Sex and race disparities in the association between work characteristics and vitamin D deficiency: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2010.

Objectives: Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent worldwide; however, few large population-based studies have examined occupational risk factors. We examined associations between shift work, work schedule, hours worked, outdoor work, occupation and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels in the US working population.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 8601 workers from the 2005-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles.

Occupational physical demands and menstrual cycle irregularities in flight attendants and teachers.

Objectives: Flight attendants perform physically demanding work such as lifting baggage, pushing service carts and spending the workday on their feet. We examined if more frequent exposure to occupational physical demands could explain why previous studies have found that flight attendants have a higher reported prevalence of menstrual cycle irregularities than other workers.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 694 flight attendants and 120 teachers aged 18-44 years from three US cities.

Physical job demands in pregnancy and associated musculoskeletal health and employment outcomes: a systematic review.

Objective: A decline in musculoskeletal health during pregnancy is an underappreciated adverse outcome of pregnancy that can have immediate and long-term health consequences. High physical job demands are known risk factors for nontraumatic musculoskeletal disorders in the general working population. Evidence from meta-analyses suggest that occupational lifting and prolonged standing during pregnancy may increase risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Shiftwork, long working hours and markers of inflammation in a national US population-based sample of employed black and white men and women aged ≥45 years.

Objectives: Work schedule demands contribute to circadian disruption and may influence health via an inflammatory response. We examined the impact of shiftwork and long work hours on inflammation in a national US sample.

Methods: Participants included 12 487 employed black and white men and women aged ≥45 years enrolled in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study who completed an occupational questionnaire (2011-2013) and clinical examination (2013-2016).

Retirement and cognitive aging in a racially diverse sample of older Americans.

Background: Retirement represents a crucial transitional period for many adults with possible consequences for cognitive aging. We examined trajectories of cognitive change before and after retirement in Black and White adults.

Methods: Longitudinal examination of up to 10 years (mean = 7.

Racial differences in sleep duration intersect with sex, socioeconomic status, and U.S. geographic region: The REGARDS study.

Objectives: Short and long sleep duration are associated with poor health outcomes and are most prevalent among racial/ethnic minorities. Few studies have investigated the intersection of other sociodemographic characteristics with race/ethnicity on sleep duration prevalence.

Design: Longitudinal retrospective analysis of continental U.

Job complexity and hazardous working conditions: How do they explain educational gradient in mortality?

Although education's protective effects on health have been well recognized, specific mechanisms through which higher education is associated with better health are still debated. Occupation, although strongly shaped by education, has rarely been examined as a mediating mechanism. Education attainment is patterned by race in the United States, and the same education does not lead to similar occupations for members of different racial/ethnic groups.

Prevalence of workplace discrimination and mistreatment in a national sample of older U.S. workers: The REGARDS cohort study.

Although workplace discrimination and mistreatment (WDM) has recently drawn widespread media attention, our understanding of the prevalence of these phenomena remains limited. In the current study, we generated national prevalence estimates of WDM from a community-based cohort of employed black and white men and women aged ≥48 years. Measures of WDM in the current job were obtained by computer-assisted telephone interview (2011-2013) involving dichotomous responses (yes or no) to five questions and deriving a composite measure of discrimination (yes to at least one).

Environmental stress impairs photoreceptor outer segment (POS) phagocytosis and degradation and induces autofluorescent material accumulation in hiPSC-RPE cells.

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell dysfunction is central to the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of adult blindness. Aging, the single biggest risk factor for AMD development, favors increase in RPE autofluorescent material due to accumulation of POS-digestion by-products through lysosomal dysfunction and impaired POS degradation. Apart from aging, environmental agents affect lysosomal function in multiple model systems and are implicated in AMD.

Characterization of Human iPSC-RPE on a Prosthetic Bruch's Membrane Manufactured From Silk Fibroin.

Purpose: RPE cell transplantation as a potential treatment for AMD has been extensively investigated; however, in AMD, ultrastructural damage affects both the RPE and its underlying matrix support, the Bruch's membrane (BrM). An RPE monolayer supported by a surrogate scaffold could thus provide a more effective approach to cell-based therapy for AMD. Toward this goal, we aimed to establish a functional human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived (hiPSC)-RPE monolayer on a Bombyx mori silk fibroin (BMSF) scaffold.

Urinary cadmium concentration and the risk of ischemic stroke.

Objectives: To examine the association between urinary cadmium levels and the incidence of ischemic stroke and to explore possible effect modifications.

Methods: A case-cohort study was designed nested in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, including 680 adjudicated incident cases of ischemic stroke and 2,540 participants in a randomly selected subcohort. Urinary creatinine-corrected cadmium concentration was measured at baseline.

Serum mercury concentration and the risk of ischemic stroke: The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Trace Element Study.

Background: Although biologically plausible, epidemiological evidence linking exposure to methylmercury with increased risk of ischemic stroke is limited. The effects of methylmercury may be modified by selenium, which is an anti-oxidant that often co-exists with mercury in fish.

Objectives: To examine the association between serum mercury levels with the incidence of ischemic stroke and to explore the possible effect modifications by serum selenium levels and demographic and geographic factors.

The Role of Occupation in Explaining Cognitive Functioning in Later Life: Education and Occupational Complexity in a U.S. National Sample of Black and White Men and Women.

Objective: Positive associations between education and late-life cognition have been widely reported. This study examines whether occupational complexity mediates the relationship between education and late-life cognition, and whether the magnitude of mediation differs by race, gender, or education level.

Methods: Data were from a population-based cohort of non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites aged ≥45 years (n = 7,357).

Participation in a US community-based cardiovascular health study: investigating nonrandom selection effects related to employment, perceived stress, work-related stress, and family caregiving.

Purpose: Participation in health studies may be inversely associated with employment and stress. We investigated whether employment, perceived stress, work-related stress, and family caregiving were related to participation in a longitudinal US community-based health study of black and white men and women aged ≥45 years.

Methods: Prevalence ratios and confidence intervals were estimated for completion of the second stage (S2) of a two-stage enrollment process by employment (status, type), and stress (perceived stress, work-related stress, caregiving), adjusting for age, sex, race, region, income, and education.

Drusen in patient-derived hiPSC-RPE models of macular dystrophies.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and related macular dystrophies (MDs) are a major cause of vision loss. However, the mechanisms underlying their progression remain ill-defined. This is partly due to the lack of disease models recapitulating the human pathology.

Physical and Organizational Job Stressors in Pregnancy and Associations With Primary Cesarean Deliveries.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between exposure to physical and organizational job stressors during pregnancy and cesarean delivery.

Methods: We sampled 580 employed women in California who participated in a nested population-based case-control study of birth outcomes. Adjusted multivariate regression analyses estimated associations between heavy lifting, frequent bending, high noise, extreme temperature, prolonged standing and organizational stressors (shift work, inflexible schedules, effort-reward ratio), and primary cesarean (vs vaginal) delivery, controlling for covariates.

Prevalence of Cardiovascular Health by Occupation: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Among U.S. Workers Aged ≥45 Years.

Introduction: Identification of groups with poor cardiovascular health (CVH) can inform where and how to target public health efforts. National prevalence estimates of CVH were derived for clinical (blood glucose, total cholesterol, blood pressure) and behavioral (BMI, diet quality, physical activity, smoking) factors among U.S.

The Role of Occupational Status in the Association Between Job Strain and Ambulatory Blood Pressure During Working and Nonworking Days.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine whether job strain is more strongly associated with higher ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) among blue-collar workers compared with white-collar workers, to examine whether this pattern generalizes across working and nonworking days and across sex, and to examine whether this pattern is accounted for by psychosocial factors or health behaviors during daily life.

Methods: A total of 480 healthy workers (mean age = 43 years, 53% female) in the Adult Health and Behavior Project-Phase 2 completed ABP monitoring during 3 working days and 1 nonworking day. Job strain was operationalized as high psychological demand (> sample median) combined with low decision latitude ( View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biomechanical and organisational stressors and associations with employment withdrawal among pregnant workers: evidence and implications.

The distribution of exposure to biomechanical and organisational job stressors (BOJS) and associations with employment withdrawal (antenatal leave, unemployment) was examined in a case-control study of 1114 pregnant workers in California. We performed descriptive and multivariate logistic and multinomial regression analyses. At pregnancy onset, 57% were exposed to one or more biomechanical stressors, including frequent bending, heavy lifting and prolonged standing.

Influenza A Virus Protein PA-X Contributes to Viral Growth and Suppression of the Host Antiviral and Immune Responses.

Unlabelled: Influenza virus infection causes global inhibition of host protein synthesis in infected cells. This host shutoff is thought to allow viruses to escape from the host antiviral response, which restricts virus replication and spread. Although the mechanism of host shutoff is unclear, a novel viral protein expressed by ribosomal frameshifting, PA-X, was found to play a major role in influenza virus-induced host shutoff.

Miscarriage among flight attendants.

Background: Cosmic radiation and circadian disruption are potential reproductive hazards for flight attendants.

Methods: Flight attendants from 3 US airlines in 3 cities were interviewed for pregnancy histories and lifestyle, medical, and occupational covariates. We assessed cosmic radiation and circadian disruption from company records of 2 million individual flights.

Provisional recommended weight limits for manual lifting during pregnancy.

Objective: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Revised Lifting Equation (RNLE) was adapted to derive recommended weight limits (RWLs) for pregnant workers and to develop corresponding guidelines for clinicians.

Background: In the past three decades there has been a large increase in the number of women employed outside the home and remaining in the workforce during pregnancy. Practical authoritative guidelines based on accumulated evidence are needed to inform allowable work activity levels for healthy pregnant workers.

Methods and feasibility of collecting occupational data for a large population-based cohort study in the United States: the reasons for geographic and racial differences in stroke study.

Background: Coronary heart disease and stroke are major contributors to preventable mortality. Evidence links work conditions to these diseases; however, occupational data are perceived to be difficult to collect for large population-based cohorts. We report methodological details and the feasibility of conducting an occupational ancillary study for a large U.

Clinical guidelines for occupational lifting in pregnancy: evidence summary and provisional recommendations.

Empirically based lifting criteria established by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to reduce the risk of overexertion injuries in the general US working population were evaluated for application to pregnant workers. This report proposes criteria to guide decisions by medical providers about permissible weights for lifting tasks performed at work over the course of an uncomplicated pregnancy. Our evaluation included an extensive review of the literature linking occupational lifting to maternal and fetal health.

Associations of work hours with carotid intima-media thickness and ankle-brachial index: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Objectives: Long working hours may be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). The objective was to investigate cross-sectional associations of work hours with carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and ankle-brachial index (ABI).

Methods: Participants were 1694 women and 1868 men from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.