Impact of work schedule characteristics on teacher mental health and burnout symptoms while remote working.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers quickly shifted to remote teaching with many teachers experiencing increased work demands with limited resources, affecting both mental health and work.

Methods: Within a cross-sectional study, we evaluated the relationship between one type of work demand, non-standard work schedule characteristics, and depressive and burnout symptoms in kindergarten through 8th grade U.S.

Continuous physiological signal measurement over 24-hour periods to assess the impact of work-related stress and workplace violence.

Work-related stress has long been recognized as an essential factor affecting employees' health and wellbeing. Repeated exposure to acute occupational stressors puts workers at high risk for depression, obesity, hypertension, and early death. Assessment of the effects of acute stress on workers' wellbeing usually relies on subjective self-reports, questionnaires, or measuring biometric and biochemical markers in long-cycle time intervals.

The development and initial validation of a new working time scale for full-time workers with non-standard schedules.

Background: Working time characteristics have been used to link work schedule features to health impairment; however, extant working time exposure assessments are narrow in scope. Prominent working time frameworks suggest that a broad range of schedule features should be assessed to best capture non-standard schedules. The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional scale that assesses working time exposures and test its reliability and validity for full-time workers with non-standard schedules.

Precarious Work Schedules and Sleep: A Study of Unionized Full-Time Workers.

Unlabelled: Unlike which is temporary and insecure, with inadequate pay, benefits, and legal protections, can affect workers with permanent full-time jobs in sectors where employment has historically been secure, well-compensated, and even unionized. Precarious work schedules - characterized by long shifts, non-daytime hours, intensity and unsocial work hours - are increasingly prevalent. Relations between precarious work schedules and poor health are not well understood, and less is known about how to attenuate this relation.

Associations between observed time sitting at work and musculoskeletal symptoms: a repeated-measures study of manufacturing workers.

Time sitting at work is known to affect health overall, but its specific effects on musculoskeletal symptoms are unclear. We evaluated the relationship between observed time sitting at work and self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms among 195 manufacturing workers. Longer time sitting at work was significantly associated with lower prevalence of neck/shoulder (prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.

Worker perspectives on the impact of non-standard workdays on worker and family well-being: A qualitative study.

Background: Non-standard work schedules (NSWSs), occurring outside of regular and predictable daytime hours, may negatively affect worker and family health. This qualitative study sought to understand worker perspectives on the health and well-being impacts of NSWSs among full-time, transportation maintainers, correctional, and manufacturing workers.

Methods: Forty-nine workers participated in 8 focus groups.

Evaluation of the HearWell Pilot Program: A Participatory Approach to Hearing Conservation.

Our objective was to pilot test HearWell, an intervention created to preserve hearing among highway maintainers, by using a participatory (TWH) approach to designing, implementing and evaluating interventions. Regional maintenance garages were randomized to control ( = 6); HearWell ( = 4) or HearWell Design Team ( = 2) arms. Maintainer representatives from the HearWell Design Team garages identified barriers to hearing health and collaborated to design interventions including a safety leadership training for managers, a noise hazard management scheme to identify noise levels and indicate the hearing protection device (HPD) needed, and a comprehensive HearWell training video and protocol.

Comparison of the Wrist-Worn Fitbit Charge 2 and the Waist-Worn Actigraph GTX3 for Measuring Steps Taken in Occupational Settings.

Objectives: If consumer-based monitors such as Fitbit can measure activity accurately, it could provide opportunities for improved assessment of physical activity in general and at work for research purposes. The accuracy of the Fitbit has hardly been investigated in an occupational setting.

Methods: We compared measurements of steps taken at work, out-of-work, and in total of a wrist-worn Fitbit to a waist-worn Actigraph.

Technology Use and Preferences for Minority Diabetes Self-Management Application.

We describe technology use and preferences of minority patients with diabetes who participated in focus groups in order to help design a mobile/online health application (or, app) to assist with diabetes self-management. Self-management apps should include health-related data and suggestions about food. The authors close by recommending additional considerations for future self-management mobile/online apps.

Working Time Characteristics and Mental Health among Corrections and Transportation Workers.

Objectives: Mental health disorders are a leading cause of work disability and while the psychosocial workplace environment plays a critical role, working time characteristics are also implicated. We sought to examine the association between working time characteristics and mental health in a cohort of two unionized, full-time worker populations, correctional supervisors, and transportation maintainers.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, we surveyed workers on working time characteristics across seven domains including length of the shift, the intensity or proximity of sequential shifts, the time of day, and social aspects of work hours including predictability, variability, control, and free time.

Development and application of a noise-hazard scheme for road maintainers.

Background: Transportation road maintenance and repair workers, or "maintainers," are exposed to hazardous and variable noise levels and often rely on hearing protection devices (HPD) to reduce noise-exposure levels. We aimed to improve upon HPD use as part of the HearWell program that used a Total Worker Health, participatory approach to hearing conservation.

Methods: Full-shift, personal noise sampling was performed during the routine task of brush cutting.

Safety climate, hearing climate and hearing protection device use among transportation road maintainers.

Background: It is important to understand workplace factors including safety climate that influence hearing protection device (HPD) use. We sought to investigate the association between HPD use, safety climate, and hearing climate, a new measure specific to hearing.

Methods: A survey was developed and distributed among transportation "maintainers" who perform road maintenance and repair.

Predicting Forearm Physical Exposures During Computer Work Using Self-Reports, Software-Recorded Computer Usage Patterns, and Anthropometric and Workstation Measurements.

Objectives: Alternative techniques to assess physical exposures, such as prediction models, could facilitate more efficient epidemiological assessments in future large cohort studies examining physical exposures in relation to work-related musculoskeletal symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate two types of models that predict arm-wrist-hand physical exposures (i.e.

Predicting Directly Measured Trunk and Upper Arm Postures in Paper Mill Work From Administrative Data, Workers' Ratings and Posture Observations.

Objectives: A cost-efficient approach for assessing working postures could be to build statistical models for predicting results of direct measurements from cheaper data, and apply these models to samples in which only the latter data are available. The present study aimed to build and assess the performance of statistical models predicting inclinometer-assessed trunk and arm posture among paper mill workers. Separate models were built using administrative data, workers' ratings of their exposure, and observations of the work from video recordings as predictors.

Differences in the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among female and male custodians.

Background: The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among custodians is high. We sought to compare musculoskeletal symptoms between female and male custodians and to explore how task might affect this relationship.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among 712 custodians who completed a survey assessing upper extremity, back, and lower extremity musculoskeletal symptoms and exposure to cleaning tasks.

Time Course of Heart Rate Variability Response to PM2.5 Exposure from Secondhand Smoke.

Purpose: Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) has been associated with decreased heart rate variability (HRV). However, the time course of this association is unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the association between 15-240 minute SHS-related fine particulate matter (PM2.

Demographic, health-related, and work-related factors associated with body mass index and body fat percentage among workers at six Connecticut manufacturing companies across different age groups: a cohort study.

Background: Effective workplace interventions that consider the multifactorial nature of obesity are needed to reduce and prevent obesity among adults. Furthermore, the factors associated with obesity may differ for workers across age groups. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify demographic, health-related, and work-related factors associated with baseline and changes in body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) and among Connecticut manufacturing workers acrossage groups.

A Comparison of Two Strategies for Building an Exposure Prediction Model.

Cost-efficient assessments of job exposures in large populations may be obtained from models in which 'true' exposures assessed by expensive measurement methods are estimated from easily accessible and cheap predictors. Typically, the models are built on the basis of a validation study comprising 'true' exposure data as well as an extensive collection of candidate predictors from questionnaires or company data, which cannot all be included in the models due to restrictions in the degrees of freedom available for modeling. In these situations, predictors need to be selected using procedures that can identify the best possible subset of predictors among the candidates.

Characterization of Urinary Phthalate Metabolites Among Custodians.

Phthalates, a ubiquitous class of chemicals found in consumer, personal care, and cleaning products, have been linked to adverse health effects. Our goal was to characterize urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and to identify work and nonwork sources among custodians using traditional cleaning chemicals and 'green' or environmentally preferable products (EPP). Sixty-eight custodians provided four urine samples on a workday (first void, before shift, end of shift, and before bedtime) and trained observers recorded cleaning tasks and types of products used (traditional, EPP, or disinfectant) hourly over the work shifts.

Traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure and health symptoms in custodians.

Background: We investigated the associations between traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure and dermal, respiratory, and musculoskeletal symptoms in a population of custodians.

Methods: We analyzed associations between symptoms and exposure to traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure among 329 custodians.

Results: We observed increased odds of dermal (P < 0.

Office workers with high effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment have greater decreases in heart rate variability over a 2-h working period.

Purpose: High levels of workplace psychosocial factors have been associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, possibly through the pathway of increasing autonomic arousal. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the workplace psychosocial factors of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and overcommitment were associated with greater decreases in heart rate variability (HRV) across a 2-h working period in a cohort of office workers performing their own work at their own workplaces.

Methods: Measurements of HRV in 5-min time epochs across a 2-h morning or afternoon working period, as well as self-reports of ERI and overcommitment, were collected for 91 office workers.

Examination of computer task exposures in radiologists: a work systems approach.

Radiologists are intensive computer users as they review and interpret radiological examinations using the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). Since their computer tasks require the prolonged use of pointing devices, a high prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) is reported. The first phase of this study involved conducting a Cognitive Work Analysis in conjunction with a Participatory Ergonomics approach to perform a total work system analysis.

Hyperglycemia and infections in pediatric trauma patients.

Hyperglycemia has been associated with poor outcome in children with head injuries and burns. However, there has not been a correlation noted between hyperglycemia and infections in severely injured children. The trauma registry of a Level I trauma center was queried for injured children <13 years admitted between July 1, 1999 and August 31, 2003.