A psychosocial and biomedical comparison between men in six contrasting service occupations

A study of psychosocial job factors and physiological states was conducted using 150 men, aged between 25 and 60, working in six widely different occupations—freight handlers, aircraft mechanics, air traffic controllers, physicians, waiters and symphony musicians. The aim of the study was to characterize any differences in physiological parameters in relation to differences in psychosocial job characteristics. Analyses of variance were used to test differences between groups. The results indicated that waiters, the group reporting the most unfavourable working conditions, tended to have many cardiovascular risk factors. Physicians, who had relatively few cardiovascular risk factors, reported high decision latitude and many emotional reactions in their daily life and had relatively high cortisol and low prolactin levels in plasma.     

‘I don’t need you to criticise me,I need you to support me’. A qualitative study of women’s experiences of and attitudes to smoking cessation during pregnancy

BackgroundSmoking is associated with health inequalities and is the most important modifiable risk factor for poor outcome in pregnancy.AimTo explore women’s experiences of smoking during pregnancy, examine their attitudes and barriers to smoking cessation, and to discover what support they feel might enable them to have a smoke-free pregnancy in future.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted with nineteen women in the United Kingdom who had smoked at some stage in pregnancy during the last five years. Data were collected through in-depth telephone interviews between June and August 2021. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed.FindingsFour key themes were identified: the complex relationship with smoking, being ready to quit, the need for support and understanding, and ideas to support a smoke free pregnancy. The findings revealed that there were two distinct avenues for enabling the support process: encouraging a readiness to quit through identifying individual context, personalised support, and educational risk perception, and, supporting the process of quitting, and offering a range of options, underpinned by a personalised, non-judgemental approach.ConclusionSmoking in pregnancy is a complex issue resulting from a combination of social, emotional, and physical factors. The findings from this study suggest that a combination of approaches should be made available to enable pregnant women who smoke to select the best options for their individual needs. Irrespective of the practical support offered, there is a need for informed, sensitive, individualised support system that women can identify with.