The association between manual handling operations and pain in the hands and arms in the context of the 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey

Background Manual handling operations (MHO) are tasks performed by hand that require repetitive and forceful hand and arm movements. MHO are currently performed in many workplaces in skilled and unskilled jobs in the production and service sectors. MHO are considered as work-related health risk factors. The relationship between MHO and the occurrence of disorders of the upper extremities has been established. MHO can cause diseases such as tenosynovitis or carpal tunnel syndrome. This study aims to assess the current prevalence of MHO in the German workforce and to evaluate the relationship between MHO and the occurrence of hand and arm complaints. Methods The analysis was based on the German 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey. For this analysis we included subjects aged between 16 and 66 who work at least 35 h per week. The self-reported frequency of MHO (never; rarely; sometimes; often) was considered as the exposure of interest and was stratified by gender and occupation. Prevalence ratios (PR) were used to report the relationship between MHO and self-reported pain in the hands and arms (robust log-linear Poisson regression). Adjustments were made for age, gender, actual weekly working hours, psychosocial workload, and other physical workloads. The regression analyses considered complete cases. Results The analyses included 14,299 employees. Frequent MHO were reported by 32.6% of men and 31.1% of women. These workloads were often reported by respondents who work in the agricultural sector (men: 70.1%; women: 79.0%), in unskilled (men: 59.4%; women: 66.9%), and skilled manual occupations (men: 72.7%; women: 66.7%). A higher frequency of self-reported MHO was associated with a higher prevalence of hand complaints (PR 2.26 CI 2.00–2.55 “often” vs. “never” = ref.) as well as arm pain (PR 1.73 CI 1.55–1.92 for “often” vs. “never” = ref.). Conclusion MHO are still frequent in many occupations. The shown association between MHO and pain in the hands and arms demonstrates the importance of MHO in the current German workforce and the necessity to further develop prevention strategies.

Major aspects of aesthetic sclerotherapy of hand veins

Introduction. In recent years, phlebology centers have experienced an increasing inflow of patients presenting with a cosmetic issue related to bulging enlarged veins of the upper extremities. This issue especially affects people, whose jobs are associated with increased physical workloads to hands. A microfoam sclerobliteration procedure for eliminating hand veins has been performed in the phlebology center of the Medical Innovative Phlebological Center (MIPC, Moscow) since 2015. This procedure is indicated for patients with enlarged hand veins, which worsen the psycho-emotional condition of the patients. This study was aimed at developing the optimal method for conducting sclerotherapy of unaesthetic hand veins.Materials and methods. 38 patients (36 women and 2 men) have received sclerotherapy at the clinics of the Medical Innovative Phlebological Center from September 2015 to February 2020. The procedure was conducted using 1.5% to 2.5% lauromacrogol 400 microfoam. Each patient received 1 to 3 sclerotherapy sessions per hand with an interval of 3 to 7 days, the number of injections ranged from 1 to 5 per session.Results. All patients were followed over a period of 1 month to 1 year. Target veins were occluded in 100% of cases. Moderate hyperpigmentation in the projection of obliterated veins was observe in seven patients, after which it disappeared within 3 to 6 months.Conclusion. The aesthetic sclerotherapy of upper limbs is a safe and effective cosmetic procedure. After it is completed, the patients do not have any cicatrices, scars or stitches. Sclerotherapy provides demonstrates high cosmetic efficacy with minimal trauma. The procedure results in selective occlusion of targeted venous segments and makes it possible to preserve the cubital veins.

The Association Between Manual Handling Operations and Pain in the Hands and Arms in the Context of the 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey

Background: Manual handling operations (MHO) are tasks performed by hand that require a high frequency of repetitive and forceful movements of the hand and forearm. MHO are currently performed in a large number of workplaces in skilled and unskilled professions in the production and service sectors. MHO are considered a work-related health risk factor. The relationship between MHO and the occurrence of disorders of the upper extremities has already been established. MHO can cause diseases such as tenosynovitis of the forearm and carpal tunnel syndrome. This study aims to assess the current prevalence of exposure to MHO in the German workforce and to evaluate the relationship between MHO and the occurrence of disorders in the hands and arms. Methods: The analysis was based on the German 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey . We included subjects aged between 15 and 66 who work at least 35 hours per week. The self-reported frequency of MHO (never; rarely; sometimes; often) was considered the exposure of interest and was stratified by gender and occupation. Prevalence ratios were used to report the relationship between MHO and self-reported pain in the hands and arms (robust log-linear Poisson regression). Adjustments were made for age, gender, actual weekly working hours, psychosocial workload, and other physical workloads. Results: The analysis included 14,299 employees. Nearly 33% of the male and 31% of the female subjects reported that they often perform MHO. These workloads were often reported by respondents who work in the agricultural sector (men: 70%; women: 79%), in unskilled (men: 59%; women: 67%) and skilled manual occupations (men: 73%; women: 67%). A higher frequency of self-reported MHO was clearly associated with a higher prevalence of hand complaints (PR 2.26 CI: 2.00 - 2.55) as well as arm pain (PR 1.73 CI: 1.55 – 1.92). Conclusion: MHO are still frequent in many occupations. The association between self-reported frequencies of MHO and pain in the hands and arms shown here demonstrates the importance of MHO in the current German workforce and the necessity to further develop prevention strategies.

Workflow and Human-Centered Risk Analysis for Novel Mechatronic Rescue Aids II.

Paramedics face rising numbers of deployments every year. As obstacles like stairs occur often, paramedics must frequently manually carry patients and are thereby exposed to loads multitudes higher than recommended. This creates the need for patient transport aids (PTA), which can physically support paramedics in a wide variety of transport situations, without slowing down the transport. In this paper a workflow analysis for transport missions in an urban context and basic tasks for PTAs are presented. Subsequently, the high-level task modelling and human-centered risk analysis according to the HiFEM method are presented for the use case of a patient transport over stairs with a passive PTA, like a rescue chair, and an active PTA like the novel SEBARES prototype. The analysis shows that conventional PTA’s have a simple linear use process, however, impose excessive physical workloads, which cause risks like the paramedic or the PTA falling down the stairs. Contrary, active PTA’s reduce physical workloads, however, introduce additional concurrent steps, like identifying and correcting misalignments, which create further risks. In order to mitigate risks with active, stair climbing PTAs, either new kinematic designs or intelligent assistance functions, like automatic stair detection, are necessary.

Workflow and Human-Centered Risk Analysis for Novel Mechatronic Rescue Aids I.

Paramedics face rising numbers of deployments every year. As obstacles like stairs occur often, paramedics must frequently manually carry patients and are thereby exposed to loads multitudes higher than recommended. This creates the need for patient transport aids (PTA), which can physically support paramedics in a wide variety of transport situations, without slowing down the transport. In this paper a workflow analysis for transport missions in an urban context and basic tasks for PTAs are presented. Subsequently, the high-level task modelling and human-centered risk analysis according to the HiFEM method are presented for the use case of a patient transport over stairs with a passive PTA, like a rescue chair, and an active PTA like the novel SEBARES prototype. The analysis shows that conventional PTA’s have a simple linear use process, however, impose excessive physical workloads, which cause risks like the paramedic or the PTA falling down the stairs. Contrary, active PTA’s reduce physical workloads, however, introduce additional concurrent steps, like identifying and correcting misalignments, which create further risks. In order to mitigate risks with active, stair climbing PTAs either new kinematic designs or intelligent assistance functions, like automatic stair detection, are necessary.

HUBUNGAN BEBAN KERJA MENTAL, MASA KERJA DAN USIA TERHADAP KEJADIAN STRES PADA PEKERJA PERUSAHAAN AKUAKULTUR DI BANYUWANGI

Stress is one of the body's response due to unbalanced demands and abilities. The workers group is one group that has the potential for stress. The impact of stress caused is very likely to affect work. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mental workload and individual factors (work period, age) with stress at aquaculture company in Banyuwangi. This research was an observational study with cross sectional design. The sample of this research is 36 samples and it is a total population. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between variables, the research data were analyzed using the Spearman correlation test. The results showed that the majority of workers have a mental workload with a high category, stress conditions for workers are mostly in the low stress category In conclusion, there is no relationship between mental workload (p value = 0,123) and work period (p value = 0,096) with stress. However, there is a relationship between age and stress (p value = 0,023) and this relationship is negative (correlation coefficient = -0.281). Recommendations for companies are to pay attention to workload owned by workers, both mental and physical workloads, create health programs for workers, including physical and mental health, create a healthy and comfortable work environment, and create good relationships between workers and introduce stress management to workers, so the workers are able to prevent the adverse effects of stress that might be experienced.

Preventing kidney injury among sugarcane workers: promising evidence from enhanced workplace interventions

ObjectivesTo assess if improvement of working conditions related to heat stress was associated with improved kidney health outcomes among sugarcane harvest workers in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, a region heavily affected by the epidemic of chronic kidney disease of non-traditional origin.MethodsBased on our findings during the 2017–2018 harvest (harvest 1), recommendations that enhanced the rest schedule and improved access to hydration and shade were given before the 2018–2019 harvest (harvest 2). Actual work conditions during harvest 2 were then observed. Serum creatinine (SCr) was measured before and at end-harvest, and cross-harvest changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and incident kidney injury (IKI, ie, SCr increase by ≥0.30 mg/dL or ≥1.5 times the baseline value) were compared between harvest 1 and harvest 2 for three jobs with different physical workloads using regression modelling. Workers who left during harvest were contacted at home, to address the healthy worker selection effect.ResultsIn burned cane cutters, mean cross-harvest eGFR decreased 6 mL/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI 2 to 9 mL/min/1.73 m2) less and IKI was 70% (95% CI 90% to 50%) lower in harvest 2 as compared with harvest 1 data. No such improvements were seen among seed cutters groups with less successful intervention implementation.ConclusionKidney injury risk was again elevated in workers with strenuous jobs. The results support further efforts to prevent kidney injury among sugarcane workers, and other heat-stressed workers, by improving access to water, rest and shade. The distinction between design and implementation of such interventions should be recognised.