Education and Training to Build Capacity in Total Worker Health®: Proposed Competencies for an Emerging Field.

Objective: Establishment of core competencies for education and training of professionals entering the emerging field of Total Worker Health®.

Methods: Compilation and distillation of information obtained over a 5-year period from Total Worker Health symposia, workshops, and academic offerings, plus contributions from key stakeholders regarding education and training needs.

Results: A proposed set of Total Worker Health competencies aligns under six broad domains: Subject Matter Expertize; Advocacy and Engagement; Program Planning, Implementation and Evaluation; Communications and Dissemination; Leadership and Management; and Partnership Building and Coordination.

Obesity, Prediabetes, and Perceived Stress in Municipal Workers.

The primary cause of death for men and women in the United States is heart disease. Obesity and diabetes are major contributors to heart disease, and the risk is worsened in the presence of stress. It is clinically useful to identify predictors of obesity and prediabetes in a working population.

Incorporating occupational risk in heat stress vulnerability mapping.

Both obesity and strenuous outdoor work are known risk factors for heat-related illness (HRI). These risk factors may be compounded by more and longer periods of extreme heat in the southeastern U.S.

Occupational stress in veterinary support staff.

A mixed-method study was used to characterize the occupational stress, health status, and coping strategies of 104 members of the Alabama Veterinary Technician Association. A Web-based survey was used to administer three validated and reliable instruments to gather the quantitative data, and interviews were conducted to gather qualitative data. Quantitative and qualitative data validated each other in all aspects of mental health, indicating that veterinary support staff's mental health status was low.

Relationship of blood pressure self-monitoring, medication adherence, self-efficacy, stage of change, and blood pressure control among municipal workers with hypertension.

Uncontrolled blood pressure remains a major public health issue. Medication adherence is a key factor in blood pressure management; however, adherence behavior is not clearly understood and the most significant factors contributing to poor medication adherence and blood pressure control are unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of self-monitoring of blood pressure, medication adherence, self-efficacy, stage of change, and blood pressure control among municipal workers with access to health insurance.

Prevalence of blood pressure self-monitoring, medication adherence, self-efficacy, stage of change, and blood pressure control among municipal workers with hypertension.

Despite the availability of effective medications, hypertension remains inadequately managed in the United States. It has been established that medication adherence is a major strategy for controlling blood pressure. Combined interventions to promote adherence are promising, but further research is needed to understand which behaviors to target.

Occupational stress, job satisfaction and job performance among hospital nurses in Kampala, Uganda.

Aims: To assess levels of occupational stress, job satisfaction and job performance among hospital nurses in Kampala, Uganda; and how they are influenced by work and personal characteristics.

Background: Occupational stress is reported to affect job satisfaction and job performance among nurses, thus compromising nursing care and placing patients' lives at risk. Although these factors have been studied extensively in the US and Europe, there was a need to explore them from the Ugandan perspective.

Wood dust sampling: field evaluation of personal samplers when large particles are present.

Recent recommendations for wood dust sampling include sampling according to the inhalable convention of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 7708 (1995) Air quality--particle size fraction definitions for health-related sampling. However, a specific sampling device is not mandated, and while several samplers have laboratory performance approaching theoretical for an 'inhalable' sampler, the best choice of sampler for wood dust is not clear. A side-by-side field study was considered the most practical test of samplers as laboratory performance tests consider overall performance based on a wider range of particle sizes than are commonly encountered in the wood products industry.

The practice of the 10 essential services and abilities in the 14 core competencies of Alabama environmental health practitioners.

Leading public health agencies have developed guidelines for essential services and core competencies. The study described here was conducted to determine the level of practice of the 10 essential services and abilities in the 14 core competencies among environmental public health practitioners in Alabama. Questionnaires about the practice of the essential services, abilities in the core competencies, and demographics were collected from 255 (88%) practitioners and analyzed by statistical methods.