n = 53). Employers had an average of 8.5 years of experience in their job roles and represented diverse industries and company sizes. Employers provide a range of job accommodations; however, many reported lacking comprehensive disability policies such as training managers on how to support PWPD, providing employee resource groups for PWPD, and having a specific job accommodation fund. Major challenges reported by employers were related to lacking competencies in supporting employees with physical disabilities. However, employers endorsed the utility of strategies to address these challenges, including providing education and training and increasing buy-in from leadership. Study findings inform employers on ways to best support PWPD and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

An interactive mobile application versus an educational booklet to promote job retention in women undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundJob loss after a cancer diagnosis can lead to long-term financial toxicity and its attendant adverse clinical consequences, including decreased treatment adherence. Among women undergoing (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer, access to work accommodations (e.g., sick leave) is associated with higher job retention after treatment completion. However, low-income and/or minority women are less likely to have access to work accommodations and, therefore, are at higher risk of job loss. Given the time and transportation barriers that low-income working patients commonly face, it is crucial to develop an intervention that is convenient and easy to use.MethodsWe designed an intervention to promote job retention during and after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer by improving access to relevant accommodations. Talking to Employers And Medical staff about Work (TEAMWork) is an English/Spanish mobile application (app) that provides (1) suggestions for work accommodations tailored to specific job demands, (2) coaching/strategies for negotiating with an employer, (3) advice for symptom self-management, and (4) tools to improve communication with the medical oncology team. This study is a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the app as a job-retention tool compared to a control condition that provides the app content in an informational paper booklet. The primary outcome of the study is work status after treatment completion. Secondary outcomes include work status 1 and 2 years later, participant self-efficacy to ask an employer for accommodations, receipt of workplace accommodations during and following adjuvant therapy, patient self-efficacy to communicate with the oncology provider, self-reported symptom burden during and following adjuvant therapy, and cancer treatment adherence.DiscussionThis study will assess the use of mobile technology to improve vulnerable breast cancer patients’ ability to communicate with their employers and oncology providers, work during treatment and retain their jobs in the long term, thereby diminishing the potential consequences of job loss, including decreased treatment adherence, debt, and bankruptcy.Trial registrationClincalTrials.gov NCT03572374. Registered on 08 June 2018.

The Socialization and Development of the Coordinator of Clinical Education in Athletic Training

Context Coordinators of Clinical Education (CCEs) play an important role in clinical education, yet they often receive little to no formal training in the role. The experiences of the CCE and preparation for their role is unknown; therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the professional socialization of CCEs into their roles. Methods A total of 36 CCEs with a minimum of 1-year experience as a CCE (31 women, 5 men; 5.2 ± 4.7 years of experience as CCE) participated in this qualitative study. Data saturation guided the number of participants. Seven focus-group interviews were completed following a semistructured interview guide developed based on previous socialization research. Data were analyzed through consensual qualitative review, with data coded for common themes and subthemes. Trustworthiness was established via peer review and multianalyte triangulation. Results Two themes emerged: role and socialization. Role is described as responsibilities, collaboration, and challenges. Participants described responsibilities including complete oversight of clinical education, preceptor development, evaluation and assessment of clinical skills, and administrative duties. CCEs described the importance of collaboration, both internally and externally. CCEs faced challenges such as time management, conflict management, and navigating institutional policies. Socialization described preparation, integration into the role, resources, and needs. CCEs described minimal preparation, and most did not feel prepared to take on all aspects of the role. CCEs described role integration, which included meeting with the program director, reviewing the job description and the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) Standards, and trial and error. During socialization, they described a variety of resources such as conferences and the CAATE Standards to provide guidance. Last, participants identified needs including specific job description, a timeline for tasks, and professional development. Conclusions Overall, participants felt adequately prepared for some aspects of their roles, but less prepared for others. Additional professional development is necessary to make CCEs more successful.

경비업법상 일반경비원 직무요인 분석에 관한 연구

This study is an exploratory study for establishing job domain and specific job factor, which is the job scope of general security guards under the Security Business Act and it suggests basic guideline for clear guiding of general guards. In addition, the purpose of the Security Business Act is to clarify the limit of the work of general security guards and to provide the rationale of the authority basis to ensure smooth execution of security work. Delphi technique, which focuses on the experts on security affairs, aims to establish the job scope of general security guards and to establish objective and reasonable job scope rather than subjective interpretation by setting specific job contents classified by universally validated areas . As a result of this study, the general security guards' job scope in the Security Business Act is focusing on occupational security services, convoy security services, personal protection services, and machine security services. First of all, the most important job in the area of facility security service is 'security zone residence and patrol', which is the basic basis for detecting and responding to illegal intrusions and countermeasures against risk factors, focusing on the facilities to be expended. Based on this, access control, risk detection, and disaster management should be performed. In relation to visitors, parking management and civil service should be integrated. In the case of the convoy security service, vulnerabilities at the starting point and the destination are the largest, and immediate countermeasures should be taken when capturing the boundary and danger signs. In addition, it is necessary to establish organic step-by-step security guideline before and after the convoy security, confirm it and maintain the communication system with the base station. In the field of personal protection work, 'hazard access control' and 'contingency response' were the most important job factors. In order to secure the safety of the security guard, it is necessary to recognize the access control of the threat to the security guard as a central job through pre-planned work because both the prevention action and the immediate post reaction are important. The mechanical security work was guided by general security guards and urgent dispatch. This has an organic relationship with the facility control and it is necessary to make a directive report on the situation and appropriate emergency response through communication system with the base station.

공공교육영역 채용현장의 요구자격에 대한 텍스트 네트워크 분석

This study analyzed the general requirements, academic background and qualifications required for recruitment by investigating institutions and job specifications that hire educational personnel in the public sector. It was intended to provide information on the actual demand and trends of the public education recruitment site by checking the basic information of the sites where public education is conducted and classifying the qualification requirements. Text analysis and word network analysis were conducted on 328 out of 17,000 cases posted on public institution recruitment information sites from 2016 to 2018. As results, various public institutions such as the Health and Family Promotion Agency, local governments, and the Culture and Arts Education Promotion Agency are conducting education, operation, promotion and evaluation. The requirement rate for majors and certificates was less than 30%, exceeding the compliance with education majors, but the rate of selecting major qualifications and certificates as basic conditions for recruitment was not high. It was analyzed that lifelong education, history education, art education, community development, teacher qualifications, vocational counselors and social survey analysts formed a close network centered on lifelong educators and youth instructors. Finally, conclusions, implications and limitations of the study were discussed.

Job Price Compensable Factors and Parameters: The Framework of the Job Evaluation System

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Purpose: This paper reviews how organizations establish the remuneration system by focusing on job evaluation methods. The goal of these article reviews is to identify the internal and external compensable factors in order to create a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee and to address any inconveniences that may arise regarding wage or pay consistency and equity.&#x0D; Design/Methodology/Approach: The comprehensive review of the job evaluation methods was conducted to justify its fairness and equality in determining the “right pay for the job”, considering the job incumbents and addressing the internal and external factors. The primary instrument used to construct the pay structure is job evaluation. However, measurement inaccuracy exists in job evaluations as a result of the system's inability to correctly identify the internal and external compensating elements.&#x0D; Findings: These compensable factors are typically linked to the organization's financial capacity and pay policy, the SKAOs held by job holders, the job tasks, and environmental factors like the local economy, geographic location, rules, regulations, market pricing and more.&#x0D; Implications/Originality/Value: Compensable factors are essential for figuring out the "appropriate pay" or "right pricing" for specific jobs.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Finding Appropriate Serious Games in Vocational Education and Training: A Conceptual Approach

Stakeholders in vocational training are required to provide appropriate learning opportunities that can be used to develop the needed skills induced by technological change and thereto affected changes in the type of jobs, skill needs, activities, and other economic effects. In light of this, serious games have enormous poten­tial, as they can simulate complex real-life situations without disrupting operations, but in a playful and motivat­ing way, and with adaption to the individual needs of the users. This paper explores the question, how to find appropriate serious games matching the needs for a specific job and skill level. Within the research project “Serious Games for Vocational Education and Training” funded by the German Ministry for Science and Educa­tion, the Serious Games-Information Center (SG-IC, a classical web-based information system in form of a portal) and its under­lying Serious Games Metadata Format (SG-MDF), as semantic basis for the description and retrieval of serious games, is enhanced according to the characteristics and needs in the field of vocational education and training (VET). Educational stakeholders can use the search engine to identify personalized game-based learning oppor­tunities for their individual target groups. The identification of appropriate educational games is based on classifications of occupations, and skill levels on the learning side, and metadata information for the games on the gaming side (i.e. target user group, game genre, learning topics and additional keywords). The paper moti­vates the use of metadata and classification systems and presents the results of a literature search and overview of established classification systems of occupations, with a focus on Germany, but with correspondence to inter­national systems. Based on that analytic work, an application profile ‘vocational education and training’ as an added ‘variant’ of the SG-MDF has been elaborated and integrated within the SG-IC as search engine for educational games for vocational training. Hereto serious games are matched with a database of occupational fields as defined by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, and main activity as defined by the microcensus, the largest annual household survey of official statistics in Germany.

Comparison of physical demanding paramedic work tasks between an Australian and Canadian ambulance service

Ambulance services require candidates to pass physical employment tests (PETs) to be deemed suitable for the paramedic role. Whilst some research has been undertaken to improve to relevance of these tests, they are often arbitrary and not based on research. The first phase in developing PETs is to generate a list of job tasks. To examine the utility of universal physical tasks tests for ambulance work, we conducted a cross-sectional study, utilising the results from previous work in a Canadian ambulance service to create a physical tasks checklist. These lists were then used by paramedics working for an Australian Service to identify physical tasks in their workplace, and the results from the two services were compared. Patient transfer tasks were similar in frequency and description for both services. Stretcher handling and manoeuvring was identified by Canadian paramedics as highly strenuous, (mean rating of perceived exertion (RPE) 7/10) but were rated mean RPE <3/10 by AV paramedics.Although some tasks between these two services were similar, the ambulance services in this study differed sufficiently with regard to equipment, training and policies mean that similarly titled jobs are not comparable, cross-nationally. Service specific job task analysis is required to develop PETs that ensure employees are specifically selected to meet the requirements of that service.

Impact of Parents’ Income on Students’ Retention in Primary and Secondary Schools in Kakamega Municipality, Kenya

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of parents’ income on students’ retention in primary and secondary schools in Kakamega Municipality - Kenya. This study was justified by the fact that Kakamega Municipality’s growth has largely been based on the expansion of educational institutions of higher studies and the inception of the devolved structures in the counties. The target population for the study was 99,987. This population was comprised of municipality residents, primary school pupils, secondary school students, Education officers, principals, urban administrators, and parents from low, middle, and high residential parts of the municipality. The sample size for the study was 172 and it was calculated using the formula proposed by Fisher et al. (1998). Data collection instruments included; questionnaires, interview guides, and focus group discussions. A pilot study was carried out in three residential areas in Bungoma municipality in order to test the validity of the instruments. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and statistics package for social sciences (SPSS) version (20). The study established that poor income by parents results in low school retention as children engage in cheap labour with their parents for school fees. This is confirmed by low-class respondents, of whom the majority earn between 10,000 -30,000 (42%) and below 10,000 (26%) and as a result, there is low retention in education by their children at (6%). Child’s retention rate in school is low in the indigent social class than in other classes and this is attributed to their parent’s financial constraints and environmental factors. To address this state, the study recommends that more employment opportunities should be created for middle and majority low-income classes by reserving specific jobs in the county for these groups to enable better access to education by children from these groups.

The Application of the Depth Model of Precise Matching between People and Posts Based on Ability Perception in Human Resource Management

To revitalize talents and give full play to the maximum utility of HR (human resources), it is not enough to accumulate talents alone. HR must be effectively allocated to realize the matching of people and posts. Competency is a personal characteristic of an organization that distinguishes its performance level in a specific job and organizational environment. In order to solve the problem that job seekers’ job-seeking ability is difficult to match the job requirements, this paper combines neural network with traditional HRM (human resource management) algorithm based on ability perception and designs a depth model of accurate matching of people and posts in HR field, which can improve the quality of data training of traditional algorithm. The results show that compared with other algorithms, the F 1 value of the proposed algorithm is obviously improved, and the proposed algorithm performs best, with the F 1 value of 0.829. In this paper, the method of global network plus local network is used, which can effectively improve the hidden features of data and then improve the matching degree and recommendation accuracy of the algorithm.

Lung Cancer Risk in Relation to Jobs Held in a Nationwide Case-Control Study in Iran

Background: Globally, lung cancer is the most frequent occupational cancer, but the risk of lung cancer related to the occupations in Iran is not clear. We aimed to assess whether workers in various occupational groups would experience an increased lung cancer risk. Methods: We used the IROPICAN nationwide hospital-based case-control study including 658 incident lung cancer cases and 3477 controls. We assessed the risk of cancer in relation to ever working in major International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-68) groups and specific jobs, while controlling for individual potential confounders including cigarette smoking and opium consumption. Results: We observed elevated odds ratio (OR) for lung cancer in male construction workers (OR=1.4; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.0- 1.8), and petroleum industry workers (3.2; CI, 1.1- 9.8), and in female farmers (2.6; CI, 1.3- 5.3), and female bakers (5.5; CI, 1.0, 29.8). The positive trend has been observed for the duration of employment as a construction worker in men (p trend &amp;#x3c; 0.004), and farming in women (p trend &amp;#x3c; 0.5). Increase risk of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was associated with ever construction industry workers for males (1.9; CI, 1.2- 3.0), whilst both SCC and adenocarcinoma subtypes were associated with working as farmers for females (3.8; CI, 1.4- 9.9), even more pronounced for adenocarcinoma (4.3; CI, 1.1- 17.2). Conclusion: Although we did observe association between some occupations and lung cancer, we recommend developing an occupational exposure assessment tool specific for working conditions in Iran to allow the study of specific occupational agents. Keywords: Occupational cancer, Lung cancer, Exposure, Carcinogen, Iran