Changes in physical performance among construction workers during extended workweeks with 12-hour workdays.

Purpose: To investigate changes of physical performance during long working hours and extended workweeks among construction workers with temporary accommodation in camps.

Methods: Nineteen construction workers with 12-h workdays and extended workweeks participated. Physical performance in the morning and evening of the second and eleventh workdays was tested by endurance, ability to react to a sudden load, flexibility of the back, handgrip strength and sub-maximal HR during a bicycle test.

Validity and reliability of self-assessed physical fitness using visual analogue scales.

To test the validity and reliability of self-assessed physical fitness samples included healthcare assistants working at a hospital (women=170, men=17), persons working with physically and mentally handicapped patients (women=530, men= 123), and two separate groups of healthcare students (a) women=91 and men=5 and (b) women=159 and men=10. Five components of physical fitness were self-assessed by Visual Analogue Scales with illustrations and verbal anchors for the extremes: aerobic fitness, muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance. Convergent and divergent validity were evaluated by age-adjusted correlations stratified by sex with performance-based measures of physical fitness.

Back muscle response to sudden trunk loading can be modified by training among healthcare workers.

Study Design: Experimental study of the effect of physical training on the reaction to sudden back loading.

Objective: To investigate the effect and sustainability of "on the job training" on the reaction to sudden back loading among employees at a geriatric ward.

Summary Of Background Data: Available data suggest that a delayed muscle reflex response to sudden trunk loading may increase the risk of low back injuries.

Building-site camps and extended work hours: A two-week monitoring of self-reported physical exertion, fatigue, and daytime sleepiness.

Large-scale construction work often requires people to work longer daily hours and more than the ordinary five days in a row. In order to minimize transportation times and optimize the use of personnel, workers are sometimes asked to live in temporary building-site camps in the proximity of the work site. However, little is known about the biological and psychological effects of this experience.

Concentrations of cortisol, testosterone and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) among construction workers with 12-h workdays and extended workweeks.

Objectives: Working on large scale construction sites have been shown to have severe health consequences in terms of increased risk of hospitalization and disability retirement compared to construction work in general. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether large scale construction work involving 12-h workdays and extended workweeks leads to insufficient recovery measured as increased catabolic and decreased anabolic metabolism.

Methods: The study group comprised 40 male construction workers of which 21 had 12-h workdays and extended workweeks (56 h/workweek).

Personal exposure to ultrafine particles and oxidative DNA damage.

Exposure to ultrafine particles (UFPs) from vehicle exhaust has been related to risk of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease and cancer, even though exposure assessment is difficult. We studied personal exposure in terms of number concentrations of UFPs in the breathing zone, using portable instruments in six 18-hr periods in 15 healthy nonsmoking subjects. Exposure contrasts of outdoor pollution were achieved by bicycling in traffic for 5 days and in the laboratory for 1 day.

Short latency stretch reflex in human lumbar paraspinal muscles.

The aim of the study was to measure stretch reflex latencies of the lumbar paraspinal muscles. An electromechanical tapping system was constructed enabling an accurate estimation of short latencies by utilizing a new technique combining results for different tapping durations. Latency parameters (onset, peak and zero-crossing of EMG signal) were obtained for the paraspinal muscles at the L3/L4 level for 10 male subjects.

Intra-abdominal pressure and activation of abdominal muscles in highly trained participants during sudden heavy trunk loadings.

Study Design: Ten participants were exposed to heavy sudden trunk loads as they might occur during patient handling.

Objectives: The aim was to observe if well-trained men and women use their full rate of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) development when exposed to heavy sudden trunk loads. Further, to elucidate to what degree the rectus abdominus muscle is activated when the IAP is developed.

Fast development of high intra-abdominal pressure when a trained participant is exposed to heavy, sudden trunk loads.

Study Design: This study focused on intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) during sudden trunk loads. Ten participants were exposed to heavy, sudden trunk loads as they might occur during patient handling.

Objectives: The aim was to study the development of intra-abdominal pressure when well-trained participants cope with heavy, sudden trunk loads.

Measures of low back function: a review of reproducibility studies.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to make a systematic literature review with preset quality criteria concerning reproducibility of the tests of the low back regarding strength, endurance and range of motion.

Design: Literature in Medline and local databases was reviewed for articles concerning the reproducibility of strength, endurance, and range of motion measurements.

Background: Measures of low back function are widely used, and are important for both clinical and research purposes in relation to low back problems.

The effect of different surfaces on biomechanical loading of shoulder and lumbar spine during pushing and pulling of two-wheeled containers.

Seven waste collectors pushed and pulled a two-wheeled container on three different surfaces: flagstones, paving stones, grass. Net torques at the shoulder joint and the lumbar spine as well as the compression and shear forces in the lumbar spine at the L4/L5 level were calculated for the tilting, initial and sustained phases. The lumbar spine compression force was below 1800N and the shear force was below 200 N in all situations.