IEA/WHO toolkit for WMSDs prevention: criteria and practical tools for a step by step approach

When studying WMSDs, several determinants and their interrelationship are considered as relevant. Hence the necessity of an "holistic" approach to prevention, especially when preparing technical rules and strategic plans. There is a strong request, from OSH agencies and operators, for developing "simple" tools for risk assessment and management. In this context WHO asked IEA to develop a "Toolkit for WMSD prevention". The paper presents one of the main contribution to this WHO project, focused on selecting tools at different level for hazard identification, risk estimation and management. Proposals are based on two essential criteria: Acting on a step-by-step approach; Taking into account the presence of multiple influencing factors. The proposals consider: A Basic Step devoted to hazard identification by operative "key-enter" questions, that can be operated also by non-experts. A First Step, (quick assessment), for identifying 3 possible conditions: acceptable; high risk present; more detailed analysis (via tools presented at second step) necessary. This step can be operated by non-experts with only some specific training. A Second Step, where recognized (i.e. from international standards or guidelines) tools for risk estimation are used. This step can be operated only by persons with some specific training.     

Associations between psychosocial risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders: application to the IT profession in India

The exponential growth of the information technology (IT) industry in India has been accompanied with a substantial increase in the reporting of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The purpose of the current study was to identify and assess the contributions of prevalent psychosocial factors on perceived WMSD outcomes among IT professionals from India. About 77 IT professionals from India completed a survey set consisting of 26 question items from the Job Content Questionnaire and 3 separate question items pertaining to WMSD outcomes (pain/discomfort and psychological stress scores). The findings suggest prevalence of existing pain (shoulder/neck and low back) in more than one-fourth of the respondents. Additionally two-thirds of the respondents had never had any ergonomics awareness training. Co-worker support and psychological work demands were found to be the strongest contributors of psychosocial risk factors towards pain/discomfort and psychological stress outcomes. Findings from this study highlight the influence of certain psychosocial traits of the Indian IT workplace on perceived WMSD outcomes. There is a need to develop and implement intervention strategies to address these factors that may help lower the risk of work-related musculoskeletal pain.     

Life Events and Sexual Risk Among HIV-Negative,Heterosexual, Methamphetamine Users

Identifying psychosocial factors associated with sexual risk behavior among methamphetamine users is essential to enhancing HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention. This study examined the relationship between positive and negative life events and sexual risk behavior in a sample of 100 HIV-negative, heterosexually identified, methamphetamine-using men and women. Negative life event categories included death of a significant other, negative health event involving self or significant other, and child custody or visitation issues. Categories of positive life events included birth or pregnancy involving self or significant other, a positive relationship event, and a positive life change. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that negative life events were positively associated with total number of unprotected sex acts, whereas positive life events were not associated with sexual risk taking. Also, amount of methamphetamine used did not moderate the relationship between life events and sexual risk behavior. These data support future research to identify underlying mechanisms that link negative life events to sexual risk taking in this high-risk population.     

Learning Stimulus‐Location Associations in 8‐ and 11‐Month‐Old Infants: Multimodal Versus Unimodal Information

Research on the influence of multimodal information on infants' learning is inconclusive. While one line of research finds that multimodal input has a negative effect on learning, another finds positive effects. The present study aims to shed some new light on this discussion by studying the influence of multimodal information and accompanying stimulus complexity on the learning process. We assessed the influence of multimodal input on the trial‐by‐trial learning of 8‐ and 11‐month‐old infants. Using an anticipatory eye movement paradigm, we measured how infants learn to anticipate the correct stimulus–location associations when exposed to visual‐only, auditory‐only (unimodal), or auditory and visual (multimodal) information. Our results show that infants in both the multimodal and visual‐only conditions learned the stimulus–location associations. Although infants in the visual‐only condition appeared to learn in fewer trials, infants in the multimodal condition showed better anticipating behavior: as a group, they had a higher chance of anticipating correctly on more consecutive trials than infants in the visual‐only condition. These findings suggest that effects of multimodal information on infant learning operate chiefly through effects on infants' attention.     

Process evaluation of “Girls on the Run”: Exploring implementation in a physical activity-based positive youth development program

Many positive youth development programs rely on physical activity as a primary program component. Referred to as physical activity-based youth development programs, these program designs have great potential for promoting healthy youth development. This study examined how one such physical activity-based positive youth development program was implemented in order to identify design features critical to maximizing positive youth outcomes. This mixed method, multi-site process evaluation of Girls on the Run (GOTR) utilized focus groups, site visits, and self-report implementation checklists. Implementation scores were calculated to assess implementation fidelity across twenty-nine sites, and qualitative data were inductively analyzed to identify factors influential for implementation. Results reveal variability in how GOTR was implemented. Five themes emerged from the data that represented factors serving as facilitators or barriers to programmatic implementation. These included contextual/environmental factors (e.g., parental involvement, relationships with school personnel), organizational factors (e.g., implementation support and responsiveness of staff), program-specific factors (e.g., curriculum design), coach factors (e.g., existing relationships with participants, responsiveness to participant's needs), and youth factors (e.g., behavioral and discipline issues). Study findings have implications for improving the design of physical activity-based and other positive youth development programs, with relevance to evaluators, program planners, youth development leaders, and others working with children and youth.     

Effect of ergonomic and workstyle risk factors on work related musculoskeletal disorders among IT professionals in India

'Workstyle' can be described as a mechanism by which ergonomic and psychosocial risk factors interact to affect the development, exacerbation and/or maintenance of upper limb pain and functional limitations. Workstyle is associated with the increase in the work demand. In today's life use of computer in the workplace is very common and it causes to increase the work demand among the workers who are working with computer. As work demand increase, according to the characteristic of workstyle, risk of the development of musculoskeletal disorders also increased. This study aimed at to findout the association between ergonomics risk factors, workstyle and WRMSD. Two hundred IT professionals participated in this study. Result revealed that most prevalenet body regions were lower back (20%), Upper back (16%) and shoulder (14%). Study result says that there is a positive association between workstyle score with musculoskeletal pain (r=0.85). Also it revealed that posture and regional pain is associated (r=0.62), per day use of computer and musculoskeletal pain (r=0.46), micro breaks and pain (r=0.87) and productivity and the pain (r=0.95). This study further validates these observations and extends support for the assessment of working postures and workstyle behaviors during the design of WMSD treatment.     

Recidivism and Resilience in Juvenile Sexual Offenders: An Analysis of the Literature

SUMMARY

The majority of research that exists studying juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) is dominated by the predilection that identifying risk factors associated with recidivism will benefit both the JSOs and treatment providers. Further, the majority of existing treatments are guided by research that has identified what makes JSOs more likely to reoffend. Absent from the majority of the literature is an examination of the strengths and positive characteristics demonstrated by JSOs that may prove useful in both reducing recidivism and increasing the likelihood of achieving positive outcomes (i.e., demonstrating resilience). Research examining known risk factors for sexual and nonsexual recidivism is described. Next, literature on resilience is reviewed, followed by a discussion of this literature in the context of treatment for JSOs. Finally, future directions of research are presented.     

Mostly Heterosexual and Lesbian/Gay Young Adults: Differences in Mental Health and Substance Use and the Role of Minority Stress

Individuals mostly attracted to other-sex but also to same-sex partners are a distinct and common sexual orientation group with possibly increased levels of health problems. The current study examined whether mostly heterosexual individuals differed in mental health and substance use from lesbian/gay individuals and whether sexual minority risk and protective factors offer an explanation in a sample of 528 Dutch young adults (16 to 25 years old, M = 21.2 years). Mostly heterosexual participants reported higher levels of psychological distress, suicidality, drug use, and smoking than lesbian/gay participants and equal levels of binge drinking. They also reported higher levels of internalized negativity to same-sex attractions, less openness to family members and others, less community involvement, and lower numbers of lesbian/gay/bisexual friends. However, bootstrapped mediation analysis showed that the differences in minority stress risk and protective factors did not mediate most of the differences in mental health and substance use with one exception: higher levels of psychological distress were mediated by the higher levels of internalized negativity to same-sex attractions. The limited explanatory power of the minority stress factors combined with the elevated level of problems of mostly heterosexual individuals call for future studies examining other risk and protective factors.     

Outcome Expectancies and Risk Behaviors in Maltreated Adolescents

This study examined positive and negative outcome expectancies for risk behaviors, and their association with engagement in risk behaviors, in a sample of 149 maltreated adolescents. “Outcome Expectancies” are evaluative social cognitions about what will occur as a consequence of one's actions. Risk behaviors and outcome expectancies for substance use, sexual behavior, and delinquency were assessed. In all regression models, positive expectancies were significantly related to risk behaviors while negative expectancies, with one exception, were not significantly related. In three of four regression models, significant interactions were found between positive and negative expectancies in predicting risk behaviors. The nature of the interaction differed by type of risk behavior. Beyond demonstrating associations between outcome expectancies and risk behaviors in a maltreated sample, this paper contributes to the study of social information processing by demonstrating significant interactions between positive and negative expectancies.     

Parental Divorce: A Protection from Later Delinquency for Maltreated Children

Family structure and maltreatment (abuse and neglect) have been identified as predictors of youth delinquency, although the relationship is not clear. This article furthers this research by studying a sample of maltreated children (n = 250) in one Midwest county, and through a multiple regression analysis of many risk factors, the study identified only one significant delinquency variable that made delinquency less likely—children who experience parental divorce. Some established risk factors were surprisingly found not to be predictive of later delinquency: minority race, one-parent families, youth substance abuse, recurrent maltreatment, and youth behind in academic grade level. Implications for the family studies and juvenile justice fields are set forth.     

Circadian rhythm of hot flashes and activity levels among prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy

Abstract

Background: Modifiable risk factors contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and erectile dysfunction (ED). We aimed to compare the knowledge about the contribution of modifiable risk factors to the pathogenesis of CVD and ED. The impact of patients’ having modifiable risk factors on the awareness of their negative influence on the development of CVD and ED was examined.

Methods: To this multicenter cohort study, we included 417 patients with CHD who had been hospitalized in the cardiology or cardiac surgery department during the previous six weeks and underwent cardiac rehabilitation in one of the five centers. Knowledge about modifiable risk factors was collected. ED was assessed by an abridged IIEF-5 questionnaire. Comparisons between groups were conducted using the Student’s t-test, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal–Wallis test. Relationships were analyzed with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

Results: The mean number of correctly identified risk factors for CVD was significantly higher than those for ED (3.71?±?1.87 vs. 2.00?±?1.94; p?<?.0001). Smoking was the most recognized risk factor both for CVD and ED. Dyslipidemia was least frequently identified as a risk factor for CVD. Sedentary lifestyle was the only risk factor whose incidence did not affect the level of patient knowledge.

Conclusions: Cardiac patients with ED know more about risk factors for CVD than ED. It is necessary to include information about the negative impact of modifiable risk factors on sexual health into education programs promoting healthy lifestyles in men with cardiovascular diseases.     

Recidivism and resilience in juvenile sexual offenders: an analysis of the literature

The majority of research that exists studying juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) is dominated by the predilection that identifying risk factors associated with recidivism will benefit both the JSOs and treatment providers. Further, the majority of existing treatments are guided by research that has identified what makes JSOs more likely to reoffend. Absent from the majority of the literature is an examination of the strengths and positive characteristics demonstrated by JSOs that may prove useful in both reducing recidivism and increasing the likelihood of achieving positive outcomes (i.e., demonstrating resilience). Research examining known risk factors for sexual and nonsexual recidivism is described. Next, literature on resilience is reviewed, followed by a discussion of this literature in the context of treatment for JSOs. Finally, future directions of research are presented.     

Reducing interparental conflict among parents in contentious child custody disputes: an initial investigation of the Working Together Program

Interparental conflict is one of the primary risk factors for negative outcomes for children whose parents separate, and it is likely to be high while parents are separating. Results are mixed regarding the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing interparental conflict. This study examined co-parents who were court-ordered to attend a 12-hr co-parenting intervention and completed pre-postassessments (n = 20) and 2-month follow-up assessments (n = 17). The results demonstrated increases in co-parents' relationship functioning and confidence in co-parenting. Both men and women reported decreased amounts of conflict in the presence of their children; however, only women reported decreases in general negative communication with the co-parent. These changes were generally maintained at a 2-month follow-up assessment. These findings suggest that interventions for high-conflict co-parents may increase their ability to work cooperatively.     

Asian American Adolescents' Academic Achievement

Summary

This investigation examined the attitudes and behavior regarding academic achievement from the perspective of 153 Asian American adolescents who participated in an essay contest entitles “Growing Up Asian American.” Less than half the adolescents (42.5%) reported a positive attitude toward academic achievement, while over half expressed either negative attitude (13.1%) or mixed positive/negative attitude (44.4%). In contrast, an overwhelming majority (83%) of the adolescents exhibited embracing behavior toward academic achievement, while only 1.3% rejected and 15.7% showed mixed embracing/rejecting behavior. In addition, attitude and behavior were significantly correlated. All of the adolescents with positive attitudes exhibited embracing behavior. Adolescents with non-positive attitudes (negative or mixed) were more likely to show embracing behavior (70.5%) than non-embracing (rejecting or mixed) behavior (29.5%). The findings suggest significant distress among Asian American adolescents even though, behaviorally, they may be embracing academic achievement.     

Affect and Sexual Responsivity in Men With and Without a History of Sexual Aggression

Despite increased attention to understanding risk factors for sexual aggression, knowledge regarding the emotional and sexual arousal patterns of sexually aggressive men remains limited. The current study examined whether sexually aggressive men exhibit unique profiles of affective responsivity, in particular to negatively valenced stimuli, as well as sexual arousal patterns that differentiate them from nonaggressive men. We presented 78 young men (38 sexually aggressive; 40 nonaggressive) with a series of videos designed to induce positive, sad, or anxious affect. Affect and subjective sexual arousal were assessed following each film and erectile responses were measured continuously. Sexually aggressive men reported significantly higher levels of sexual arousal following both the positive and negative conditions as compared to nonaggressive men. Erectile responses of sexually aggressive men were significantly greater than nonaggressive men’s following the positive affect induction. Self-reported positive affect, but not negative affect, was a significant predictor of subjective sexual arousal for both groups of men. Compared to nonaggressive men, sexually aggressive men showed significantly weaker correlations between subjective and physiological sexual arousal. Findings suggest that generalized heightened propensity for sexual arousal may be a risk factor for sexually aggressive behavior.     

青少年友谊质量和社会自我关系研究

友谊作为特殊的同伴关系,在青少年社会性发展及成长过程中起着不可替代的作用,对其社会自我的形成具有重要意义。梳理国内外有关青少年友谊质量和社会自我研究的成果可以发现以往的研究大多集中在对两者中其一的单独研究,抑或友谊质量、社会自我各自与其他因素之间的关系研究,较少有研究者对友谊质量与社会自我关系展开全面细致的研究。总结以往的研究存在以下问题:友谊质量的界定不够明确;友谊质量、社会自我的结构划分众说纷纭;对两者的研究缺乏一定的统合视角;多集中于两者低水平的消极影响研究,缺少对其积极影响的探索。     

30 years of ergonomics at 3M: a case study

The added value of the Ergonomics Program at 3M was found to be improved employee safety, compliance with regulations and reduction of work-related illness, increases in productivity, and quality and operating efficiency. This paper describes the thirty years of existence of this program. For the first twenty years, the program objectives were to: respond to requests for assistance related to work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) concerns, raise employee awareness of MSDs and ergonomics; educate engineers in ergonomics design; and develop ergonomics teams at manufacturing locations. Since the year 2000, 3M's Ergonomics Program has been in transition from a US-centric and corporate-based technical-expertled program to a global program applying participatory ergonomics strategies within a macroergonomics framework. During that transition, the existing program requirements were revised, new methods and program tools were created, and expectations for implementation at the manufacturing locations clarified. This paper focuses on the company's manufacturing ergonomics program activities during the past ten years and includes specifics of the program's objectives, risk assessment reduction process, and ergonomics technical expertise development. The main benefit achieved throughout the company is reducing employee injury while also increasing productivity and operating efficiency.     

The Prevalence and Risk Factors of Sexual Dysfunction Among Czech Women

ABSTRACT. This article presents the results of a representative national study highlighting the risk factors of female sexual dysfunction in the Czech Republic. The study design is a representative quota survey of 1,000 Czech women aged 15 years and older. The questionnaire is a part of wider long-term survey of sexual behavior within the Czech population, which started in 1993. Besides the various aspects of sexual behavior, the questionnaire included a specific section on sexual dysfunction. The prevalence of sexual dysfunction among women in the Czech Republic is 20%. Risk factors that increase the likelihood of sexual dysfunction are: sexual abuse during childhood and having been forced to engage in sex during their lifetime, having sexually transmitted diseases, and having positive attitudes toward casual sex. Sexual characteristics that strongly associate with sexual dysfunction are: not being satisfied with sex and having faked orgasm “often and almost always.” These results indicate that there are risk factors for developing female sexual dysfunction, which can be identified, and there are other related characteristics that can have a negative impact on sexual behavior.