Analysis of the correlates of self-report work related illness in the Labour Force Survey

Work has long been acknowledged as an important social determinant of health with research being conducted as to how a range of workplace, personal and job characteristics influence occupational health. This report provides an analysis of work related ill-health within the United Kingdom based upon data from the UK Labour Force Survey. Analysis reveals that employment within physically demanding occupations is the key risk factor associated with an individual suffering from a musculoskeletal disorder. Working long hours and employment within managerial, customer service and teaching occupations are associated with an increased risk of suffering from stress, depression and anxiety. Reported levels of ill-health are higher amongst males, older workers and those in the public sector. Despite these findings, downward trends in rates of work related ill-health cannot be explained by changes in the observable characteristics of people and their jobs as recorded by the LFS. The inability to explain observed trends may relate to the absence of career history data within the LFS or the omission of questions about certain characteristics of people’s jobs that are known to effect health. Such data is included within the longitudinal Understanding Society survey. It is recommended that the feasibility of including additional questions in this survey should be investigated

Analysis of the correlates of self-report work related illness in the Labour Force Survey

Work has long been acknowledged as an important social determinant of health with research being conducted as to how a range of workplace, personal and job characteristics influence occupational health. This report provides an analysis of work related ill-health within the United Kingdom based upon data from the UK Labour Force Survey. Analysis reveals that employment within physically demanding occupations is the key risk factor associated with an individual suffering from a musculoskeletal disorder. Working long hours and employment within managerial, customer service and teaching occupations are associated with an increased risk of suffering from stress, depression and anxiety. Reported levels of ill-health are higher amongst males, older workers and those in the public sector. Despite these findings, downward trends in rates of work related ill-health cannot be explained by changes in the observable characteristics of people and their jobs as recorded by the LFS. The inability to explain observed trends may relate to the absence of career history data within the LFS or the omission of questions about certain characteristics of people’s jobs that are known to effect health. Such data is included within the longitudinal Understanding Society survey. It is recommended that the feasibility of including additional questions in this survey should be investigated

Goal Setting for Cognitive Rehabilitation in Mild to Moderate Parkinson’s Disease Dementia and Dementia with Lewy Bodies

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Alongside the physical symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies, health services must also address the cognitive impairments that accompany these conditions. There is growing interest in the use of nonpharmacological approaches to managing the consequences of cognitive disorder. Cognitive rehabilitation is a goal-orientated behavioural intervention which aims to enhance functional independence through the use of strategies specific to the individual’s needs and abilities. Fundamental to this therapy is a person’s capacity to set goals for rehabilitation. To date, no studies have assessed goal setting in early-stage Parkinson’s disease dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies. Semistructured interviews were carried out with 29 participants from an ongoing trial of cognitive rehabilitation for people with these conditions. Here, we examined the goal statements provided by these participants using qualitative content analysis, exploring the types and nature of the goals set. Participants’ goals reflected their motivations to learn new skills or improve performance in areas such as technology-use, selfmanagement and orientation, medication management, and social and leisure activities. These results suggest that goal setting is achievable for these participants, provide insight into the everyday cognitive difficulties that they experience, and highlight possible domains as targets for intervention. The trial is registered with ISRCTN16584442 (DOI 10.1186/ISRCTN16584442 13/04/2015)This work is supported by Health and Care Research Wales (formerly the National Institute for Health & Social Care Research) Grant no. RFPPB-2042-1020. The authors wish to thank Dr. Pam Martin-Forbes, Aaron Pritchard, Tori Garvey, Claire Watkins, and the staff based at BCUHB clinics for their ongoing assistance with participant screening and recruitment. The authors also thank Professor Kris Krippendorff for his advice regarding the interrater analysis and both Professor Krippendorff and Dr. Richard Craggs for use of their software program to perform this analysis

Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity.

Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant