Productive aging, work engagement and participation of older workers. A triadic approach to health and safety in the workplace

Background Aging of the workforce poses a dramatic challenge for health and safety in all European countries. Method Our study was based on a comprehensive review of the literature on productive aging, work engagement, and human engineering, with particular reference to older worker issues. Results Productive aging, work engagement, and participatory ergonomics appear to be the most promising areas of research in the field of worker aging. An analysis of intervention programs enabled us to identify three main approaches that could be used to tackle the problem. These include encouraging older adults to be involved in work activities, enhancing their work engagement, and sustaining their productive efforts through participatory changes in the working environment and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Occupational health and safety services in the workplace must extend their activities of prevention to encompass not only traditional environmental risk factors, but also non-occupational risk factors, so that this holistic approach promotes good practices and positive attitudes. Conclusions A set of recommendations and policy briefs for supra-national, national and local authorities was formulated

Coronavirus disease 2019: the second wave in Italy

PurposeThis paper describes how Italy addressed the first Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) wave and analyzes the possible causes of the current second wave.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive analysis of critical points and differences in the containment strategies between the first and the second waves in Italy.FindingsItaly's strict lockdown has been credited with getting the initial major outbreak under control. Furthermore, the way Italy handled the first wave was considered a lesson for other countries. On the contrary, a decentralized and highly bureaucratic political system with low coordination and political conflicts between government, regions and stakeholders led to a relaxation of individual health behaviors, poor and conflicting communication to the general public, poor management of the public transport and the reopening of schools and companies after the summer, that in turn generated the second wave, which is showing signs of becoming worse than the first.Originality/valueThis is a commentary piece

Academic stress and active learning of nursing students: A cross-sectional study

Background: The active role of nursing students is particularly important in the delivery of health care, since playing an active role at the bedside and the use of active and collaborative engagement of students in the nursing activities has been associated with improved student learning. This is consistent with Karasek's learning hypothesis, but it has never been tested on nursing students. This study aimed at investigating whether nursing students in high control conditions reported lower levels of work impairment than students in the conditions with low control, compared them with a group of healthcare workers (HCWs), and tested the moderating role of social support at work. Methods: 633 nursing students and 160 HCWs completed the Nursing Work Functioning Questionnaire (NWFQ), and the Demand-Control-Support questionnaire (DCS). Findings: Results showed that nursing students reported higher levels of work impairment and were less likely to be classified as active (high demand/high control) or low strain (low demand/high control) than HCWs, and that social support at work moderated the association between being in active or low strain condition and work impairment. Conclusions: Programs to enhance the learning of nursing students must not only fight strain and isolation but must also promote active learning, by increasing the control over the job, team work, and support from teachers

Il medico malato

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Telecommuting, Off-Time Work, and Intrusive Leadership in Workers' Well-Being

Telecommuting is a flexible form of work that has progressively spread over the last 40 years and which has been strongly encouraged by the measures to limit the COVID-19 pandemic. There is still limited evidence on the effects it has on workers' health. In this survey we invited 905 workers of companies that made a limited use of telecommuting to fill out a questionnaire to evaluate intrusive leadership of managers (IL), the request for work outside traditional hours (OFF-TAJD), workaholism (Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS)), effort/reward imbalance (ERI), happiness, and common mental issues (CMIs), anxiety and depression, assessed by the Goldberg scale (GADS). The interaction between these variables has been studied by structural equation modeling (SEM). Intrusive leadership and working after hours were significantly associated with occupational stress. Workaholism is a relevant moderator of this interaction: intrusive leadership significantly increased the stress of workaholic workers. Intrusive leadership and overtime work were associated with reduced happiness, anxiety, and depression. These results indicate the need to guarantee the right to disconnect to limit the effect of the OFF-TAJD. In addition to this, companies should implement policies to prevent intrusive leadership and workaholism

The exploding spark: workplace violence in an infectious disease hospital--a longitudinal study.

Objectives.Workplace violence (WV) is an important occupational hazard for healthcare workers (HCWs). Methods.Alongitudinal study was carried out on HCWs from an infectious disease hospital. Work-related stress, anxiety, and depression were measured at baseline in 2003, and they were reassessed in 2005, along with the assaults that occurred in the previous year. Results. One-year prevalences of 6.2% and 13.9% were reported for physical and verbal aggressions, respectively. Perpetrators were mainly patients. The professional groups most frequently attacked were physicians, followed by nurses. Workers with job strain at baseline had a significant risk of being subject to aggression (OR 7.7; CI 95%, 3.3\u201317.9) in the following year.The relationship between job strain and subsequentWVremained significant even after correction for anxiety, depression, and other confounders.Conversely, experiencing WV was associated with a high risk of job strain and effort-reward imbalance in the following year.The final levels of anxiety and depression were predicted using regression models that included physical aggression among predictive variables. Conclusions.WV is the spark that sets off a problematic work situation. Effective prevention ofWVcan only be achieved within the framework of an overall improvement in the quality of work

Can scleroderma be induced by anesthetics? Case report

Occupational exposure to solvents is consistently associated with the risk of systemic sclerosis. We pose the question of whether the occupational exposure to anesthetics may favor the occurrence of this disease. This paper describes an incidence of systemic sclerosis in the case of an anesthesiologist who had been occupationally exposed to high doses of anesthetic in the operating room. Anecdotal cases in the literature give limited support to the causal association of the occupational exposure to anesthetics and systemic sclerosis. The extremely limited number of workers exposed makes it necessary to report all cases observed in order to assess the degree of the occupational risk for anesthesiologist

Spirituality and prayer on teacher stress and burnout in an Italian cohort: A pilot, before-after controlled study

Teaching is a stressful profession that exposes workers to the risk of burnout. Techniques involving higher mental functions, such as transcendental meditation and prayer, have been used in stress and burnout prevention programs. In this study, we report the results of an experience conducted in a group of teachers of a religious institute, in which prayer was used as a technique to prevent burnout

West Nile virus infection in Europe: need for an integration of occupational health practice and public health activities. Commentary

In these days, the West Nile virus (WNV), which is the most widespread arthropodborne virus infection in the world, is an emerging issue in Europe, wherein 2018, partial figures (until 25 October) showed a number of WNV infection cases more than doupled in comparison with previous five years. This mosquito-transmitted disease is surely a challenge for policymakers, but it is an occupational hazard for outdoor workers, as well. Occupational medicine is a public health discipline based on the principles of epidemiology. Therefore, we argue that addressing the WNV hazard may be an opportunity for integrating the occupational health practice with public health activities to boost their respective preventive strategies