Many persons experiencing TBI report having unmet service needs 1 year after hospital discharge.

BackgroundShift work has been associated with occupational stress in health providers and in those working in some industrial companies. The association is not well established in the law enforcement workforce. Our objective was to examine the association between shift work and police work-related stress.MethodsThe number of stressful events that occurred in the previous month and year was obtained using the Spielberger Police Stress Survey among 365 police officers aged 27–66 years. Work hours were derived from daily payroll records. A dominant shift (day, afternoon, or night) was defined for each participant as the shift with the largest percentage of total time a participant worked (starting time from 4:00 AM to 11:59 AM, from 12 PM to 7:59 PM, and from 8:00 PM to 3:59 AM for day, afternoon, and night shift, respectively) in the previous month or year. Analysis of variance and covariance were used to examine the number of total and subscale (administrative/professional pressure, physical/psychological danger, or organizational support) stressful events across the shift.ResultsDuring the previous month and year, officers working the afternoon and night shifts reported more stressful events than day shift officers for total stress, administrative/professional pressure, and physical/psychological danger (p < 0.05). These differences were independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and police rank. The frequency of these stressful events did not differ significantly between officers working the afternoon and night shifts.ConclusionNon–day shift workers may be exposed to more stressful events in this cohort. Interventions to reduce or manage police stress that are tailored by shift may be considered.

Objective To estimate the prevalence of obesity and the change of prevalence of obesity between 2004–2007 and 2008–20011 by occupation among US workers in the National Health Interview Survey. Methods Self-reported weight and height were collected and used to assess obesity (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2). Gender-, race/ethnicity-, and occupation-specific prevalence of obesity were calculated. Results Prevalence of obesity steadily increased from 2004 through 2008 across gender and race/ethnicity but leveled off from 2008 through 2011. Non-Hispanic black female workers in health care support (49.2%) and transportation/material moving (46.6%) had the highest prevalence of obesity. Prevalence of obesity in relatively low-obesity (white-collar) occupations significantly increased between 2004–2007 and 2008–2011, whereas it did not change significantly in high-obesity (blue-collar) occupations. Conclusions Workers in all occupational categories are appropriate targets for health promotion and intervention programs to reduce obesity.