76 research outputs found

    Trastornos Músculo-Esqueléticos en Auxiliares de Enfermería de un Hospital en Quito

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    In order to understand the prevalence of: disorders Knew Muscle Skeletal (TMC), its characteristics, the relation with working conditions, labor absenteeism and other factors, it was studied a group of Auxiliary of Infirmary (AC) of a Hospital in Quito, Ecuador , in November and December, 2009. 238 women AF with an average of age of 48,06 years were asked a questionnaire, first used in the Southampton's University. The results show that the most frequent disorders in the last 12 months, were Lumbago (66,4%), Cervicalgia (56,3%) and pain of knees (51.2%) , in Surgery and Head Office of Sterilization; and in the last month, Lumbalgia (55.5%) pain of knees (52,2%) and Cervicalgia (42,4%), in Orthopedic and Surgery. There was demonstrated statistically a significant relation between some disorders with age, years of work and casual perception. The corporal mass index suggests an independent relation.Un estudio transversal fue realizado en auxiliares de Enfermería (AE) de un Hospital en Quito, Ecuador, en Noviembre y Diciembre de 2009 a fin de conocer la prevalencia de Trastornos Músculo-Esqueléticos (TME), sus características, relación con condiciones laborales, otros factores y ausentismo laboral. Se utilizó como herramienta un cuestionario, utilizado previamente por la Universidad de Southampton. Se estudiaron 238 AE mujeres con un promedio de edad de 48,06 años. Los TME más frecuentes, en los últimos 12 meses, fueron: lumbalgia (66,4%), cervicalgia (56,3%) y dolor de rodillas (51,2%), en Cirugía y Central de Esterilización; y en el último mes: lumbalgia (55,5%), dolor de rodillas (52,2%) y cervicalgia (42,4%), en Traumatología y Cirugía. El ausentismo laboral anual fue mayor de 1-5 días por lumbalgia (9,24%). Se demostró relación estadísticamente significativa de algunos TME con edad, años de trabajo y percepción causal. El índice de masa corporal sugiere una relación independiente.&nbsp

    Maternal and fetal health in relation to lithium in drinking water

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    Lithium is an alkali metal commonly used for treating mood disorders. A more common source of lithium exposure worldwide is drinking water, including bottled water, although few measurements have been performed. Based on clinical and experimental studies, lithium at therapeutic doses may impair fetal growth and development. Also, lithium may impair the thyroid and calcium homeostases in lithium-treated patients, but data on people exposed to lithium through drinking water are very limited. The overall aim of this PhD thesis was to elucidate the potential impact of the exposure to lithium via drinking water during pregnancy on maternal and fetal health. Specifically, we aimed at elucidating the transfer of lithium through the placenta and mammary gland and the potential impact of lithium exposure during pregnancy on fetal size and maternal thyroid and calcium homeostases. By analyzing lithium in banked samples from a small mother-child cohort (n=11) recruited in 1996 in San Antonio de los Cobres, an area with elevated lithium in the drinking water in northern Argentina, we evidenced a marked transfer of lithium through the placenta. The lithium concentration in cord blood was at least as high as in maternal blood and both were highly correlated (rs=0.82). In line with this, the lithium concentration in the newborns’ first urine in life was highly elevated. The urinary lithium concentration of the infants decreased during exclusive breastfeeding, consistent with the observed lower transfer of lithium through the mammary gland into breast milk. To clarify the potential impact of lithium exposure on fetal and birth size and underlying mechanisms, we recruited a larger mother-child cohort from October 2012 to December 2013 (n=194, participation rate 88%) covering most of the Andean part of the Province of Salta in northern Argentina. The lithium concentrations in the drinking water were about 700 μg/L in the main village of San Antonio de los Cobres and from 5.0 to 242 μg/L in the surrounding nine villages. The selected biomarker of lithium exposure was blood lithium (overall median 25 μg/L) which showed a wide range of distribution (1.9-145). Lithium concentration in blood correlated very well with that in plasma (rs=0.99) and urine (rs=0.84), and, to a lesser extent, with that in water (rs=0.40). In multivariable-adjusted linear regression models, we observed that maternal blood lithium concentrations were inversely associated with fetal size. A 25 μg/L increment in the blood lithium concentrations was associated with a statistically significant decrease of 0.5 cm in birth length. Newborns to mothers in the highest tertile of lithium exposure (median blood lithium 47 μg/L) were on average 0.8 cm shorter than those in the lowest tertile of exposure (median blood lithium 11 μg/L). Based on multivariable-adjusted quantile regression across pregnancy, blood lithium concentrations were positively associated with thyrotropin (TSH) and inversely associated with free (fT3) and total triiodothyronine (T3) and with transthyretine (TTR). Using multivariable-adjusted linear mixed-effects models across pregnancy, we observed blood lithium to be inversely associated with plasma vitamin D3 concentrations and with urinary calcium and magnesium, and positively associated with serum magnesium. A 25 μg/L increment in the blood lithium concentrations was associated with an odds ratio of 3.5 for having vitamin D3 concentrations <50 nmol/L, and an odds ratio of 4.6 for having vitamin D3 concentrations <30 nmol/L, an association independent of season of sampling. Taken together, the results of this thesis provide evidence of a marked transfer of lithium through the placenta and a consequent lithium exposure to the fetus. This elevated fetal exposure seemed to impair the fetal size. Findings of a potential lithium-related impaired homeostasis of the thyroid and calcium systems in the mother during pregnancy might be underlying mechanisms of action of lithium. Further studies are indeed warranted

    Climate change and agricultural workers’ health in Ecuador: occupational exposure to UV radiation and hot environments

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    Climate change is a global concern but little is known about its potential health effects in workers from non-industrialized countries. Ecuadorian workers from the coast (hot environments) and Andean region (elevated UV radiation) might be at particular risk of such effects. In the Andean region, measurements of UV index show maximum levels exceeding 11, a level considered being extreme according to the WHO. Also, an increased incidence of skin cancer was reported the last decennium, this being the second most common cancer type in men and women. In the coast, a high reported prevalence of kidney disease in agricultural workers is suggested to be related to exposure to hot temperatures. The scarce data available on occupational health in Ecuadorian agricultural workers raise the need for further investigation. Data worldwide shows an increasing prevalence of UV radiation- and heat stress-related illnesses in agricultural workers and urges the adoption of preventive measures

    Drivers of international variation in prevalence of disabling low back pain: Findings from the cultural and psychosocial influences on disability study

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    Background: Wide international variation in the prevalence of disabling low back pain (LBP) among working populations is not explained by known risk factors. It would be useful to know whether the drivers of this variation are specific to the spine or factors that predispose to musculoskeletal pain more generally.Methods: Baseline information about musculoskeletal pain and risk factors was elicited from 11 710 participants aged 20-59 years, who were sampled from 45 occupational groups in 18 countries. Wider propensity to pain was characterized by the number of anatomical sites outside the low back that had been painful in the 12 months before baseline (\u27pain propensity index\u27). After a mean interval of 14 months, 9055 participants (77.3%) provided follow-up data on disabling LBP in the past month. Baseline risk factors for disabling LBP at follow-up were assessed by random intercept Poisson regression.Results: After allowance for other known and suspected risk factors, pain propensity showed the strongest association with disabling LBP (prevalence rate ratios up to 2.6, 95% CI: 2.2-3.1; population attributable fraction 39.8%). Across the 45 occupational groups, the prevalence of disabling LBP varied sevenfold (much more than within-country differences between nurses and office workers), and correlated with mean pain propensity index (r = 0.58).Conclusions: Within our study, major international variation in the prevalence of disabling LBP appeared to be driven largely by factors predisposing to musculoskeletal pain at multiple anatomical sites rather than by risk factors specific to the spine.Significance: Our findings indicate that differences in general propensity to musculoskeletal pain are a major driver of large international variation in the prevalence of disabling low back pain among people of working age

    Influence of genetic polymorphisms on arsenic methylation efficiency during pregnancy: Evidence from a Spanish birth cohort

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    Background: Inorganic arsenic (iAs) is a widespread toxic metalloid. It is well-known that iAs metabolism and its toxicity are mediated by polymorphisms in AS3MT and other genes. However, studies during pregnancy are scarce. We aimed to examine the role of genetic polymorphisms in AS3MT, GSTO2, N6AMT1, MTHFR, MTR, FTCD, CBS, and FOLH1 in iAs methylation efficiency during pregnancy. Methods: The study included 541 pregnant participants from the INMA (Environment and Childhood) Spanish cohort. Using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass, we measured arsenic (iAs and the metabolites monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA)) in urine samples collected during the first trimester. iAs methylation efficiency was determined based on relative concentrations of the As metabolites in urine (%MMA, %DMA, and %iAs). Thirty-two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in nine genes were determined in maternal DNA; AS3MT haplotypes were inferred. We assessed the association between genotypes/haplotypes and maternal As methylation efficiency using multivariate linear regression models. Results: The median %MMA and %DMA were 5.3 %, and 89 %, respectively. Ancestral alleles of AS3MT SNPs (rs3740393, rs3740390, rs11191453, and rs11191454) were significantly associated with higher %MMA, %iAs, and lower %DMA. Pregnant participants with zero copies of the GGCTTCAC AS3MT haplotype presented a higher %MMA. Statistically significant associations were also found for the FOLH1 SNP rs202676 (β 0.89 95%CI: 0.24, 1.55 for carriers of the G allele vs. the A allele). Conclusions: Our study shows that ancestral alleles in AS3MT polymorphisms were associated with lower As methylation efficiency in early pregnancy and suggests that FOLH1 also plays a role in As methylation efficiency. These results support the hypothesis that As metabolism is multigenic, being a key element for identifying susceptible populations

    Descriptive epidemiology of somatising tendency: findings from the CUPID study.

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    Somatising tendency, defined as a predisposition to worry about common somatic symptoms, is importantly associated with various aspects of health and health-related behaviour, including musculoskeletal pain and associated disability. To explore its epidemiological characteristics, and how it can be specified most efficiently, we analysed data from an international longitudinal study. A baseline questionnaire, which included questions from the Brief Symptom Inventory about seven common symptoms, was completed by 12,072 participants aged 20-59 from 46 occupational groups in 18 countries (response rate 70%). The seven symptoms were all mutually associated (odds ratios for pairwise associations 3.4 to 9.3), and each contributed to a measure of somatising tendency that exhibited an exposure-response relationship both with multi-site pain (prevalence rate ratios up to six), and also with sickness absence for non-musculoskeletal reasons. In most participants, the level of somatising tendency was little changed when reassessed after a mean interval of 14 months (75% having a change of 0 or 1 in their symptom count), although the specific symptoms reported at follow-up often differed from those at baseline. Somatising tendency was more common in women than men, especially at older ages, and varied markedly across the 46 occupational groups studied, with higher rates in South and Central America. It was weakly associated with smoking, but not with level of education. Our study supports the use of questions from the Brief Symptom Inventory as a method for measuring somatising tendency, and suggests that in adults of working age, it is a fairly stable trait

    De la reforma a la reacción: La burocracia sindical durante el tercer gobierno peronista (1973-1976)

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    Buscamos ahondar en la investigación histórica sobre el accionar de la dirigencia peronista en los sindicatos, permite avanzar en una explicación sobre el rol de la burocracia sindical en el proceso abierto en 1969. En ese sentido, el período escogido resulta fundamental porque implicó la llegada al poder del programa que los sindicalistas peronistas defendían y la exacerbación de los enfrentamientos en el seno de la clase obrera y, por ende, de los sindicatos.Fil: Harari, Ianina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales; ArgentinaFil: Egan, Julia Florencia. Centro de Estudios e Investigación en Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

    The Confederación General del Trabajo and the Juventud Trabajadora Peronista in a context of rising conflict within peronist movement (1973-1976)

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    En este artículo nos proponemos estudiar la relación entre la CGT y la JTP en un contexto de conflictividad obrera signado a su vez por el retorno del peronismo al poder —período que comprende los años que van de 1973 a 1976—. Nuestro propósito es indagar en la acción política de la dirigencia sindical peronista atendiendo a las formas en que fue brindando apoyo del gobierno y buscó cumplir con las tareas que se le asignaban: la depuración del movimiento peronista y la salvaguarda de los sindicatos ante el ascenso del clasismo y de las organizaciones políticas de la izquierda marxista y peronista. Para ello utilizamos como fuente documentos internos y declaraciones de los principales sindicatos que dirigían la CGT así como publicaciones periódicas y documentos de Montoneros y de su corriente sindicalIn this article we aim to study the relationship between the CGT and the JTP in a context of workers’ conflict, which was marked by the return of Peronism to power —a period that took place between 1973 and 1976—. Our purpose is to inquire into the political action of the Peronist union leadership, considering the ways in which it provided support to the government and sought to fulfill the assigned tasks: the purification of the Peronist movement and the safeguarding of trade unions against the rise of classism and the political organizations of the marxist and peronist left. For this purpose, we work with internal documents and statements of the main unions that led the CGT, newspapers and documents of Montoneros and their trade union tendencyFil: Harari, Ianina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales; ArgentinaFil: Lissandrello, Guido Axel. Centro de Estudios e Investigación en Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Egan, Julia Florencia. Centro de Estudios e Investigación en Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin
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