Risk factors of fatigue: a systematic review among transportation drivers

Fatigue is an inevitable problem in the workplace due to many factors. Transportation workers are susceptible to falling asleep at the wheel, feeling tired and drowsiness, prolonged mental and physical exertion, sleep deprivation, which will later result in fatigue. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of driver fatigue, documenting potential relationships between demographics and work factors with prevalence of risk factors among transportation drivers. Related literature search was done using PubMed, SCOPUS, and ScienceDirect to review some articles related to factors influencing fatigue among transportation workers which was published between years 2000 to 2021. The most significant risk factors were poor quality and quantity of sleep, prolonged driving in a day and work-related factors. Therefore, further research should be directed towards assessing and implementing a standardized measurement of work fatigue. This could help the industry in precisely managing and measuring fatigue and sleepiness

Knowledge, attitude and acceptance among Undergraduate Students in Faculty of Health Science (FSK) and Faculty of Islamic Studies (FPI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) towards covid-19 Vaccines

The best hope for a long-term solution to the COVID-19 pandemic is the development of a vaccine. A vaccination must, however, be accepted and utilised by the vast majority of people in order to achieve herd immunity. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among the students in the Faculty of Health Science (FSK) and Faculty of Islamic Studies (FPI) of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). This is a cross-sectional study, and the questionnaire was conducted through an online platform. The questionnaire was then distributed to the third-year students of FSK and FPI of UKM. Respondents’ demographic information was gathered and the knowledge, attitudes and acceptance score of the participants towards COVID-19 vaccine were calculated and classified according to their faculty. The relationship between knowledge regarding COVID-19 and the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine was identified by using the Chi-Square test. The association between attitude and acceptance towards COVID-19 vaccine was also determined by using the same test. 143 students participated in this study where 80 (55.9%) of them are from FSK and 63 (44.1%) are from FPI. Majority of the respondents are female and aged 22-25 years old with Malay being the highest race of respondents. Both faculties have the same level of knowledge regarding COVID-19 which are on the moderate level with FSK (81.25%) and FPI (76.19%) respectively. Next, 55% of FSK students have a high level of attitude while 52.34% of FPI students have a medium level of attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, the majority of both students from FSK (97.5%) and FPI (85.72%) will definitely accept the COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, there is a relationship between knowledge regarding COVID-19 and acceptance towards COVID-19 vaccines among FSK and FPI students (p = 0.009, p0.05). Respondents from both faculties reported high acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines. Further studies can be done regarding the specific factors affecting their knowledge, attitude, and acceptance towards COVID-19 vaccines

A study of organizational factors in occupational stress problems among workers in a polymer manufacturing factory

Occupational stress is a major hazard for many workers. Increasing workloads, downsizing, overtime and shift work are just a few the many causes of stressful working condition. Moreover unhealthy work organization will not only affect the work performance but will affect the worker's health as well. With this in mind, a study was conducted to determine the prevalence of occupational stress and to identify the association between the organizational factors with stress level among factory workers. Through a cross sectional study, 91 manufacturing workers were randomly sampled and data was collected using a questionnaire, namely the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ). The validated self-administered Malay version of JCQ was used to verify the socio-demographic background, the stress level of the respondents and the factors contributed to work stress which is organizational factors. JCQ contains four factors which were the psychological demand (job demand), decision latitude (job control), social support and job insecurity. Overall the prevalence of occupational stress among the respondent was 25.3%. The result showed that there were significant associations between occupational stress and decision latitude (p<;0.001); psychological job demand (p<;0.001); and job insecurity (p=0.027). However, there was no significant association between occupational stress level and social support (p=0.433). This study showed that three out of four organizational factors had significant associations to occupational stress indicating unhealthy work organization. In addition as the prevalence is considered low, work stressors can be detected at an early stage. Therefore, preventive measure or intervention needs to implement accordingly to alleviate the negative consequences since the occupational stress can be considered as a major hazard for the workers

Association between extreme heat exposure and acute physiological change among steel mill workers in Terengganu, Malaysia

A heat stress problem is one of the physical hazards that encountered tropical countries such as Malaysia. Most of steel mill workers were exposed to hot working condition in a different work process. The aim of present study was to identify the predicting factors of Acute Health Score (AHS). About 220 confirmed male workers were participating in this study. The WBGT index during work varied from 27.6°C to 36.2°C. All of the work stations monitored had temperatures regularly exceeded the Threshold Limit Values (TLV) of heat stress recommended by ACGIH. The most common acute health effect among the workers included heat fatigue (96.8%),lethargic (90%), dizziness (82.3%), heat cramp (58.6%), unstable movement (48.2%),and heat rashes (44.5%). The respondents were classified in a heavy metabolic workload based on their work task analysis. The physiological changes shows the significant differences of body core temperature (p<0.001), systolic blood pressure (p<0.05) and heart rate (p<0.05) before the shift starts, 2 hour of shift and at the end of the shift. The results from the study shows there was no significant correlation between WBGT Index and physiological changes of body core temperature (r=-0.23, p=0.34),systolic blood pressure (r=0.09, p=0.71), diastolic blood pressure (r=0.17, p=0.5) and heart rate (r=0.23, p=0.36). The results from the study also shows there was no significant correlation between WBGT Index and acute health score (r=-0.5, p=0.86).The regression analysis suggested sweating (p<0.05), age (p<0.05), duration of heat exposure (hours) (p<0.001) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) (p<0.001) are the predictors factors of acute health score (AHS). The finding in this study concluded that steel mill plant considered as a hot workplace area since most of their workplaces were exceed the acceptable temperatures, 28.2°C according to (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Value (TLV). The high prevalence of acute health symptoms among the steel mill workers were heat fatigue, lethargic, dizziness, heat rashes, heat cramp and unstable movement

Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital with and without respiratory symptoms

Background: COVID-19 is primarily known as a respiratory illness; however, many patients present to hospital without respiratory symptoms. The association between non-respiratory presentations of COVID-19 and outcomes remains unclear. We investigated risk factors and clinical outcomes in patients with no respiratory symptoms (NRS) and respiratory symptoms (RS) at hospital admission. Methods: This study describes clinical features, physiological parameters, and outcomes of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, stratified by the presence or absence of respiratory symptoms at hospital admission. RS patients had one or more of: cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, runny nose or wheezing; while NRS patients did not. Results: Of 178,640 patients in the study, 86.4&nbsp;% presented with RS, while 13.6&nbsp;% had NRS. NRS patients were older (median age: NRS: 74 vs RS: 65) and less likely to be admitted to the ICU (NRS: 36.7&nbsp;% vs RS: 37.5&nbsp;%). NRS patients had a higher crude in-hospital case-fatality ratio (NRS 41.1&nbsp;% vs. RS 32.0&nbsp;%), but a lower risk of death after adjusting for confounders (HR 0.88 [0.83-0.93]). Conclusion: Approximately one in seven COVID-19 patients presented at hospital admission without respiratory symptoms. These patients were older, had lower ICU admission rates, and had a lower risk of in-hospital mortality after adjusting for confounders

Characteristics and outcomes of an international cohort of 600 000 hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Background: We describe demographic features, treatments and clinical outcomes in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 cohort, one of the world's largest international, standardized data sets concerning hospitalized patients. Methods: The data set analysed includes COVID-19 patients hospitalized between January 2020 and January 2022 in 52 countries. We investigated how symptoms on admission, co-morbidities, risk factors and treatments varied by age, sex and other characteristics. We used Cox regression models to investigate associations between demographics, symptoms, co-morbidities and other factors with risk of death, admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Results: Data were available for 689 572 patients with laboratory-confirmed (91.1%) or clinically diagnosed (8.9%) SARS-CoV-2 infection from 52 countries. Age [adjusted hazard ratio per 10 years 1.49 (95% CI 1.48, 1.49)] and male sex [1.23 (1.21, 1.24)] were associated with a higher risk of death. Rates of admission to an ICU and use of IMV increased with age up to age 60&nbsp;years then dropped. Symptoms, co-morbidities and treatments varied by age and had varied associations with clinical outcomes. The case-fatality ratio varied by country partly due to differences in the clinical characteristics of recruited patients and was on average 21.5%. Conclusions: Age was the strongest determinant of risk of death, with a ∼30-fold difference between the oldest and youngest groups; each of the co-morbidities included was associated with up to an almost 2-fold increase in risk. Smoking and obesity were also associated with a higher risk of death.&nbsp;The size of our international database and the standardized data collection method make this study a comprehensive international description of COVID-19 clinical features. Our findings may inform strategies that involve prioritization of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who have a higher risk of death

ISARIC-COVID-19 dataset: A Prospective, Standardized, Global Dataset of Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19

The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 dataset is one of the largest international databases of prospectively collected clinical data on people hospitalized with COVID-19. This dataset was compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic by a network of hospitals that collect data using the ISARIC-World Health Organization Clinical Characterization Protocol and data tools. The database includes data from more than 705,000 patients, collected in more than 60 countries and 1,500 centres worldwide. Patient data are available from acute hospital admissions with COVID-19 and outpatient follow-ups. The data include signs and symptoms, pre-existing comorbidities, vital signs, chronic and acute treatments, complications, dates of hospitalization and discharge, mortality, viral strains, vaccination status, and other data. Here, we present the dataset characteristics, explain its architecture and how to gain access, and provide tools to facilitate its use

The value of open-source clinical science in pandemic response: lessons from ISARIC

International audienc