Objectives: Low back pain is a major occupational problem especially among nursing staff. The objectives of our study are to evaluate the prevalence of low back pain among nurses and to look for physical and psychosocial risk factors. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study based on a self-administered questionnaire destined for all nurses working in Farhat Hached Teaching hospital of Sousse (Tunisia). Results: Our study included 203 nurses with an average age of 39.8 years. The prevalence of low back pain over the last twelve months was 58.1%. The factors that are significantly associated to low back pain were: high BMI, number of pregnancies, arthritis, poor physical condition, daily frequency of inappropriate posture for the activity being performed, and the layout of materials in the workplace. Conclusion: Our study evidenced the high prevalence of LBP among nurses and allowed bringing to light the role of individual and ergonomic physical factors in the genesis of LBP. Such identification permits to undertake targeted preventive actions. The association between psychosocial factors and LBP was not emphasized.

Background Stress has been recently implicated as a contributing factor of hand eczema (HE) severity. However, published data are both rare and contradictory justifying the need of further research. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation between stress and HE severity. Methods This is a cross-sectional study enrolling all patients who have been attending the Dermato-allergology unit of Farhat Hached University Hospital of Sousse over a period of one year. The HE severity was assessed by the Osnabrück Hand Eczema Severity Index (OHSI). The stress level was assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) in its validated Arabic version. Results During the study period, 109 participants meeting the inclusion criteria were identified. The mean age was 40 ± 9.9 years with a sex-ratio of 0.8. Severe eczema was found in 76 participants (69.7%). A high level of perceived stress was found in 18.3% of cases. A statistically significant association was noted between HE severity and the high level of perceived stress (p=0.039, OR = 4.46, 95% CI [0.96–20.59]) and the number of dependent children ≥3 (p=0.0039, OR = 1.92, 95% CI [0.51–7.22]). Leisure activity was found to be a protective factor against HE severity (p=0.031, OR = 0.27, 95% CI [0.09–0.80]). Conclusion Although the link between the severity of eczema and atopy, wet work, and contact with irritants and allergens is well known, the relation remains questionable for other factors including stress.

Background. Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is a common chronic skin disease that generates considerable public-health and socioeconomic costs. This disease affects the quality of life and the occupational activity of patients. Aims. To assess the quality of life (QOL) of patients with ACD and study the impact of this disease on their work productivity. Methods. This is a cross-sectional study carried out from January 2012 to December 2014. All patients diagnosed with ACD in the Dermato-Allergology Unit of the Occupational Medicine Department at Farhat Hached University Hospital, in Sousse, were included. The impact of skin disease on the QOL of affected persons was assessed using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). The work productivity was measured using the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Allergic Specific questionnaire (WPAI: AS). Results. The study population consisted of 150 patients. The average score of DLQI was 6.5. Over the previous 7 days, absenteeism rate was 25.9 ± 15.3%, presenteeism rate was 50.2 ± 32%, overall work productivity loss was 29.6 ± 19.4%, and daily activity impairment was 50.4 ± 32.3%. The DLQI score was significantly associated with atopy (p = 0.03), relapses strictly greater than 10 (p = 0.02), presenteeism (p <10−3), overall work productivity loss (p = 0.01), and daily activity impairment (p = 0.03). Conclusion. The impact of ACD on QOL and occupational activity seems important and requires specific attention from the occupational physician.

The operating theatre staff is exposed to various constraints such as excessive working hours, severe medical conditions and dreadful consequences in case of malpractice. These working conditions may lead to high and chronic levels of stress, which can interfere with medical staff well-being and patients quality of care. The aim of this study is toassess the impact of music therapy on stress levels and burnout risk on the operating room staff. This is a preexperimental study including the operating rooms staff of urology and maxillofacial surgery in the academic hospital of Sahloul Sousse (Tunisia) over a period of six weeks. The study consisted of three phases. The first was an initial assessment of stress level with a predefined survey. The second included three music therapy sessions per day over one month. The third was an immediate stress level reassessment following the intervention. Stress levels were evaluated using the Perceived Stress Scale version PSS-10 and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The overall response rate was 73.9%.The average age of the study population was 37.8 ± 7.7 years with a female predominance (64.7%). After the music therapy program, Perceived Stress Scale average score decreased from 22 ± 8.9 to 16 ± 7.9 (p = 0.006). Concerning the burnout, only the average score of emotional exhaustion decreased significantly from 27 ± 10.8 to 19.2 ± 9.5 (p = 0.004). Music therapy is an innovative approach that seems to reduce operating theatre staff stress. It must be considered as a non pharmacological, simple, economic and non invasive preventive tool.

Introduction: The exposure to shift works, and especially to night shift, goes against the circadian rythmicity of the social man, which brings about a multitude of disruptive effects on health. In a hospital environment, such night shift is necessary so as to ensure the continuity of care. Sleep and vigilance disorders related to this work mode are frequent and often pose adaptation problems. The objective of this study is to detect the harmful effects of night shift on sleep, vigilance and the quality of life of nurses in Farhat Hached Teaching Hospital in Sousse. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study carried out among two groups of nurses: one group performing a fixed night work and the other one working permanently during the day at Farhat Hached Teaching Hospital in Sousse. Data collection is mainly based on validated questionnaires evaluating sleep quality (Pittsburg sleep quality index), daytime sleepiness (Epworth sleepiness scale), sleep typology (Horne and Ostberg questionnaire), and the quality of life (SF-12). An objective evaluation of vigilance was realized by the study of reaction time and error rates to different tasks of "Super lab" software. Results: 50 night and 50 day nurses have been colligated. Both groups were age-and gender-matched. Sleep quality mean index was significantly higher among night nurses in comparison with day nurses (10.2 ± 5.9 versus 6.76 ± 5.16). After multivariate analysis, sleep quality was significantly correlated to age, department, schedule and the choice of schedule. Night shift was not related to daytime sleepiness. The objective analysis of vigilance showed that the reaction time to different tasks exploring the attentional mechanisms, as well as errors rate, were significantly more important among the night group. The mental score of the quality of life was significantly higher among day nurses. However, such difference was not significant with regard to * Corresponding author.W. Boughattas et al. 573physical score. Conclusion: The findings of our study highlight not only the alteration of the health and the well being of paramedical staff secondary to night shift, but also a possible threat to safety care lavished by these teams, which involves the necessity to undertake preventive measures on an individual and collective scale.

Background People's lives were seriously affected by the emergence and the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Several vaccines were developed in record time to overcome this pandemic. However, putting an end to this public health problem requires substantial vaccination coverage rate. This latter depends on the acceptance of these vaccines especially by health professionals; the leaders of the current war against COVID-19. In fact, they have a central role in promoting vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2. In the developed countries, hesitancy rates towards these vaccines among health professionals vary from 4.3% to 72%. In the developing countries, few studies focused on this issue. Objective To estimate the prevalence and the predictors of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy among the Tunisian health professionals. Methods A cross-sectional study was led online between the 7th and the 21th of January 2021 among Tunisian health professionals. At least 460 participants were required. Snowball sampling method served to recruit participants. Data were collected using a pre-established and pre-tested questionnaire recorded in a free Google form. The link of the questionnaire was disseminated online to be self-administered anonymously to the participants. The generated online Google Sheet was uploaded and exported to SPSS software for analysis. Results Of the 546 responses, 493 were retained. The mean age of participants was 37.4 (± 9.5) years. Females represented 70.2% of participants. Social media represented the most frequently used source of information about COVID-19. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy among participants was 51.9% (95% CI: 47.5–56.3)). Female sex, working far from the capital and having concerns about the vaccines components predicted more hesitancy among participants. In contrast, the use of the national COVID-19 information website predicted less hesitancy among them. Conclusions The current Tunisian communication plan about COVID-19 vaccines must be reinforced. Social media represent a cost effective communication channel that can serve to reassure Tunisian health professionals regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Special interest should be paid to females, paramedical professionals and those working far from the capital.

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