Total Working Days Research Articles

Differences in Time to Return to Work Between Patients Undergoing Staged Versus Simultaneous Bilateral Total Hip Arthroplasty

Patients who undergo total hip arthroplasty (THA) oftentimes have severe osteoarthritis (OA) in both hips and may consider staged or simultaneous bilateral THA (bTHA). The goal of this study was to compare the total workdays missed following staged and simultaneous bTHA performed via either postero-lateral or direct anterior approach. Patients who were (1) employed, (2) underwent a staged (within 12 months) or simultaneous bTHA at our institution between February 1, 2016 and December 31, 2021, (3) completed a return to work questionnaire, and (4) had the same surgical approach for both THAs were included. The primary outcome of interest was the total days of work missed. We identified 78 employed patients who had undergone staged bTHA (62 postero-lateral approach [PA], 16 direct anterior approach [DAA]) and 76 patients (44 PA, 32 DAA) who underwent simultaneous bTHA, and had completed the return to work questionnaire. Simultaneous bTHA patients missed an average of 25.6 days of work (standard deviation [SD]: 14.3 days) compared to staged bTHA patients, who missed an average of 36.9 days of work (SD: 23.4) when combining days missed from both operations (P < 0.001). In multivariate mixed regression analysis adjusted for sex, age, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status, type of work, and surgical approach, the staged bTHA group missed a mean of 8.2 more days of work (SD: 3.3) compared to the simultaneous bTHA group (95% confidence interval: 1.8-14.7, P = 0.013). Employed patients who underwent simultaneous bTHA missed an average of 8.2 fewer days of work compared to those who were treated with staged bTHA. These findings may help surgeons counsel their employed patients who have bilateral hip OA and are considering surgical treatment.

Diabetes Mellitus and its Association with Work Patterns and Characteristics: A Narrative Review.

Diabetes mellitus is a leading cause of disability with adverse effects on the quality of life. It also affects occupational health by impacting several work-related parameters. This review discusses the relationship between diabetes and absenteeism, presenteeism, work impairment and unemployment. The association between work and diabetic complications such as neuropathic pain, diabetic foot, psychological issues and hypoglycemia due to treatment is also examined. Evidence points to a relationship between diabetes and absenteeism, reduced work productivity, and, thus, overall work impairment. A stronger negative impact on work performance is mediated by painful diabetic neuropathy and diabetic foot. In addition, psychological distress has been positively correlated with total workdays lost and frequency of absence. Depression in the diabetic population has also been linked with increased absenteeism, presenteeism, and work disability. Moreover, hypoglycaemia induced by antidiabetic medication may affect work attendance and performance. Finally, diabetes has been associated with inequality in the work environment, lower job satisfaction and higher unemployment rates, mainly because of its complications.

T4 Integration of PT/OT in Burn Wound Care Increases Therapist Productivity

Abstract Introduction Inpatient physical (PT) and occupational (OT) burn therapists must balance complex patient factors such as daily wound care when attempting skilled therapy sessions, while also attaining specific productivity standards. These factors often lead to inefficient work flow and loss of productivity. The purpose of this study was to assess the productivity and feasibility of therapist integration into daily burn wound care. Methods A quality improvement project was initiated by the burn therapy team at our ABA verified burn center. One full time equivalent (FTE) PT or OT was assigned to the burn wound care team five days a week, involving 6 therapists (3 PTs and 3 OTs). General duties included wound assessment, functional wound dressings, and skilled therapeutic interventions. The primary outcome measure was individual therapist productivity tracked 3 months pre and 3 months post project implementation. Productivity was calculated by taking total billable patient time divided by total workday time, with a goal of 50% productivity. Billed time units were also compared to goal units. The results were analyzed using a paired t-test to measure significance and averaged. The secondary outcome measure was program feasibility, assessed by a qualitative questionnaire taken by burn staff pre and post. Results Overall therapist productivity increased, 49% pre implementation vs 54% post (p=0.0041). The difference of billed vs goal units increased, 5 pre vs 15.9 post (p= 0.00142). Proportion of therapists meeting target productivity increased, 57.1% pre vs 90.5% post (p=0.0052). Prior to program implementation, survey results found that 77% of burn staff (n=23 respondents) were favorable of project implementation, whereas 23% were either hesitant or indifferent. After 3 months post implementation, 95% of burn staff were favorable of therapist participation, 95% indicated ease of staffing burden, and 100% reported improved multidisciplinary communication. Furthermore, 100% of burn staff felt that the unit’s workflow had improved. Conclusions Full time therapy participation in wound care increases therapist productivity and increases the likelihood of meeting target productivity in the future. The majority of burn staff actively supported this pilot program and felt that it eased staffing demands, improved unit workflow, and improved multidisciplinary communication. Future efforts should focus on measuring specific patient outcomes and cost as a result of therapist participation in daily wound care practice. Applicability of Research to Practice All burn units should consider implementing a skilled burn therapist in wound care practice.

Analisis Waste Dengan Pendekatan Lean Construction Pada Proyek Pembangunan Jembatan Sungai Manggar Balikpapan

According to Abduh (2007) Indonesian construction industry still has inefficiency in its implementation, which is because there is still a lot of waste on the execution. Efforts to prevent or reduce waste on the project will increase the contractor's profits and minimize the negative effect to environment (Julisa et al., 2019). One method that can be used is lean construction. lean construction has the main objective of continuously increasing production efficiency and eliminating all waste. In this study, a waste analysis using a lean construction approach was carried out which had the most influence on the Manggar River Bridge project. This study uses descriptive analysis of percentages with the aim of describing the condition of the phenomena of the variables and indicators being analyzed. After doing the analysis, it was obtained Waste Lean Construction The most influential on the Manggar River Bridge Project is Waiting with work activities stopped due to bad weather (Waiting) with an impact on this project 131 hours of work or 13.1 working days or the equivalent of 1.79% of the total working days cannot be done due to bad weather.

Global food price surge, in-kind transfers and household welfare: Evidence from India

This paper studies the impact of high global rice and wheat prices on household welfare in India. I use the 2007–08 surge in global food prices and household share of area under rice and wheat at the baseline to show that rice and wheat cultivating households gain from high prices. These welfare gains mainly accrue to net producers. I observe that net producer households were able to maintain their per capita spending and consumption of rice and wheat by decreasing consumption of market purchased rice and wheat and increasing consumption of government-subsidized rice and wheat. Net consumers, on the other hand, experienced a decline in the total per capita consumption of rice and wheat even though they substituted their market purchases with homegrown produce and subsidized grains. The role of in-kind food transfers in insulating households from high prices was evident for both net producers and consumers. The combined effect of substitution within food staples from different sources was that both net consumer and producer households could maintain their total calorie intakes and resist an increase in the total food expenditure. Finally, I find evidence that high rice and wheat prices induced working-age adult males in net producer households to increase total workdays and workdays on their own farm.

Developing, validating and implementing performance metrics to evaluate the health and safety performance of sustainable building projects

Objectives. This research aims to develop, validate and implement health and safety performance metrics to evaluate the health and safety performance of sustainable building projects throughout their design and construction in Manitoba. Methods. Thirty-four metrics were developed following a detailed literature review and validated by expert judgement based on analytic soundness, practicality and predictability. Only 25 metrics satisfied these criteria, of which five were implemented via data collected on seven sustainable buildings and seven non-sustainable buildings. Results. The results showed that sustainable building projects had 12.7% higher recordable injuries rates than non-sustainable projects, although the difference was statistically insignificant. Findings from this research showed that for sustainable and non-sustainable building, PM 19 ‘The percentage of workers with unsafe behaviour based on conducted safety observations’ had a statistically significant and strong negative correlation with PM 8 ‘The percentage of workers who attended safety meetings’ and with PM 21 ‘The percentage of the total workdays in which safety meetings were held’. Conclusion. The findings of this research can be used by general contractors and safety practitioners looking to enact evidence-based guidance to manage safety proactively on site and improve health and safety performance of their sustainable building projects.

SARS-CoV-2 pandemic among Mexico´s private sector workforce: using short-term disability claims to analyze impact and response

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected workforces around the world, on both the individual and business levels. This impact has not yet been described adequately. AIM: To analyze the impact of COVID-19 among workers and businesses using short term disability claims (STDC). METHODS: Our analysis is derived from the national data base STDC submitted to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (the largest health care and benefits provider) by private-sector workers and eligible government-owned companies. We analyzed absenteeism trends evaluated through respiratory diseases-STDC (RD-STDC) among the different occupational sectors for 19,112,620 workers registered up to December 31, 2020. RESULTS:A total of 1,543,600 workers claimed at least one RD-STDC. Up to year week 53, 1.7 million RD-STDC were reported, with an estimated cumulative incidence of 8.0%. The mean age of workers was 35.2 years (Interquartile Range [IQR] = 26- 43 years); 53.4% were male. The average duration of the STD granted was 10.1 days [IQR= 3 - 14 days]. Higher RD-STD-attack rates were observed in Trade (9.9%) and Manufacturing (9.8%). Health care-related subsectors had RD-STDC attack rates of 15.1% for private health care workers. During 2020, 16.9 million total workdays were lost. Real symptomatic COVID-19 attack rates could be 3 or 4 times higher. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings point to the necessity of establishing an integrated surveillance system in which STDC can help geo-localize chains of contagion that would otherwise proliferate undetected. Information provided by this system will complement surveillance systems for monitoring epidemics and informing decision-making of by health authorities. KEYWORDS: Short term disability claims, COVID-19, occupational, Mexico

An Optimization Model of Nurse Scheduling Using Goal Programming Method: A Case Study

Nurse scheduling problem involves assigning of each individual nurse in the hospital so that a series of tasks can be completed. To increase patient satisfaction, skilled and disciplined nurses are needed. In the field of health care, nurse scheduling is a challenging activity because of the different levels of nurses needed on different shifts and days. However, it often happens where a number of nurses assigned do not meet the specific needs of nurses so that the performance of nurses at each shift is not optimal. In this paper, an optimization model is proposed using goal programming method to determine the optimal schedule using Lingo 11.0 software. The model is implemented in the Yustisia Room, a special room for treating covid-19 inpatients in Universitas Sebelas Maret Hospital. The results of the optimization showed that all conditions that need to be achieved in scheduling which previously unfulfilled in manual schedule, such as the minimum requirement number of senior nurses and male nurses in each shift can be fulfilled. For additional target, which is total working days, the proposed model can produce a better schedule for regular nurses and better assignment patterns for all nurses, where all regular nurses have the same total number of working days, which is 17 working days.

Working 9 to 5? Measuring Hyperlocal Worker Productivity with Public WiFi Network Data

The accurate estimation of workday length is essential to estimate total labor supply, and has a significant bearing on the assessment of labor productivity and worker well-being. Using probe request data from a 53 access-point, publicly-accessible Wi-Fi network in the Lower Manhattan district of New York City, we develop a method to measure localized worker activity patterns. Our Wi-Fi network data consist of over 10,000,000 probe requests per day, accounting for approximately 9.5 million unique devices over the study period from April 2017 to September 2017. We describe worker activity at various spatial and temporal aggregations in order to define baseline workday patterns and compute the workday length. We find a substantial population with characteristic workday lengths (e.g. 9am-5pm) during the workdays, as well as diurnal activity patterns that are consistent with expected worker behavior. These temporal patterns provide sufficient evidence to reinforce our assumptions about the ability to identify worker populations from Wi-Fi data. Finally, we compute the workday length for each identified worker and aggregate these workday lengths to estimate collective workday patterns to understand the uniformity of worker behavior. We find workday lengths of 7 hours and 40 minutes on average, which shorten substantially on Fridays and days surrounding holidays. We also find considerable seasonal variation in total workday hours supplied in our study area. This dynamic pattern of hours-worked suggests that our methodology is able to accurately assess workday lengths at high spatial resolution and temporal frequency. The ability to quantify hyperlocal worker activity patterns has a broad range of applications, including estimates of localized economic output and changes in labor supply.

Association of the Work Schedules of Hospitalists With Patient Outcomes of Hospitalization

The working schedules of hospitalists vary widely. Discontinuous schedules, such as 24 hours on and 48 hours off, result in several hospitalists providing care during a patient's hospital stay. Poor continuity of care during hospitalization may be associated with poor patient outcomes. To determine whether admitted patients receiving care from hospitalists with more discontinuous schedules experience worse outcomes. This retrospective cohort study used conditional models to assess Medicare claims data for 114 777 medical admissions of patients with a 3-day to 6-day length of stay from January 1, 2014, through November 30, 2016, who received all general medical care from hospitalists in 229 hospitals in Texas. Data were analyzed from November 2018 to June 2019. For each admission, the weighted mean of schedule continuity for the treating hospitalists, assessed as the percentage of all their working days in that year that were part of a block of 7 or more consecutive working days, was calculated. The primary outcome was patient mortality in the 30 days after discharge. Secondary outcomes were readmission rates and Medicare costs in the 30 days after discharge, and discharge destination. Of the 114 777 patient admissions, the mean (SD) age was 79.9 (8.3) years, and 70 047 (61.0%) were women. For admissions in the lowest quartile for continuity of hospitalist schedules, the hospitalists providing care worked 0% to 30% of their total working days as part of a block of 7 or more consecutive days vs 67% to 100% for hospitalists providing care for patients in the highest quartile for continuity. Patient characteristics were not associated with the continuity of working schedules for the hospitalist(s) providing care. In conditional logistic regression models, admitted patients cared for by hospitalists in the highest quartile of schedule continuity (vs the lowest quartile) had lower 30-day mortality after discharge (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.95), lower readmission rates (aOR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.90-0.99), higher rates of discharge to the home (aOR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.03-1.13), and lower 30-day postdischarge costs (-$223; 95% CI, -$441 to -$7). The results were similar across a range of different methods for defining continuity of hospitalist schedules and selecting the cohort. Hospitalist schedules vary widely. Admitted patients receiving care from hospitalists with schedules that promote inpatient continuity of care may experience better outcomes of hospitalization.

Potential Work Time Lost Due to Sickness Absence and Presence Among Japanese Workers.

The current study aimed to quantify the overall sickness absence and sickness presence in five Japanese companies. Two indicators were calculated: worktime lost rates and average working days lost per employee per annum. In total, 1.1% of working days per annum were lost due to sick leave. The average number of annual sick-leave days per employee was 2.58. Sickness presence accounted for a total worktime loss of 6.55% and an average of 15.36 work days lost per employee per annum. Overall, employees lost 7.65% of their total working days, or an average of 17.92 days were lost per employee per annum, due to sickness leave and sickness presence combined. Sickness-absence rate among Japanese workers is quite lower than other countries; however, sickness presence is more critical than absenteeism, which is in line with other countries.

Continuity of Physicians' Dedication to Inpatient Hospice and Palliative Care: A 14-year Nationwide Survey in Taiwan.

Background: The work continuity of physicians in hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) has a great impact on the quality of care and practice experiences. However, nationwide studies providing a general overview of the work continuity of HPM physicians are scarce. Methods: Data relating to inpatient HPM care provided from July 2000 to December 2013 were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Specifically, the numbers of hospitals, patients, patient hospitalization days, and physicians involving HPM in each year were calculated. The years of HPM work experience and total HPM workdays of each physician were also computed. Results: Of the 40,965,153 inpatient records during the study, 121,258 (0.3%) records were related to inpatient HPM care, with 60 participating hospitals and 604 attending physicians. The annual number of HPM physicians increased with time from 77 in 2000 to 217 in 2013. The largest percentage (38.4%) of physicians practiced HPM for only one year, while only 23 (3.8%) physicians practiced HPM in each year without interruption. Of the 217 HPM physicians in 2013, 45 (20.7%) were newcomers, 78 (36.0%) had 1–4 years of prior HPM work experience, 54 (24.9%) had 5–9 years, and 40 (18.4%) had at least 10 years. Conclusions: Among HPM physicians in Taiwan, only a small percentage exhibited long-term dedication to the field, whereas most HPM physicians had short practice periods. More strategies are needed to improve work continuity among HPM physicians.

Design of Restobarge Garbage and Sanitary Systems

Barge business recently has diminished due to fall of coal industry which mostly delivered by barge. One of the solution is by convert a barge into a floating restaurant. The location of Restobarge selected in Gili Trawangan, Lombok because the average height of the waves in the area is just 0.9 meters and the depth of the sea is 6 meters, making it fit for the location of Restobarge. The statistic said that Lombok especially in Gili Trawangan is one of the most popular place to visit in Indonesia. Barge that used in converting is Barge SM 28 built by PT. Samudra Marine Indonesia. The purpose of this thesis is to design and calculate the Sanitary and Sewage system, design of Garbage Management, and calculate Material Requirement Planning of those systems. Therefore, it could giving the figure of how much it will the cost to the investor. From the data, sanitary system used Medium Galvanized Steel Pipe O 1.5 inch as intake pipe from land and suction pipe to hydrophore. From hydrophore to main object used Rucika VP/AW 1.5 inch. The system used Taiko TMC-32-0.75 centrifugal pump as pump to connect with Hydrophore Pressure Tank model Taiko UH-2.0 -1R. In sewage system, suction pipe system used Rucika PVC VP/AW 3 inch as main pipe, so do with discharge pipe. The sewage pump used model Iron Pump Q 4/300. In Garbage Management, the system use a room that connected to the small boat by a Rucika PVC pipe 12 inch. The Barge don’t have a sewage treatment plant because the location of the Restobarge is 55 meters from land which more economical by used small boat to discharge into land. Total cost of material which spend to build RestoBarge is IDR 78.544.500, cost of drawing is IDR 7.000.000, cost of worker is IDR 27.000.000 with total 9 labor and total workday is 23 days. Total Cost needed to build all systems is IDR 115.244.500 with cost of contingencies is 1%, IDR 1.152.000.

Seasonal influenza vaccination and absenteeism in health-care workers in two subsequent influenza seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18) in an Italian pediatric hospital

ABSTRACTBackground: Seasonal influenza in Health-Care Workers (HCWs) is a topic of growing interest in public health for its organizational implications. The study aims at measuring absenteeism due to influenza in HCWs of an Italian pediatric hospital.Research design and methods: A retrospective observational study on absenteeism for influenza and influenza-like illness was carried out on all hospital HCWs. Sickness absences up to 5 days and vaccination status of HCWs were recorded during the last two years (2016/2017, 2017/2018). Average sickness absenteeism rate in vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs and total working days lost were estimated. Daily mean cost for HCW was calculated in order to define the non-vaccination costs.Results: In this study, the authors analyzed the overlapping between the trend of weekly sickness absenteeism and the morbidity rate associated with influenza epidemics in adults living in the Lazio region, Italy. An excess of 0.38 (p = 0.03) and 0.46 (p = 0.01) of average days lost was recorded in unvaccinated HCWs in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 epidemic seasons. The total amount of days lost in unvaccinated HCWs is 1.485,4 with a total cost of € 252.060,54.Conclusions: Seasonal influenza vaccination confirms its key role in preventing outbreaks of influenza and promoting HCWs health.

Analysis of Measured Employees’ Absenteeism in the Forensic Science Laboratory

A detailed analysis of the measured absenteeism data for employees in a forensic science laboratory (FSL) is presented. About 134 employees out of 172 were used as a sample. The factors assumed to affect absenteeism included differences in gender, departments/units, period of the year, skill-levels and professions. The data were collected throughout a calendar year, using a biometric system infrastructure incorporating fingerprint capturing device, IP camera, database server and software (Bio Star Version 1.62). The calendar was used to establish the total working days and hours while employee absenteeism data in percentage were established by computation of days and hours absent for a given period, based on days or hours attended. Equations were derived to determine the absenteeism ratios expressed in percentage (Abd and Abh). The absenteeism ratio, Abh, was observed to be the most appropriate parameter. The business development department (BDD) shows the lowest Abh compared to other departments. Female employees show higher Abh and lower Abd than male employees, while accountants show lowest absenteeism compared to Employees in professional level who had highest absence rate compared to skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled employees. Most hours were lost during September-December compared to the rest of the year. The results reveal higher employee absenteeism in the FSL affecting its performance.

REDESIGNING THE ASSIGNMENT OF INTERNAL AUDITORS BASED ON AUDITOR UTILITY

This study presents a novel model for assignment of internal auditors to branches of businesses. Previous studies have concerned with minimizing the cost but in this model, aim is maximizing auditor’s utility. For this purpose an integer programming model introduced. The objective is maximizing the auditors’ total utility. Each branch has different impact values for auditors, which indicate auditors’ utility level in terms of location, size and type of branches. Also to keep the balance of auditor’s working days and total gained impact values particular constraints are defined for the integer programming model. This implementation has 3 particular steps; first is quantification of the branches’ effects on the auditors. AHP method is used to define branches’ impact values. The second is simulating the durations of auditing process. To minimize the effect of abnormal situations, durations are simulated. Last step is to reach the rotation of auditors, total working days and the total utility of the auditor; the integer programming model is solved by Python-Gurobi Optimizer.

REDESIGNING THE ASSIGNMENT OF INTERNAL AUDITORS BASED ON AUDITOR UTILITY

This study presents a novel model for assignment of internal auditors to branches of businesses. Previous studies have concerned with minimizing the cost but in this model, aim is maximizing auditor’s utility. For this purpose an integer programming model introduced. The objective is maximizing the auditors’ total utility. Each branch has different impact values for auditors, which indicate auditors’ utility level in terms of location, size and type of branches. Also to keep the balance of auditor’s working days and total gained impact values particular constraints are defined for the integer programming model. This implementation has 3 particular steps; first is quantification of the branches’ effects on the auditors. AHP method is used to define branches’ impact values. The second is simulating the durations of auditing process. To minimize the effect of abnormal situations, durations are simulated. Last step is to reach the rotation of auditors, total working days and the total utility of the auditor; the integer programming model is solved by Python-Gurobi Optimizer.

State-level medical and absenteeism cost of asthma in the United States

ABSTRACTObjective: For medically treated asthma, we estimated prevalence, medical and absenteeism costs, and projected medical costs from 2015 to 2020 for the entire population and separately for children in the 50 US states and District of Columbia (DC) using the most recently available data. Methods: We used multiple data sources, including the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, Kaiser Family Foundation, Medical Statistical Information System, and Current Population Survey. We used a two-part regression model to estimate annual medical costs of asthma and a negative binomial model to estimate annual school and work days missed due to asthma. Results: Per capita medical costs of asthma ranged from $1,860 (Mississippi) to $2,514 (Michigan). Total medical costs of asthma ranged from $60.7 million (Wyoming) to $3.4 billion (California). Medicaid costs ranged from $4.1 million (Wyoming) to $566.8 million (California), Medicare from $5.9 million (DC) to $446.6 million (California), and costs paid by private insurers ranged from $27.2 million (DC) to $1.4 billion (California). Total annual school and work days lost due to asthma ranged from 22.4 thousand (Wyoming) to 1.5 million days (California) and absenteeism costs ranged from $4.4 million (Wyoming) to $345 million (California). Projected increase in medical costs from 2015 to 2020 ranged from 9% (DC) to 34% (Arizona). Conclusion: Medical and absenteeism costs of asthma represent a significant economic burden for states and these costs are expected to rise. Our study results emphasize the urgency for strategies to strengthen state level efforts to prevent and control asthma attacks.

Impact of increasing social media use on sitting time and body mass index.

Issue addressed Sedentary behaviours, in particular sitting, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and poorer mental health status. In Australia, 70% of adults sit for more than 8h per day. The use of social media applications (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) is on the rise; however, no studies have explored the association of social media use with sitting time and body mass index (BMI). Methods Cross-sectional self-report data on demographics, BMI and sitting time were collected from 1140 participants in the 2013 Queensland Social Survey. Generalised linear models were used to estimate associations of a social media score calculated from social media use, perceived importance of social media, and number of social media contacts with sitting time and BMI. Results Participants with a high social media score had significantly greater sitting times while using a computer in leisure time and significantly greater total sitting time on non-workdays. However, no associations were found between social media score and sitting to view TV, use motorised transport, work or participate in other leisure activities; or total workday, total sitting time or BMI. Conclusions These results indicate that social media use is associated with increased sitting time while using a computer, and total sitting time on non-workdays. So what? The rise in social media use may have a negative impact on health by contributing to computer sitting and total sitting time on non-workdays. Future longitudinal research with a representative sample and objective sitting measures is needed to confirm findings.

Full-Shift Trunk and Upper Arm Postures and Movements Among Aircraft Baggage Handlers.

The present study assessed full-shift trunk and upper arm postural exposure amplitudes, frequencies, and durations among Swedish airport baggage handlers and aimed to determine whether exposures differ between workers at the ramp (loading and unloading aircraft) and baggage sorting areas. Trunk and upper arm postures were measured using inclinometers during three full work shifts on each of 27 male baggage handlers working at a large Swedish airport. Sixteen of the baggage handlers worked on the ramp and 11 in the sorting area. Variables summarizing postures and movements were calculated, and mean values and variance components between subjects and within subject (between days) were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood algorithms in a one-way random effect model. In total, data from 79 full shifts (651h) were collected with a mean recording time of 495min per shift (range 319-632). On average, baggage handlers worked with the right and left arm elevated >60° for 6.4% and 6.3% of the total workday, respectively. The 90th percentile trunk forward projection (FP) was 34.1°, and the 50th percentile trunk movement velocity was 8° s(-1). For most trunk (FP) and upper arm exposure variables, between-subject variability was considerable, suggesting that the flight baggage handlers were not a homogeneously exposed group. A notable between-days variability pointed to the contents of the job differing on different days. Peak exposures (>90°) were higher for ramp workers than for sorting area workers (trunk 0.6% ramp versus 0.3% sorting; right arm 1.3% ramp versus 0.7% sorting). Trunk and upper arm postures and movements among flight baggage handlers measured by inclinometry were similar to those found in other jobs comprising manual material handling, known to be associated with increased risks for musculoskeletal disorders. The results showed that full-shift trunk (FP) and, to some extent, peak arm exposures were higher for ramp workers compared with sorting workers.