Addressing Occupational Ergonomics Issues in Indonesian Forestry: Laborers, Operators, or Equivalent Workers

This study addresses occupational ergonomics issues in Indonesian forestry (work conditions, workers\u27 characteristics, occupational safety, occupational health, and job satisfaction) to acquire a comprehensive perspective in understanding the actual problems facing the operations. Direct observation, interview, questionnaires, and secondary data analyses were carried out to acquire all of the required information. A total of 191 frontline forestry workers (chainsaw operators, helpers, manual hauling workers, skidder/tractor operators, logging truck drivers, and nursery workers) participated in this study. The study shows that various techniques of forest operations (labor-intensive to semi-mechanized systems) have been applied in Indonesian plantation forests, both short and long-rotation, as well as in natural forest management. Most of the workers were non-permanent workers, who receive a low wage, work under a straight piecework system, have a high dependency on the forestry work to make a living, and exhibit poor comprehension of the concept of hazard control. The fatality rate was recorded as 1.3 deaths/106 m3 log, but this may be even higher as this rate only represents data taken from formal forestry workers. An intense physical dimension of fatigue occurs among workers involved in forest operations, with the highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the upper back, lower back, neck, shoulders, and arms. This study reveals eight variables that influenced job satisfaction, i.e., wage, type of contract, accessibility, health services, living facilities, work equipment, training, and social facilities

How Grief, Funerals, and Poverty Affect Bereaved Health, Productivity, and Medical Dependence in Japan

死別による生産性の低下・疾病・医療福祉依存の実態を調査 --死別悲嘆のコストに、いかに対応できるか--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2020-09-28.Reducing the high social cost of death. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2020-10-06.Grief has been shown to weaken bereaved persons' health, but measurements of their lost time and medical expense remain rare. Funerals traditionally managed and assuaged grief through ritual expression, approval, and social support. Research suggests that satisfying funeral participation reduces grief, while poverty exacerbates it. We hypothesized that: (1) psycho-physical symptoms of grief, (2) abbreviation/dissatisfaction in the funeral, and (3) poverty, correlate with decreased productivity and increased medical and social services use. We collected data from 165 mourning families about their grief, funerals, and subsequent medical conditions. (1) Deeper grief after bereavement in Japan correlated with more physical problems, more down time, and more medical dependency. (2) Low satisfaction with funerals correlated with higher hospital, pharmacy, and counseling costs. (3) Low income families lost more time, while declining incomes showed increased pharmaceutical costs. This suggests that satisfying funerals and income safeguards may reduce costs of low productivity and increased public services dependency

Identifying bereaved grievers with greatest medical or social service needs in Japan

[Objective] Severe grief adversely affects the health of bereaved families, potentially burdening medical and community health services. Interventions for effective community health maintenance must identify the people likely to face severe effects of bereavement. The present study identified characteristics of mourners who experience severe grief within a year of bereavement to confirm whether this grief increased their reliance on Japanese medical and social services. [Design] We conducted a nationwide postal survey of Japanese bereaved within the previous year, to compare those reporting daily or overwhelming ‘heavy’ grief to those with less heavy grief, in terms of demographic and socioeconomic details, daily work and non-work activity, frequency of medical and social service use. [Setting/participants] In 2019, with the support of the Ministry of Education and the All Japan Funeral Co-Operation, we distributed approximately 5500 questionnaires to Japanese who had presided at funerals within the past year for anonymous return. By January of 2020, we received 1078 complete voluntary responses from bereaved Japanese. [Results] Half of the ‘heavy grief’ group (n=143) reported adverse effects on health and daily life, including needs for pharmacological, medical or welfare support. Losses of husbands or children were particularly connected to severe grief; ‘unexpected’ death from cancer caused the greatest shock. Employment (even part-time) buffered against severe grief; grief was greater for the unemployed and substantially worse for those who lost significant income at the same time as they lost loved ones. [Conclusion] These findings suggest that prior counselling should reduce the shock of bereavement and economic loss, which increases subsequent medical dependence. Medical professionals and community health workers can use the above factors to target in advance the family members in greatest danger of heavy grief, to intervene lest grief adversely affect their physical and psychological health after bereavement

Unexplored Costs of Bereavement Grief in Japan: Patterns of Increased Use of Medical, Pharmaceutical, and Financial Services

Our Japan-wide survey (n=1, 078) revealed that bereaved who showed increased reliance on medical, pharmaceutical, and financial/legal services was in the ‘50’s age bracket, and for unemployed widows; it corresponded less with low annual income than with high income. Increased users reported their decline in physical health seriously influencing their work and lives, suggesting “presenteeism”. Moreover, they spent 2.7 times more for medical and pharmaceutical services than those reporting continual use, portending 4 to 10 times more Japanese government expense for this group, half of whom considered their own out-of-pocket expenses a financial burden