Relationship of Noise and Individual Characteristics with Blood Pressure of Workers in the Production Area of a Heavy Equipment Component Company in Tegal

Introduction: Noise is any unwanted sound in the work environment that comes from production machines that can cause various health problems. Noise can also cause an increase in blood pressure as a physiological reaction of the body. Apart from the noise factor, an increase in workers' blood pressure can also be triggered by several factors such as worker characteristics (worker’s nutritional status, work experience and work duration). The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a relationship between noise and worker characteristics and blood pressure. Methods: The design of this study was cross-sectional with a descriptive observational method. The sample in this study was the total population of workers in the company's production area, as many as 42 respondents. Workers' blood pressure was measured before and after work, work environment noise was measured using sound level meter, and questionnaires were used to determine individual characteristics. Results: The increase in blood pressure before and after work occurred most in the unit with the highest noise intensity. The increase in blood pressure before and after work also occurred in the categories of the longest work period and the longest work duration in a day. Conclusion: There was a strong correlation between noise and systolic blood and a weak relationship with diastole. Nutritional status had a weak relationship with blood pressure. Period of work and blood pressure had a moderate relationship, and duration of work and blood pressure had a strong relationship. Keywords: blood pressure, individual characteristics, noise

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NOISE INTENSITY AND WORKER CHARACTERISTICS WITH HEARING DISORDERS IN DENTAL LABORATORY JAKARTA

Background: Along with the development of processing goods using machine tools and equipment as well as the use of chemicals, one of the impacts is loud or noisy sound, which can be interpreted as unwanted sound or exceeding threshold and has an opportunity to damage hearing so that can be detrimental. Purpose: To analyze the relationship between the noise intensity and worker’s characteristics with hearing disorders at the Dental Engineering Laboratory in the Jakarta area in 2020. Method: This research was an analytical study with a descriptive cross-sectional design with a sample of 30 dental technicians who work in a dental engineering laboratory in the Jakarta area. Each area is taken 6 people. Measurement of noise in the laboratory with a sound level meter and measurement of hearing loss with audiometry. Result: Workers whose noise intensity is >85 dBA have hearing loss, workers whose noise intensity is 85 dBA, 4 people who have hearing loss, workers aged >40 years have hearing loss, while among workers aged ≤40 years, there are 7 people experiencing hearing disorders. workers with >5 years of service experience hearing loss, while among workers 5 years of service, none have hearing loss. Conclusion: There is a significant between noise intensity with hearing loss (p-value = 0.011), it isn’t significant between age with hearing loss (p-value = 0.0563), and it isn’t significant between tenure with hearing loss (p-value = 0.06).

Trends in Educational and Skill Mismatch in the United States

We examined trends in the incidence and correlates of educational and skill mismatch in the United States. We focused on trends over time in the associations between various types of mismatch and a range of factors including contextual conditions. We explored whether contextual conditions at the transitional period from school to jobs increase or decrease the probability of mismatch and whether such relationships persist throughout the working career. Our central questions were how the incidence of and relationship between educational and skill mismatch in the U.S. changed between 1994, 2003, and 2012 and how this differed by age, gender, immigration status, educational attainment, and occupation. We used three cross-sectional surveys that had not previously been implemented for such an effort. These were the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) in 1994, the Adult Literacy and Life-skills (ALL) survey in 2003, and the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in 2012. Repeated cross-sectional data provided us with substantial analytic leverage. Our findings point toward the key role of occupational or positional factors rather than individual worker characteristics as being most implicated in trends in mismatch. We describe the importance of our results for labor market theories.

Migrant workers in precarious employment

PurposeVarious forms of precarious employment create barriers to the integration and inclusion of migrant workers in receiving countries. The purpose of this paper is to review extant research in employment relations and management to identify key factors that contribute to migrant workers' precarious employment and highlight potential avenues for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a narrative literature review drawing on 38 academic journal articles published between 2005 and 2020.FindingsThe authors’ review suggests that macro- and meso-level factors contribute to the precarious employment conditions of migrant workers. However, there is a limited articulation of successful practices and potential solutions to reduce migrant work precarity and exclusion. The literature on migrant workers' precarious employment experience is primarily focused on low-skilled sector (e.g. agriculture, hospitality, domestic care) jobs. In addition, few studies have explored the role of worker characteristics, such as gender, class, ethnicity, race and migration status, in shaping the experience of migrant workers in precarious employment.Practical implicationsThe results of this research highlight the importance of engaging multilevel actors in addressing migrant employment precarity, including policymakers, employers and employment agencies.Originality/valueThis research contributes to a growing conversation of migrant employment precarity by highlighting the heterogeneity of migrant groups and calling for the use of intersectional lenses to understand migrant workers' experiences of precarious employment.

Correlation between Workers’ Characteristics and Health Complaints Due to Exposure to Organic Solvents in the Sidoarjo Offset Printing

Introduction: Organic solvents are chemicals that are often used by the printing industry and contain Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene which are toxic to humans. Chemicals that contain organic solvents are ink, glue, and others. Workers who are regularly exposed to organic solvents can have health complaints. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between workers’ characteristics and health complaints due to exposure to organic solvents in the Sidoarjo offset printing. Methods: This research was an observational study with cross sectional design. Population in this research was 30 workers. The sampling technique used simple random sampling and from the calculation results were obtained 24 respondents. This study had an independent variable, which was workers’ characteristics consisting of age, smoking habits, and work tenure. The dependent variable was health complaints of printing workers. Data collection used questionnaires and interviews. The research data were analyzed using fisher’s exact test to show the correlation between workers’ characteristics and health complaints. Results: The result of the analysis test found that there was no correlation between age (p=0.386) and smoking habits (p=0.376) with health complaints of workers. Moreover, the analysis test showed that work tenure variable had a correlation with health complaints of workers (p=0.041). Conclusion: A factor related to health complaints of workers was work tenure.Keywords: health complaints, organic solvents, worker characteristics

Risk of Future Maltreatment: Examining Whether Worker Characteristics Predict Their Perception

Child welfare workers aim to promote the well-being and safety of children and are the link between the child welfare system and families. Families served by the child welfare system should expect similar service based on clinical factors, not based on their caseworker’s characteristics. Using secondary data analyses of the most recent Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2008) and multilevel modeling, this study examines whether child welfare worker characteristics, such as education level and field, age, and experience predict their perception of the risk of future maltreatment. A total of 1729 case-level investigations and 419 child welfare workers were included in this study. Several one-level logistic regression and two-level logistic regression analyses were run. The best-fit model suggests that caseworkers with a Master’s degree, more than 2 years of experience, and more than 18 cases were significantly more likely to perceive risk of future maltreatment. Further, the interaction between degree level and age also significantly predicted the perception of risk of future maltreatment. Results suggest that the perception of risk of future maltreatment may be influenced by caseworker factors, thus service to families may differ based on caseworker characteristics.

Frustration With Technology and its Relation to Emotional Exhaustion Among Health Care Workers: Cross-sectional Observational Study

Background New technology adoption is common in health care, but it may elicit frustration if end users are not sufficiently considered in their design or trained in their use. These frustrations may contribute to burnout. Objective This study aimed to evaluate and quantify health care workers’ frustration with technology and its relationship with emotional exhaustion, after controlling for measures of work-life integration that may indicate excessive job demands. Methods This was a cross-sectional, observational study of health care workers across 31 Michigan hospitals. We used the Safety, Communication, Operational Reliability, and Engagement (SCORE) survey to measure work-life integration and emotional exhaustion among the survey respondents. We used mixed-effects hierarchical linear regression to evaluate the relationship among frustration with technology, other components of work-life integration, and emotional exhaustion, with adjustment for unit and health care worker characteristics. Results Of 15,505 respondents, 5065 (32.7%) reported that they experienced frustration with technology on at least 3-5 days per week. Frustration with technology was associated with higher scores for the composite Emotional Exhaustion scale (r=0.35, P<.001) and each individual item on the Emotional Exhaustion scale (r=0.29-0.36, P<.001 for all). Each 10-point increase in the frustration with technology score was associated with a 1.2-point increase (95% CI 1.1-1.4) in emotional exhaustion (both measured on 100-point scales), after adjustment for other work-life integration items and unit and health care worker characteristics. Conclusions This study found that frustration with technology and several other markers of work-life integration are independently associated with emotional exhaustion among health care workers. Frustration with technology is common but not ubiquitous among health care workers, and it is one of several work-life integration factors associated with emotional exhaustion. Minimizing frustration with health care technology may be an effective approach in reducing burnout among health care workers.