Predicting COVID-19 Cases in Nursing Homes of California and Ohio: Does the Work Environment Matter?

Objective: The cross-sectional study evaluates if the prepandemic work environments in nursing homes predict coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases among residents and staff, accounting for other factors.

Method: Leveraging data from a survey of California and Ohio nursing homes (n = 340), we examined if Workplace Integrated Safety and Health domains - Leadership, Participation, and Comprehensive and Collaborative Strategies predicted cumulative COVID-19 cases among nursing home residents and staff.

Results: In Ohio, a 1-unit increase in Leadership score was associated with 2 fewer staff cases and 4 fewer resident cases.

Can Better Leadership Reduce Nursing Home Staff Turnover?

Objectives: To assess whether a measure of leadership support for worker safety, health, and well-being predicts staff turnover in nursing homes after controlling for other factors.

Design: This paper uses administrative payroll data to measure facility-level turnover and uses a survey measure of nursing home leadership commitment to workers. In addition, we use data from Medicare to measure various nursing home characteristics.

Thriving from Work Questionnaire: Dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the long and short form questionnaires.

Introduction: Thriving from Work is defined as the state of positive mental, physical, and social functioning in which workers' experiences of their work and working conditions enable them to thrive in their overall lives, contributing to their ability to achieve their full potential at work, at home, and in the community. The purpose of this study was to develop a psychometrically-sound questionnaire measuring the positive contribution that work can have on one's well-being both at, and outside of, their work.

Methods: We used both a qualitative and quantitative approach of item reduction, domain mapping dimensionality testing, development of "long-" and "short-" versions of the questionnaire, reliability, and construct and criterion validity testing.

Rapid Antigen Screening of Students and Staff for SARS-CoV-2 in Rural School Districts, Pierce County, WA, 2020.

During fall 2020 in rural Pierce County, Washington, school districts and the county health department offered weekly rapid antigen screening to students and staff. Asymptomatic screening identified 42.5% of confirmed cases from the population.

Statin therapy inhibits fatty acid synthase via dynamic protein modifications.

Statins are a class of drug widely prescribed for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, with pleiotropic cellular effects. Statins inhibit HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR), which converts the metabolite HMG-CoA into mevalonate. Recent discoveries have shown HMG-CoA is a reactive metabolite that can non-enzymatically modify proteins and impact their activity.

Genome-wide association studies of metabolites in Finnish men identify disease-relevant loci.

Few studies have explored the impact of rare variants (minor allele frequency < 1%) on highly heritable plasma metabolites identified in metabolomic screens. The Finnish population provides an ideal opportunity for such explorations, given the multiple bottlenecks and expansions that have shaped its history, and the enrichment for many otherwise rare alleles that has resulted. Here, we report genetic associations for 1391 plasma metabolites in 6136 men from the late-settlement region of Finland.

Work and worker health in the post-pandemic world: a public health perspective.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of work in shaping population health and wellbeing. This Viewpoint applies a multilevel systems framework to assist in understanding the diverse and complex interactions of forces affecting worker health and wellbeing, and how trending changes in employment and working conditions have been accelerated by the pandemic. Government agencies concerned with population health and wellbeing, and economic activity must expand their capacity to monitor, evaluate, and respond to these trends.

Workplace Integrated Safety and Health Program Uptake in Nursing Homes: Associations with Ownership.

Workers in nursing homes are at high risk of occupational injury. Understanding whether-and which-nursing homes implement integrated policies to protect and promote worker health is crucial. We surveyed Directors of Nursing (DON) at nursing homes in three US states with the Workplace Integrated Safety and Health (WISH) assessment, a recently developed and validated instrument that assesses workplace policies, programs, and practices that affect worker safety, health, and wellbeing.

Implementation of an organizational intervention to improve low-wage food service workers' safety, health and wellbeing: findings from the Workplace Organizational Health Study.

Background: Many organizational interventions aim to improve working conditions to promote and protect worker safety, health, and well-being. The Workplace Organizational Health Study used process evaluation to examine factors influencing implementation of an organizational intervention. This paper examines the extent to which the intervention was implemented as planned, the dose of intervention implemented, and ways the organizational context hindered or facilitated the implementation of the intervention.

Thriving from Work: Conceptualization and Measurement.

Work is a major contributor to our health and well-being. Workers' thriving is directly influenced by their job design, work environment and organization. The purpose of this report is to describe the qualitative methods used to develop the candidate items for a novel measure of Thriving from Work through a multi-step iterative process including: a literature review, workshop, interviews with experts, and cognitive testing of the candidate items.

How to ask: Surveying nursing directors of nursing homes.

Background And Aims: Nursing home research may involve eliciting information from managers, yet response rates for Directors of Nursing have not been recently studied. As a part of a more extensive study, we surveyed all nursing homes in three states in 2018 and 2019, updating how to survey these leaders effectively. We focus on response rates as a measure of non-response error and comparison of nursing home's characteristics to their population values as a measure of representation error.

Development and application of an innovative instrument to assess work environment factors for injury prevention in the food service industry.

Background: With the growth the food service industry and associated high injury and illness rates, there is a need to assess workplace factors that contribute to injury prevention.

Objective: The objective of this report is to describe the development, application, and utility of a new instrument to evaluate ergonomics and safety for food service workers.

Methods: Starting with a similar tool developed for use in healthcare, a new tool was designed through a collaborative, participatory process with the stakeholders from a collaborating food service company.

Psychological well-being as part of the public health debate? Insight into dimensions, interventions, and policy.

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that psychological well-being (PWB) is associated with lower disease and mortality risk, and may be enhanced with relatively low-cost interventions. Yet, dissemination of these interventions remains limited, in part because insufficient attention has been paid to distinct PWB dimensions, which may impact physical health outcomes differently.

Methods: This essay first reviews the empirical evidence regarding differential relationships between all-cause mortality and multiple dimensions of PWB (e.

Deletion of the Mitochondrial Protein VWA8 Induces Oxidative Stress and an HNF4α Compensatory Response in Hepatocytes.

von Willebrand A domain-containing protein 8 (VWA8) is a poorly characterized, mitochondrial matrix-targeted protein with an AAA ATPase domain and ATPase activity that increases in livers of mice fed a high-fat diet. This study was undertaken to use CRISPR/Cas9 to delete VWA8 in cultured mouse hepatocytes and gain insight into its function. Unbiased omics techniques and bioinformatics were used to guide subsequent assays, including the assessment of oxidative stress and the determination of bioenergetic capacity.

Improving Working Conditions to Promote Worker Safety, Health, and Wellbeing for Low-Wage Workers: The Workplace Organizational Health Study.

This paper addresses a significant gap in the literature by describing a study that tests the feasibility and efficacy of an organizational intervention to improve working conditions, safety, and wellbeing for low-wage food service workers. The Workplace Organizational Health Study tests the hypothesis that an intervention targeting the work organization and environment will result in improvements in workers' musculoskeletal disorders and wellbeing. This ongoing study is being conducted in collaboration with a large food service company.