Systematic review of psychosocial factors at work and in the personal situation as risk factors for back pain.

Study Design. A systematic review of observational studies. Objectives. To assess whether psychosocial factors at work and in private life are risk factors for the occurrence of back pain. Summary of Background Data. Several reviews on risk factors for back pain have paid attention to psychosocial factors. However, in none of the published reviews was a strict systematic approach used to identify and summarize the available evidence Methods. A computerized bibliographical search of several databases was performed, restricted to studies with a cohort or case-control design. A rating system was used to assess the strength of the evidence for various factors, based on the methodologic quality of the studies and the consistency of the findings. Results. Eleven cohort and two case-control studies were included in this review. Strong evidence was found for low social support in the workplace and low job satisfaction as risk factors for back pain. Insufficient evidence was found for an effect of a high work pace, high qualitative demands, low job content, low job control, and psychosocial factors in private life. Conclusions. Evidence was found for an effect of low workplace social support and low job satisfaction. However, the result for workplace social support was sensitive to slight changes in the rating system, and the effect found for low job satisfaction may be a result of insufficient adjustment for psychosocial work characteristics and physical load at work. In addition, the combined evaluation of job content and job control, both aspects of decision latitude, led to strong evidence of a role for low job decision latitude. Thus, based on this review, there is evidence for an effect of work-related psychosocial factors, but the evidence for the role of specific factors has not been established yet

The development and psychometric evaluation of the Questionnaire Epistemic Trust (QET):A self-report assessment of epistemic trust

Epistemic trust (ET) refers to the predisposition to trust information as authentic, trustworthy and relevant to the self. Epistemic distrust - resulting from early adversity - may interfere with openness to social learning within the therapeutic encounter, reducing the ability to benefit from treatment. The self-report Questionnaire Epistemic Trust (QET) is a newly developed instrument that aims to assess ET. This study presents the first results on the psychometric properties of the QET in both a community and a clinical sample. Our findings indicate that the QET is composed of four meaningful subscales with good to excellent internal consistency. The QET shows relevant associations with related constructs like personality functioning, symptom distress and quality of life. QET scores clearly distinguish between a clinical and community sample and are associated with the quality of the therapeutic alliance. The QET provides a promising, brief and user-friendly instrument that could be used for a range of clinical and research purposes. Future studies with larger samples are needed to strengthen construct validity and to investigate the value of the QET to predict differential treatment responses or to study mechanisms of change

Physical load during work and leisure time as risk factors for back pain [review]

systematic review assessed aspects of physical load during work and leisure time as risk factors for back pain. It is based on a strict systematic approach to identify and summarize the evidence, comparable with that applied in the clinical literature on the efficacy of intervention for back pain. A computerized bibliographical search was made of several databases for studies with a cohort or case-referent design. Cross-sectional studies were excluded. A rating system was used to assess the strength of the evidence, based on the methodological quality of 28 cohort and 3 case-referent studies and the consistency of the findings. Strong evidence exists for manual materials handling, bending and twisting, and whole-body vibration as risk factors for back pain. The evidence was moderate for patient handling and heavy physical work, and no evidence was found for standing or walking, sitting, sports, and total leisure-time physical activity. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Ortho-Carborane-modified N-substituted Deoxynojirimycins

Medical Biochemistr

The Dutch Data Warehouse, a multicenter and full-admission electronic health records database for critically ill COVID-19 patients

Background The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underlined the urgent need for reliable, multicenter, and full-admission intensive care data to advance our understanding of the course of the disease and investigate potential treatment strategies. In this study, we present the Dutch Data Warehouse (DDW), the first multicenter electronic health record (EHR) database with full-admission data from critically ill COVID-19 patients. Methods A nation-wide data sharing collaboration was launched at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. All hospitals in the Netherlands were asked to participate and share pseudonymized EHR data from adult critically ill COVID-19 patients. Data included patient demographics, clinical observations, administered medication, laboratory determinations, and data from vital sign monitors and life support devices. Data sharing agreements were signed with participating hospitals before any data transfers took place. Data were extracted from the local EHRs with prespecified queries and combined into a staging dataset through an extract-transform-load (ETL) pipeline. In the consecutive processing pipeline, data were mapped to a common concept vocabulary and enriched with derived concepts. Data validation was a continuous process throughout the project. All participating hospitals have access to the DDW. Within legal and ethical boundaries, data are available to clinicians and researchers. Results Out of the 81 intensive care units in the Netherlands, 66 participated in the collaboration, 47 have signed the data sharing agreement, and 35 have shared their data. Data from 25 hospitals have passed through the ETL and processing pipeline. Currently, 3464 patients are included in the DDW, both from wave 1 and wave 2 in the Netherlands. More than 200 million clinical data points are available. Overall ICU mortality was 24.4%. Respiratory and hemodynamic parameters were most frequently measured throughout a patient's stay. For each patient, all administered medication and their daily fluid balance were available. Missing data are reported for each descriptive. Conclusions In this study, we show that EHR data from critically ill COVID-19 patients may be lawfully collected and can be combined into a data warehouse. These initiatives are indispensable to advance medical data science in the field of intensive care medicine.Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcome (Anesthesiology/Intensive Care

Work-related risk factors for low back pain

In this thesis work-related risk factors for low back pain are investigated. Low back pain is one of the most common work-related health problems. It has a considerable impact on sickness absence and work disability. Originally, the focus of most occupational research on low back pain was directed towards physical factors. Recently, however, the study of psychosocial work characteristics has also become an important aspect of epidemiological studies on low back pain in occupational settings. In this thesis systematic reviews of the literature on physical and psychosocial risk factors for back pain are presented. In addition, the results of a three-year prospective cohort study among a working population are reported. The most important conclusion with regard to physical load at work is that flexion and rotation of the trunk and lifting at work are risk factors for low back pain. Whole-body vibration, patient handling and heavy physical work are other risk factors. The most important conclusion with regard to psychosocial load at work is that low job satisfaction increases the risk of low back pain. Low social support also seems to be a risk factor

Bedreigende en belastende factoren in het werk in Nederland

De Directie Arbeidsomstandigheden van het Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid (SZW) wil een 'arbo-monitor' opzetten waarvoor gegevens verzameld moeten worden over (1) bedreigende en belastende factoren in arbeidsomstandigheden, (2) de inzet van instrumenten in verband daarmee, en (3) effecten in termen van arbeidsdeelname / arbeidsuitval. Om inzicht te krijgen in de beschikbaarheid van gegevens over bedreigende en belastende factoren in het werk, met het accent op fysieke belasting en fysische factoren, chemische belasting, biologische belasting, arbeidstijden, psychische belasting en major hazards, is door TNO nagegaan in hoeverre bestaande gegevensbestanden informatie over deze risicofactoren bevatten. Voor die risicofactoren waarover geen of onvoldoende gegevens zijn gevonden, is gekeken hoe aanvullende gegevens hierover verzameld zouden kunnen worden en welke problemen hierbij een rol zouden kunnen spelen

Trends in werkdruk

Neemt de werkdruk in de loop van de tijd toe of af? De harde cijfers laten een verontrustende trend zien