Relationships of Job and Some Individual Characteristics to Occupational Injuries in Employed People: A Community‐Based Study

Abstract

Relationships of Job and Some Individual Characteristics to Occupational Injuries in Employed People: A Community-Based Study: Ashis BHATTACHERJEE, et al. Department of MiningEngineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India-This study assessed the associations of job and some individual factors with occupational injuries among employed people from a general population in north-eastern France; 2,562 workers were randomly selected from the working population. A mailed auto-questionnaire was filled in by each subject. Statistical analysis was performed with loglinear models. The annual incidence rate of at least one occupational injury was 4.45%. Significant contributing factors for occupational injuries were job category (60.8%), sex (16.2%), regular psychotropic drug use (8.5%), age groups (7.5%), and presence of a disease (7.0%). The men had higher risk than the women (adjusted odds-ratio 1.99, 95% CI 1.43-2.78). Compared to executives, intellectual professionals and teachers, labourers had the highest risk (6.40, 3.55-11.52). They were followed by farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen (6.18, 2.86-13.08), technicians (3.14, 1.41-6.70), employees (2.94, 1.59-5.48) and other subjects (3.87, 1.90-7.88). The young (≤29 yr) showed an increased risk. Similar odds-ratios were observed for regular psychotropic drug use (1.54, 1.16-2.05) and the presence of a disease (1.50, 1.11-2.02). Univariate analysis showed that smoking habit, overweight and excess alcohol use were also associated with injuries. The loglinear model results showed that there were Received May 6, 2003; Accepted Sep 18, 2003 Correspondence to: N. Chau, INSERM U420, Faculté de Médecine, BP 184, 54505 Vandoeuvre-lés-Nancy, France associations between some of these independent factors. It was concluded that job, sex, young age, smoking habit, excess alcohol use, overweight, psychotropic drug use, and disease influenced the occupational injuries. Preventive measures concerning work conditions, risk assessment and job knowledge should be conducted in overall active population, especially in men, young workers, smokers, alcohol users, overweight workers and in individuals with a disease or psychosomatic disorders. (J Occup Health 2003; 45: 382-391)

Influence of obesity on accurate and rapid arm movement performed from a standing posture

“…This observation is fundamental from an ergonomic viewpoint. It may allow to explain why individuals with a higher BMI have greater risk to be involved in an accident [32][33][34] or to fall more frequently, both on the same level and at a lower level. 34 We strongly believe that this should lead to a closer examination of the direct impact of obesity on work-related injuries.…”

Depressive symptoms and self-reported occupational injury in small and medium-sized companies

“…Second, the depression causes occupational injury through the adverse eVects of depression treatment, including fatigue, sleeping disturbance, and cognitive impairment (Gilmore et al 1996;Simpson et al 2005;Wadsworth et al 2005). Third, several individual behaviors related to depression (e.g., excess alcohol drinking, smoking habits, weight problems) may also inXuence occupational injury (Bhattacherjee et al 2003). Fourth, it is possible that work-related stressors are an intermediated step in a pathway leading from depressive symptoms to the occurrence of occupational injuries.…”

“…The potential mechanisms of how depression plays a role in occupational injury remain unclear. Plausible mechanisms involve direct eVects (e.g., the symptoms of depression itself, such as cognitive failure, drowsiness, and loss of interest; the adverse eVects of depression treatment) and indirect eVects mediated by adverse health behaviors (Bhattacherjee et al 2003;Dewa et al 2007;Gilmore et al 1996;Poole et al 1997;Simpson et al 2005;Wadsworth et al 2005).…”

Do male and female adolescents differ in the effect of individual and family characteristics on their use of psychotropic drugs?

“…The study protocol was as follows: [7,8]. With regard to psychotropic drugs, subjects were asked whether they frequently used medication (prescribed and non-prescribed) during the previous 12 months for headache, tiredness, nervousness or anxiety, or insomnia (Yes/No) [5,9,10].…”

“…The use of such medication represents a major public health problem. Its potential consequences include morbidity, injuries, mortality, deleterious effects on quality of life, and the cost of remedial treatments [5,9,12,23,27]. Medication may also have undesirable side-effects, lead to the development of dependency, and delay adequate management of an underlying problem.…”