JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year:2018 | Volume:7 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:8

These days we have been hearing the news from different academic organizations, including medical universities and health research groups, that unfortunately some people working in the scientific centers fall in different sorts of plagiarism traps. It is even more terrible knowing that this is an iceberg shape problem. …

Background: Observing ethical principles is a part of nursing occupation and nurses should be aware of the importance of this subject when providing nursing care in order to provide their skills based on occupational ethics. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and the workplace spirituality with the nurses’ occupational ethics through the mediating role of job enthusiasm.Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional-descriptive study. The study population consisted all man and woman nurses working at hospitals in Zahedan City, Iran. Cluster sampling method was used to select the sample group. A total of 160 nurses were selected as the sample for the study. To collect data, the organizational spirituality questionnaire proposed by Milliman, et al., standard occupational ethics questionnaire by Gregory C. Petty and Expanded Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS) by French et al., and job enthusiasm questionnaire were used. The data were analyzed using path analyzing method.Results: The present study showed that the job enthusiasm variable plays a mediating role between workplace spirituality and occupational stress with the nurses’ occupational ethics (P<0.001). In addition, the positive effect of workplace spirituality (0.277) and negative occupational stress (-0.204) was significant on occupational ethics (P<0.001).Conclusions: The results of the study, in line with other studies, show that occupational stress and workplace spirituality with impact on job enthusiasm can explain the occupational ethics of nurses.

Background: The present study was carried out with the aim of extracting trace amounts of zinc in urine samples with ultrasound-assisted emulsification solidified floating organic drop micro-extraction (USAE-SFODME) method by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The efficiency was investigated using the solvent extraction volume, extraction pH, time sonication and temperature extraction. The present study was conducted aiming to respond on the efficiency of SFODME technique in extracting inorganic analytes in biological samples.Materials and Methods: This was an experimental research with several steps. After preparation standard solution of zinc, USAE-SFODME technique was used for extracting zinc cation from urine samples. This method involves centrifuge, buffer and ligand adding, sonication, extraction of analyte and finally analysis with FAAS. Excel 2010 software was used in this study in order to plot the graphs.Results: Extraction of zinc was performed under optimized conditions of 2 ml 1- (2-Pyridylazo) -2-naphthol (PAN), 90 ml 1-dodecanol, pH=5.5, for 20 minutes at 35 ˚C. Recovery, the regression coefficient, and relative standard deviation (RSD) were obtained as 96.6% and 99.0%, respectively. RSD for tree concentration 0.8 mgml-1 Zn cation (Zn2+) was 3.4%. The limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 0.426 mgml-1.Conclusions: Using green solvents, downsizing the samples, replacement of toxic reagents use, and lack of needing the preparation of the samples are the most important advantages of this technique. USAE-SFODME has a successful development in determining trace amounts of zinc in urine samples which can be performed in chemical laboratories with rather ordinary equipment.

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the most common work-related illnesses, which lead to high costs and a reduction in labor productivity. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MSDs with mental workload (MWL) and occupational fatigue among the office staff of a communication service in Tehran, Iran, in 2017.Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 94 staff of a communication service company in June 2017. The data collection tools included Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA), NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire and Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory (SOFI). Data analysis conducted using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA test in SPSS software.Results: 73% of the participants were women with mean age of 28.25±3.40 years and the remaining participants were men with mean age of 26.91 ± 4.60 years. According to the results of the Nordic questionnaire, the highest pain was observed in the neck (65.94%) during the last year. According to the results of the ROSA, 71% of the participants were at the warning risk level and the need for ergonomic interventions. In addition, the relationship between occupational fatigue and its subscales with MSDs was significant in all cases (P<0.001). Finally According to the results, the participants’ MWL was high.Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that high workload and occupational fatigue cause MSDs, and intervention is necessary in these individuals.

Background: Workers in different occupational positions experience significant Cu exposures, however, Cu toxicity has not been fully studied as compared to other heavy metals. In the present study, hematological and hepatic alterations have been investigated among copper mine workers.Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in a copper mine in west of Iran, on 402 copper mine workers (study group) and 52 office employees (control group) during winter 2015.5ml blood samples were provided from each subject and hematological and hepatic parameters including white blood cell (WBC), platelet (PLT), hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCH), lymphocytes, neutrophils, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and serum Cu levels have been determined using their commercial kits. The results were analyzed in the SPSS software using t-test and regression method.Results: ALT, AST, HGB, MCV, MCH and plasma Cu levels among the workers were significantly higher than the office employees (p<0.050). WBC and RBC counts among the workers were significantly lower than the control group (p=0.049 and 0.024, respectively). Serum Cu levels of 215 of the workers were higher than its normal recommended range (120 mg/dl). For the subjects with serum Cu levels above 150 mg/dl, increases in AST and ALT were in compliance with serum Cu levels increase.Conclusions: Significant hepatic and hematological alteration were observed among copper miners compared to control group. Employment of workers with background hematological and hepatic disorders in copper industries must be accompanied with great caution.

Background: Assessment of aerobic capacity is of vital importance in both general community and occupational settings. Valid, reliable and feasible tests are required to indicate the functionality of cardiopulmonary system. The present study was carried out aiming to evaluate the suitability of the Chester step test (CST) as a field test to measure the Iranians’ aerobic capacity.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study performed in 2016, 63 university students completed the Astrand-rhyming cycle ergometer test and the CST. Actual and predicted maximum rate of oxygen consumption (VO2 max) were recorded and their relationship was examined by Pearson's correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plot. Repeatability was checked using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC).Results: Predicted and actual amounts of VO2 max were significantly correlated (r=0.868, P<0.001). The mean difference between them was -0.89 ml/kg/minute. ICC between CST and the retest CST (CSTretest) was 0.858.Conclusions: CST is a valid and reliable field test for the estimation of cardiorespiratory capacity among the study subjects. With its exclusive features (e.g. safety, convenience and ease of use), CST could be suggested as an alternative to other existing methods of estimating VO2 max; the applicability of the existing methods among Iranian individuals are unclear. However, like other estimation methods, special prudence should be adopted when dealing with critical health decisions.

Background: Awareness of the overall status of incidents and accidents and also the relevant causes can be extremely fruitful in preventing them. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of incidents and accidents in Dayyer, Province of Bushehr, Iran.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 838 incident cases obtained from the registered data from the accidents and incidents registry of Dayyer health care system in 2015. The data were collected using a checklist. Then, the data were analyzed using descriptive (prevalence and percentage) and inferential (chi-square test and t-test) statistics.Results: Out of 838 registered incident cases, the overall rate of incidents was 15.1 in 1000 individuals; the rates among men and women were 22.6 and 7.3 in 1000, respectively. The highest rate belonged to men (n=637; 76.0%) and the age range of 20-29 years (n=201; 24.0%). The highest rate of accidents has been reported in urban regions (n=661; 78.9%) which occurred at home (n=340; 40.6%) and in autumn (n=236; 28.2%). The highest rate of incidents belonged to trauma (25.4%), motorcycle crash (22.6%), and snakebite and scorpion sting (13.4%).Conclusions: The highest occurrence rates of incidents and accidents were observed among men and the young compared to other groups in Dayyer. Thus, it is necessary that the appropriate programs be prepared for the public, particularly the young, via mass media regarding observing traffic codes and helping self-protection.

Background: Noise pollution is the third most dangerous risk factor for human health after air and water pollution. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of noise pollution on sleep disturbance among Neyshabur governmental teaching hospital staff, Iran, in 2015.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in winter 2015. The sample size was 261 people from 2 hospitals in Neyshabur. The instruments for data collection were a CELL440 sound meter and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.Results: The mean sound level in the 22-Bahman and Hakim hospitals was 35.10 ± 8.79 dB and 44.60 ± 10.02 dB, respectively.87% of the participants had poor sleep quality and 30% had to use sleeping pills to get to sleep. In 94.6%, poor nocturnal sleep caused poor performance during the day.69.3% of participants reported that it took more than 30 minutes for them to get to sleep. Work history and exposure to noise had an inverse association with sleep quality. For each unit increase in noise, the score of sleep quality decreased significantly by 0.6.Conclusions: Sleep quality can affect the performance of hospital personnel and can cause human errors in prescribing and injecting medications and other therapeutic interventions. It consequently has adverse effects on the patients. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken for reducing and controlling the noise, informing the personnel, changing shiftwork patterns, and allowing people to choose shift work voluntarily.