Muscular-skeletal Disease Research Articles

Toddler teacher job strain, resources, and classroom quality

ABSTRACT Early care and education (ECE) settings are influential in shaping children’s early experiences. Informed by the Job Demands-Resources model, this study had two aims. First, we examined how ECE teachers’ physical (i.e. muscular skeletal strain and infectious disease experience) and psychological (i.e. depression and job dissatisfaction) job strain was associated with the quality of their interactions with children. Second, we tested whether job resources, including supervisor and co-worker support, buffered these associations. We examined survey responses from 44 toddler teachers working in centre-based classrooms with children aged 15–36 months and assessed the quality of the classroom using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System – Toddler (CLASS-T; La Paro et al. 2012. Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Manual, Toddler. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes). Results indicated that teachers experienced a range of physical and psychological job strain. Co-worker and supervisor support were not significant moderators of the ECE teachers’ job strain- classroom quality association. However, contrary to the mechanisms theorised within the Job Demands-Resources model, a main effect of co-worker and supervisor support on classroom quality, such that higher levels of perceived social support was related to higher classroom quality. Due to the significance of classroom quality for young children, understanding ways to create a work environment of rich social support stands to benefit teachers and the toddlers in their care.

Moderated Mediation Effect of Mindfulness on the Relationship Between Muscular Skeletal Disease, Job Stress, and Turnover Among Korean Firefighters.

BackgroundThis study investigated the effect of increased job stress, caused by musculoskeletal disease (MSD) among firefighters, on a firefighter's intention to leave the profession, henceforth referred to as “turnover intention,” and verified the moderating effect of mindfulness on such a relationship.MethodsA survey involving a total of 549 Korean male firefighters as participants was conducted herein, and the following results were obtained: the mediation effect of the MSD to turnover intention through job stress was confirmed, and the indirect effect of job stress was verified.ResultsWe verified the moderated mediation effect of mindfulness on the relation:MSD, job stress, and turnover intention. The conditional indirect effect for middle and high levels of mindfulness is significant.ConclusionThe result of this study is supported by proofs of the relationship between a firefighter's MSD, job stress, and turnover intention, and these case studies reveal the moderated mediation effect of dispositional mindfulness.

Effects of SHINBARO2 on Rat Models of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis.

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a major cause of chronic low back pain; however, only a few therapies which have been used in clinics still have limited effects on functional recovery. SHINBARO2 is a refined traditional formulation for inflamed lesions and relieve pain of muscular skeletal disease. This study aimed at investigating the effects of SHINBARO2 on LSS and at determining its underlying molecular mechanism in rat models. The LSS rat models were set up by surgical operations in 6-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats. SHINBARO2 was orally or intraperitoneally administered for 14 days. The motor and sensory ability of rats were evaluated using the activity cage and hot plate method. On the termination day, total vertebrae including the disc and spinal cord were excised for ex vivo study. SHINBARO2 improved locomotor functions and pain sensitivity in LSS rat models. Mechanism study suggested that SHINBARO2 inhibited the production of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2 in tissues from LSS-induced rats. SHINBARO2 also suppressed the expression of proinflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β. The activation of NF-κB by LSS surgery was effectively reduced by SHINBARO2, which coincided with the inhibition of IκB degradation. In addition, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a potent promoter of neurite growth, and its downstream ERK signaling were also regulated by SHINBARO2. These findings suggest that the effect of SHINBARO2 might be associated in part with the anti-inflammation and pain control in LSS rat models.

The effects of isokinetic exercise with acute blood flow restriction on isometric quadriceps strength, muscle fatigue, and muscle contraction displacement

Purpose The purpose of this manuscript was to investigate the effect of high and low speed blood flow restriction versus non-blood flow restriction isokinetic exercise on isometric muscle strength, muscle fatigue, and muscle contraction displacement. Methods The subjects were consisted of ten males without non-specific muscular skeletal disease. They were classified into four training groups: ① high speed(300°/s) without blood flow restriction, ② high speed(300°/s) under blood flow restriction, ③ low speed(90°/s) without blood flow restriction, ④ low speed(90°/s) under blood flow restriction. Before and after the intervention, all of the subjects underwent measurements of isometric quadriceps strength, muscle fatigue, and muscle contraction displacement. Results In regard to isometric quadriceps strength before & after intervention, there was no significant difference between groups. For the lactic acid measurement before & after intervention, there was a signigicant difference between groups(p<.05). Also, there was a significant difference between groups(p<.05) in muscle contraction displacement in terms of Dm but there was no significant difference between groups in terms of Tc Conclusions Isokinetic exercise with blood flow restriction had effects on lactic acid and muscle contraction displacement.

Association between gait and cognition in an elderly population based sample

BackgroundGait is thought to have a cognitive component, but the current evidence in healthy elderly is mixed. We studied the association between multiple gait and cognitive measures in a cohort of older people. MethodsOne hundred and seventy-eight cognitively healthy participants from the Whitehall II Imaging Sub-study had a detailed clinical and neuropsychological assessment, as well as an MRI scan. Spatiotemporal and variability gait measures were derived from two 10 m walks at self-selected speed. We did a linear regression analysis, entering potential confounders with backwards elimination of variables with p ≥ 0.1. The remaining variables were then entered into a second regression before doing a stepwise analysis of cognitive measures, entering variables with p < 0.05 and removing those with p ≥ 0.1. ResultsAmongst absolute gait measures, only greater stride length was associated with better performance on the Trail Making Test A (p = 0.023) and the Boston Naming Test (p = 0.042). The stride time variability was associated with performance on the Trail Making Test A (p = 0.031). Age was associated with poorer walking speed (p = 0.014) and stride time (p = 0.011), female sex with shorter stride time (p = 0.000) and shorter double stance (p = 0.005). Length of full-time education was associated with faster walking speed (p = 0.012) and shorter stride time (p = 0.045), and a history of muscular-skeletal disease with slower walking speed (p = 0.01) and shorter stride length (p = 0.015). Interestingly, volume of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on FLAIR MRI images did not contribute independently to any of the gait measures (p > 0.05). ConclusionsNo strong relationship between gait and non-motor cognition was observed in a cognitively healthy, high functioning sample of elderly. Nevertheless, we found some relationships with spatial, but not temporal gait which warrant further investigation. WMH made no independent contributionto gait.

Living Environment, Musculoskeletal Disorder and the Decrease of Work Efficiency &amp; Quality of Life

Purpose - Due to the lack of physical activities and the increase of sedentary behaviors such as screen time, the health condition for contemporaries has been deteriorating. This study is designed to investigate how the use of worktable or tools unfit for body and sedentary behaviors can exercise influence on muscular skeletal disease and how it has an impact on lowering work efficiency and the quality of life with the medium of the muscular skeletal disease. Research design, data, and methodology - The research has developed a questionnaire with 5 hypothesis. The questionnaires were also made by interview and E-mail. 350 copies of questionnaires were distributed and 315 questionnaire were used for the analysis as valid data responses. SPSS ver.22.0 were used and made Cronbach's and reliability test, correlation, Baron & α Kenny 3 step mediated regression analysis. Results - The research has found that living environment factors have positive effect on the occurrence of musculosketal disease. Particularly, repeated use of unfit worktable or tools has a positive effect on the muscular skeletal disorder. And sedentary lifestyle also has a positive effect on the disease. The musculoskeletal disease caused by living environment has a positive impact on lowering the work efficiency. This study has also showed that the muscular skeletal disease has mediated the relationship between the living environment factors and the decrease of work efficiency due to musculoskeletal disease. The musculoskeletal disorders can effect the decrease of the quality of life as well, for the decrease of work efficiency has a positive effect on lowering the quality of life. Conclusions - Sedentary lifestyles, the use of worktable unfit for body, and the repeated use of a tool have caused the increase of muscular-skeletal diseases, and reduction of productivity as well as the hight cost of medical treatment for our contemporaries. Understanding the cause of disease morbidity, finding ways to prevent the disease, and educating people about them would contribute not only to improvement of individual health but also to the advancement of welfare for all.

Effects of 12 Weeks Combined Exercise on Physical Fitness, Irisin and BNDF in White-Collar Woman Workers

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to examine on the effects of 12 weeks combined exercised on physical fitness, Irisin and BNDF in white-collar women workers who are sedentary lifestyles. METHODS In this study, there were controlled groups and exercise group: one was composed of women who had no regular exercise program and sedentary lifestyle (n=20), the other was made of white-collar women who had combined exercise, no muscular skeletal disease, same lifestyle (n=19), totally 39 women were participated in this study. Combined exercises were composed of aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, flexibility, and balance exercise: Conducting mid-level exercise with 65% VO2max consumption, 3 times a week, and 80 minutes for 12 weeks. For certifying the purpose of this study, calculate the average and standard deviation of every variant using descriptive statistics and apply analysis of covariance measures ANCOVA for interaction between groups. RESULTS In LBM and Body fat percentage, there was no significant difference after exercise. In other words, there was significant difference in body fat (p<.001). Physical fitness has some significant difference in muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, balance and flexibility (p<.001; p<.001; p<.05; p<.05; p<.001). But there was no significant difference in VO2max. There was no significant difference in BDNF and Irisin for groups after exercise. CONCLUSIONS Consequently, it shows that 12 weeks combined exercise made a positive effect on body composition, physical fitness in white-collar woman workers. 색인어: 사무직 여성, 복합운동, ì²´ë ¥, Irisin, BDNF Keywords: White-collar woman workers, Combined exercise, Physical fitness, Irisin, BDNF

Proposal of a new quantitative method for postural comfort evaluation

In Human–Machine Interface (HMI) design, several parameters have to be correctly evaluated in order to guarantee a good level of safety and well-being of users (humans) and to avoid health problems like muscular-skeletal disease. ISO Standards give us a good reference on Ergonomics and Comfort: ISO 11228 regulation; it deals with qualitative/quantitative parameters for evaluating Postural Ergonomics, using a “Postural Load Index”, in push/pull, in manual loads' lifting and carrying and in repetitive actions; those parameters can represent the Ergonomics level of examined posture. While bibliographic references suggest different methods to make ergonomic evaluation like RULA, LUBA and REBA, the state of the art about comfort/discomfort evaluation shows the need of an objective method to evaluate “effect in the internal body” and “perceived effects” in several schemes of comfort perception like Moes', Vink & Hallback's and Naddeo & Cappetti's ones; postural comfort is one of the aspect of comfort/discomfort perception and this paper proposes a new quantitative method for evaluating this aspect of comfort, based on anthropometric parameters and upper limbs posture. The target of this paper is to present and test a “general purpose” method of comfort-measurement that can be applied to different industrial cases: in workspace environments, in automotive passenger compartments, in aeronautic cockpit or in industrial assembly lines. Relevance to industryThe method presented in this paper may allow industrial designers to provide an assessment of products' perceived comfort in the early stage of the product development process by making a posture-based quantitative evaluation; it also allows designers to make a comfort driven redesign of existing products' configuration for improving and innovating them.

남성 택시 운전원의 근골격계 자각증상에 영향을 미치는 요인

Purpose: This study was conducted to understand the subjective symptom rate of musculoskeletal disease of male taxi drivers and comprehend general features, health behavior features, and factors related to the subjective symptoms of musculoskeletal system depending on the level of job stress. Methods: The participants were 206 male taxi drivers from 4 transportation companies in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. The investigation was conducted from July 20th 2012 to August 20th 2012 through a self-administered questionnaire survey. Results: The participants who exercised less than three times per week complained about the subjective symptoms of the musculoskeletal system (p=.016) 13.770 times as more as than those of the participants who exercised more than three times per week the participants who had a higher level of job stress complained about the subjective symptoms of the muscular skeletal (p=.011) 1.051times as more as than those who had a relatively lower level of job stress. Conclusion: This study recommends that it is necessary to provide exercise programs and arrange various plans reducing job stress to prevent muscular skeletal disease and minimize the disease susceptibility of taxi drivers.

Development of Fruit Harvest Basket and Assessment of its Effectiveness

Objective: The purpose of this study is to develop products that prevent muscular skeletal disease of farm workers, which would bring improvement for an efficient harvesting work.<BR><BR> Background: A pretest for product development and a survey research was carried out to inspect the problems of current harvesting work procedure. The product was developed and assessed based on ideas to supplement and improve these weak points.<BR><BR> Method: A total of twenty men were recruited to evaluate the effects of harvest baskets on the upper-limb muscle activity, working hours. For the usability evaluation, electromyogram and working hours of previous working method (disuse of harvest basket, one-hand carriage of the basket) and new working method with the usage of newly-developed harvest basket was examined. The whole anterior deltoid, biceps brachii and erector spinae on both sides, which make a total of six muscle parts, were used for this experiment. The results were analyzed using ANOVA with muscle activity (%MVC) of each three forms of work and required work time from SPSS 18.0.<BR><BR> Results: According to the test result, all muscles did not demonstrate any statistically significant difference, with an exception of the backbone erector (right). The muscle activity of backbone erector (right) in the work method that uses the harvest basket developed in this study was detected to be approximately 23% less than that of the previous working method. Moreover, compared to the previous working method, the required work time decreased to a statistically significant degree.<BR><BR> Conclusion: As such, the decrease in the amount of waist muscle usage at harvesting work would enable the prevention of muscular skeletal disease and stabilization of lumbar spine.<BR><BR> Application: Which in turn would increase the effectiveness and reduce personnel expense (labor costs) while enhancing productivity with a decreased working hours.

Annulus fibrosus tissue engineering using lamellar silk scaffolds

Degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD) represents a significant muscular skeletal disease. Recently, scaffolds composed of synthetic, natural and hybrid biomaterials have been investigated as options to restore the IVD; however, they lack the hallmark lamellar morphological features of annulus fibrosus (AF) tissue. The goal of regenerating the disc is to achieve anatomical morphology as well as restoration of mechanical and biological function. In this study, two types of scaffold morphology formed from silk fibroin were investigated towards the goal of AF tissue restoration. The first design mimics the lamellar features of the IVD that are associated with the AF region. The second is a porous spongy scaffold that serves as a control. Toroidal scaffolds were formed from the lamellar and porous silk material systems to generate structures with an outer diameter of 8 mm, inner diameter of 3.5 mm and a height of 3 mm. The inter-lamellar spacing in the lamellar scaffold was 150-250 µm and the average pore sizes in the porous scaffolds were 100-250 µm. The scaffolds were seeded with porcine AF cells and, after growth over defined time frames in vitro, histology, biochemical assays, mechanical testing and gene expression indicated that the lamellar scaffold generated results that were more favourable in terms of ECM expression and tissue function than the porous scaffold for AF tissue. Further, the seeded porcine AF cells supported the native shape of AF tissue in the lamellar silk scaffolds. The lamellar silk scaffolds were effective in the formation of AF-like tissue in vitro.

Frequency and determinants of potential drug‐drug interactions in an elderly population receiving regular home visits by GPs ‐ results of the home medication review in the AGnES‐studies

There is limited knowledge about prevalence and determinants of potential drug-drug-interactions (pDDI) in the ambulatory health care setting. In this manuscript we analysed the prevalence and determinants of pDDI in the AGnES home visit population (GP-supporting, community-based, e-health-assisted, systemic intervention). 779 Home-dwelling patients received an IT-supported home medication review (HMR). The interaction monographs of the ABDA-database were used to identify pDDI. A binary multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyse determinants for occurrence of moderate and serious pDDI, respectively. Patients (mean age f: 79.8 yrs; m: 76.2 yrs) took a mean number of 6.8 active substances (SD = 3.3) regularly. 626 patients (80.4%) with an HMR had at least one pDDI (mean = 4.8; SD = 4.4). In 454 patients (58.3%) we found at least one pDDI with moderate or serious relevance (mean = 2.9; SD = 2.8). The most frequent moderate pDDI was the combination of potassium excretion diuretics (e.g. hydrochlorothiazide) with anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. ibuprofen; n = 258 patients). Adjusted for age and gender, multiple binary logistic regression showed significant results for the number of taken active substances (continuous variable; OR = 1.48; 95%-CI 1.382-1.585), metabolic diseases (OR = 1.52; 95%-CI 1.039-2.223), a diagnose of a muscular-skeletal disease (OR = 1.741; 95%-CI 1.204-2.517), infectious disease (OR = 0.127; 95%-CI 0.021-0.783), and gastro-intestinal disease (OR = 0.538; 95%-CI 0.322-0.899). Using a comprehensive, computer-assisted HMR in an ambulatory care setting we have identified a high proportion of pDDI of moderate or serious clinical relevance. These pDDI require an intervention from intensified monitoring to a change in medication. Further investigations should focus on clinical outcome of pDDI.

Employee participation in achieving industrial safety and health - Vision 2020

Mr. Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nation said “all too often lives are shattered unnecessarily of poor working conditions and inadequate safety systems. Let me encourage everyone to join the ILO in promoting safety and health at work. It is not only sound economic policy; it is basic human right”. Safety and health is not just for specialists and professionals. It should become the concern of all people at workplaces. We have to collectively develop the conscience of the common people. In short, the worker should return home in the same condition as s/he came to work. This shall be our vision now as well as in 2020. More than 100 years ago it was said “we have nothing to lose but our chains.” Now the chains are, of course, not in the hands but in brains. Let us break these chains and guarantee a safe and healthy life to the working masses as well as their bosses. In the name of facing global competition, cost cutting, quicker output, better profits etc. no one is permitted either by law or by ethic to cause any hazard in the work place and surroundings - biological hazard or muscular skeletal disease etc. Our future vision is certainly an inclusive one. Employee participation is naturally inevitable in this process.

Strength and Conditioning for Persons With Muscular Dystrophy

summary Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a muscular-skeletal disease that may severally limit a person's functional capabilities. The use of conditioning exercise in persons with MD may delay the loss of muscle function. In particular, resistance training could have extremely favorable advantages for individuals with MD.

The Wish Kite

The author's eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, already suffering from a debilitating genetic muscular-skeletal disease (Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva or FOP) is diagnosed with a noncancerous brain tumor (Craniopharyngioma). She is taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where a neurosurgeon who specializes in treating craniopharyngiomas works, and next door to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where leading research into FOP is conducted. Treatment protocols for the tumor are discussed, but the final decision to do surgery is made, indirectly, by Sarah herself, when she sings her school's theme song, “Accentuate the Positive,” in the doctor's office.