Assessment of ergonomic exposure, work-related occupational injuries, and prevention: Child work in the brickfield industry in India?

Child labor is an infraction of fundamental human rights, and it prevents the children’s physical, psychosocial, and psychological development. In India, children have been working in different unorganized sectors as paid laborers. Children were found performing a fair amount of manual, rigorous tasks in the brickfield industry due to socioeconomic disadvantages. Child brickfield workers suffered from musculoskeletal pain and injuries due to working with a heavy physical workload, which hampers the overall quality of life. A study had been conducted among these child brickfield laborers from India during 2011–2017. The study found laceration (38.7% male and 36.9% female) as the primary injury followed by sprain and strain, scratches, avulsion, and fractures among child brickfield workers. The study shows that child workers are highly prone to injuries, mainly toe (23.9% male and 28.1% female), hands (22.0% male and 23.4% female), wrists, feet, ankles, and fingers. The injury rate among male and female child brickfield laborers was 7.64 and 9.52 per 1000 workers. The primary source of injuries in brickfields was due to falling from height. Several risk factors, including biomechanical, work stress, may play a key role in work-related injuries among child brickfield laborers.

Statistical Analysis of Patients Attending the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine at DaeJeon Korean Medicine Hospital: from March 2015 to February 2020

Background: This study was designed to statistically analyze the year, gender, age, insurance type, and condition/disease of patients who were admitted to the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine at DaeJeon Korean Medicine Hospital over a 5-year period (2015-2020).Methods: Patients who visited the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine at DaeJeon Korean Medicine Hospital were classified according to year, gender, age, insurance type, and condition/disease. The statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 23.0.Results: There is an increasing number of patients attending the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine year-on-year over the 5-year period, with a higher frequency of females than males each year. The largest age groups represented in these patients were those aged in their 50s, followed by those aged in their 40s, and 60s. Furthermore, the number of patients using health insurance was greater than those using automobile insurance each year. Of the 5,061 patients, the most common group was the patients (n = 991) who reported sprain and strain of cervical spine, followed by lumbar spine, lumbar herniation of the intervertebral disc, and facial paralysis.Conclusion: The number of patients seeking traditional Korean medicine treatment continues to increase, particularly in the 40s to 60s age group, with a larger proportion using health insurance and sprain or strain of the cervical spine. The results of this study may be used as a local (Daejeon) reference to develop Korean medicine policies, such as setting up medical benefits for patients using Korean medicine hospitals.

ASSESSMENT OF INTERVENTIONS COMPLETED BY THE VOIVODESHIP RESCUE SERVICE IN KATOWICE IN THE SILESIAN VOIVODESHIP IN 2018 DUE TO INJURIES

Aim: To assess the trips made by Emergency Medical Teams due to injuries (ICD-10 code: S) completed by Voivodeship Medical Rescue Teams in Katowice in 2018. Material and methods: Analysis of the characteristics of the trips was done based on information contained on “Emergency ambulance travel cards”. Statistical analysis was carried out using the t-Student, ANOVA variance as well as the Tukey post-hoc tests (p<0.05). Results: The whole number of trips made by the Emergency Medical Teams in the Silesian Voivodeship totalled 211,896, of which due to the reported injury, the total number of trips was 202,946 cases (183,827 calls were in town – 91%; 19,119 calls were out of town – 9%; p<0.05). The most common cause for calls were due to head injuries (S03 – dislocation, sprain and strain of joints and ligaments of the head as well as S04 – cranial nerve injuries). Statistically significant differences in the number of trips depending on cause identification (p<0.05) were determined, as well as in comparison to the number of cases identified as S03 and S04 between the in town and out of town territory (p<0.05). The median arrival time to an in town site was 7 minutes and 42 second, whereas in out of town sites it was 13 minutes and 19 seconds. Conclusion: The characteristics of the trips made by Emergency Medical Teams depends on the time, and what is affected by organizational changes in the emergency medical system.

A distressingly painful neck

Neck pain is a common complaint in the emergency department. It is often attributed to sprain and strain, and cervical spine degeneration. However, when the pain is prolonged, refractory to treatment and not improved after multiple consultations, an alternate diagnosis should be considered.

A study of school bag weight and back pain among intermediate female students in Dammam City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: The most common cause of low back pain in children is muscle sprain and strain which can occur from carrying a heavy backpack or from activities. This study aimed to assess the relationship between school bag weight and back pain among female students in Dammam city.Methods: A total of 300 female students were included in this study both from east and west sectors of Dammam city, Saudi Arabia. Tools: Data were collected using (1) A structured questionnaire sheet including, socio-demographic data of the students, and close-ended questions about the school-bags as methods of carrying, (2) A weight scale that measured student’s body weight and weight of the school bags, (3) A self-report (Numeric pain rating scale) that assessed pain intensity. Univariate and Multivariate Statistical analysis was performed to test the relationship between the study variables.Results: A total of 288 school children (96.2% out of 300) were carrying bags of weight more than 15% of their body weight. Shoulder and neck pain were reported by 40% of the female students. Statistically there is a significant relationship was found between school bags weight and severity of shoulder pain (p = .042).Conclusion and recommendation: The weights of schoolbags of Dammam city intermediate female students were higher than the internationally acceptable standards. Ministry of Education should set standards to prevent and mange problems of carrying heavy school bags in the intermediate school.

A One-Year Hospital-Based Analysis of Sports Injuries

Objectives (1) To survey and analyse the pattern of sports injuries; (2) to make implication from the results. Methodology Subjects with sports injuries attending the emergency department of Princess Margaret Hospital in 2006 were retrieved via the Injury Surveillance System. The characteristics of the subjects and their injuries were evaluated. Results In 2006, 709 subjects had sports injuries, from which 83% were male. The median age was 19. Age below 20 accounted for 53% of the attendance. Football (35%), basketball (25%) and cycling (9%) were the three commonest sport-injury activities. All sports injuries had the maximum AIS ≤3 and 83% had MAIS of 1 only. Overall, 39% had contusion and scrape, 36% with sprain and strain, and 18% had fracture. Nearly half (47%) had lower limb injury; 30% and 24% had upper limb injury and head injury respectively. Contusion and scrape of the head, and sprain and strain of the lower limb were the two commonest injuries in football and basketball. In cycling, two-thirds suffered from contusion and scrape of any body region and 57% of those involved the head. Conclusion Sports injury surveillance with characterised patterns of injuries helped to devise prevention measures.