Quality of Work Life (QWL) can affect health and safety of individuals. The aim of the present study was to evaluate QWL among surgeons and investigate its association with musculoskeletal complaints. This cross-sectional study was conducted among surgeons working in hospitals located in Zahedan, Iran. QWL was assessed using the Walton's 35-item questionnaire and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) was used for assessing musculoskeletal complaints. The effects of age, gender, BMI, working hours, and working posture were adjusted. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regressions and independent T-test were employed for analyzing data. Seventy-four surgeons participated in this study. They were mostly male (60.8%) and married (73.00%) with the mean age of 37.9 years (±5.3) and the mean experience of 7 years (±4.23). Most of them (87.8%) had a moderate level of QWL and 90.6% of them had musculoskeletal complaints in at least one part of their body. "Development of human capacities" and "the total life space" had the highest and lowest scores, respectively. QWL was a significant predictor of pain and discomfort complaints in the neck, shoulders, upper back, elbows and legs. Alongside improving workstations and tools used by surgeons, interventions aimed at promoting QWL may be necessary to reduce musculoskeletal complaints among them.
BACKGROUND: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common disorder among occupations where upper extremities are actively involved in. Many occupational and non-occupational risk factors may contribute to this disorder. Knowledge regarding occupational risk factors can guide us to implement interventional programs. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and severity of CTS symptoms among butchers and their association with several occupational and non-occupational risk factors. METHODS: In this study, 152 butchers in Hamadan, Iran, were examined. The Boston Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Questionnaire (BCTQ) was used to investigate the severity of CTS symptoms among the individuals. Several risk factors such as body mass index (BMI), wrist ratio, active working hours per day, working experience, and the ergonomic quality of hand tools used by butchers were also investigated. Statistical tests such as the crude and robust regression were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The prevalence of moderate and mild symptoms of CTS were 7% and 54%, respectively. Moreover, 39% of the butchers were free of CTS symptoms. Crude regression analyses showed that the severity of CTS symptoms had a significant relationship with age, work experience, active working hours per day, working hours per week, and ergonomic quality of the hand tools (p value <0.05). There was no significant relationship between the severity of CTS symptoms and wrist ratio and BMI. Results of the robust regression analysis showed a significant relationship between the severity of CTS symptoms with experience, active working hours, and quality of the hand tools. CONCLUSION: Occupational risk factors such as working experience, active working hours per day, and the ergonomic quality of hand tools are significant risk factors of CTS symptoms among butchers. Slippery handle is the main non-ergonomic feature of knives and cleavers used by butchers. There was no association between BMI and wrist ratio with CTS symptoms.
Background and Objectives: Paying attention to human resources is one of the basic principles for increasing productivity and quality of services in hospitals. Therefore, the present study was designed to compare the level of job satisfaction and job stress, and the association between these two components in nurses, operating room, and anesthesia staff.Methods: This is a descriptive causal-comparative study, performed in December 2019 in Zabol hospitals with the participation of 175 nurses, operating room, and anesthesia staff. A three-part questionnaire consisting of demographic information, job satisfaction, and job stress was used to collect data. Then analysis of data was performed using SPSS 20 and the Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and ANOVA.
Results:In this study, it was found that nursing group had the highest job satisfaction and anesthesia and operating room staff had the lower job satisfaction. Also, the highest and lowest levels of job stress were related to anesthesiologists and nurses, respectively, and the differences in both variables were significant between the three groups. Moreover, the results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between job satisfaction and job stress, totally.
Conclusion:Due to that anesthesia staff was in a more unfavorable situation than others. We recommend that management planning and policies in hospitals be done by occupational groups and design and carry out the studies to assess the needs for each group.
Background and Objectives: Upper extremities are very vulnerable to work-related musculoskeletal disorders and selecting the best technique for assessing their exposure to ergonomic risk factors is of pivotal importance. This study aimed to compare two techniques of SI and ACGIH-HAL and assess their relationship with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) among butchers. Methods: The study population was all butchers in Hamadan, Iran. After observing the activities, the assessments were conducted using both techniques. The severity of CTS syndromes was assessed using Boston questionnaire. The agreement between the techniques was investigated using Kappa coefficient. The association between the risk levels obtained from the techniques with the severity of CTS syndromes were assessed by regression analysis and fixing the effect of personal factors such as age, body mass index, and wrist ratio index. Results: A total number of 152 butchers were evaluated. SI and ACGIH-HAL techniques respectively recognized 76 and 102 cases as low risk (agreement in 69 cases), 40 and 27 cases as moderate risk (agreement in 8 cases), and 36 and 23 cases as high risk (agreement in 18 cases). The Kappa coefficient between two techniques was 0.36 (P<0.001). By fixing the effects of age, body mass index, and wrist ratio index, both techniques had significant association with the severity of CTS syndromes. However, the association between SI and severity of CTS syndrome was higher than that of ACGIH-HAL. Conclusion: SI had a higher estimate of risk than ACGIH-HAL. It seems that the predictive ability of SI for the severity of CTS syndrome is better than that of ACGIH-HAL.
Using Random Forest algorithms, this study aimed to investigate musculoskeletal discomforts among mining truck drivers considering human vibration and awkward body posture. The study was conducted on 65 professional male drivers of mining trucks. The Cornell questionnaire was used to determine musculoskeletal discomforts.Drivers' exposure to vibrations was measured using the Svanteck 106 A vibration meter. The body posture was analyzed using the quick exposure check (QEC). The main mechanical and individual risk factors were used as predictor variables of musculoskeletal discomforts model. The relative importance of each feature on the discomforts was determined based on Random Forest algorithm compared with multiple linear regression using R Statistics Packages. The equivalent acceleration of whole-body vibration (WBV) was higher than the exposure limit, however, the equivalent acceleration of hand-transmitted vibration (HTV) was lower than the exposure limit.The body posture of drivers was from moderate to high risk so that investigation and changes are required soon. The predictive error of Random Forest model for musculoskeletal discomfort scores was at an acceptable level with root mean square error (RMSE) = 5.29 for the blind case of drivers compared with regressions model with RMSE = 15.92. Random forest showed that the awkward body posture, vibration, and age, respectively, have the greatest relative importance on musculoskeletal discomforts. The findings provide empirical evidence on the relative importance of risk factors on musculoskeletal discomfort so that awkward body posture has a greater effect compared with whole-body vibration. Random forest provided better outputs and was more accurate compared with the regression method.
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