The ageing European population suffers from chronic diseases, including osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study was to investigate the work activity/ability, the quality of life and reciprocal interaction between both in OA patients. A total of 750 OA outpatients were evaluated by a questionnaire study. Work Ability Index (WAI) and General Health Questionnaire 28 (GHQ 28) were used as tools for work ability and quality of life assessment, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed by means of ANOVA tests. A total of 22.2% OA patients were still active professionally. They had decreased work ability and decreased quality of life. A worse work ability and a worse quality of life were related with a blue-collar work, multi-joint localization of OA and co-existence of other diseases. A negative correlation was found between general scores of GHQ 28 and that of WAI and five WAI components. Findings indicate a need for work ability promotion among OA working patients to maintain both, better quality of life and higher level of satisfaction with job.

One of the dimensions treated as part of a company's safety culture or climate is workers' attitudes towards risk and safety. In the present study these personal aspects are defined as workers' safety culture, which is understood as a way of acting focused on life and taking care of one's health. A questionnaire on safety culture was filled out by 200 employees of a metallurgical enterprise. Factor analysis was used to determine empirical scales of the questionnaire, whereas variance analysis was used to test hypotheses. The results confirmed the hypotheses that people who experienced accidents, dangerous situations, and--to a lesser extent--health problems had a lower level of safety culture. Nevertheless not all of the scales determined during factor analysis turned out to be significant as far as all kinds of those undesirable situations are concerned. Proposals for future studies are formulated in the conclusion.

The aim of this study was to investigate the work ability in ageing workers suffering from osteoarthritis (OA), coronary heart disease (CHD) or hypertension (H). One hundred and sixty-six OA and 355 CHD/H outpatients were evaluated. The Work Ability Index (WAI) served for work ability assessment. Patients' results were compared with the results of a control group of 225 healthy young workers. Statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA tests. WAI in female and male CHD/H patients was higher than in OA patients (p < .01), better work ability was related to better education (p < .01), white-collar work (p < .01) and better recreation (p < .01); subjective work ability was determined mostly by the objective health status. The promotion of work ability among workers suffering from advanced age-related diseases should be closely related to the promotion of health. It is indicative to improve occupational education and skills, already at an early stage of a disease.

There is much less research on the relationship between shift work and positive states experienced in the workplace, e.g., emotions and work ability. Using the job demands-resources model, conservation of resources theory and the broaden-and-build theory as theoretical frameworks, the direct and indirect (mediated via positive and negative emotions) relations between the complex of job resources and work ability were tested in the group of shift and non-shift workers. Three types of resources related to task, leadership and interpersonal relations were taken into account. Data were collected among 1510 workers. Structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that only leadership was directly related to high work ability in both occupational groups. Indirect effects of positive and negative emotions were strongly supported. Both of them mediate the effects of the three analysed job resources on work ability, but individual job resources impacted were different. Leadership resources led to “good” work ability by the intensification of positive and reduction of negative emotions. Interpersonal resources decrease negative emotions. Task resources, conversely, intensified positive emotions, which in turn increased work ability. These research results shed more light on the ways of shaping work ability among shift and non-shift workers.

This study aims to understand the long-term relation between comprehensive job resources and the three basic psychological needs at work (autonomy, relatedness and competence). The study was conducted in a progressive design on a sample of 1025 Polish human service professionals. Based on a typology of job resources, the three aggregated job resources index related to the task, leadership and interpersonal relations were created and the effects of each of them on the satisfaction and frustration of the three basic psychological needs, measured after 8 months, were tested. The analysis conducted by using of structural equation modelling showed that task resources are associated with the three basic psychological needs more strongly than two other kinds of resources and that that both leadership and interpersonal resources were related to the satisfaction and frustration of all the needs to the same extent. The results are discussed in the paradigm of the Conservative of Resources and the Self Determination theories.

Designing objective and subjective methods of studying the abilities of disabled people is one of the most important things to be done before employing them. That is why new assessment methods are proposed. Evaluation as a testing procedure used for defining the abilities of disabled people-general capacity, range, and strength of the main groups of muscles and extremities, psychological tests, and many others-were developed by an interdisciplinary team. In total, 48 testing procedures, including physiological, psychological, and biomechanical ones, were prepared.We also propose another subjective assessment method because it is also very important to know what an individual person with disability needs, wants to do, or what kind of job he or she prefers. The subjective evaluation of abilities, possibilities, and needs might be done by using a questionnaire. These testing procedures offer a chance to use the same methods in all diagnostic centres so the criteria of health and work ability will be the same and easily comparable. Using the same tests for assessment will be helpful in observing the results and progress of medical, social, and vocational rehabilitation, too. disabled people employment ability assessment testing procedureCorrespondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Bozena Kurkus-Rozowska,

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