Consistency between the ACGIH TLV for hand activity and proposed action levels for wrist velocity and forearm muscular load based on objective measurements: an example from the assembly industry.

This study aimed to investigate the consistency between results of the American Conference for Governmental Occupational Hygienists (ACGIH) threshold limit value (TLV) for hand activity and proposed action levels of objective measurements in risk assessments of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Wrist velocities and forearm muscular load were measured for 11 assemblers during one working day. Simultaneously, each assembler's hand activity level (HAL) during three sub-cycles was rated twice on two separate occasions by two experts, using a HAL scale.

School Principals' Work Participation in an Extended Working Life-Are They Able to, and Do They Want to? A Quantitative Study of the Work Situation.

The objective of this study is to increase the knowledge regarding school principals' work situations by examining the associations between various factors and the school principals' assessments of their ability or wish to work until 65 years of age or longer. The 1356 participating school principals in this study were aged between 50 and 64 years of age. Individual and work factors were evaluated in relation to two dichotomized outcomes: i.

A framework for participatory work environment interventions in home care - success factors and some challenges.

Background: Home care is beset with work environment issues and high staff turnover, while research concerned with interventions to improve the work environment is sparse. Few of the existing interventions apply a participative approach, despite this being associated with more positive outcomes and sustainable change. This paper presents a framework, rooted in action research and action learning, for participatory work environment interventions in home care, and demonstrates how this framework has been implemented in four Swedish home care organizations.

Supportive and demanding managerial circumstances and associations with excellent workability: a cross-sectional study of Swedish school principals.

Background: The leadership of principals is important for school, teacher and student related outcomes. To be capable of doing their work (i.e.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Associations between Occupational Factors, Signs of Exhaustion, and the Intention to Change Workplace among Swedish Principals.

A high turnover among principals may disrupt the continuity of leadership and negatively affect teachers and, by extension, the students. The aim was to investigate to what extent various work environment factors and signs of exhaustion were associated with reported intentions to change workplace among principals working in compulsory schools. A web-based questionnaire was administered twice, in 2018 and in 2019.

Organizational and social work environment factors, occupational balance and no or negligible stress symptoms among Swedish principals - a cross-sectional study.

Background: Few studies have assessed the mental health of principals, or studied associations with both organizational and social work environment factors and occupational balance. The purpose of the present study was therefore to investigate associations between supporting and demanding organizational and social work environment factors, occupational balance and stress symptoms in principals.

Methods: A total of 4309 surveys (2316 from the first round, 1992 from the second round), representing 2781 Swedish principals who had responded to at least one of two surveys, were included in the present study.

Action Levels for the Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Neck and Upper Extremities: A Proposal.

There are several well-known risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Despite this knowledge, too many people still work in harmful conditions. The absence of occupational exposure limits (OELs) for physical workload impedes both supervision and preventive work.

Prevalence of exhaustion symptoms and associations with school level, length of work experience and gender: a nationwide cross-sectional study of Swedish principals.

Background: While poor mental health and psychiatric disorders attributed to stressful work conditions are a public health concern in many countries, the health consequences of the occupational stress experienced by school principals is an understudied issue. Although current data is lacking, some research suggests that principals have a stressful work situation that eventually may lead to burnout and exhaustion disorder, thus negatively affecting the ability of principals to function as leaders. To gauge the situation in Sweden, and as a basis for future preventive actions, we examined to what extent principals displayed signs of exhaustion and whether the prevalence rates of exhaustion differed across school levels, length of work experience as a principal, and gender.

The impact of occupational and personal factors on musculoskeletal pain - a cohort study of female nurses, sonographers and teachers.

Background: Musculoskeletal pain is common in the general population and constitutes a major public health problem. A large proportion of these conditions may be work related. The aim of this study was to explore the relative importance of physical, psychosocial and personal factors, in number of pain sites and in five specific pain sites, among women in common professions with a broad variety of occupational exposures.

Picking low hanging fruit - A scoping review of work environment related interventions in the home care sector.

Home care for elderly people is an important part of the social welfare system. The sector employs many people, especially women, and work environment issues are common. This review explores the scientific literature on organizational interventions that target the home care work environment.

Neck and upper extremity pain in sonographers - a longitudinal study.

Background: Sonographers have reported a high occurrence of musculoskeletal pain for more than 25 years. Assessments of occupational risk factors have previously been based on cross-sectional surveys. The aim of this longitudinal study was to determine which factors at baseline that were associated with neck/shoulder and elbow/hand pain at follow-up.

Burnout among school teachers: quantitative and qualitative results from a follow-up study in southern Sweden.

Background: Teachers are at high risk of stress-related disorders. This longitudinal study aimed to (a) identify which occupational, sociodemographic and life-style factors and self-efficacy at baseline that were of importance for burnout, (b) explore associations between changes in the studied factors versus changes in burnout, and (c) by interviews increase the understanding of perceived job demands among teachers.

Methods: A cohort of 310 Swedish teachers in school-years 4-9 responded to a questionnaire of occupational, sociodemographic and life-style factors, self-efficacy and burnout, at baseline and at follow-up (mean 30 months later).

Work-related neck and upper limb disorders - quantitative exposure-response relationships adjusted for personal characteristics and psychosocial conditions.

Background: We have previously reported quantitative exposure-response relationships between physical exposures recorded by technical methods, and complaints and diagnoses in the neck/shoulders, and the elbows/hands, based on group data. In the present study the number of workers was doubled, and information on individual factors, and psychosocial working conditions was used. Relationships between various kinds of exposure and response have been analysed in this larger and more detailed sample.

Assessments of Physical Workload in Sonography Tasks Using Inclinometry, Goniometry, and Electromyography.

Background: Echocardiography involves strenuous postures of the upper limbs. This study explored the physical workload in the neck and upper limbs in sonographers performing echocardiography, and the extent to which the workload differs from than in other work tasks (other sonographic examinations, and nonsonographic tasks).

Methods: The physical load was assessed by inclinometry, goniometry, and electromyography methods in 33 female sonographers during authentic work using three different echocardiography techniques and other work tasks.

Neck and upper extremity pain in sonographers - Associations with occupational factors.

Sonographers have a high risk of musculoskeletal disorders. This study explores the associations between working conditions and musculoskeletal pain based on the frequency and intensity of pain in the neck and upper extremities. A questionnaire was answered by 291 female sonographers.

Burnout among Swedish school teachers - a cross-sectional analysis.

Background: Teachers are at high risk of stress-related disorders. This study aimed to examine the occurrence of burnout in a sample of Swedish school-teachers, to test a combined measure of three burnout dimensions on the individual level, to characterize associations between burnout and factors encountered during work and leisure time, and to explore any differences between the genders.

Methods: A questionnaire of occupational, sociodemographic and life-style factors was answered by 490 teachers in school years 4-9.

Opting to wear prismatic spectacles was associated with reduced neck pain in dental personnel: a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate effects on perceived exertion, work ability self-reported neck pain and clinically diagnosed conditions in the neck, of an intervention with prismatic spectacles among dental personnel.

Methods: In this cohort study a baseline questionnaire including questions about frequency of neck pain, perceived exertion during work and background information was distributed to dental personnel in municipal dental care units. In connection, personnel from 78 out of 110 dental care units underwent a clinical neck examination and rated their perceived work ability with the single-item question from the Work Ability Index.

Exposure-response relationships for work-related neck and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders--Analyses of pooled uniform data sets.

There is a lack of quantitative data regarding exposure-response relationships between occupational risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders in the neck and shoulders. We explored such relationships in pooled data from a series of our cross-sectional studies. We recorded the prevalence of complaints/discomfort (Nordic Questionnaire) and diagnoses (physical examination) in 33 groups (24 female and 9 male) within which the workers had similar work tasks (3141 workers, of which 817 were males).

Cross-sectional associations between occupational factors and musculoskeletal pain in women teachers, nurses and sonographers.

Background: It is usually assumed that musculoskeletal pain is associated with both the physical workload and the psychosocial work environment, as well as with personal and lifestyle factors. This study aims to ascertain the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in women with varying or different occupational exposures, and to explore the associations between musculoskeletal pain and the occupational and personal factors.

Methods: A questionnaire on physical, psychosocial and individual factors was answered by 1591 women in five occupational groups with contrasting occupational exposures (teachers, anaesthetic, theatre, and assistant nurses, and sonographers).

Health surveillance under adverse ergonomics conditions--validity of a screening method adapted for the occupational health service.

A new health surveillance protocol for work-related upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders has been validated by comparing the results with a reference protocol. The studied protocol, Health Surveillance in Adverse Ergonomics Conditions (HECO), is a new version of the reference protocol modified for application in the Occupational Health Service (OHS). The HECO protocol contains both a screening part and a diagnosing part.

Exposure-response relationships in work-related musculoskeletal disorders in elbows and hands - A synthesis of group-level data on exposure and response obtained using uniform methods of data collection.

There is a serious lack of quantitative data regarding exposure-response relationships between occupational risk factors and musculoskeletal elbow and hand disorders. This paper explores such relationships in group-level data from our earlier cross-sectional studies. Prevalence of complaints (Nordic Questionnaire) and diagnoses (physical examination) were recorded in 19 groups of female workers (1891 individuals), and 8 groups of male workers (761 individuals), with highly similar work tasks within each group.

Rationalization in meat cutting - consequences on physical workload.

Meat cutting is associated with several ergonomic risk factors and a high risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The development of new production systems points to an increased degree of mechanization; instead of subdividing split carcasses of pigs with a knife, the halves are trisected by an electrical saw into 'sixth-parts', resulting in shorter work cycles for the workers. Recently, machine-directed line-production systems have been implemented.

Ergonomics in the operating room.

Surgical staff is considered to have several ergonomic risk factors, but their physical workload and musculoskeletal health have seldom been evaluated. Clinical examinations of neck and upper extremities were performed in 99 theatre nurses and 93 assisting nurses, all females. Their physical workload was assessed by questionnaire, and by technical measurements of postures, movements and muscular load in subgroups of both categories.

Discrepancies in pain presentation caused by adverse psychosocial conditions as compared to pain due to high physical workload?

Disorders in the musculoskeletal system have been associated with a high physical workload as well as psychosocial and individual factors. It is however not obvious which of these factors that is most important to prevent. Musculoskeletal disorders in neck and upper extremity was assessed by interview and clinical examination in 79 teachers and 93 assisting nurses, all females.