Background: Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are a major cause of sickness absenteeism among health care workers (HCWs) and contribute significantly to overall productivity loss particularly during influenza epidemics. The purpose of this study is to quantify the increases in absenteeism during epidemics including the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic.
Methods: We analysed administrative data to determine patterns of sickness absence among HCWs in Hong Kong from January 2004 through December 2009, and used multivariable linear regression model to estimate the excess all-cause and ARI-related sickness absenteeism rates during influenza epidemics.
Results: We found that influenza epidemics prior to the 2009 pandemic and during the 2009 pandemic were associated with 8.4 % (95 % CI: 5.6-11.2 %) and 57.7 % (95 % CI: 54.6-60.9 %) increases in overall sickness absence, and 26.5 % (95 % CI: 21.4-31.5 %) and 90.9 % (95 % CI: 85.2-96.6 %) increases in ARI-related sickness absence among HCWs in Hong Kong, respectively. Comparing different staff types, increases in overall absenteeism were highest among medical staff, during seasonal influenza epidemic periods (51.3 %, 95 % CI: 38.9-63.7 %) and the pandemic mitigation period (142.1 %, 95 % CI: 128.0-156.1 %).
Conclusions: Influenza epidemics were associated with a substantial increase in sickness absence and productivity loss among HCWs in Hong Kong, and there was a much higher rate of absenteeism during the 2009 pandemic. These findings could inform better a more proactive workforce redistribution plans to allow for sufficient surge capacity in annual epidemics, and for pandemic preparedness.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-015-1316-y | DOI Listing |
BMC Public Health
January 2025
Department of Urban Planning and Design, the University of Hong Kong, 8/F, Knowles Building, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Background: Emerging research found air pollution may be associated with incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. However, few studies have examined these associations at the global scale. This study aimed to assess the dynamic associations between ambient air pollution and the burden of AD and other dementias worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Hangzhou Fancha Technology, Hangzhou, China.
Civic honesty is a crucial behavior that policymakers and business leaders strive to promote among citizens and employees. We conducted online and field experiments in China adapting the setting of a recent research which employed an innovative design to study civic honesty behavior around the globe. Results show that the psychological mechanism underlying lost-wallet reporting behavior in China is somewhat different from what has been suggested in the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Analog In-memory Computing (IMC) has demonstrated energy-efficient and low latency implementation of convolution and fully-connected layers in deep neural networks (DNN) by using physics for computing in parallel resistive memory arrays. However, recurrent neural networks (RNN) that are widely used for speech-recognition and natural language processing have tasted limited success with this approach. This can be attributed to the significant time and energy penalties incurred in implementing nonlinear activation functions that are abundant in such models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
School of Safety Science and Engineering (School of Emergency Management), Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, People's Republic of China.
Powder-based fire extinguishing agents have become a kind of promising substitutes for halon extinguishing agents in civil aircrafts. However, their storage lifespan, significantly influenced by the thermal aging, emerges as a crucial yet overlooked aspect for aviation use. This study investigates the effects of thermal aging cycles on various parameters of ordinary dry powder extinguishing agent (ODPEA) and novel superhydrophobic and oleophobic ultra-fine dry powder extinguishing agent (SHOU DPEA), including surface microscopic morphology, D90 (the diameter at which 90% of the cumulative volume of particles are equal to or smaller than this value), chemical structure, hydrophobic and oleophobic angles, flowability, extinguishing time and effectiveness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOncogene
January 2025
Department of Women's Health Educational System, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 0608638, Japan.
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