The influence of physical and mental workload on the safe behavior of employees in the automobile industry

This study aimed to investigate the influence of physical and mental workload on safe behavior of employees in the automobile industry. The 150 workers of the two industries of machining and foundry of an automobile parts manufacturer participated in this correlational study. Safety behavior, NASA-TLX, and Borg scale questionnaires were used to collect data. Independent t-test, analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficient applied to the analysis of data. The NASA-TLX showed that the dimensions of physical and mental demand had the highest score and the performance had the lowest score. Excessive physical pressure was also reported among workers. The Score of safety observance, safety participation, and safety behavior were at a moderate level. There was a significant difference in the physical workload of employees who had an accident and did not have an accident (P = 0.001). The results showed that if the same mental workload had been imposed on workers and simultaneously more physical workload had been experienced, the probability of an accident increased. The overall mental workload and physical pressure among workers were reported at a high level. Safe behaviors were moderate among employees. Therefore, the implementation of effective intervention programs to adjust workload, participatory ergonomics, provide workload balance to improve job satisfaction, eliminate inappropriate working conditions and increase the number of operators, management programs such as job rotation between Machining and Foundry and other workshops, increase rest time and creation of a strong teamwork safety climate can reduce physical and mental workload and prevent accident among workers, improve their performance and wellbeing

Evaluation of the educational environments of undergraduate medicine and pharmacy programmes at the University of Zambia

Background:A Based on the World Health Organization’s reporting, over 1.25 million people die annually in traffic accidents worldwide. Traffic accidents are the ninth main cause of death worldwide, with an average age range of victims of 15 to 29. Broadly speaking, 90% of traffic accidents happen in the lowand middle-income countries that comprise 82% of the global population, and these countries account for half of the world’s vehicles. One of the goals of the National Road Traffic Knowledge Development Trustee is to plan and implement training courses (content design, design and implementation and evaluation) for target groups. To achieve this goal and due to the lack of academic programs on traffic safety in Iran, a single-credit course, “Safety and Traffic,” was developed to be run as a compulsory academic course in all universities across the country. Methods: This course was administered as a national pilot study in four phases and in 17 medical universities across the country. All experts and national authorities in the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were requested to provide feedback. Afterwards, the results and comments were forwarded to the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution for further investigation. Upon approval of the Council, the course will be implemented in all universities across the country. Results: Results from the pre-test showed that the level of students’ knowledge was low before attending the training courses. Surveys also revealed that the two items of “pedestrian safety” and “first aids in RTCs” were the most useful and applicable subjects. The percentage of wrong answers ranged from 61 to 98%. Conclusion: Considering the importance of traffic accidents and people’s role in traffic-related issues, it seems that it is necessary to provide university courses for traffic safety education