Exposure to hand-transmitted shocks is a widespread phenomenon in the workplace. Separate risk assessments for shocks do not exist in current international hand-arm vibration regulations, leading to potential underestimation of associated health risks. .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMobile work is becoming increasingly common, and it has been, consequently, associated with new health-related hazards and resources. Our study examined health-related stresses, strains and resources of mobile work in a medium-sized company. The study aimed to generate implications for a work agreement and for workplace health management (WHM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt Arch Occup Environ Health
August 2022
Objective: This study examines the effect of mobile work on work ability as direct predictor and as factor moderating workplace stressors and resources. Originally, the study focused on the effects of mobile work on work ability in a mobile test group compared to office workers. As the study period of 1 year collided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions, we can now explore the association of mobile work and work ability before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
January 2022
Working digitally can lead to changes in work organization and social interactions, as well as work pace and workload. Online counseling is more and more integrated in social counseling. Research exists on employees' and users' attitudes towards online counseling as well as on the advantages and disadvantages of online counseling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Limited hand function as the result of occupational exposure or accidental injury could primarily be of vascular origin. Since it is quite rarely seen in the course of routine traumatology, special awareness of this is needed.
Aim Of The Paper: The occupational diseases hypothenar/thenar hammer syndrome (occupational disease 2114) and vibration-induced vasospastic syndrome (occupational disease 2104) are presented on the basis of their etiological and pathogenetic characteristics, taking aspects of occupational medicine and expert opinion into consideration.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord
December 2021
Background: Meniscal lesions are common and are associated with the development of knee osteoarthritis. Knee-straining activities at work such as kneeling or squatting cause high biomechanical stresses on the knee joints that can lead to acute or chronic injuries. The objective of this systematic review is to update the evidence on the potential relationship between occupational risk factors and meniscal lesions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Intraoral matting sprays for chairside systems can release fine or ultrafine particles or nanoparticles at dentists' workplaces and cause work-related health problems by inhalation exposure. Until now, little is known about the magnitude of the ultrafine fraction, when using these scanning sprays. Hence, more information is needed for workplace risk assessments in dental practices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOn behalf of the Medical Advisory Committee for occupational diseases at the German Federal Ministry for Work and Social an interdisciplinary working group with medical experts in the field of casualty surgery, occupational health, orthopaedics, and radiology discussed the description of meniscopathy in the sense of the German occupational disease No. 2102. According to the medical guideline "Meniscopathy" of the German Society of Orthopaedics and Casualty Surgery (2015) meniscopathy is diagnosed clinically and radiologically by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Musculoskelet Disord
October 2019
Background: The aim of this review was to synthesize the evidence on the potential relationship between psychosocial work factors from the Areas of Worklife (AW) model (workload, job control, social support, reward, fairness, and values) and chronic low back pain (CLBP; unspecific pain in the lumbar region lasting 3 months or longer).
Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search of studies in Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL (1987 to 2018). Three authors independently assessed eligibility and quality of studies.
Z Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes
May 2018
In order to save and control the processes and quality of medical services, a suitable steering system of all relevant documents is essential from the point of view of clinical quality management. Systems supporting an automated steering system of documents are called document management systems (DMS), and they also enter the healthcare sector. The use of DMS in the German healthcare sector has hardly been investigated so far.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Multifactorial workloads such as whole-body vibration (WBV), awkward posture and heavy lifting are potential predictors for low back pain (LBP). In this study, we investigate the association between LBP and these exposures among 102 professional drivers.
Methods: The combined exposures of WBV and posture are measured at different workplaces.
Objective: Working conditions, such as walking and standing on hard surfaces, can increase the development of musculoskeletal complaints. At the interface between flooring and musculoskeletal system, safety shoes may play an important role in the well-being of employees. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different safety shoes on gait and plantar pressure distributions on industrial flooring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArsenic is ubiquitous and harmful to health in occupation and environment. Arsenic exposure is measured through analysis of arsenic compounds in urine. The identification of several arsenic species is necessary to understand the hazardous potential of the arsenic compounds which differ highly in their toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Promot Pract
November 2015
Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a worksite multicomponent health promotion intervention on eating behavior and attitudes, changes in body weight, and readiness to make eating behavior changes among workers over a 12-month intervention period.
Method: A total of 3,095 workers of a logistic company participated in a quasi-experimental comparison group study design. The intervention group received a multicomponent health training.
Background: Worksite health promotion programs have been identified as strongly effective in decreasing body weight and increasing awareness and change in health behavior. Aim of this study is to determine the effects of a multi-component intervention in workplace health promotion.
Methods: In a controlled study trail, 1,573 workers of a logistics company had the chance to participate in a one year worksite health promotion program.
Unlabelled: Due to the high cost of conducting field measurements, questionnaires are usually preferred for the assessment of physical workloads and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). This study compares the physical workloads of whole-body vibration (WBV) and awkward postures by direct field measurements and self-reported data of 45 occupational drivers. Manual materials handling (MMH) and MSDs were also investigated to analyse their effect on drivers' perception.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The examination of joint range of motion (RoM) is part of musculo-skeletal functional diagnostics, used, for example, in occupational examinations. Various examination methodologies exist that have been optimized for occupational medical practice, which means they were reduced to the most necessary and feasible measures and examinations for efficiency and usability reasons. Because of time constraints in medical examinations in occupational settings, visual inspection is commonly used to quantify joint RoM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInertial measurement units (IMU) are gaining increasing importance for human motion tracking in a large variety of applications. IMUs consist of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers which provide angular rate, acceleration, and magnetic field information, respectively. In scenarios with a permanently distorted magnetic field, orientation estimation algorithms revert to using only angular rate and acceleration information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To systematically analyse evidence on the incremental effect of work-related psychosocial risk factors on the development of neck and shoulder disorders, as reported in longitudinal studies.
Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in three data bases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO) until May 2009. The quality assessment leading to a methodological quality score of the included studies was conducted by two independent reviewers using a standardised checklist.
Background: Over-indebtedness is an increasing phenomenon in industrialised nations causing individual hardship and societal problems. Nonetheless, few studies have explored smoking among over-indebted individuals.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey (n=949) on retrospectively assessed changes in tobacco consumption was carried out in 2006 and 2007 among clients of 84 officially approved debt and insolvency counselling centres in Germany (response rate 39.
Although the relationship between psychosocial workplace conditions and musculoskeletal problems has been extensively studied, the causal impact of psychosocial workplace factors in the development of musculoskeletal problems remains unclear. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of baseline-adjusted prospective longitudinal studies estimating the lagged effect of psychosocial risk factors on musculoskeletal problems in industrialized work settings. A literature review was conducted by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO databases dated until August 2009.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Apart from objective exam results, the overall feeling of preparedness is important for a successful transition process from being a student to becoming a qualified doctor. This study examines the association between self-assessed deficits in medical skills and knowledge and the feeling of preparedness of junior doctors in order to determine which aspects of medical education need to be addressed in more detail in order to improve the quality of this transition phase and in order to increase patient safety.
Methods: A cohort of 637 doctors with up to two years of clinical work experience was included in this analysis and was asked about the overall feeling of preparedness and self-assessed deficits with regard to clinical knowledge and skills.
Purpose: This study examined the association between workplace factors and thinking about leaving clinical care by junior doctors (i.e., doctors in postgraduate training) in Germany, and used a gender-stratified approach to address the so-called feminization of medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt Arch Occup Environ Health
August 2012
Background: Most existing reviews focus on evidence for the association between neck and/or shoulder complaints and physical exposures at the workplace gathered from cross-sectional studies. In comparison, this review summarizes existing evidence from longitudinal studies only.
Methods: A systematic literature research was conducted in Medline and EMBASE (1975-2009), and all studies were scanned by at least two researchers according to strict inclusion criteria.