Can varying the number of teams in a shift schedule constitute a preventive strategy?

OBJECTIVE: The study examines the implications for shiftworkers of applying different numbers of teams in the organization of shiftwork. METHODS: The participating operators came from five different companies applying continuous shift rotation systems. The companies shared the same product organization and a common corporate culture belonging to the same multinational company. Each company had a shift system consisting of four, five or six teams, with the proportion of shifts outside day work decreasing as the number of teams increased. Questionnaire and documentary data were used as data sources. RESULTS: Operators in systems with additional teams had more daywork but also more irregular working hours due to both overtime and schedule changes. Operators using six teams used fewer social compensation strategies. Operators in four teams were most satisfied with their work hours. Satisfaction with the time available for various social activities outside work varied inconsistently between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: In rotating systems the application of more teams reduces the number of shifts outside day work. This apparent improvement for shiftworkers was counteracted by a concomitant irregularity produced by greater organizational requirements for flexibility. The balance of this interaction was found to have a critical impact on employees.OBJETIVOS: Investigar as implicações para trabalhadores em turnos do uso de um número distinto de turmas de trabalho na organização dos turnos. MÉTODOS: Participaram do estudo operadores de cinco empresas que usavam sistemas contínuos de turnos alternantes. As empresas tinham em comum a organização de produtos e cultura empresarial e pertenciam a uma mesma empresa multinacional. Cada uma das empresas tinha um sistema de turnos que compreendia quatro, cinco ou seis turmas de trabalho, sendo que a proporção de turnos fora dos horários diurnos diminuía à medida que aumentava o número de turmas. Foram usados dados de questionários e documentação como fontes de pesquisa. RESULTADOS: Os operadores de sistemas com turmas extras apresentaram uma quantidade maior de trabalho diurno, assim como mais horas irregulares de trabalho em decorrência de horas extras e mudanças de horário. Os operadores que contavam com seis turmas usaram menos recursos de compensação social. Os que trabalharam com quatro turmas ficaram mais satisfeitos com os horários de trabalho. A satisfação com o tempo disponível para diversas atividades sociais fora do trabalho variou de modo inconsistente entre as turmas estudadas. CONCLUSÕES: Nos sistemas com turnos rodiziantes, o uso de um número maior de turmas reduz o número de turnos não-diurnos. Esta aparente vantagem aos trabalhadores em turnos foi neutralizada pela concomitante irregularidade resultante de maiores exigências organizacionais para permitir flexibilidade. Verificou-se que o equilíbrio desta interação teve um impacto fundamental sobre os trabalhadores

H.C. Andersens metode

H.C. Andersen bruger bestemte teknikker, fortælleformer og stiltræk til at få teksten til at gøre noget ved os som læsere. Hans eventyr siger ikke blot noget – de siger (og gør) noget på en helt særlig måde

Validation of retail food outlet data from a Danish government inspection database

BACKGROUND: Globally, unhealthy diet is one of the leading global risks to health, thus it is central to consider aspects of the food environment that are modifiable and may enable healthy eating. Food retail data can be used to present and facilitate analyses of food environments that in turn may direct strategies towards improving dietary patterns among populations. Though food retail data are available in many countries, their completeness and accuracy differ. METHODS: We applied a systematically name-based procedure combined with a manual procedure on Danish administrative food retailer data (i.e. the Smiley register) to identify, locate and classify food outlets. Food outlets were classified into the most commonly used classifications (i.e. fast food, restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets, fruit and vegetable stores and miscellaneous) each divided into three commonly used definitions; narrow, moderate and broad. Classifications were based on branch code, name, and/or information on the internal and external appearance of the food outlet. From ground-truthing we validated the information in the register for its sensitivity and positive predictive value. RESULTS: In 361 randomly selected areas of the Capital region of Denmark we identified a total of 1887 food outlets compared with 1861 identified in the register. We obtained a sensitivity of 0.75 and a positive predictive value of 0.76. Across classifications, the positive predictive values varied with highest values for the moderate and broad definitions of fast food, convenience stores and supermarkets (ranging from 0.89 to 0.97). CONCLUSION: Information from the Smiley Register is considered to be representative to the Danish food environment and may be used for future research. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12937-022-00809-6

Assessing the relative importance of correlates of loneliness in later life:Gaining insight using recursive partitioning

OBJECTIVES: Improving the design and targeting of interventions is important for alleviating loneliness among older adults. This requires identifying which correlates are the most important predictors of loneliness. This study demonstrates the use of recursive partitioning in exploring the characteristics and assessing the relative importance of correlates of loneliness in older adults. METHOD: Using exploratory regression trees and random forests, we examined combinations and the relative importance of 42 correlates in relation to loneliness at age 68 among 2453 participants from the birth cohort study the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. RESULTS: Positive mental well-being, personal mastery, identifying the spouse as the closest confidant, being extrovert and informal social contact were the most important correlates of lower loneliness levels. Participation in organised groups and demographic correlates were poor identifiers of loneliness. The regression tree suggested that loneliness was not raised among those with poor mental wellbeing if they identified their partner as closest confidante and had frequent social contact. CONCLUSION: Recursive partitioning can identify which combinations of experiences and circumstances characterise high-risk groups. Poor mental wellbeing and sparse social contact emerged as especially important and classical demographic factors as insufficient in identifying high loneliness levels among older adults

The Constant Gardener

Om kampen om anerkendelse og den artige revolution i H. C. Andersens »Gartneren og Herskabet« The Constant GardenerH. C. Andersen’s tale »The Gardener and the Royal Family« appears to be one of his very straightforward ones, the irony in it of a satirical and therefore stable kind. Moreover, it seems obvious that the tale is an allegory about the miscredited artist, one such as Andersen conceived himself to be, as well as about the political changes in Denmark in the latter part of the 19th century. Still, it has engendered conflicting views amongst its critics. This fact has prompted Ib Johansen to hail it as a »strong« text in the sense of Harold Bloom. This article expands on Johansen’s view in seeking to tease out in what aspects of the text this strength might be grounded. The answer we offer is that it is grounded in the figure of the gardener, who reamains a blank surface, so to speak, and subsequently represents a radical openness to interpretation. This, we further argue, brackets the aforementioned possibilities for an allegorical reading of one or the other kind. Previous readings by Peer E. Sørensen, Johan de Mylius and Ib Johansen are discussed in the process. Furthermore, we discover the Hegelian dialectic between the master and the slave to be an operative force in the text. What comes forth, we believe, is an added awareness of the specific nature of the revolutionary force of Andersen’s irony, measured also in contrast to the irony of another tale of his, »The Storm Shifts the Sideboards«, even in a case where it, at a first glance, appears to be of a facile and easily decipherable kind