scholarly journals A mixed-methods study of risk factors and experiences of healthcare workers tested for the novel coronavirus in Canada

Author(s):  
Arnold Ikedichi Okpani ◽  
Stephen Barker ◽  
Karen Lockhart ◽  
Jennifer Grant ◽  
Jorge Andrés Delgado-Ron ◽  
...  

ObjectivesWe aimed to investigate the contribution of occupational and non-work-related factors to the risk of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Vancouver Coastal Health, British Columbia, Canada. We also aimed to examine how HCWs described their experiences.MethodsWe conducted a matched case-control study using data from online and phone questionnaires with optional open-ended questions completed by HCWs who sought SARS-CoV-2 testing between March 2020 and March 2021. Conditional logistic regression and thematic analysis were utilized.ResultsData from 1340 HCWs were included. Free-text responses were provided by 257 respondents. Adjusting for age, gender, race, occupation, and number of weeks since pandemic was declared, community exposure to a known COVID-19 case (adjusted odds ratio -aOR: 2.45; 95% CI 1.67-3.59), and difficulty accessing personal protective equipment -PPE- (aOR: 1.84; 95% CI 1.07-3.17) were associated with higher infection odds. Care-aides/licensed practical nurses had substantially higher risk (aOR: 2.92; 95% CI 1.49-5.70) than medical staff who had the lowest risk. Direct COVID-19 patient care was not associated with elevated risk. HCWs’ experiences reflected the phase of the pandemic when they were tested. Suboptimal communication, mental stress, and situations perceived as unsafe were common sources of dissatisfaction.ConclusionsCommunity exposures and occupation were important determinants of infection among HCWs in our study. The availability of PPE and clear communication enhanced a sense of safety. Varying levels of risk between occupational groups call for wider targeting of infection prevention measures. Strategies for mitigating community exposure and supporting HCW resilience are required.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3179
Author(s):  
Minh Hieu Nguyen ◽  
Jimmy Armoogum

The rapid and widespread of COVID-19 has caused severe multifaceted effects on society but differently in women and men, thereby preventing the achievement of gender equality (the 5th sustainable development goal of the United Nations). This study, using data of 355 teleworkers collected in Hanoi (Vietnam) during the first social distancing period, aims at exploring how (dis)similar factors associated with the perception and the preference for more home-based telework (HBT) for male teleworkers versus female peers are. The findings show that 56% of female teleworkers compared to 45% of male counterparts had a positive perception of HBT within the social distancing period and 63% of women desired to telework more in comparison with 39% of men post-COVID-19. Work-related factors were associated with the male perception while family-related factors influenced the female perception. There is a difference in the effects of the same variables (age and children in the household) on the perception and the preference for HBT for females. For women, HBT would be considered a solution post-COVID-19 to solve the burden existing pre-COVID-19 and increasing in COVID-19. Considering gender inequality is necessary for the government and authorities to lessen the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the lives of citizens, especially female ones, in developing countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 208-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rameshwar Dubey ◽  
Angappa Gunasekaran ◽  
Nezih Altay ◽  
Stephen J Childe ◽  
Thanos Papadopoulos

Purpose – At a time when the number and seriousness of disasters seems to be increasing, humanitarian organizations find that besides their challenging work they are faced with problems caused by a high level of turnover of staff. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the 24 variables leading to employee turnover identified by Cotton and Tuttle (1986) the authors analyse the work-related, external and personal factors affecting employee turnover in humanitarian organizations, using a survey of members of the Indian National Institute of Disaster Management. Findings – Results indicated that the three factors are present. Of the external factors, only employment perception had a factor loading over 0.7; of the work-related factors, all were significant; of the personal factors, biographical information, marital status, number of dependants, aptitude and ability and intelligence had the highest loadings. It was also shown that behavioural intentions and net expectation were not significant. Originality/value – Only a few studies reported on employee turnover and its reasons are not well understood in the context of humanitarian organizations. To address this need, the aim of this paper is to explore the personal reasons impacting employee turnover in humanitarian organizations. In the study the authors have adopted 24 variables used in Cotton and Tuttle (1986) and classified into constructs to explain turnover, and further tested the model using data gathered from humanitarian organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. A28.2-A28
Author(s):  
Roel Vermeulen

Occupation and employment is a major determinant of health and healthy aging. Despite the temporal increase in time spent in employment and profound changes in working life, there is limited coordinated research on occupation and health.We recently estimated that in Europe alone there is information available on more than 30 million individuals that could be used to study the association between working life and health. However, lack of standardization, inability to code large numbers of job-entries and inabilities to share data have hindered progress. In order to unlock the vault of occupational-health information novel ways of data acquisition, standardization, pooling and analyses have to be developed and implemented. The ability of pooling studies would greatly improve occupational health studies by increasing sample size for robust inference, and would allow risk stratification, identification of new risks, exploration of interactions with work and non-work-related factors and detailed analyses on the shapes of the exposure-response curves.In recent years we have seen progress in several different methodological aspects. Currently, new tools are available to collect information on work and work exposures. These include amongst others the use of sensors and mobile phone applications. Standardization of occupational information is essential for comparison of results between studies and for pooling of studies. This could be achieved by using common occupational coding schemes, use of automatic coding instruments and common exposure assessment tools. Virtual pooling of data has become possible by using data-shields which instead of bringing the data to the analyses bring the analyses to the data allowing federated analyses.As part of the OMEGA-NET symposium we will discuss the need for new tools and avenues of how to bring occupational health information together. We will present our inventory of novel tools to aid this process, and will discuss future needs.


Author(s):  
Aziz Ogutlu ◽  
Oguz Karabay ◽  
Unal Erkorkmaz ◽  
Ertugrul Guclu ◽  
Seher Sen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background This study aimed to investigate the specific risk factors for the transmission of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) among healthcare workers in different campuses of a university hospital and to reveal the risk factors for antibody positivity. Methods In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 2988 (82%) of 3620 healthcare workers in a university hospital participated. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) antibody was investigated using serum from healthcare workers who underwent COVID-19 antibody testing. The antibody test results of the participants were evaluated based on their work campus, their profession and their workplace. The statistical significance level was p < 0.05 in all analyses. Results Of the participants in this study, 108 (3.6%) were antibody positive, and 2880 (96.4%) were negative. Antibody positivity rates were greater in nurses compared with other healthcare workers (p < 0.001). Regarding workplace, antibody positivity was greater in those working in intensive care compared to those working in other locations (p < 0.001). Conclusions Healthcare workers are at the highest risk of being infected with COVID-19. Those who have a higher risk of infection among healthcare workers and those working in high-risk areas should be vaccinated early and use personal protective equipment during the pandemic. Trial Registration: Retrospective permission was obtained from both the local ethics committee and the Turkish Ministry of Health for this study (IRB No:71522473/050.01.04/370, Date: 05.20.2020).


Author(s):  
Sang-Woo Kim ◽  
Junghee Ha ◽  
June-Hee Lee ◽  
Jin-Ha Yoon

Among the factors causing workers’ anxiety, job-related factors are important since they can be managed. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the association between work-related anxiety and job-related factors among Korean wageworkers using data from the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey. Participants were 13,600 Korean wageworkers aged <65 years. We analyzed the association between job-related factors and work-related anxiety, and the moderating effect of decision-making authority. “Meeting precise quality standards,” “Solving unforeseen problems on your own,” “Complex tasks,” “Learning new things,” “Working at very high speed,” and “Working to tight deadlines” were positively associated with work-related anxiety. “Monotonous tasks” was negatively associated with work-related anxiety. The odds ratio (OR) of “Complex tasks” was higher in the group that had insufficient decision-making authority (OR 3.92, 95% confidential interval (CI) 2.40–6.42) compared to that with sufficient decision-making authority (OR 2.74, 95% CI 1.61–4.67). The risk of work-related anxiety was higher when the workers experienced time pressure, carried out tasks with high mental and physical demands, and dealt with unpredictable situations. This association was more pronounced when decision-making authority was insufficient.


Author(s):  
Khairil Idham Ismail ◽  
Hanizah Mohd Yusof ◽  
Ahmad Faidhi MZ ◽  
Basri I

Introduction: Fatigue is common among healthcare workers (HCWs). Long continuous duty hours, sleep loss with minimal recuperation and shift work are among work-related factors contributing to fatigue. Being fatigued will impair physical, cognitive, and emotional function. Substantially, it will impact the occupational and patient safety along with quality of healthcare delivery. Nevertheless, there are still paucity of Islamic perspective on the importance of fatigue management for HCWs.Objectives: Our aim is to outline the Islamic perspective of fatigue management for HCWs.Methods: Review of literature in relevance to fatigue among HCWs were carried out. Document analysis from Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) references including literature from Maqasid Syariah (the Objective of Syariah) and Qawaid Fiqhiyyah (Islamic legal maxims) perspective. Interviews with expert from both Islamic scholars and clinicians are conducted.Results: Our findings provide Islamic perspective on the importance of fatigue manageme nt for healthcare workers. The consequences of fatigue such as slowed reaction time, reduced vigilance, reduced decision-making ability, poor judgment, distraction during complex task and loss of awareness in critical situations raise the issue on the integrity of patient safety and occupational safety. This is in contrary with the principle of Maqasid Syariah which highly emphasize protection of life (hifz an-Nafs) and intellect (hifz ‘Aql) of both group of HCWs and patients. While Qawaid Fiqhiyyah strongly against inflicting harm to themselves nor bring harm to others (La darar wa la dirar); which serve as basis to support this fatigue manageme nt framework in a holistic manner.Conclusion: This study may serve as an added perspective in the angle of Islamic view on the importance of fatigue management for healthcare workers.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue: 2019 Page: 37


Author(s):  
Spoorthy Sagar ◽  
Ravish K. S. ◽  
Ranganath T. S. ◽  
Mohammed Tanveer Ahmed ◽  
Shanmugapriya D.

Background: Occupational stress can impair one’s health and reduce the efficiency and productivity of work. Delivering health services in rural areas is a tedious job for healthcare workers due to various factors. Inadequate staffing of workers leading to overloaded work and many other factors make them less motivated and experience work stress. Methods: A cross sectional study done in Nelamangla, rural field practice area of BMCRI. A multi stage random sampling technique was applied for the study. 5 PHCs were randomly chosen. Healthcare workers (such as LHV, ANM, Health Assistants, ASHA workers and AWWs) were recruited by probability proportion to sample size. 140 study participants were interviewed using pre tested semi structured questionnaire to collect socio demographic details and work related details; validated professional life stress scale was used to assess stress levels. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were used. Results: 37.1% (52) had mild stress, 52.1% (73) were moderately stressed, 10.7% (15) were severely stressed and none of them were very severely stressed that needed immediate intervention. Working hours, job satisfaction, clarity about work, amount of work exceeding stipulated time, loss of interest at work, not being rewarded and valued for their work are few of the factors that are found to be associated with stress levels. Conclusions: Work related factors have been the main stressors and higher stress levels might impede the performance of the workers and hence addressing this is necessary. 


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