Covariation between workplace physical and psychosocial stressors: evidence and implications for occupational health research and prevention.

There is increasing interest in distinguishing the effects of physical and psychosocial workplace stressors on the aetiology of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). Modest associations have been found between psychosocial stressors and MSD, such as intensive load, monotonous work and low job control. Interpretation of these results has been limited by likely covariation between physical and psychosocial stressors. This investigation examined exposure covariation among blue- and white-collar workers employed in a mass production manufacturing environment (N = 410). Physical stressors were assessed from questionnaire and accelerometry. Psychosocial stressors were assessed from questionnaire. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were computed. An exploratory factor analysis procedure identified possible common factors linking specific physical and psychosocial stressors. Moderate to high correlations between some physical and psychosocial stressors showed evidence of covariation both across and within groups. Covariation was strongest among blue-collar production and low-status office workers. Factor analysis results showed considerable shared variance between some physical and psychosocial stressors, such as repetition and job control, suggesting that these disparate stressors manifest from common work organization factors that govern the structure of work. While recognizing the conceptual differences between physical and psychosocial stressors, these results call attention to the strong empirical relationships that can exist between some stressors in the workplace setting. To guard against ambiguous study findings that can occur when exposures are mixed, it is critical that future epidemiologic studies include information about the degree of association between task-level stressors. Future research on work organization determinants of task-level stressors, and their coincident occurrence in jobs with greater specialization, may provide promising new insights into the nature of risk for MSD and effective prevention strategies.     

Modeling the relationship between occupational stressors, psychosocial/physical symptoms and injuries in the construction industry

Injury statistics place the construction industry as a high-risk industry, making it necessary to investigate factors that influence accidents to be able to protect workers. Research was carried out to investigate the relationship existing among occupational stressors, psychological/physical symptoms and accident/injury and work days lost outcomes as experienced by manual workers engaged in a range of industrial construction occupations. Some of the occupational stressors significantly associated with self-reported and OSHA logged injuries were training, job certainty and safety climate of the company. The OSHA logged injuries were associated with the occurrence of headaches and feelings of tenseness on the job. These results imply that non-physical stressors should be included as a potential input associated with injuries in injury risk models for construction workers.

Relevance to industry

Traditional approaches to workers’ safety in the construction industry have focused on the physical and biomechanical aspects of work by improving tools, equipment and task completion methods. The impact of psychosocial factors, specifically stress as experienced by construction workers, is an area of growing research, which is yielding results that suggest overall work safety on the construction site should take into account psychosocial aspects of work.     

A new model of job design: Initial evidence and implications for future research

Clegg and Spencer's (2007) model of job design synthesizes and extends recent conceptions of the job design process by incorporating variables such as knowledge, motivation, and trust into a cyclical and dynamic system. The objective of this study was to examine the sequential organization of variables that comprise the model, as a basis from which to justify further investigations of the model's dynamic properties. Data were collected via questionnaires from 432 participants in two work organizations. Results obtained from structural equation modeling are broadly supportive of the proposed relationships between the variables. Implications of this initial study for future research and practice are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Compensation for occupational injuries and diseases: its effect upon prevention at the workplace

Abstract

In Switzerland, as in many other industrialized countries, the nature and extent of prevention at the workplace is determined, at least partially, by known cases of compensated occupational injuries and diseases. At both the national and international levels ∥ILO conventions) injuries and diseases that fit appropriate lists and definitions are eligible for compensation. It has been found, based upon an investigation of a representative sample (965 subjects) of the working population in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, that this restrictive view does not take into account the fact that a large proportion of injuries and diseases are claimed by the victims to be caused by their job. These injuries and diseases, responsible for at least one month's absence from work, are not considered to be eligible for compensation but must be covered by the patient's own insurance. Moreover, the survey showed that workers considered the ill effects on health and safety to be a consequence less of the physical working environment than of the work organization, and that this category of risks was not recognized. Thus, in addition to the reduction of hazards by the application of industrial hygiene, an informed improvement of the workplace and the work organization was required. Consequently, laws and regulations on occupational injuries and diseases should be changed in order to emphasize the role of more appropriate preventive tools, which includes ergonomics.     

Physiological computing for occupational health and safety in construction: Review,challenges and implications for future research

Recent advances in physiological computing have been made due to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which have profoundly begun to influence occupational health and safety (OHS) in construction. Acknowledging the current and future use of physiological computing, we address the following research question in this paper: What developments in physiological computing can be used to improve OHS in construction? Using a narrative systematic review, we examine studies that have used physiological computing in construction to monitor people OHS. Our review indicates that there is a need for physiological computing systems to be: (1) more accurate; (2) portable and easier to use; (3) generalizable across varying work tasks; and (4) accepted by users and their benefits realized. Considering our observations derived from the prevailing literature and practice, we suggest that future research should aim to mitigate OHS risks by focusing on: (1) development of high-quality database; (2) feature engineering extraction by using an array of machine learning techniques; (3) understanding the context and enacting intervention strategies. The upshot of performing such a review is to provide a signpost for future research in physiological computing of OHS in construction.     

"Awake, smoky, and hot": providing an evidence-base for managing the risks associated with occupational stressors encountered by wildland firefighters

To curtail the spread of wildfire, firefighters are often required to work long hours in hot, smoky conditions with little rest between consecutive shifts. In isolation, heat, smoke, and sleep disruption can have a detrimental impact on cognitive and physical abilities. Far less is known, however, about the combined impact that heat, smoke, and sleep disruption can have on firefighters' performance during wildfire suppression or on human performance in general. The available literature, though scant, suggests that audio and visual tracking may be degraded after sustained heat exposure following one night of sleep deprivation. Exposure to heat and carbon monoxide, in contrast, appears to have only limited impact on cognitive performance, even after physical exercise. Heat and carbon monoxide exposure does, however, increase physiological exertion to a given work or exercise bout. To the authors' knowledge, there are no published studies that have explored the impacts of heat exposure following sleep disruption on physical work performance, sleep disruption and smoke exposure on physical or cognitive work, or the combined impacts of sleep disruption, smoke and heat exposure on cognitive or physical work. While more integrative research is needed, the current review provides a summary of the available evidence and an indication of the degree of confidence agencies can have in the research. This will allow both the scientific community and agencies to make informed recommendations regarding the management of wildland firefighters' health and safety on the fireground.     

Quality of physical activity of children in exergames: Sequential body movement analysis and its implications for interaction design

Exergames are videogames based on full-body interaction that foster physical exercise during gameplay. Much research has focused on whether exergames foster sufficient physical activity and with which intensity they do so. This is usually measured through energy expenditure and compared to traditional physical activities such as sports or physical education exercises. However, little research has been undertaken on the quality of the physical activity, understood not as how well the movement is done, but as the richness and diversity of physical activity defined by experts, such as diverse types of motor skills (jumps, turns, pivots, manipulative actions, etc) and diverse types of conditioning capabilities (endurance, stretch, general strength, coordination, etc.). Hence, exergames typically address only aerobic (cardiovascular) activity and other types tend to be ignored. In this paper we propose a method for analyzing the types of physical activity (quality) that an exertion interface elicits. We propose this method as an analytical tool which can provide key information to categorize exergames, aid to their design and help designers make sure they achieve game mechanics that elicit the desired types of physical activity. We describe the method through the analysis of two exergames that we developed in the past for our exertion interface for children, called the Interactive Slide. We present the results of a systematic observational method, until now used mainly in sports analysis, which is based on applying sequential body movement analysis to obtain the play characteristics of 48 children. These results -action events and time-based patterns- typify the movement found in the two aforementioned exergames for this platform. We have found significant movement differences between the two, as well as some differences associated to age. Moreover, we show that sequential body movement analysis, which has already been successfully used in the past to analyze sports, can also be effective in analyzing exergames and hence allow grounded discussion on health issues related to their use.     

Nanotechnology occupational and environmental health and safety: Education and research needs for an emerging interdisciplinary field of study

Commercialization of nanotechnology (NT) has the potential to affect the health and safety of the industrial workforce and the general public. The main objective of this position paper is to present an education and research framework for the emerging interdisciplinary field of NT occupational and environmental health and safety. The specific aims of this program are to (a) establish evidence‐based guidelines for the protection/promotion of individual health and safety along the life cycle of nano‐based products in light of the best available scientific information, technologies, and best practices; (b) present and address issues of importance to individual health and safety in nanomanufacturing enterprises in different industry sectors, environment, and public consumer health (civilian and military); (c) provide a forum for idea exchange and research agenda on the use of NT in prevention/treatment of specific occupational/environmental diseases; and (d) disseminate the latest research findings on NT and occupational and public health, and nano‐health technologies for occupational diseases. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 16: 247–253, 2006.     

Personal predictors of the longest episode of occupational sitting and their interaction with workplace support for health among workers in Accra: A cross-sectional analysis with sensitivity analyses

Many studies have identified personal factors associated with occupational sitting time, but none of them focused on the longest episode of occupational sitting (hereby referred to as continuous occupational sitting time) nor considered whether workplace support for health moderates the associations between these factors and continuous occupational sitting time. This study aimed to identify personal factors predicting continuous occupational sitting time and ascertained whether workplace support for health moderates the associations between these factors and continuous occupational sitting time. A cross-sectional design and an adapted hierarchical linear regression analysis was employed. The participants were 991 employees of public and private organizations in Accra, Ghana. Results were presented with hierarchical linear regression analysis. The ultimate predictors of continuous occupational sitting time at a minimum of p < 0.05 include age, job type, and job income. Workplace support for health significantly moderated the primary associations, which means that workplace support for health altered the strength of the associations between all predictors (except tenure) and continuous occupational sitting time. This study concludes that there are inequalities in continuous occupational sitting time between employee groups that can be modified by workplace support for health.