Frames of reference that address the impact of physical environments on occupational performance

A frame of reference is the mechanism for linking theory to practice. It may be the most practical and important tool a professional uses. As the practice of occupational therapy has evolved, so has the basis of information, or theories, on which it is grounded. From the theories, models have been developed that typically view occupational performance as a transaction between the person, occupation and environment. Occupational therapy practitioners use many frames of reference. Not all of them address all areas of occupational performance identified within this overarching model. Often the area of the environment does not receive attention. To do their jobs thoroughly, occupational therapy practitioners need frames of reference for thinking about the environment. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore frames of reference that may be useful to occupational therapy practitioners when they are taking into consideration the physical environment. Included are the following frames of reference: ergonomics, industrial hygiene, environmental psychology, accessibility and feng shui. A case study is presented to illustrate the unique perspective of each frame of reference.     

Crowding density in urban environment and its effects on emotional responding of pedestrians: Using wearable device technology with sensors capturing proximity and psychophysiological emotion responses while walking in the street

ABSTRACT

We conducted a study to examine the influence of crowding in high-density urban areas on the emotional responses of people. We hypothesized that high density leads to the invasion of a personal space that is surrounding everyone’s body which in turn evokes emotional responses, especially negative emotions like stress and aggression. Subjects (n = 30) walked a predefined, crowded path in a Hong Kong commercial center which consisted of urban parts and a park. Along the way, emotional responses were measured psychophysiologically via a wearable device, capturing electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and ambient temperature, among others. Additionally, we used a movement detection sensor to measure the invasion of personal space by other pedestrians. Significant effects of personal space crossings on aversive and appetitive emotional responses are found. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Social class,occupational status,occupational self-direction,and job income: A cross-national examination

This paper evaluates the relationships of social class position, occupational status, and occupational self-direction to job income in three modern industrial societies, the United States, Japan, and Poland. In doing so, it goes beyond Wright and Perrone's analysis of 1977, which sought to establish the importance of social class by comparing the relative power with which occupational status and social class, defined in terms of relationship to the means of production, predict income. In carrying out analyses, we have also had to face the basic sociological issue of the nature and measurement of occupational status and have adopted a confirmatory factor analytic approach to the problem. Our substantive findings show that social class position has its strongest effect on income in Poland, and occupational self-direction also has an uniquely strong effect there. The singular importance of occupational status in Japan is noted and contrasted with the United States, where occupational status, social class, and education all have significant independent effects on job income.     

Bilateral Donors' Efforts to Assess and Manage UN Agencies' Effectiveness: Seeking a Balance between Paris Principles and Domestic Accountability

Since the turn of the century, results orientation and performance measurement have become buzzwords in development aid. Bilateral donors are increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of core‐funded UN specialised agencies, funds and programmes, through which they channel a substantial part of their funds. While the logic for increased monitoring is clear, it is less evident how to assess this information for purposes of accountability, performance‐based funding and governance. This article describes the general evolution in this area and discusses two major initiatives to harmonise and align bilateral assessments, using case‐study material from three bilateral donors (Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK) with clearly diverging performance‐management cultures, and exploring the extent to which they rely upon joint and aligned initiatives.     

Part I. Work hardening for warriors: Occupational therapy for combat stress casualties

Combat stress is an occupational hazard of the military. Soldiers who become job-ineffective due to combat stress are termed "battle-fatigued." Occupational therapy, in the form of work hardening, is an important part of the management of these soldiers. Occupational therapists possess specialized knowledge and skills which make them uniquely qualified for this role. These assets include knowledge of neuromuscular and psychosocial aspects of occupational performance; the ability to do task analyses; the ability to assess occupational performance deficits; the ability to synthesize appropriate therapeutic occupations to rehabilitate functional deficits and match these to the needs of dysfunctional soldiers. These same resources serve occupational therapists equally well in civilian work hardening settings. This paper reviews the management of combat stress casualties, describes the Army units which minimize the impact of combat stress reactions, and delineates the Army occupational therapists' roles of soldier, mental health practitioner, and work hardening coordinator.     

Examining the differences between the use of wearable cameras and traditional cameras in research – a research note

Abstract

Photographic images allow data to be captured from an alternative perspective. Traditional, manual cameras are the most common method of recording photographic data, however, innovative technology is changing the way in which photographs can be collected. Wearable cameras enable a vast amount of photographic images to be captured, automatically, without user interaction. It is often assumed that photographic research methods are used for a similar purpose, engage participants in a similar way and yield a similar outcome, however, there are various differences between the use of traditional, manual cameras and innovative, wearable cameras. This research note offers a unique contribution to the literature by highlighting the differences between the use of traditional, manual cameras and wearable, automatic cameras within research.     

Eye‐Tracking as a Measure of Responsiveness to Joint Attention in Infants at Risk for Autism

Reduced responsiveness to joint attention (RJA), as assessed by the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), is predictive of both subsequent language difficulties and autism diagnosis. Eye‐tracking measurement of RJA is a promising prognostic tool because it is highly precise and standardized. However, the construct validity of eye‐tracking assessments of RJA has not been established. By comparing RJA an eye‐tracking paradigm to responsiveness to joint attention during the ESCS, the current study evaluated the construct validity of an eye‐tracking assessment of RJA for 18‐month‐old infant siblings of children with autism. Relations between measures of RJA and concurrent language skills and autistic symptomatology were assessed. Correlations between measures of ESCS RJA and eye‐tracking RJA were statistically significant, but few relations between either ESCS or eye‐tracking assessments of RJA and language or symptoms were observed. This study establishes the construct validity of eye‐tracking assessments of RJA.     

Wearable tech,bodies, and gender

New forms of wearable technology are blurring the lines between technology and bodies, raising questions about personhood, selfhood, and what it means to be human. Consequently, scholars are examining these iterations of body/machine interface and human machine communication from a variety of angles. While fashion scholars focused primarily on garments and celebrating potential techno‐futures, media and communication scholars more critically examined how wearable tech mediates bodies and relationships. Social scientists are concerned with issues of labor, privacy, data ownership, and value, drawing on ethnographic studies of the Quantified Self (QS) community and the phenomenon of self‐tracking more generally. This scholarship is rooted in studies and theorizations of ubiquitous computing, feminist science and technology studies (STS), and fashion and dress as both ornament and second skin. Generally, it asks how wearable technology can augment the human body, how it affects human relationships to self and other, and whether wearable technology can promote human autonomy, when it is locked into commercial and power relationships that don't necessarily have the users' best interests at heart. The essay ends by briefly outlining of directions for further research, urging further investigation into wearable tech exhibiting gendered attitudes toward “femme” women, and calling for increased attention to issues raised by wearable technology's coming merger with the growing fields of biotech and synthetic biology.     

Immune responses to low back pain risk factors

$\underline{Objective}$: Investigate effects of interactions between biomechanical, psychosocial and individual risk factors on the body's immune inflammatory responses. $\underline{Background}$: Current theories for low back pain causation do not fully account for the body's response to tissue loading and tissue trauma. $\underline{Methods}$: Two groups possessing a preference for the sensor or intuitor personality trait performed repetitive lifting combined with high or low mental workload on separate occasions. Spinal loading was assessed using an EMG-assisted subject-specific biomechanical model and immune markers were collected before and after exposure. $\underline{Results}$: Mental workload was associated with a small decrease in AP shear. Both conditions were characterized by a regulated time-dependent immune response making use of markers of inflammation, tissue trauma and muscle damage. Intuitors' creatine kinase levels were increased following low mental workload compared to that observed in Sensors with the opposite trend occurring for high mental workload. $\underline{Conclusions}$: A temporally regulated immune response to lifting combined with mental workload exists. This response is influenced by personality and mental workload.     

Joint commission evaluation of behavioral health care organizations

The joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has accredited behavioral health care organizations since 1957. Accredited behavioral health care organizations include organizations providing services to persons with psychiatric disorders, substance abuse disorders, or developmental disabilities/mental retardation; or, provide social services to other related populations. In the late 1980s, the Joint Commission initiated the redesign of accreditation to include performance measurement. Performance measurement initiatives include the IMSystem, Requests for Indicators, National Library of Healthcare Indicators, and a national Council on Performance Measurement. These initiatives are steps toward the integration of performance measurement data into the accreditation process.     

Blood,Sweat, and Tears: Navigating Creepy versus Cool in Wearable Biotech

ABSTRACT

This paper considers how personal data protections figure into the design process of wearable technology. The data question is becoming especially important in the face of recent innovations in biotechnology that capitalize on the new fungibility of biology and electronics, in which new biotech wearables capitalize on the ability to analyze and track changes in blood, sweat, and tears. Interviews and participant observation with wearable tech designers, data scientists, fashion tech entrepreneurs, and select experts in cybersecurity and intellectual property law, reveal a range of approaches to data protection in design within the culture where wearables are beginning to merge with biotech. While a few respondents were extremely vigilant about protecting consumer’s privacy, the majority felt that when consumers ‘opt in’ to data sharing, they should be cognizant of the risks. From their perspective, it is not necessarily the producer’s responsibility to protect user's personal data. These attitudes present a problematic logic, which leaves users vulnerable to data exploitation. The paper concludes by arguing that this laissez-faire culture is the environment in which wearable biotech is being developed and will be deployed. This emerging technology raises issues about bodies, data, and ownership in crucial need of analysis and critique to push its move into the mainstream toward more equitable and inclusive ends.     

Pilot project in developing community rehabilitation service for migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis in Mainland China

Pneumoconiosis is one of the major occupational health problems in China and increasing numbers of migrant workers suffered from this occupational disease after working in a dusty environment for few years. These migrant workers panicked after being diagnosed as suffering from pneumoconiosis and facing physiological disturbances including progressive dyspnea, respiratory failure or complications like silico-tuberculosis after their return to their rural village. This article reviews the preliminary results of a community rehabilitation pilot project conducted in a rural village in Guizhou, one of the provinces in southwest China. It shares the joint effort of professionals from Guangdong Province and Hong Kong SAR on supporting the migrant workers to manage and cope with this occupational disease. Finally, strategies including early intervention were suggested to help migrant workers to manage the disease. Most importantly, occupational health promotion and prevention were urged as the measures of utmost importance in reducing the risk for migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis.     

Is occupational stress associated with work engagement ?

The occupational stress is associated with dissatisfaction, excessive demand at work and personal factors. Those factors can reduce work performance and can predispose workers to various diseases. Workers' health may be protected if there is encouragement to face challenges, which may lessen the impact on psychological and somatic stress and thus have greater personal and professional satisfaction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between occupational stress and work engagement. Participated in this study 457 male and female workers of a metallurgical industry. Subjects answered personal data, and the Job Stress Scale and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were applied. Results showed an association between occupational stress and work engagement (P=0,001). The way the individual deals with his frustrations, or rather the work engagement, is associated with the occupational stress.     

Training time estimation to improve alarm reactions

Prior researchers have demonstrated that training may be an effective strategy for improving operator reactions to alarm systems with less than perfect reliability. Of the training strategies tested, recognition of temporal patterns in prior sensor activations seems to offer the greatest promise for improving the speed and appropriateness of subsequent alarm reactions. The current research was completed to clarify which of three temporal interval training methods leads to the most appropriate alarm reactions. Fifty-six undergraduates evaluated whether alarms occurring after sensor activations were true or false, based on elapsed time between the sensor signals and the alarm signals. Participants completed five training sessions to learn to estimate time intervals using simple repetition training, performance feedback, or performance feedback plus subdivision cues. Contrary to expectations, results indicated that participants did not benefit differentially from temporal interval training. Differences between pre- and posttest interval estimation performance was similar among groups, and training groups performed comparably when reacting to signals. Participants generally focused on advertised alarm system reliability, responding more appropriately and more quickly to lower reliability alarms. Future researchers and designers should replicate these findings with realistic tasks and real-world complex task operators to determine their generalization.     

Evaluating the Use of Commercially Available Wearable Wristbands to Capture Adolescents’ Daily Sleep Duration

Commercially available wearable devices are marketed as a means of objectively capturing daily sleep easily and inexpensively outside of the laboratory. Two ecological momentary assessment studies—with 120 older adolescents (aged 18–19) and 395 younger adolescents (aged 10–16)—captured nightly self‐reported and wearable (Jawbone) recorded sleep duration. Self‐reported and wearable recorded daily sleep duration were moderately correlated (r ~ .50), associations which were stronger on weekdays and among young adolescent boys. Older adolescents self‐reported sleep duration closely corresponded with estimates from the wearable device, but younger adolescents reported having an hour more of sleep, on average, compared to device estimates. Self‐reported, but not wearable‐recorded, sleep duration and quality were consistently associated with daily well‐being measures. Suggestions for the integration of commercially available wearable devices into future daily research with adolescents are provided.     

How are nurses at risk?

The effectiveness of occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) can be understood through analysis of surveys such as the experiences of exposure to occupational hazards by Australian nursing occupations. How effectively OHSMS are implemented in the Australian health industry is unclear as few studies describe current hazard exposure patterns or the impact of OHSMS in the Australian health industry. This paper concludes from the analysis of an Exposure Survey of Australian nursing occupations that nursing occupations perceive themselves to be "at risk" of injury and/or management of OHS risk in work duties is affected by the patterns of hazard exposure, occupation group as well as employee attributes, perceptions, patterns and situations of work. The results highlight the top-rated hazards and imply that the perceptions of hazards in the workplace are different to actual risk experience (e.g. injury patterns). There is an unacceptable level of exposure to diverse hazards in Australian nursing occupations workplaces in regard to regulatory and performance obligations. Stronger strategies to achieve more effective risk treatment, integrate with hospital accreditation and quality programs are discussed to benefit system performance and the welfare of those in nursing occupations.     

Elbow torque ellipses: investigation of the mutual influences of rotation, flexion, and extension torques

Most strength tests are restricted to measuring joint torques only in main directions like flexion or pronation. However, for an advanced strength prediction model, information about maximum possible joint torques in intermediate directions also has to be known. This paper concentrates on obtaining functions for maximum joint torques in arbitrary directions in the elbow. Therefore, isometric joint torque measurements have been conducted with 20 young males applying joint torques in eight different directions in one posture (90 degrees elbow flexion, 0 degrees shoulder flexion, neutral forearm rotation). It turns out that the appearance of the resulting shape can be best predicted using ellipse segments. Furthermore, a standardized ellipse could be obtained for the measurement posture. This helps to predict maximum joint torques in any other direction by knowing only one of the main joint torques.     

Anerkennung der beruflichen Kompetenzen von Flüchtlingen – Ein Beitrag zur IntegrationRecognition of professional competences of refuges – a contribution to their integration

In the coming years the integration of refugees in Germany will be a major challenge. The paper initially employs psychological theories, such as the self-determination theory, social identity theory and latent functions of employment, to reveal why the integration of refugees into the national labor market is an important factor for their integration into society as a whole. The labor market, confronting a shortage of skilled professionals caused by demographic change, shows a high potential for the integration of refugees. However, it appears that formal requirements in the current recognition process of occupational qualifications, for example in the craft industry, are still very high. The paper describes – on the basis of case studies – an optimized recognition process of occupational qualifications, in which, in addition to the mere checking of documents, the professional competences among the refugees are assessed on site at the business.     

A new approach in vocational rehabilitation in Iceland: preliminary report

The lack of vocational rehabilitation in Iceland inspired the Janus Rehabilitation initiative in the year 2000. The team currently consists of two occupational therapists, a social worker, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, and a physician. Janus uses resources from local education establishments and is located at the Reykjavík Technical School. A client-centred approach is used, enabling a flexible rehabilitation timeframe. The aim is to help the client back to employment/education. Advantage is taken of the facilities of the school where integration between education and rehabilitation takes place. Forty individuals have been admitted, with a mean time from work of 2.9 years, (range: 0-11 years). Seventeen (43%) have returned to employment/education. Twenty-three of those entering the programme are still on invalidity pension. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measurement (COPM) shows improvement in occupational performance and satisfaction. The Icelandic Quality of Life measurement also shows improvement. The results have been promising. However, a larger group is needed in order to draw clear unequivocal conclusions.