JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year:2017 | Volume:6 | Issue:2|Papers Count:6

Background: Performance related musculoskeletal and associated health issues are prominent amongst musicians. The aim of this study was to explore self-reported musculoskeletal and related health issues in undergraduate music students. A further goal was to ascertain how these problems impact students’ learning and playing their instruments.Materials and Methods: A longitudinal mixed method study was done over a period of three years with 145 undergraduate music students at the Department of Music, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa who completed a health survey, which included verbal statements to open-ended questions. The frequency and percentages of each quantitative variable were calculated using Excel software.Results: The results showed an overall 83% prevalence of musculoskeletal and related health problems among music students. The four most prominent problems cited were related to inappropriate tiredness, concentration problems, sleep disturbances and headaches. Prominent musculoskeletal problems included orofacial issues such as sinus problems, and pain experienced in the lower spine, upper spine, left and right forearm. Students were generally reticent to report problems to healthcare professionals, particularly if they were not musculoskeletal in nature.Conclusions: The current study shows that undergraduate music students at the University of Pretoria experience similar types of playing-related problems to students elsewhere in the world. However, there is a need to further probe and report playing-related musculoskeletal and its associated health problems at this institution as well as other tertiary institutions in South Africa. Furthermore, issues of diagnosis, treatment and impediments dedicated to specific instrument groups should be addressed.

Background: Hearing loss induced by noise is one of the well-known and main health problems of occupational exposures. As a result, the current study sought to examine the association between age, working experience, and smoking status and hearing loss among sugar factory workers.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 among 270 workers of a sugar factory in Fasa, Iran. Workplace noise was measured based on ISO 9612 by using Casella-Cel (model 450) sound level meter. Pure-tone audiometry test was performed by audiometry device (AC 40). Data were analyzed by SPSS software using independent two-sample t-test to compare the mean scores of hearing threshold in different age and work experience groups.Results: Out of 270 workers at the factory, 155 were exposed to noise exceeding 85 dB. Based on sound pressure level measurements, the major noise producing parts of the factory were steam boiler, furnace, turbine, drying, and welding sections. The results showed that the average hearing threshold at 4000 Hz in both ears was higher than other frequencies. This was followed by the hearing thresholds at frequencies of 8000 and 2000, 500, 1000 and 250 Hz, in that order. Noise had the strongest effect in the mentioned frequencies (P<0.05).Conclusions: The results indicated that smokers and older people were at higher risk of hearing loss compared to non-smokers and younger workers. Thus, it is suggested that policy makers minimize hearing loss among workers by taking noise controlling measures in departments that are exposed to excessive noise, training workers, conducting regular periodic hearing tests, and establishing a regular work-rest cycle.

Background: The determination of common diseases in a region is a medical and health priority of that region. Ocular emergencies can cause permanent vision loss if they are not recognized and treated promptly. Preserve vision of patients, We arranged this study in Moradi hospital (Kerman, Iran), to estimate our regional situation.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 2035 medical records of individuals referring to the ocular emergency unit of Moradi Hospital in 2015-2016 were assessed. Demographic information and type of injury,, were recorded in a checklist. The data were analyzed using chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests.Results: The mean age of the patients was 35.49 ± 13.69 years and the mean duration of time between occurrence of injury and referral was 2.59 ± 2.11 hours. In addition, 1902 (93.5%) participants were men The most common object causing injury was wood (0.8%) and chemical agent was acidic substances (0.8%). The causes of referral in order of frequency were ocular foreign body (OFB) (91.4%), lacerations (3.1%), chemical burns (1%), corneal abrasion (0.9%), glaucoma (0.8%), orbital cellulitis (0.6%), thermal burns (0.6%), infection (0.5%), artery occlusion (0.5%), corneal laceration (0.4%), hyphema (0.2%), and injuries caused by welding (0.2%). corneal laceration, OFB, corneal abrasion, glaucoma, and infection, lacerations, artery occlusion, and penetrating trauma more in men and 16-39 years (P<0.05).Conclusions: the majority of injuries were observed in men due to ocular foregin body related to occupational practice. Therefore, occupational ocular injuries should be reduced through a closer relationship between medicine and industries, and education on occupational accidents.

Background: Job burnout in an organization is mainly negatively related to important institutional and individual consequences. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of psychological capital on the relationship between spiritual intelligence and job burnout among the employees.Materials and Methods: This study was descriptive and correlational. Community consisted of all employees of the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran in 2017 of which 183 were selected through convenient sampling. The King’s Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, the Luthans’s Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory were used to collect the data. The content validity of the instruments was approved and their reliability was reported 0.89, 0.85, and 0.76, respectively. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, regression and the structural equation modeling.Results: There was a significant negative relationship between spiritual intelligence and job burnout (R=-0.37, P<0.01). Moreover, a significant negative relationship was observed between psychological capital and job burnout among the staff (R=-0.34, P<0.01). Ultimately, the results revealed that spiritual intelligence could affect job burnout among the employees through psychological capital.Conclusions: Spiritual intelligence directly and psychological capital as a mediator reduce job burn out. Therefore amplification of different psychological aspects among employers such as spiritual intelligence and specifically psychological capital would help their liveliness at work place and reduction of job burnout.

Background: Lighting is a basic need for human beings and affects their physical, physiological, and psychological behavior. The required level of lighting for visual performance must be provided in order to ensure health and wellbeing. Students spend much of their time studying in libraries, and thus, sufficient lighting is necessary in libraries. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine lighting intensity in university libraries in Rafsanjan, Iran.Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 13 university libraries of Rafsanjan in April 2014. To assess natural and total lighting intensity, the network method was used. Lighting intensity was measured in a total of 314 stations in the university libraries of Rafsanjan. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: The men’s section of the library of Vali-E-Asr University of Rafsanjan had the highest total lighting intensity (1265.40 ± 530.95 lx) and the men's section of the library of the School of Medicine, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, had the lowest total lighting intensity (91.06 ± 29.40 lx). Among the 13 study halls of the studied libraries, 4 (30.7%) halls had no windows. The lack of windows has an undesirable effect on the intensity of natural lighting.Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, the average lighting intensity in 50% of the studied libraries was less than the Iranian standard. Therefore, the redesigning and modification of the lighting systems of these libraries are necessary.

Background: Fatigue in the workers reduces the individual's resistance and eventually leads to the lower performance, increased errors and accidents. This study assessed the fatigue, mental workload and the correlation between them, in operating room personnel of Hamadan hospitals, Iran.Materials and Methods: In a descriptive study, the mental workload and its association with fatigue in operating room personnel were investigated. Total of 188 cases including surgeons, nurses, operating room and anesthesia technicians participated in the study. Data were collected using demographic, fatigue and mental workload questionnaires, and were analyzed using SPSS software.Results: The mean of overall mental workload was 74.3 ± 10.8. The results also showed that overall fatigue and its domains, including subjective fatigue, concentration, motivation and physical activity were 48.73%, 54.31%, 51.65%, 38.96% and 42.06%, respectively. Among different domains of mental workload, performance (r=-0.380, P<0.001) and frustration (r=0.222, P=0.014) were significantly associated with overall fatigue. Between overall mental workload and overall fatigue, there was not a significant correlation (r=0.029, P=0.749). Among different dimensions of fatigue, only subjective fatigue was correlated with mental workload (r=0.255, P=0.005).Conclusions: Regarding the association of performance and the frustration with overall fatigue and the association of overall mental workload with subjective fatigue, it can be concluded that mental workload and fatigue may be correlated with each other. Therefore, any reduction in mental workload domains may lead to fatigue reduction in the operating room personnel.