Objective. The suitability of self-ratings and observer ratings within organisational management approaches is controversial. The aim of this study was to compare the degree of agreement between self-rated and observer-rated occupational psychosocial demands. The comparison took place within a work-activity and not worker-centred assessment, according to official policies for psychosocial risk assessment. Through simultaneous application of two versions of the same instrument, we aimed to reduce the rating bias to a minimum demonstrating the suitability of self-ratings and observer ratings in companies of all kinds. Methods. A multimethod online assessment of 22 different work activities was conducted in Germany from October 2016 to October 2017. Workers (self-ratings) and occupational safety and health (OSH) committees (observer ratings) rated the occupational psychosocial risks of each activity with the same instrument (N = 669). The instrument measured psychosocial risk conditions at work. Reliability and agreement indices were computed. Results. The within-group agreement (WGA; rwg,mean = .42) of the workers’ self-ratings was good for each psychosocial risk and the interrater reliability (IRR) was excellent on average (ICC 2 = .77) with a medium effect size of ICC 1 = .15. The interrater agreement (IRA) between the two groups varied across the activities depending on rating group and activity composition (from ICCunjust,mean = .39 to ICCunjust,mean = .86) but was good to excellent on average (ICCunjust,mean = .71). Conclusion. The reasonable agreement and excellent reliability in workers’ self-ratings justify aggregation of item means at the group level. Furthermore, if the work activities are homogenous and the committee consists of members from different OSH specialties, observer ratings and self-ratings provide comparable results. According to this study’s results, both methods are reliable assessment strategies in the context of psychosocial risk assessment. The observer rating approach is especially suitable for small-to-medium enterprises that do not have access to a large anonymous survey assessment.
ObjectivesTo identify approaches for an effective patient-centred care of depressed employees, we investigated occupational physicians’ (OPs) and psychotherapists’ (PTs) knowledge about job stressors on the development of depression, application of this knowledge, interdisciplinary cooperation and perceived barriers.Study designA cross-sectional online survey.ParticipantsOPs (163; 48.5% male) and PTs (69; 43.5% male) providing complete data on the survey out of 257 OPs and 112 PTs who started the survey. There have been 458 (OPs) and 821 (PTs) initial clicks.MethodsMain outcome measures were the importance ratings of specific job stressors, the frequency of asking patients about those stressors, the need for interdisciplinary cooperation, as well as perceived barriers for cooperation. We performed multivariate analysis of variance, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Spearman’s rank-order correlations.ResultsThe achieved response rate for OPs was 56.1% and for PTs 13.6%. Both disciplines agreed on the importance of job stressors regarding depression (ICC=0.90; 95% CI: 0.54 to 0.98), but both ranked these factors differently from the current state of research. As to knowledge application, OPs showed positive associations between the importance of job stressors and the frequency of asking employees about them (eg, job insecurity (rs=0.20, p=0.005)) and PTs for social stressors (eg, interpersonal conflicts (rs=0.38, p=0.001)). OPs (mean=3.41) reported a higher necessity of interdisciplinary cooperation than PTs (mean=3.17; F(1,230)=7.02, p=0.009). Furthermore, cooperation was reported as difficult to implement. PTs perceived barriers (eg, time restriction) as more hindering (mean=3.2) than OPs (mean=2.8; F(1,171)=8.16, p=0.005).ConclusionsBoth disciplines are aware of the relevance of job stressors as risk factors for depression, but should be encouraged to ask employees more frequently about them. The need for interdisciplinary cooperation and possible barriers are discussed. It is crucial to emphasise the meaning of sufficient cooperation, since closing this gap for improving patient-centred care especially for employees suffering from depression is necessary.
Infections with multidrug‐resistant Gram‐negative bacteria constitute a silent pandemic threat that is increasing globally. A major technical and scientific hurdle hampering the development of efficient antibiotics against Gram‐negative species is the low permeability of their outer membrane that prevents the entry of most small molecules into the cells. This can be overcome by targeting active iron transport systems of the pathogens in a Trojan‐Horse strategy that makes use of drug‐loaded artificial siderophores. While we utilized catechols as iron‐binding motifs in previous work, this study reports the design, synthesis and characterization of siderophores with a DOTAM scaffold that was substituted with three hydroxamate arms allowing for a hexacoordination of iron. Their iron‐chelating capabilities were shown colorimetrically, and the ability of compound 1 to deliver iron into Escherichia coli in a chelation‐specific manner was proven by a growth recovery assay. A covalent siderophore‐ciprofloxacin conjugate exerted antibiotic effects against E. coli, albeit it was less potent than the free drug. The study qualifies artificial DOTAM siderophores with hydroxamate binders as scaffolds for bacterial Trojan Horses. This contribution for honoring my mentor Helmut Schwarz echoes two motifs of my work with him: Hydroxylamin, the topic of my first paper ever, and the fascinating properties of iron ions, studied in the gas phase during my Ph.D. Thesis, became a core subject of our current chemical biology research on antiinfectives.
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