Work-related musculoskeletal disorders among health care professionals: A cross-sectional assessment of risk factors in a tertiary hospital, India

BACKGROUND: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are responsible for morbidity in many working populations. Apart from lowering the quality of workers’ life and reducing the productivity, WMSDs are the most expensive form of work disability, attributing to about 40% of all costs toward the treatment of work-related injuries. WMSDs are considered to be multifactorials that are caused due to the interactions between various risk factors, which result in conditions that vary across different occupations. Although health care profession is known to be at a high risk for WMSDs, it is one of the least-studied occupations. Most of the previous studies on WMSDs among health care workers were limited to any one of the professional groups such as nurses, physical therapists, dentists, and others. Hence this study was aimed at looking into the WMSDs affecting five different health care professionals working in a tertiary care hospital. It compared the prevalence and distribution of WMSDs among the five groups, evaluated the multiple risk factors that contribute to the development of WMSDs, and identified the high-risk group. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study conducted among dentists, laboratory technicians, nurses, physicians, and physiotherapists of various clinical departments in a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, India, from January to June 2013. Face-to-face interviews as well as observational analysis of various tasks were employed. Different combinations of validated and standardized questionnaires were used for collecting different types of data. RESULTS: A high proportion of health care professionals reported WMSDs at one or the other body region, lower back being the most commonly affected area. Working in the same position for long periods, working in awkward or cramped positions and handling an excessive number of patients or samples in one day were found to be the most commonly reported job risk factor that contributed to the development of WMSDs, in this study. CONCLUSION: Among all the health care professionals assessed in this study, nurses were found to be at the highest risk, whereas physicians were at the lowest risk. A longitudinal study using quantitative analytical tools may give a more accurate estimate of WMSDs and job risk factors, which would pave way for making more precise recommendations to eliminate the risk factors and thereby prevent WMSDs

Razvoj i ispitivanje kontinuiranog tipa separatora semena mahunarki

A continuous type tamarind deseeder with a capacity of 75 kg•h-1 has been fabricated and evaluated at the Department of Agricultural Process Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India. The machine consists of a seed separation unit and separate outlets for the seeds and deseeded fruits. In the seed separation unit, the fruits were subjected to impact and simultaneous shearing force by pegs mounted on the wooden roller to break open the fruit and to push the seeds out of the oblong sieve. After deseeding, the seeds and fruit pulp were collected separately through their respective outlets. The performance of the developed machine was evaluated based on deseeding efficiency. Evaluation was done by conducting experiments at different operating conditions including different moisture content of tamarind fruit (20.0, 22.5 and 25.0% on dry basis) and varying wooden roller speed (2.5, 3.4 and 4.2 m•s-1), feed rate (45, 60 and 75 kg•h-1) and horizontal clearance (14, 16 and 18 mm). The test results of the machine showed that a maximum deseeding efficiency of 89.15% was found at 22.5 percent moisture content on dry basis, with the wooden roller speed of 3.4 m•s-1, feed rate of 45 kg•h-1 and 16 mm horizontal clearance. As compared to existing manual methods of deseeding, the continuous type tamarind deseeder unit recorded 93.34 % saving in time and 74.9 % saving in operation cost.Kontinuirani tip separatora semena iz mahuna kapaciteta 75 kg•h-1 konstruisan je i ispitivan u Institutu za inženjering prehrambenih i poljoprivrednih procesa Poljoprivrednog univerziteta Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, India. Mašina se sastoji od separatorske jedinice i izlaza za izdvojeno seme i prazne mahune. U separatorskoj jedinici mahune su istovremeno izlagane silama udara i sečenja od klinova postavljenih na drveni valjak, koji lome i otvaraju mahune i istovremeno guraju seme napolje iz duguljastog sita. Posle izdvajanje semena, seme i prazne mahune se skupljaju odvojeno iz razdvojenih izlaznih otvora. Performanse razvijene mašine su ocenjivane na osnovu efikasnosti separacije. Pri ispitivanju su izvođeni ogledi u različitim uslovima rada, uključujući različite: vlažnosti plodova (20.0, 22.5 i 25.0%), brzine valjka (2.5, 3.4 i 4.2 m•s-1), protoke mase (45, 60 i 75 kg•h-1) i horizontalne zazore (14, 16 i 18 mm). Rezultati ogleda su pokazali da je mašina postigla maksimalnu efikasnost separacije od 89.15% pri: vlažnosti od 22.5%, brzini valjka od 3.4 m•s-1, protoku mase od 45 kg•h-1 i zazoru od 16 mm. U poređenju sa postojećim ručnim postupcima separacije, kontinuirani tip separatora postigao je skraćenje radnog vremena od 93.34% i smanjenje troškova rada od 74.9%

Reactivity in rapidly collected hygiene and toilet spot check measurements: a cautionary note for longitudinal studies.

Discreet collection of spot check observations to measure household hygiene conditions is a common measurement technique in epidemiologic studies of hygiene in low-income countries. The objective of this study was to determine whether the collection of spot check observations in longitudinal studies could itself induce reactivity (i.e., change participant behavior). We analyzed data from a 12-month prospective cohort study in rural Tamil Nadu, India that was conducted in the absence of any hygiene or toilet promotion activities. Our data included hygiene and toilet spot checks from 10,427 household visits. We found substantial evidence of participant reactivity to spot check observations of hygiene practices that were easy to modify on short notice. For example, soap observed at the household's primary handwashing location increased from 49% at enrollment to 81% by the fourth visit and remained at or above 77% for the remainder of the study

Associations between High Temperature, Heavy Rainfall, and Diarrhea among Young Children in Rural Tamil Nadu, India: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BackgroundThe effects of weather on diarrhea could influence the health impacts of climate change. Children have the highest diarrhea incidence, especially in India, where many lack safe water and sanitation.ObjectivesIn a prospective cohort of 1,284 children under 5 y of age from 900 households across 25 villages in rural Tamil Nadu, India, we examined whether high temperature and heavy rainfall was associated with increased all-cause diarrhea and water contamination.MethodsSeven-day prevalence of diarrhea was assessed monthly for up to 12 visits from January 2008 to April 2009, and hydrogen sulfide ([Formula: see text]) presence in drinking water, a fecal contamination indicator, was tested in a subset of households. We estimated associations between temperature and rainfall exposures and diarrhea and [Formula: see text] using binomial regressions, adjusting for potential confounders, random effects for village, and autoregressive-1 error terms for study week.ResultsThere were 259 cases of diarrhea. The prevalence of diarrhea during the 7 d before visits was 2.95 times higher (95% CI: 1.99, 4.39) when mean temperature in the week before the 7-d recall was in the hottest versus the coolest quartile of weekly mean temperature during 1 December 2007 to 15 April 2009. Diarrhea prevalence was 1.50 times higher when the 3 weeks before the diarrhea recall period included [Formula: see text] (vs. 0 d) with rainfall of [Formula: see text] (95% CI: 1.12, 2.02), and 2.60 times higher (95% CI: 1.55, 4.36) for heavy rain weeks following a 60-d dry period. The [Formula: see text] prevalence in household water was not associated with heavy rain prior to sample collection.ConclusionsThe results suggest that, in rural Tamil Nadu, heavy rainfall may wash pathogens that accumulate during dry weather into child contact. Higher temperatures were positively associated with diarrhea 1-3 weeks later. Our findings suggest that diarrhea morbidity could worsen under climate change without interventions to reduce enteric pathogen transmission through multiple pathways. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3711