Period Product Insecurity, School Absenteeism, and use of School Resources to Obtain Period Products among High School Students in St. Louis, Missouri

Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) among female students is a neglected public health issue in the U.S. This study documented period product insecurity, school absenteeism, and use of school resources to obtain period products among high-school students in St. Louis, MO. Female students completed an anonymous, self-administered survey in English (n = 119). Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence of period product need, resources used to obtain period products, and period-related absenteeism. The mean age of participants was 15.78 ± 1.28. Nearly two-thirds (64.4% (95% CI 55.1%-73.0%)) reported period product insecurity. Two-thirds (66.9% (95% CI 57.7%-75.3%)) reported using at least one of the school's resources to obtain period products. One-third of the participants (33.6% (95% CI 25.0%-43.1%)) reported missing school due to a lack of period products. School nurses need to be cognizant of how MHM affects their students’ attendance at school and what measures they can take to help reduce menstruation-related absenteeism.

Harmful Leader Behaviors: Toward an Increased Understanding of How Different Forms of Unethical Leader Behavior Can Harm Subordinates

Research on unethical leadership has predominantly focused on interpersonal and high-intensity forms of harmful leader behavior such as abusive supervision. Other forms of harmful leader behavior such as excessively pressuring subordinates or acting in self-centered ways have received less attention, despite being harmful and potentially occurring more frequently. We propose a model of four types of harmful leader behavior (HLB) varying in intensity (high vs low) and orientation (people/relationships or tasks/goals): Intimidation, Lack of Care, Self-Centeredness, and Excessive Pressure for Results. We map out how these relate to other constructs in the unethical leader behavior field in order to integrate the existing work on how leaders can cause harm to followers. Next, in five studies (N = 35, N = 218, N = 352, N = 160, N = 1921 in 196 teams), we develop and test a new survey instrument measuring the four proposed types of perceived HLB. We provide initial validity evidence for this new measure, establish its psychometric properties, and examine its nomological network by linking the four types of HLB to related leadership constructs and soft and hard outcome correlates at the individual and team level. We find that HLB is negatively related to constructive forms of leadership (e.g., ethical and transformational) and positively to unethical ones (e.g., abusive supervision). HLB is also related in the expected direction to job satisfaction, engagement, psychological safety, knowledge sharing, knowledge hiding, deviance, and objectively recorded team-level stress-related absenteeism.

The use of N-acetylcysteine in the prevention of hangover: a randomized trial

Hangovers resulting from alcohol intoxication can lead to adverse effects ranging from generalized discomfort and work-related absenteeism to emergency department visits from patients seeking symptomatic care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a low dose (600–1800 mg) of N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) vs placebo on mitigating hangover symptoms. This was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled crossover study involving 49 volunteers who consumed beer to obtain a breath alcohol content (BrAC) of 0.1 g/210L. The participants met on two separate occasions at which time they were given either NAC or placebo capsules. Opposing treatments were administered during the second encounter. The morning after the participant’s intoxication and treatment, a Hangover Symptom Scale Questionnaire was administered to determine subjective changes in hangover symptoms. Data was analyzed by self-control, comparing the participant’s hangover symptom severity when using NAC compared to placebo. No significant difference was found in the general distribution of total hangover scores (P = .45) (NAC = 10; Placebo = 13). There was also no significant difference found in the general distribution of specific hangover symptoms. However, a significant difference was found in the general distribution of total hangover difference scores based on gender (P = .04) (Female − 3.5; Male 2), specifically for nausea (P = .05) and weakness (P = .03). Although no difference was found in the general hangover scale scores, the study was suggestive of gender specific susceptibility with female participants having improved hangover symptoms after NAC use.

Economic burden and prevalence of malaria in companies in Douala, Cameroon

Background: Malaria is a public health concern in Africa. At the socio-economic level, it represents a brake on the national growth through an increase of health spending, drop of productivity and high rate of absenteeism at the workplace. Some companies have implemented malaria control measures to improve their performance, but the vast majority are slow to follow this approach. Using the cost-of-illness approach, the objective of this study was to estimate the economic impact of malaria in two companies with 24-hour daily activity based in Douala, Cameroon: an agro-food industry nicknamed "AGRO" and a security company nicknamed "SECU".Method: A retrospective analysis of medical and financial records of these companies was carried out to calculate the economic cost of absenteeism, prophylaxis, Internal Management of Malaria cases (IMM) and External Management of Malaria cases (EMM) to these companies. A malaria screening campaign was carried out also in each company in one day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The clinical, anthropometric and socio-demographic data of the employees were collected before the collection of a drop of blood which was subsequently analyzed under the Cyscope fluorescence microscope (Partec-Sysmex, Münster, RFA). Results: Analysis of retrospective data revealed that the prevalence of symptomatic malaria cases had decreased by 8.9% and 25.1% respectively at AGRO and SECU between 2010 and 2012. Regarding the prospective component, 372 employees of the two companies were included in the study. The prevalence of malaria was 26.83% and 26.44% respectively at AGRO in January 2013 and SECU in February 2013. Malaria-related absenteeism accounted for 5% and 17% of general absenteeism at AGRO and SECU respectively. The cost of an EMM accounted for 19.5% and 40.5% of the monthly income of AGRO and SECU workers respectively. Each year, malaria generates a shortfall of US$ 26,426 and US$ 136,824 respectively to AGRO and SECU. Conclusion: Malaria have a negative impact on companies. However, early detection of suspected cases, campaigns to distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets, Information, Education and Communication within the company could reduce this impact.

The Adverse Associations of Classrooms’ Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort Conditions on Students’ Illness Related Absenteeism between Heating and Non-Heating Seasons—A Pilot Study

(1) The association of the indoor environmental conditions in classrooms with illness-related absenteeism (IRA) was not well investigated. In addition, studying the association between heating and non-heating seasons were very limited; (2) To fill this knowledge gap, a research team collected various indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort conditions (TC) of 85 elementary classrooms in two school districts from the Midwestern United States throughout an academic year; in total, 255 classroom visits were performed. A negative binomial regression model was implied to associate the classroom’s IAQ and TC with IRA, separating for heating and non-heating seasons; (3) During non-heating season, a 3% increase of IRA was estimated with 1,000,000-counts/L increase of particles that had a diameter less than 2.5 μm (PN2.5); during the heating season, a 3% increase of IRA were expected with 100 ppm increase of room averaged CO2 concentration; and (4) These results suggested that the IAQ and TC factors could associated with IRA differently between heating and non-heating seasons.

Predictors of health-related absenteeism, presenteeism and sick leave among brazilian elementary school teachers: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The health risks that usually affect teachers are already known; however, the predictors of health related absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick leave have not yet been fully described. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the predictors of health-related absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick leave among elementary school teachers. METHODS: This study involved a probabilistic sample of 519 Brazilian elementary school teachers. The outcomes were days of health-related absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick leave in the previous 12 months. Work-place and individual factors were the independent variables analyzed. RESULTS: Inadequate infrastructure of schools, disability, and medical consultations were positively associated with all outcomes. Teachers who reported having a chronic disease, common mental disorders, and voice disorders presented higher absenteeism and presenteeism days. Musculoskeletal pain and low job support were associated with higher presenteeism and sick leave days. Teachers who performed strength and flexibility activities presented less presenteeism, those who reported physical violence at school were more frequently absent, and teachers with depersonalization presented a higher likelihood of sick leave. CONCLUSIONS: The prevention of health-related absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick leave among elementary teachers should ensure adequate work conditions and prevention and monitoring of health risks.

Reasons for absenteeism in rural primary schools in two Colombian municipalities

Background: School absenteeism is a considerable problem generally related to higher dropout rates, poor academic achievement and school lag. This study determined the frequency and causes of overall and illness-related absenteeism of students in rural schools from two Colombian municipalities. Methods: A prospective and descriptive study was conducted in a population of 948 school children from 34 rural schools. Absenteeism data were collected for 2013 academic year consisted of the number of students registered and absent by grade, school, day and reason for absence. Absence rates (overall and illness-related absenteeism) were recorded, based on full or partial days absence, measured both as episodes, and accumulating the number of days. Results: From the students included in the study, 55.1% were male and 71.6% were between 5 and 9 years old. The overall absence rate was 5.7 episodes per child-year (95% confidence interval 5.5 to 5.8) and 8.6 days per child-year (8.4 to 8.9). The main reasons for non-attendance were illness (24.4%), medical or dental check-up (12.9%), travel (12.3%), lack of motivation to attend school (10.0%) and bad weather (9.3%). The illness-related absence rate was 1.4 episodes per child-year (95% confidence interval 1.3 to 1.5) and 2.5 days per child-year (2.4 to 2.6). The main reasons for illness-related absence were cold (37.0%), nonspecific fever (10.9%) and stomach pain or vomiting (8.4%). Conclusions: In this study, the most common reasons for non-attendance were illness-related. The importance of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in absenteeism was evident, showing rates similar to other urban school studies. Then, the results of this study provide knowledge on the magnitude and reasons for absenteeism in rural schoolchildren.

Pre-Employment MMPI-2 Measures and Later Psychological Injury-Related Absenteeism among Police Officers

Pre-employment screening to assess for psychological vulnerability is common in trauma-exposed occupations such as policing. However, the ability of such screening to predict those at increased risk of subsequent mental health problems has been questioned. The present study sought to investigate the ability of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) to predict absenteeism related to psychological injury in police officers. Pre-employment screening data from 1,399 sworn police officers was linked to organizational records. A total of 150 police officers who had taken at least 2 weeks’ sick leave with work-related mental health concerns were matched to 150 healthy controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to examine any association between MMPI-2 scales and psychological injury-related absenteeism. We found no evidence that elevations in the pre-employment MMPI-2 scores of police recruits were associated with an increased chance of future absenteeism as a result of psychological injury (P > 0.05). In addition, there was no evidence of an increased likelihood of psychological injury-related absenteeism among those with a higher number of positive pre-employment risk factors (P = 0.09). While the MMPI-2 may be able to predict different outcomes among police officers, it is important to note that based on these results, the MMPI-2, if used at pre-employment, is not able to predict later psychological injury-related absenteeism.

Vaccination practices and influenza in professional football players in Greece

Background There is limited data on vaccination practices for professional footballers globally. Aims To record vaccination practices employed by medical staff of individual football teams of the Super League Greece, and absenteeism of footballers related to influenza illness. Methods A brief questionnaire was distributed to chief medical officers (CMOs) of the sixteen teams of the Super League Greece. Participants were asked to report vaccines they recommended for footballers. In addition, the questionnaire included questions on new cases of influenza and absenteeism due to influenza. Descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies) were used for the presentation of the results. Results Overall, 87% of the CMOs recommended seasonal influenza vaccine, 62% hepatitis B vaccine and 50% pneumococcal vaccine. Fourteen CMOs (87%) reported that the occurrence of seasonal influenza in the 2016–17 northern hemisphere season ranged from one to five cases, while two medical officers (12%) reported zero workdays lost due to influenza. Conclusions Our survey shows considerable variation in vaccination practices of CMOs of the Super League Greece. The results of this survey should stimulate further evaluation of vaccination policy and influenza-related absenteeism in footballers.