Development and psychometric evaluation of a Total Worker Health® practice scale.

Objective: Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals increasingly need to assess and mitigate a broad scope of worker safety, health, and well-being concerns that extend beyond traditional OSH training curricula. Work-related and non-work-related psychosocial hazards, chronic physical and mental health conditions, and changing work arrangements call for an integrative, public health approach to occupational risk management; this approach has been called, "Total Worker Health®" by United States public health authorities (Schulte et al. 2019).

Life satisfaction and job and personal resources among public workers with non-standard work schedules.

Background: While the link between non-standard work schedules and poor health outcomes is established, few studies have examined how resources both in and outside of work can support the well-being of workers with non-standard work schedules.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey, we assessed the association between one facet of well-being, life satisfaction, and job and personal resources. In 2019, an electronic survey was administered to two unionized, public service populations who work non-standard work schedules: transportation maintainers and correctional supervisors.

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.

Qualitative Assessment of Perceived Organizational Support for Employed Breast Cancer Survivors.

Objective: A more detailed understanding of unmet organizational support needs and workplace-based best practices for supporting cancer survivors is needed.

Methods: Ninety-four working breast cancer survivors responded to an open-ended survey question regarding the desired types of organizational support that were and were not received during early survivorship. We performed content-analysis of qualitative data.

Participatory design of a sleep intervention with correctional supervisors using a root causes approach.

Background: After a Design Team (DT) conducted a workforce health assessment of correctional supervisors, they selected sleep as an intervention priority, given its numerous health and work consequences. Existing workplace sleep interventions are designed with little worker input, but participatory solutions that incorporate workers' lived experiences and root causes of poor sleep may be more relevant, appropriate, and acceptable to end-users, resulting in better uptake.

Methods: The DT met bi-monthly to complete the Intervention Design and Analysis Scorecard (IDEAS) tool to brainstorm interventions that address root causes of poor sleep, and evaluate, rank, and select interventions for implementation.

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.

Scale-out of a Total Worker Health® approach for designing interventions to reduce teacher stress: pilot implementation evaluation.

Background: Teachers have high rates of daily stress and the majority of available interventions are focused at the teacher-level. Yet, best practices in Total Worker Health® approaches indicate organization-level interventions identified using a participatory approach are most effective. We conducted an exploratory scale-out pilot study to examine the adoption of the Healthy Workplace Participatory Program (HWPP), an evidence-based, Total Worker Health approach to engage employees (e.

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.

Participatory Assessment and Selection of Workforce Health Intervention Priorities for Correctional Supervisors.

Objective: A team of academics and unionized correctional supervisors collaborated to assess workforce health and determine intervention priorities using participatory methods and tools.

Methods: Correctional supervisors took a web-based survey. Univariate and bivariate tests examined attitudes/behaviors, exposures, and outcomes most strongly associated with health; risk based on rank within chain-of-command; and health behaviors amenable to change.

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.

The effects of a new seat suspension system on whole body vibration exposure and driver low back pain and disability: Results from a randomized controlled trial in truck drivers.

Through a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the effects of an electro-magnetic active seat suspension that reduces exposure of a long-haul truck driver to whole body vibration (WBV) on low back pain (LBP) and disability. Among 276 drivers recruited from six trucking terminals of a major US trucking company, 135 eligible drivers were assigned to either having an Active Seat (Intervention: n = 70) - the BoseRide® electro-magnetic active seat - or Passive Seat (reference: n = 65) - a new version of their current seat (passive air suspension seat) - installed in their truck via block (terminal) randomization. Low back pain (LBP) severity, on a 0-10 scale and the Oswestry LBP Disability Index were collected before and 3-, 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-months post seat installation.

Leisure-Time Physical Activity and General Health Mitigate Effects of Job Demands on Nonrestorative Sleep: CDC National Healthy Worksite Project.

Objective: We sought to determine if leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) modified the adverse relationship between high job demands and nonrestorative sleep (NRS).

Methods: We conducted a multivariate logistic regression analysis among workers from the cross-sectional National Healthy Worksite Project (n = 4683) using self-report Likert-Scale data on psychological and physical demands of jobs, LTPA and general health in relation to NRS.

Results: Not engaging in LTPA was associated with NRS for workers with jobs at the lowest or highest levels of the physical demand scale (OR 1.

Exposure, health effects, sensing, and remediation of the emerging PFAS contaminants - Scientific challenges and potential research directions.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) make up a large group of persistent anthropogenic chemicals which are difficult to degrade and/or destroy. PFAS are an emerging class of contaminants, but little is known about the long-term health effects related to exposure. In addition, technologies to identify levels of contamination in the environment and to remediate contaminated sites are currently inadequate.

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.

Participatory survey design of a workforce health needs assessment for correctional supervisors.

Introduction: The correctional workforce experiences persistent health problems, and interventions designed with worker participation show favorable outcomes. However, participatory intervention research often leaves workers out of the health needs assessment, the basis of interventions subsequently developed. This omission risks failure to detect factors contributing to the health and is less likely to result in primary prevention interventions.

Perceptions of clinical support for employed breast cancer survivors managing work and health challenges.

Purpose: A substantial portion of breast cancer survivors are active in the workforce, yet factors that allow survivors to balance work with cancer management and to return to work are poorly understood. We examined breast cancer survivors' most valued/desired types of support in early survivorship.

Methods: Seventy-six employed breast cancer survivors answered an open-ended survey question assessing the most valued/desired support to receive from healthcare providers during early survivorship to manage work and health.

Defining 'Integration' for Total Worker Health®: A New Proposal.

The effects of work and the conditions of employment on health behaviors and intermediate health conditions have been demonstrated, to the extent that these relationships should be addressed in efforts to prevent chronic disease. However, conventional health promotion practice generally focuses on personal risk factors and individual behavior change. In an effort to find solutions to the myriad of health challenges faced by the American workforce, the U.

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.

GuLF DREAM: A Model to Estimate Dermal Exposure Among Oil Spill Response and Clean-up Workers.

Tens of thousands of individuals performed oil spill response and clean-up (OSRC) activities following the 'Deepwater Horizon' oil drilling rig explosion in 2010. Many were exposed to oil residues and dispersants. The US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences assembled a cohort of nearly 33 000 workers to investigate potential adverse health effects of oil spill exposures.

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.

Spatial and temporal determinants of A-weighted and frequency specific sound levels-An elastic net approach.

Background: Urban sound levels are a ubiquitous environmental stressor and have been shown to be associated with a wide variety of health outcomes. While much is known about the predictors of A-weighted sound pressure levels in the urban environment, far less is known about other frequencies.

Objective: To develop a series of spatial-temporal sound models to predict A-weighted sound pressure levels, low, mid, and high frequency sound for Boston, Massachusetts.

The Characterization of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Northeastern US Trucking Terminals.

In recent years, significant attention has been given to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposures given their mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. However, levels of exposure and the key determinants of exposure are not well defined for the trucking industry. We measured ultrafine particle characteristics at 10 trucking terminals of varying operating size and location in the Northeast region of the United States using particle concentration counter and a surface area analyzer.