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Results for “work intensity”

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At least 847 records · Page 47Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

[Chronic low back pain: multispecialty assessment of 100 patients].

OBJECTIVES: Chronic lower-back pain (CLP) is a common pathology and has a high social and economic impact, especially in primary care where its treatment is changing at present. The results of the multi-disciplinary assessment of 100 patients with chronic lower-back pain are given. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, observational and prospective study. SETTING: Out-patient clinics of the rheumatology service of a tertiary-level hospital (referral from base districts where there is no primary care rheumatologist). PATIENTS: 100 consecutive patients seen for back pain lasting for more than 6 months were analysed. INTERVENTIONS: There was no therapeutic intervention. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The personal, work, clinical, examination, x-ray, functional and psychological features of 100 patients with CLP were analysed. There were 38 men and 62 women, with average age of 45 +/- 10 years and low social, cultural and job levels. Pain had lasted 82 +/- 7 months and 52% had had time off work. Mean intensity of pain was 6.5 +/- 2.3 (scale of zero to 10). There was vertebral restriction in 16%, and conduct expressing pain on examination in 47%. The x-ray showed disorder in 51%. Functional incapacity was nil or light in 46% and severe in 16%. 74.5% of the patients were depressed; 57% had features of anxiety; and 44% were anxious at the time of the interview. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with CLP are middle-aged, with long-standing pain and frequent time off work. Pain intensity is high, but vertebral restriction, disorders on x-rays and functional incapacity are scant. However, anxiety and depression levels are high. This could suggest a change in how we treat CLP towards a multi-disciplinary approach and psycho-affective, social and labour assessment, both at the time of assessment and in later treatment of patients.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevalence of low-back pain in Lesotho mothers.

OBJECTIVES: To identify factors that strongly affect the presence of severe low-back pain in mothers living in the Maseru District of Lesotho, to find out whether there is any truth to the widespread belief that rural mothers are more vulnerable to severe low-back pain than their urban counteTparts, and to identify influential factors that are strongly associated with each other. METHODS: A random sample of 4001 mothers was collected from the Maseru District of Lesotho in September 1994 by using sampling techniques of stratification and proportional allocation with respect to size. The following 10 explanatory variables of study were used: intensive farm work, gravidity (number of births plus abortions), residential area, heavy weight lifting, the literacy status of the mother, strenuous manual labor, the availability of basic health services, the income status of the mother, cooking method at home, and breast-feeding. The dependent variable of study was the presence or absence of severe low-back pain. Discriminant and log-linear analyses were done to analyze the data collected. Discriminant analysis was done by using the presence or absence of severe low-back pain as a classifying variable and the 10 explanatory variables that affect the classifying variable. Log-linear analysis was also done by using the same data with 9 of the 11 variables of study. RESULTS: A total of 405 (10.12%) of the 4001 mothers in the study had severe low-back pain at the time of data collection, 513 (12.82%) had moderate low-back pain, and 1422 (35.54%) had mild low-back pain. A total of 319 (78.77%) of the 405 mothers with severe low-back pain were poor, illiterate, and from rural communities. Results from discriminant analysis revealed that the presence of severe low-back pain was strongly affected by intensive farm work, the residential area of the mother, and gravidity of the mother in a decreasing order of strength and led to results similar to those obtained from discriminant analysis. The study also showed that rural mothers and their children were more disadvantaged than their urban counterparts with regard to basic health services. CONCLUSION: Recommendations were made to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Lesotho to improve the provision of basic health services, including health education on the importance of chiropractors to the community.

Discriminant Analysis↗
PubMed2000

[On physiological costs of working processes].

With use of present methodic approaches, evaluating hardiness and intensity of work process requires further improvement. Integral evaluation of work process with consideration of all ergometric and hygienic factors, based on leading factor that is adjusted to decile and centile, is possible according to formula suggested by the authors.

Ergonomics↗
PubMed1988

Muscle strength and muscle endurance of middle-aged women and men associated to type, duration and intensity of muscular load at work.

Muscle strength and muscle endurance in groups with different occupational muscular load was studied among 60 women and 69 men. The mean age of the subjects was 52.0 +/- 3.4 years. Isometric grip and trunk strength were measured on dynamometers, and dynamic muscle endurance by sit-ups. A job analysis was done with the AET method including the assessment of intensity, duration and type of muscular work of each subject. According to the job analysis, the subjects were classified into groups with low or high muscular load at work. The maximal isometric hand grip strength of women with a load classified as long duration of static or dynamic load on the hands at work was 86 and 88%, respectively of the strength of those with a load of short duration. The women with high intensity in static work had a grip strength of 86% of those with low intensity. These differences in strength among women between the high and low load groups were statistically significant (P less than 0.05). No other statistically significant differences in muscle strength or muscle endurance between the high and low work load groups were found, although the high work load group had systematically the lowest muscle strength and muscle endurance in almost all comparisons. Muscle strength and muscle endurance was, however, not a discriminating factor between the group classifications of static and dynamic work. The results indicated that the muscle strength and muscle endurance of middle-aged employees was systematically lower among those with high muscular load compared to those with low load at work.

Female↗
PubMed1997

Creatine supplementation enhances intermittent work performance.

To determine the impact of creatine supplementation on high-intensity, intermittent work, 18 participants each performed 2 sets of 4 different work bouts to exhaustion. For 5 days prior to the first set of work bouts, all participants received a placebo (5 g of calcium chloride daily). For the second set of work bouts, 9 participants again received the placebo, while the other 9 received creatine supplementation (18.75 g creatine monohydrate daily for 5 days prior to and 2.25 g creatine daily during testing). The four work bouts in each set consisted of cycling to exhaustion at 150% peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) either nonstop (A), intermittently for either 60-s work/120-s rest periods (B), 20-s work/40-s rest (C), or 10-s work/20-s rest (D). Creatine supplementation significantly increased (p < .01) the total work time of all bouts. Protocol D showed the greatest increase (> 100%); C increased 61.9%; B increased 61.0%; and A increased 23.5%. These results demonstrate that creatine supplementation significantly extends one's capacity to maintain a specific level of high-intensity, intermittent exercise.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

A survey of forest workers in New Zealand. Do hours of work, rest, and recovery play a role in accidents and injury?

PROBLEM: A number of structural and organizational changes have occurred recently within the New Zealand Forestry Industry, with concerns being raised about the impact of these changes on the forestry worker in terms of fatigue, sleepiness, and compromised safety. This study explored the relationship of fatigue, and some of its key determinants, with accidents and injuries in a group of forestry industry workers in New Zealand. METHOD: A total of 367 forestry workers responded to a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Fatigue was found to be commonly experienced at work in the forest, with 78% of workers reporting that they experienced fatigue at least "sometimes." This study found that certain groups of workers reported long working hours, reduced sleep, compromised recovery time, and intensely paced work. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that recent sleep, number of breaks taken during the workday, and specific job/tasks were independently associated with reporting of high fatigue levels at work. Near-miss injury events were significantly more common among those reporting a high level of fatigue at work. Accidents and lost-time injury were associated with length of time at work, ethnicity, and having had near-miss injury events. DISCUSSION: Together, these results suggest that fatigue and aspects of work organization, which are likely to be fatiguing, may be associated with compromised safety for forest workers. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: With an already slim margin of error present in forest operations, an impairment due to increased fatigue may constitute a significant risk factor for accidents and injuries in this workforce. The results indicate the need for further examination of shift and workload management among forestry workers, as well as a role for improving industry awareness about the causes and consequences of fatigue.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed1995

Is there a relationship between the volume of work carried out in intensive care and its outcome?

This paper reports the results of a study of the association between volume of activity and patient outcome in 26 intensive care units in the United Kingdom. Hospital fatality rates showed a statistically significant (p = .016) negative association with volume. However, mean APACHE II scores, as a measure of the severity of case mix, were also negatively associated with volume (p = .021). Thus, one explanation of the lower death rates at higher volumes is that larger units admit less severely ill patients. For patients admitted immediately after surgery, the correlation between severity standardized mortality ratios and volume (while not significant, p < .1) suggests there may be a volume-output effect unexplained by severity.

APACHE↗
PubMed2005

[The influence of socioeconomic factors on female fertility].

OBJECTIVE: To define causes of female infertility and socioeconomic factors affecting fertility. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study group consisted of 438 patients, aged 21-46 (average 29.7), treated because of primary or secondary infertility between January 1999 and March 2003 at Gynecological Endocrinology Department of Medical University of Warsaw. All of them were residents of mazovian province. The following factors were analyzed: age, marital status, place of residence, education and the type of job performed in regard to their influence on fertility. The socioeconomic characteristics and the distribution of infertility in each age group were presented. RESULTS: Fifty women were aged over 35 (11.4%). Most of the examined patients were city residents--339 (80%). 182 (43.5%) women had university education, 189 (45.2%)--secondary education. 76 (18.5%) women were physical workers. The factors affecting fertility were: age, education and the type of work performed. CONCLUSION: Age over 35 years and intensive physical work are the factors affecting fertility.

Adolescent↗