Work Participation Research Articles

Exploring the Effects of Major Depressive Disorder on Daily Occupations and the Impact of Psychotherapy: A Literature Review.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent psychological mood disorder that can disrupt one's functioning and result in decreased engagement in daily activities. Psychotherapy, in different approaches, is a common approach for individuals experiencing MDD. Nevertheless, a literaturereview of the research supporting the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions in patients with MDD-impacted areas of their daily occupations, such as back to work, cognitive deficits, and well-being, has not been conducted. A literature review was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapy on daily occupations for individuals diagnosed with MDD. Due to variations in study design and outcome measures, a best evidence synthesis was carried out instead of a meta-analysis. Forty-one identified articles were fully assessed in total. These studies were conducted in various countries so that a global approach could be considered comprehensive. The findings showed strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of psychotherapy on return-to-work interventions in improving depressive symptoms. There was limited evidence for the effectiveness of psychotherapy on lifestyle interventions in reducing anxiety and suicidal ideation, as well as limited evidence for enhancing work participation. Notably, there were no studies evaluating individualized client-centered psychotherapy interactions with occupations, revealing a research gap. Challenges such as incomplete reporting within studies and study heterogeneity prevented a meta-analysis. While the overall evidence base for the effectiveness of psychotherapy for MDD in treating functionality is limited, the findings provide strong support for the efficacy of occupational therapy return-to-work interventions. This is particularly important given the economic costs associated with mental health issues and work-related absences. Further research is required to strengthen the existing evidence base.

Changes in memory and attention during and after occupational rehabilitation: A longitudinal study.

There is need for more knowledge about the relationship between work and cognitive functioning in sick-listed individuals. This study investigated whether the degree of work participation is relevant for recovery of cognitive functioning in sick-listed individuals. 177 occupational rehabilitation participants and 70 controls participated in a non-randomised, longitudinal study. Participants completed computerised cognitive tests targeting sustained attention and working memory at start and end of rehabilitation and 3 and 12 months after rehabilitation. The change score performance in attention and memory between start and end, start and 3 months and 12 months was compared in individuals on sick leave 100-75%, 74-40% and 39-0% (three sick leave groups) of the time in the year after rehabilitation, and a control group not being on sick leave. Fixed effect analysis of covariance adjusting for education and work ability was used. The sick leave group 100-75% had significantly lower score on work ability compared to the other groups at baseline. The main findings indicated that the sick leave group 39-0% improved significantly more in sustained attention compared to the sick leave group 100-75% between start and end of rehabilitation and from start of rehabilitation to 3 and 12 months after. The degree of work participation seems relevant to recovery of the cognitive function sustained attention in sick-listed individuals. These findings encourage work rehabilitation clinicians, work consultants and employers to develop RTW plans which take into account that graded employment influence cognitive functioning.

Age Differences in Unemployment Risk and Reemployment Outcomes in Late Working Life in Sweden

ABSTRACT Participation of older workers in the labor market depends, among other things, on older workers employment chances. This study examines age differences regarding risk of unemployment and reemployment outcomes in late working life in Sweden. Using Swedish registry data, we analyzed the probability of unemployment as well as work-related activity following unemployment (wage- or self-employment; exit; downward mobility) of all people born between 1954 and 1968 (aged 49–63) and registered in Sweden between the years 2012 and 2018. Results show that although risk of unemployment does not differ significantly across age groups, younger age groups are more likely to be reemployed as wage-employed while older age groups are more likely to be reemployed as self-employed or exit working life. After an unemployment period, older employees are more likely to have a lower wage than during their previous employment or become part-time unemployed. We conclude that different age groups have unequal chances in late working life in terms of reemployment, risk of exit, and risk of downward mobility following unemployment. Policies for extending working life and promoting inequality should include measures for increasing employability of older workers such as anti-discriminatory laws and dealing with skills mismatch.

MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES AS A FACTOR OF INCREASING STUDENTS' MOTIVATION IN LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

The phenomena of globalisation and the increase in the number of communication tools have led to a significant boom in the use of multimedia resources in foreign language teaching and learning. Since success in learning a foreign language is linked to the assessment of the learning environment and since multimedia resources certainly change the learning environment, the integration of multimedia and ICT tools into teaching and learning should have an impact on motivation and, consequently, on learning success. Furthermore, in the context of pedagogical innovations, learning should be achieved by all participants in the educational relationship. In this sense, this study aims to meet the need to analyse the use of multimedia resources in the context of educational innovation through learning assessment. This paper is a field study. The mixed-methods research is based on the collection and analysis of data from various scientific sources, questionnaires of students studying English at the higher education institution of Ukraine “National University “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic” and observation of their activity and performance. The purpose of the study is to establish the connection between the use of multimedia resources and increasing students' motivation in learning foreign languages, to test the teachers' perception of the student's role in learning a foreign language in a higher education institution, as well as the learning outcomes achieved by the same subjects after the introduction of a pedagogical innovation using multimedia resources. The results show that the perception of learning, interest, and satisfaction differ depending on the gender of students. The use of multimedia materials in accordance with the teaching-learning method affects the perception of the respective roles between the teacher and the student. Changes in student roles are accompanied by changes in teacher roles. The change in the roles of students is accompanied by some resistance from some of them. The main result achieved by students is related to the development of autonomy and has little to do with learning the subject as such. The research shows that the recommended approach did not lead to a significant improvement in the quality of learning and the level of mastery of the discipline by students compared to their school achievements. However, the results clearly demonstrate the growth of motivation and development of independence among students, their active participation in group work. That is why the introduction of multimedia innovations has a really positive effect on motivation.

Working retirees in Taiwan: examining determinants of different working status after retirement

This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the work status of retirees after retirement, especially focusing on self-employment and unpaid work. Data was taken and analyzed from the “Taiwan Health and Retirement Study,” a nationally representative sample of retired personnel aged 50–74 in 2015–2016. Four types of work status were classified after retirement: Fully retired, Paid work, Self-employment, and Unpaid work. Multinomial regression analysis was used to explore the factors related to participation in paid, self-employed, and unpaid work. Results show that pre-retirement occupation was significantly associated with paid work after retirement. For example, retirees in Taiwan who were employed by private enterprises or self-employed before retirement were more likely to engage in paid work after retirement than civil servants before retirement. Two other factors, namely pre-retirement job stress and work flexibility, prolong the careers of retired workers, especially in self-employment and unpaid work after retirement. Gender also significantly affects the choice of work after retirement. These findings can be used as a reference for future policies on the aging labor force.

Location privacy protection method based on differential privacy in crowdsensing task allocation

With the widespread popularity of smart phones, watches and other devices, mobile crowdsensing (MCS) has gradually entered the public’s field of vision. However, the widespread use of MCS technology is accompanied by an increasing risk of workers’ personal privacy being violated. Typically, workers are required to submit location information in order to participate in task assignments, and the privacy of a worker’s location information is a key factor in determining worker participation. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of workers location privacy leakage in the process of task allocation, this paper proposes a location privacy protection method based on local differential privacy (VLDPP). VLDPP constructs a task map based on Voronoi diagram according to the task location, and each task location is mapped into a task area to hide the task location. A local coordinate system is constructed based on the task area, and all workers in the area have their relative location coordinates recalculated and encoded, and then the encoding is perturbed by local differential privacy, thus ensuring workers location privacy. The worker uploads the perturbed location information to the server, which determines the workers in the task by calculating the worker’s acceptance rate and completes the task allocation. In addition, this paper improves the availability of perturbed worker location information by dividing the task area at a secondary level. This paper uses the internationally recognized World Check-In Gowalla dataset for experimental evaluation, which shows that the proposed method has good performance in terms of data availability and efficiency, providing adequate privacy guarantees.

Caring for older parents in Norway – How does it affect labor market participation and absence from work?

As the population ages, younger generations will increasingly be called upon to provide informal care to their aging parents. To prepare for this development, it is essential to understand how employees combine the dual responsibilities of work and caring for aging parents. By analyzing data collected in Norway in 2022 from a nationally representative sample of 6049 respondents, aged 35 to 67, we investigated how caring for older parents affects labor market participation and work absence. We provide descriptive statistics and conduct analyses with structural equation modeling. These analyses indicated that caregiving had no substantial impact on overall participation in the workforce. However, employees did use work absences to assist their parents. We differentiate between using holidays, compensatory time, and three types of formal leave: paid, unpaid, and sick leave. More than a third of the formal leave was taken as sick leave. Women were moderately more likely to use work absence to care for their parents. We conclude that caregiving for older parents currently has little effect on work participation in Norway and attribute the favorable situation in Norway to its comprehensive public elderly care system. However, a contributing factor is Norway's generous sick leave policy. Although intended for use when employees are sick themselves, sick leave is used by employees to provide care to aging parents. Sick leave seems to act as a safety valve. To mitigate the effects of informal care on work participation, welfare states may create conditions that allow employees to combine work and informal care without resorting to unauthorized sick leave. A solution could be to extend the existing support scheme for employees with young children to those providing care for their aging parents.

Employability of US Work and Travel (WAT) participants among tourism and hospitality management graduates

Employability of US Work and Travel (WAT) participants among tourism and hospitality management graduates

Assessment of search strategies in Medline to identify studies on the impact of long COVID on workability.

Studies on the impact of long COVID on work capacity are increasing but are difficult to locate in bibliographic databases, due to the heterogeneity of the terms used to describe this new condition and its consequences. This study aims to report on the effectiveness of different search strategies to find studies on the impact of long COVID on work participation in PubMed and to create validated search strings. We searched PubMed for articles published on Long COVID and including information about work. Relevant articles were identified and their reference lists were screened. Occupational health journals were manually scanned to identify articles that could have been missed. A total of 885 articles potentially relevant were collected and 120 were finally included in a gold standard database. Recall, Precision, and Number Needed to Read (NNR) of various keywords or combinations of keywords were assessed. Overall, 123 search-words alone or in combination were tested. The highest Recalls with a single MeSH term or textword were 23 and 90%, respectively. Two different search strings were developed, one optimizing Recall while keeping Precision acceptable (Recall 98.3%, Precision 15.9%, NNR 6.3) and one optimizing Precision while keeping Recall acceptable (Recall 90.8%, Precision 26.1%, NNR 3.8). No single MeSH term allows to find all relevant studies on the impact of long COVID on work ability in PubMed. The use of various MeSH and non-MeSH terms in combination is required to recover such studies without being overwhelmed by irrelevant articles.

Information security narrative for cultural scientists, theorists and cultural workers

The purpose of the study is to determine the role, possibilities and theoretical principles of participation of cultural scientists, theorists and cultural workers in the development and implementation of measures to counter threats associated with the use of computer technologies and Internet communications. The subject of the study is the cultural narrative of scientific publications on information security in 2021–2023. The object of the study is the current risks to traditional values and identity caused by universal digital transformation and, after the start of a Special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the aggravation of international relations with technologically leading countries and global Internet services based in the United States. The relevance of the topic is determined, in particular, by the approval by the Russian Government on December 22, 2022 of the «Concept of formation and development of the culture of information security of citizens of the Russian Federation». The research methodology is characterized by the application of a cultural paradigm (an approach to the culture of information security as a dynamic system of human activity), structural, functional and evolutionary methods. Publications in the journals HAC K1, K2 and Scopus Q1, Q2 were used as materials. The novelty of the article lies in the study of the potential of the cultural narrative of information security in solving the problem of forming a general civil culture of information security, professional and mass. The research was carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the Moscow State Pedagogical University on the topic of research «Cultural identity in the modern world: analytical models, methods of construction and forms of presentation» (state registration number AAAA-A19-119072590048-4). The result of the study is a conclusion about the increasing share and importance of socio-cultural factors in information security in comparison with technical ones. Cultural theory and cultural studies are defined as specialized disciplines for improving both professional and civil information security culture. The cultural paradigm of information security includes a system of interaction between the profile specialization of professional and general civil, mass culture of information security. The effectiveness of the creation of specialized training for cultural scientists, theorists and cultural workers in the field of professional and mass information security culture is predicted and proved.

Effect of home care activities on labor participation in a developing country

This article analyzes the differences in labor participation due to home care activities in Colombia. Indirect and direct care activities can be inside or outside the market sphere. For example, a domestic service worker provides indirect and, sometimes, direct care services. A high percentage of care activities are delegated to women because these tasks are supposedly proper for their gender and are a natural part of their daily lives. To understand the disadvantaged position of women in the labor market, their participation in unpaid work must be considered. Our results show that gender stereotypes continue to overburden Colombian women in unpaid activities. Variables such as age, schooling, sex, and household headship are relevant when direct and indirect caregiving activities are included in the analysis of labor participation.

Modelling immigrants’ participation in undeclared work in Gauteng province, South Africa

Modelling immigrants’ participation in undeclared work in Gauteng province, South Africa

Mining Sector in South Africa: An Individual Perception on Open Strategy

This study aimed to investigate a positive approach to mining innovation and growth, as well as the effectiveness of open strategy as a practical solution to strategic management in South Africa. Through mixed-method research design, both qualitative and quantitative data analysis were performed using NVivo and SPSS software. The sampling frame included 20 interviews with highly knowledgeable participants and 205 online survey responses collected from participants established in medium to large size mining companies, shareholders, government /DMRE (Department of Mineral resources and Energy), MCSA (Mineral Council of South Africa), mines employees. The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive correlation between mining employee engagement and perceived advantages of open strategy (p<0.01), stakeholders' and workers' perspectives on open strategy, and how it may create transparency among them. Perceptions of open strategy have a significant association with the mining industry's ability for economic growth and job creation, as well as its relevance in ensuring organizational continuity. Many mines are ‘spreadsheet’ wealth driven. Most of which started with a plan and then been drawn into operational minutiae for the drive of self-sustaining operations-driven cash flow and losing sight of the strategic imperatives, with no or little reference to employee insights let alone anyone outside the organization. The open strategy calls on and seeks outside influence. Conclusively, this study gave relevant evidence that the mining industry should adopt an open strategy to increase worker participation, success, and economic growth while reducing false assumptions.

위험성평가의 실효성이 건설근로자의 안전행동에 미치는 영향

The Ministry of Employment and Labor, in November 2022, announced a major accident reduction roadmap, aiming to reduce the fatality and injury rate to the level of OECD advanced countries by revamping risk assessments as a key tool for accident prevention and recurrence prevention. They cited the difficulty and lack of proper implementation of risk assessments, as well as low worker participation, as major issues. This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of risk assessment influences workers' safety behavior, and contribute to the foundational data for enhancing the effectiveness of risk assessments. The study surveyed 250 workers at construction sites in Seoul, Gyeonggi to examine the relationship between the effectiveness of risk assessments and safety behavior, as well as the mediating effects of perceived risk factors. Data analysis was conducted using the statistical analysis program JAMOVI, and structural equation modeling was employed to verify the hypotheses. The results indicated that the effectiveness of risk assessments significantly influenced safety behavior (β=0.135, p=0.01), and perceived risk factors played a mediating role in the relationship between the effectiveness of risk assessments and safety behavior (β=0.269, p<.001). These findings suggest that enhancing the effectiveness of risk assessments requires providing workers with education on risk assessments and utilizing consulting services from external safety experts or safety organizations.

Pencegahan Diabetes Mellitus melalui Pemeriksaan Gula Darah Acak dan Promosi Kesehatan di Masyarakat

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus is a health problem that is increasing in prevalence throughout the world. This is of serious concern because of its far-reaching impact on public health and the health system as a whole. Objective: The purpose of this service was Increase access to public health services, especially in diabetes mellitus examination, in addition to increasing public knowledge about diabetes mellitus management. Method: Activities are carried out in several stages, namely the preparation stage includes taking care of permits, the next stage is the implementation of carrying out random blood sugar checks and health promotion. Result: It was found that respondents who carried out the examination were found to have mostly high random blood sugar values as many as 15 respondents or 62.5%. There was a significant change in knowledge from before and after health promotion Conclusion: The community has a potential risk of undetected diabetes mellitus, therefore the participation of health workers is needed to provide counseling. Through counseling delivered by health workers, the public can be given a better understanding of risk factors, symptoms, and ways to prevent diabetes mellitus

Analisis Penerapan Sistem Manajemen Keselamatan dan Kesehatan Kerja Di PT. PLN (Persero) Sektor Tambora Kabupaten Sumbawa Barat

Occupational Safety and Health Management System (SMK3) is part of a management system that includes the company's organizational structure, planning, responsibility, implementation, achievement, assessment and development of occupational safety and health policies. PLN Tambora West Sumbawa is a business unit of PT PLN (Persero) which manages the electricity system in West Nusa Tenggara Province PT PLN (PERSERO) Tambora sector. In the Tambora sector, it was found that the implementation of SMK3 is still not effective, which can cause occupational accidents and occupational diseases such as the use of coal as a flammable material, slipping, falling from a height, disturbance, electric shock, and coal ash residue (FABA) which, if inhaled continuously, will cause respiratory problems. Continuous inhalation will cause respiratory distress. Therefore, an analysis was carried out on the implementation of the occupational safety and health system (SMK3) at PT PLN (PERSERO) by using data in the form of a questionnaire related to the implementation of the company's K3 management towards ISO 45001: 2018 and processing the data using the Gap Analysis method, then providing recommendations for improvement. The results showed that the implementation of ISO 45001: 2018 amounted to 88%. There is a gap of 12% because there are 4 clauses that have not been implemented optimally, namely clause 4.2 concerning understanding the needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties, clause 5.3 concerning roles, responsibilities and organizational management, clause 5.4 concerning worker consultation and participation and clause 7.2 concerning competence, so improvements are proposed for each clause.

Climacteric status at age 46 is associated with poorer work ability, lower 2-year participation in working life, and a higher 7-year disability retirement rate: a Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study.

To study the association between an advanced climacteric status at 46 years of age and current perceived work ability, the consequent 2-year accumulation of disability and unemployment days, and the 7-year incidence of disability pensions. Study participants (n = 2,661) were recruited from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study's 46-year follow-up in 2012. The participants' perceived work ability was investigated using the Work Ability Score (0-7 = poor vs 8-10 = good), along with potential covariates. Data concerning their consequent disability days, unemployment days, and disability pensions were collected from national registers. The association between their climacteric status at age 46 years, work ability, and working life participation was assessed using regression models. The climacteric women were more often smokers and more often had a lower level of education. The odds ratio for poor perceived work ability was 1.41 (95% CI, 1.06-1.87), and the incidence rate ratios for disability and unemployment days during the 2-year follow-up were 1.09 (95% CI, 1.07-1.11) and 1.16 (95% CI, 1.14-1.18), respectively, for the climacteric women compared with the preclimacteric women in models adjusted for smoking and education. The 7-year hazard ratio for disability pensions was 1.72 (95% CI, 1.02-2.91) for the climacteric women. An earlier menopausal transition is associated with poorer perceived work ability, and it predicts lower recorded work participation and a higher disability pension rate in subsequent years.

Prevalence and associated factors of depression, anxiety and stress among clinical therapists in China in the context of early COVID-19 pandemic.

To study the socio-demographic characteristics and the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among clinical therapists in China during the early Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to identify associated factors. This cross-sectional study was part of a multicenter, nationally representative survey conducted through WeChat from January 2021 to March 2021. Data, including socio-demographics, health-related behaviors, and information on whether they participated in the frontline work of treating COVID-19, were collected anonymously. Respondents also completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21). In total, 396 clinical therapists in the selected hospitals completed the questionnaires, with a response rate of 89.0%. Respondents were predominantly female (77.3%). About 6.6% of the participants were current tobacco users, and 20.7% had participated in the frontline work of treating COVID-19. Overall, 22.0%, 17.9%, and 8.8% of participants were classified as having clinically meaningful depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively, based on DASS-21 scores. Multiple logistic regression in Model 1 and Model 2 showed that depression, anxiety, and stress were associated with regular physical activity and frequent insomnia (all, p < 0.05). In anxiety model 2, the associated factors for anxiety during the pandemic were identified as education (master's degree or more, OR=0.520; 95% CI=0.283-0.955), marital status (single, OR=2.064; 95% CI=1.022-4.168), tobacco use (OR=4.265; 95% CI=1.352-13.454), regular physical activity (OR=0.357; 95% CI=0.192-0.663), frequent insomnia (OR=6.298; 95% CI =2.522-15.729), and participation in the frontline work of treating COVID-19 (OR=3.179; 95% CI=1.697-5.954). The COVID-19 epidemic did not significantly increase the depression and stress levels among clinical therapists, but it did significantly increase anxiety levels. During the COVID-19 pandemic, depression, anxiety and stress were relatively common among clinical therapists in China. Regular physical activity and good sleep were important protective factors against emotional problems. Therefore, encouraging regular physical activity and actively addressing clinical therapists' sleep problems is beneficial to improving the ability to cope with negative emotions. The COVID-19 epidemic significantly increased anxiety, and awareness and interventions should be recommended to reduce anxiety among clinical therapists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Missing Typical Weekdays in Travel Surveys: A Pseudo-Panel Approach to Explore Weekly Travel Patterns

Travel surveys generally rely on single-day travel diaries where respondents report their travel information for a typical weekday. However, the concept of a typical weekday does not represent the current reality, as travel behavior has been largely altered in the post-pandemic period. Besides, the conclusions based on analyzing single-day travel diaries lack the ability to capture daily variations in travel behavior. In response to these concerns, this research proposed a framework to expand single-day travel diaries into longitudinal multi-day travel data using a pseudo-panel approach. Leveraging the constructed longitudinal data, the study evaluated the determinants of people’s daily participation in work–school, routine, and discretionary activities. Fixed and random effects panel data estimation models were used for this purpose. Results showed that activity participation is largely attributed to vehicle ownership, income, education, driving license, and household structure. Noticeable daily trends were observed in work–school and discretionary activities. A negative association between transit pass ownership and activity participation was noticed, suggesting social exclusion faced by transit users. In addition, teleworkers were found to be relatively more engaged in discretionary activities. Suburban residents were found to travel longer to participate in activities compared to urban dwellers. The proposed research framework can support future activity-based modeling aspects, such as activity participation, scheduling, mode choice, shared travel, and destination choice models, specifically addressing the “typical weekday” barrier.

A narrative inquiry into non-Indigenous medical educators and leaders participation in reconciliatory work.

Globally, medical schools are operationalising policies and programming to address Indigenous health inequities. Although progress has been made, challenges persist. In Canada, where this research is conducted, Indigenous representation within medical schools remains low, leaving a small number of Indigenous advocates leading unprecedented levels of equity-related work, often with insufficient resources. The change needed within medical education cannot fall solely on the shoulders of Indigenous Peoples; non-Indigenous Peoples must also be involved. This work aims to better understand the pathways of those engaged in this work, with careful consideration given to the facilitators and barriers to ongoing engagement. Data collection and analysis were informed by narrative inquiry, a methodology that relies on storytelling to uncover nuance and prompt reflection. In this paper, we focus on interview data collected from Canadian non-Indigenous medical educators and leaders (n = 10). Participants represented different career stages, (early to late career) and occupied a mix of clinical, administrative and education roles. Although each participant's entry into reconciliatory work was unique, we identified common drivers actuating their engagement. Oftentimes their participation was tied to administrative work or propelled by experiences within their roles that forced them to confront the systemic inequalities borne by Indigenous Peoples in both academic and healthcare settings. Some admitted to struggling with understanding their appropriate role in Indigenous reconciliation; their participation often proceeded without firm support. Medical schools have an obligation to ensure their faculty, including non-Indigenous Peoples, are equipped to fulfil social accountability mandates regarding Indigenous health. Our findings generate a better understanding of the tensions inherent in this equity work. We urge others to reflect on their role in Indigenous reconciliation, or else medical schools risk generating a false sense of individual and institutional progress.