•There are significant immunity gaps among pregnant employees in Germany.•Immunity rates differed between different socioeconomic groups.•Hospital staff showed the highest rate of full immunity, ...teachers the lowest.•The level of access to occupational-medical care might influence immunity rates.
Immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases prior to pregnancy is an important measure of primary prevention both for the mother and the unborn child. We analyzed immunity rates against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and pertussis in pregnant employees in Germany prior to significant changes in legal conditions in 2020, to provide a basis of comparison for future research.
We analyzed occupational-medical routine data in three collectives of pregnant women with an occupational risk of infection in the years 2018 and 2019: 1: hospital staff with regular access to an in-house company physician (n = 148); 2: employees in childcare with regular access to external occupational-health services (n = 139); 3: teachers with no regular access to occupational healthcare (n = 285). Immune status was assessed by a physician based on vaccination certificates, laboratory results, and medical documentation on prior infections. We compared immunity rates against measles, rubella, varicella, and pertussis as well as full immunity against all targeted vaccine-preventable diseases.
Altogether, n = 572 pregnant women were included in our study. Of these women, 96.5 % were immune to rubella, 95.8 % to varicella, 88.3 % to measles, 82.7 % to mumps, and 67.8 % to pertussis. Only 56.2 % of the women had full immunity against all targeted vaccine-preventable diseases. Collective 1 showed the highest immunity rates against measles and pertussis as well as the highest rate of full immunity against all targeted vaccine-preventable diseases. The immunity rates against rubella and varicella did not differ significantly between the collectives. With the exception of rubella, the lowest immunity rates during pregnancy were found in Collective 3.
We found pregnancy-relevant immunity gaps in all our study groups with significant differences between the collectives. Considering the potentially devastating consequences of infections during pregnancy, all medical professionals and health-policy makers should be involved in an increased effort to improve vaccination rates prior to pregnancy.
Purpose
A systematic review was carried out to assess evidence for the association between different models of stress at work, and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Methods
A literature search ...was conducted using five databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PSYNDEX and PsycINFO). Inclusion criteria for studies were the following: self-reported stress for individual workplaces, prospective study design and incident disease (myocardial infarction, stroke, angina pectoris, high blood pressure). Evaluation, according to the criteria of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, was done by two readers. In case of disagreement, a third reader was involved.
Results
Twenty-six publications were included, describing 40 analyses out of 20 cohorts. The risk estimates for work stress were associated with a statistically significant increased risk of cardiovascular disease in 13 out of the 20 cohorts. Associations were significant for 7 out of 13 cohorts applying the demand–control model, all three cohorts using the effort–reward model and 3 out of 6 cohorts investigating other models. Most significant results came from analyses considering only men. Results for the association between job stress and cardiovascular diseases in women were not clear. Associations were weaker in participants above the age of 55.
Conclusions
In accordance with other systematic reviews, this review stresses the importance of psychosocial factors at work in the aetiology of cardiovascular diseases. Besides individual measures to manage stress and to cope with demanding work situations, organisational changes at the workplace need to be considered to find options to reduce occupational risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
The objective was to provide a systematic literature review on associations between poor health and exit from paid employment through disability pension, unemployment and early retirement, and to ...estimate the magnitude of these associations using meta-analyses. Medline and Embase databases were searched for longitudinal studies on the relationship between health measures and exit from paid employment. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled effects. In total, 29 studies were included. Self-perceived poor health was a risk factor for transition into disability pension (relative risk (RR) 3.61; 95% CI 2.44 to 5.35), unemployment (RR 1.44; 95% CI 1.26 to 1.65) and early retirement (RR 1.27; 95% CI 1.17 to 1.38). Workers with mental health problems had an increased likelihood for transition into disability pension (RR 1.80; 95% CI 1.41 to 2.31) or unemployment (RR 1.61; 95% CI 1.29 to 2.01). Chronic disease was a risk factor for transition into disability pension (RR 2.11; 95% CI 1.90 to 2.33) or unemployment (RR 1.31; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.50), but not for early retirement. This meta-analysis showed that poor health, particularly self-perceived health, is a risk factor for exit from paid employment through disability pension, unemployment and, to a lesser extent, early retirement. To increase sustained employability it should be considered to implement workplace interventions that promote good health.
Drug molecules consist of a few tens of atoms connected by covalent bonds. How many such molecules are possible in total and what is their structure? This question is of pressing interest in ...medicinal chemistry to help solve the problems of drug potency, selectivity, and toxicity and reduce attrition rates by pointing to new molecular series. To better define the unknown chemical space, we have enumerated 166.4 billion molecules of up to 17 atoms of C, N, O, S, and halogens forming the chemical universe database GDB-17, covering a size range containing many drugs and typical for lead compounds. GDB-17 contains millions of isomers of known drugs, including analogs with high shape similarity to the parent drug. Compared to known molecules in PubChem, GDB-17 molecules are much richer in nonaromatic heterocycles, quaternary centers, and stereoisomers, densely populate the third dimension in shape space, and represent many more scaffold types.
•Subjects identified more hazards correctly in the virtual environment than subjects who studied photographs and documents.•Construction superintendents with many years of experience were unable to ...identify all of the hazards in the tests.•Superintendents assessed risk with greater weight on severity than on probability, raising concerns about safety culture.•There is an apparent lack of correlation between safety training and hazard identification/assessment skills.
A construction superintendent’s ability to recognize hazards and to perceive and assess risk is an essential skill for maintaining safe conditions on their construction sites. In a study that aimed to explore the degree to which construction superintendents are aware of hazards and how well they perceive the associated risks, 61 subjects were asked to identify the hazards in a typical construction project, to assess their risk level, and to estimate the probability and the severity of possible accidents. Some subjects were presented with photographs and construction documents, while others toured a virtual construction site using a 3-sided virtual reality CAVE. The method allowed both for analysis of differences in perception and assessment between distinct populations and for evaluation of the effectiveness of the virtual environment in demonstrating hazardous situations. Results show that construction superintendents with many years of experience are unable to identify all of the hazards in their work environment, and that there are important discrepancies between the way they assess risk levels and the way most formal safety risk assessment methods rate risk levels. Most subjects in the virtual environment assessed higher risk levels to hazards caused by moving equipment. They also identified more hazards correctly than the subjects who studied photographs and documents. Of primary concern is the apparent lack of correlation between hours of safety training and work experience on the one hand, and hazard identification and perception skills on the other hand.
► Quantitative risk analysis is conducted for offshore loss of well control. ► Kick, kick detection, and failure of safety barriers are modeled using bow-tie approach. ► Object-oriented Bayesian ...network (OOBN) is applied to reduce the model complexity. ► Common cause failures and conditional dependencies are modeled using OOBN. ► Accident precursors are used for probability updating via sequential learning.
Blowouts are among the most undesired and feared accidents during drilling operations. The dynamic nature of blowout accidents, resulting from both rapidly changing physical parameters and time-dependent failure of barriers, necessitates techniques capable of considering time dependencies and changes during the lifetime of a well. The present work is aimed at demonstrating the application of bow-tie and Bayesian network methods in conducting quantitative risk analysis of drilling operations. Considering the former method, fault trees and an event tree are developed for potential accident scenarios, and then combined to build a bow-tie model. In the latter method, first, individual Bayesian networks are developed for the accident scenarios and finally, an object-oriented Bayesian network is constructed by connecting these individual networks. The Bayesian network method provides greater value than the bow-tie model since it can consider common cause failures and conditional dependencies along with performing probability updating and sequential learning using accident precursors.
IntroductionSitting and standing workstations can affect individual's health outcomes differently. This study aimed to assess the effects of sit and stand workstations on energy expenditure and blood ...parameters, including glucose and triglyceride, musculoskeletal symptoms/pain and discomfort, fatigue, and productivity among workers of assembly line of a belt factory. MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on 47 male assembly line workers (24 workers in sitting workstation and 23 workers in standing workstation) with at least one year of working experience. Data were gathered via demographic/occupational characteristics, Fitbit system, medical records, the Persian version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (P-NMQ), the Persian version of the Numeric Rating Scale (P-NRS), the Persian version of the Swedish Occupational Fatigue (P-SOFI), and Persian version of the Health and Work Questionnaire (P-HWQ). ResultsThe results showed that there were no statistically significant between the demographic/occupational details of the participants in sitting and standing groups, except work experience. The findings of the present study revealed that the energy expenditure, and blood glucose/triglyceride there are not statistically differences between sitting and standing groups. In addition, the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in the neck, lower back, knees, and ankles/feet in standing group was significantly higher than the sitting group. The means of severity of discomfort/pain in all body regions were significantly higher in standing group compared to other group. Generally, occupational fatigue was higher among the standing group compared to sitting group. About productivity, the 'concentration/focus' and 'impatience/irritability' subscales in sitting group were higher than the standing group. Contrariwise, other subscales of the productivity, including 'productivity', 'supervisor relations', 'non-work satisfaction', 'work satisfaction' in the standing group were higher than the sitting group. ConclusionsTo reduce the adverse effects of sitting and standing workstations on individual's health outcomes, planning to use sit-stand workstations is recommended.
Objective
We evaluate psychometric properties of a short version of the original effort–reward imbalance (ERI) questionnaire. This measure is of interest in the context of assessing stressful work ...conditions in the era of economic globalization.
Methods
In a representative sample of 10,698 employed men and women participating in the longitudinal Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in Germany, a short version of the ERI questionnaire was included in the 2006 panel wave. Structural equation modeling and logistic regression analysis were applied.
Results
In addition to satisfactory internal consistency of scales, a model representing the theoretical structure of the scales provided the best data fit in a competitive test (RMSEA = 0.059, CAIC = 4124.19). Scoring high on the ERI scales was associated with elevated risks of poor self-rated health.
Conclusions
This short version of the ERI questionnaire reveals satisfactory psychometric properties, and can be recommended for further use in research and practice.
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