The influence of event characteristics on recall was examined by directly comparing fall-off in reporting life events as a function of life change, desirability, and anticipation. We collected information from a sample of 1,669 blue-collar workers on stressful life events that occurred in a 1-year interval before the questionnaire was administered. The results indicated no fall-off in reporting events associated with marked life changes (ie, salient events). In contrast, significant fall-off was observed for events characterized by varying degrees of desirability and anticipation. Although ratings of desirability and saliency were not independent, saliency of life events emerged as the dimension most closely associated with accuracy of event reporting. Research on the reliability of measures of life events and the association between event characteristics and illness should consider the kinds of systematic reporting differences observed here.
An historical prospective study of mortality within a cohort of 1,410 gas distribution workers was conducted. This cohort was followed for ten years (1971-1980) and data on 118 deaths were obtained. Five-year (1973-1977) averages of both St. Louis and United States age-specific mortality figures were used to create "expected" mortality rates for comparison with the observed deaths in the cohort. Analyses of the cohort were done according to: 1) person-years contributed during the study period (the "age-attained" method) and 2) the number of years from commencement of work in the company until the end of the study period (1980) or death (the "latency" methods of analysis, Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) were calculated for all causes of death, all malignant neoplasms, and for cardiovascular disease and malignant neoplasms of the respiratory and digestive systems. In no case was the SMR found to be beyond the range of what would be expected in the "standard" populations. While the present study does not contradict the negative findings of the one previous investigation of mortality of gas distribution workers, the limitations of small cohort size, reliance on death certificates and non-industrial comparison populations make any conclusions at best provisional.
Epidemiological investigations of occupational disability are severely limited because of the inherent difficulties in standardizing definitions of disability and because of the lack of appropriate comparison data. Nevertheless, occupational disability is of great concern to workers. An investigation of disability, defined as permanent retirement due to medical disability, among hourly employees of a natural gas distribution company was undertaken in response to a request by the employees' union. Because of the above limitations, a hypothesis-generating rather than hypothesis-testing approach was taken, utilizing both disability retirement incidence rates and a prevalence survey of the living disabled retirees. It was hypothesized from the analysis that this group of workers did experience an excess of retirement disability for the period 1971-1980 when compared to estimated disability incidence rates of the general Social Security insured population, and that this excess may have been due in part to an excess of musculoskeletal disabilities associated with occupational physical stresses and strains.
The Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Branch of NIOSH conducts field investigations of possible health hazards in the workplace. These investigations are conducted under the authority of Section 20(a)(6) of the occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. 669(a)(6) which authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services, following a written request from any employer or authorized representative of employees, to determine whether any substance normally found in the place of employment has potentially toxic effects in such concentrations as used or found. The Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Branch also provides, upon request, medical, nursing, and industrial hygiene technical and consultative assistance (TA) to Federal, state, and local agencies; labor ; industry and other groups or individuals to control occupational health hazards and to prevent related trauma and disease. Mention of company n~mes o~ products does not constitute endorsement by the National InsL\rute fo~ Occuya~ional Safety and Health.
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