Hadi Daneshmandi; Alireza Choobineh; Zeinab Rasouli Kahaki; Mojgan Zoaktafi; Atefeh Hosseini
Abstract
Background: This study aimed to examine the effect of individuals’ personality traits on the perceived effort.
Methods: This experimental study was conducted on 30 students via general health questionnaire (GHQ-28), Raven’s IQ test, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), revised NEO personality inventory, ...
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Background: This study aimed to examine the effect of individuals’ personality traits on the perceived effort.
Methods: This experimental study was conducted on 30 students via general health questionnaire (GHQ-28), Raven’s IQ test, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), revised NEO personality inventory, and Jamar hand dynamometer (JHD).
Results: A significant positive correlation was found between the exerted force to the JHD (EF-JHD), and perceived effort rated on horizontal VAS (PE-H/VAS) and vertical VAS (PE-V/VAS) in the individuals with low levels of ‘neuroticism’. Considering ‘extraversion’ and ‘agreeableness’ factors of the NEO test, the correlation coefficient between EF-JHD, and PE-H/VAS and PE-V/VAS was higher in the individuals with medium levels compared to those with high levels. This relationship was reverse for the ‘openness to experience’ and ‘conscientiousness’ factors. The results demonstrated a significant strong positive correlation between PE-H/VAS and PE-V/VAS (r = 0.97). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed a moderate positive correlation between EF-JHD and PE-H/VAS and between EF-JHD and PE-V/VAS.
Conclusion: Individuals’ personality traits are recommended to be considered in assessing the perceived effort by VAS.
Hamid Salmani Nodooshan; Hadi Daneshmandi; Alireza Choobineh; Farzaneh Yazdani; Mohsen Razeghi; Taymaz Shahnazar Nezhad Khales
Abstract
Background: Musculoskeletal disorders in the upper extremities are common among computer users. This study aimed to assess the effect of mouse pad angle on the forearm muscles activity and upper limb discomfort.Methods: This is an experimental research design. The mouse pad was set at 0, 10, 20, and ...
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Background: Musculoskeletal disorders in the upper extremities are common among computer users. This study aimed to assess the effect of mouse pad angle on the forearm muscles activity and upper limb discomfort.Methods: This is an experimental research design. The mouse pad was set at 0, 10, 20, and 30 degrees of forearm supination. Ten subjects performed an identical text editing task with mouse in each pad position. Electrical activity of the selected forearm muscles was recorded with surface electrodes. 10-point rating scales were used for assessing perceived discomfort.Results: Extensor Carpi Radialis had the lowest mean of Electromyography (EMG) values in the 0° slanted pad (5.94), and the highest values were associated with Pronator Quadratus in 0-degree slanted pad (22.29). The highest and the lowest mean (SD) of the users’ upper limb discomfort were 3.70 (1.63) and 1.90 (1.28) in 30° and 10° slanted pads, respectively.Conclusion: Using slanted mouse pads could be a helpful and practical tool for office workers to keep more neutral wrist/hand positions.
Akram Sadat Jafari Roodbandi; Alireza Choobineh; Vafa Feyzi; Zohre Foroozanfar; Nazanin Hosseini
Abstract
Background: Physical fitness and optimum functional movement are essential for efficient performance of job tasks without fatigue and injury. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between Functional Movement Screening (FMS) test score and prevalence of Musculoskeletal symptoms (MSSs) in emergency ...
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Background: Physical fitness and optimum functional movement are essential for efficient performance of job tasks without fatigue and injury. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between Functional Movement Screening (FMS) test score and prevalence of Musculoskeletal symptoms (MSSs) in emergency nurses and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff. The present study also sought to determine optimum cut-off point of FMS test score in health personnel.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 134 male and female emergency nurses and EMS technicians. After watching a video tutorial and undergoing practical training of how to do the FMS test, the participants carried out the test while wearing comfortable clothes. In addition to the demographic data questionnaire, Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire was also completed for each participant. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software, version 18 at the significance level of 0.05.Results: Totally, 49.3% (n=66) of the participants were female. The subjects’ mean age and work experience were 35.3±8.7 and 11.4±7.7 years, respectively. Cut-off point of 17 was determined with the highest sensitivity (0.71) and specificity (0.71) based on ROC curve. The highest prevalence of MSSs was observed in the knees (n=44, 32.8%) and lower back (n=31, 23.1%). Multiple linear regression modeling also showed that age, sex, and the prevalence of MSSs were significantly associated with the FMS test score.Conclusion: FMS test seems to be an appropriate screening tool in pre-employment and periodic medical tests for jobs requiring physical fitness and optimum functional movements.
Hadi Daneshmandi; Alireza Choobineh; Haleh Ghaem; Anahita Fakherpour
Abstract
Background: For an organization to be successful, the productivity of its employees is of vital importance.This study aimed to: 1) translate and examine the psychometric properties of the Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ) among Iranian office workers, and 2) Determine the association between six subscales ...
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Background: For an organization to be successful, the productivity of its employees is of vital importance.This study aimed to: 1) translate and examine the psychometric properties of the Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ) among Iranian office workers, and 2) Determine the association between six subscales of the Persian version of HWQ (P-HWQ) and Work-related Musculoskeletal Symptoms (WMSs) among the subjects. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among office workers employed at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In order to standardize the questionnaire, the English version of the HWQ was translated into Persian (the Iranian official language), using the standard “forward-backward” translation, cognitive debriefing, and cultural adaptation procedure. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) was used to determine the WMSs prevalence rate among the subjects. Results: 129 office workers, including 44 (34.1%) males and 85 (65.9%) females with a mean ± SD age of 36.22±7.72 years voluntarily participated in this study. Internal consistency of the P-HWQ was acceptable for all subscales (0.65≤α). Factor analysis of the P-HWQ for each item related to the subscale was acceptable (0.4<). The highest prevalence rates of WMSs in the last week were related to lower back (51.2%), neck (43.4%), and shoulders (41.1%). The concentration/focus subscale of productivity (derived from P-HWQ) was related to WMSs in participants. Conclusion: The P-HWQ has good structural characteristics, is a valid and reliable instrument, and can be used for measuring the productivity of Iranian office workers. Improvement of working conditions is suggested to reduce the musculoskeletal problems, and enhancement of people’s concentration/focus and productivity.
Amin Jafari; Alireza Choobineh; Mehdi Jahangiri; Sareh Keshavarzi
Volume 5, Issue 2 , April 2017, , Pages 86-93
Abstract
Background: Most workers are exposed to a variety of hazards in their workplace. Devising a comprehensive checklist and developing an index for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) assessment could be useful. This study was conducted in a heavy automotive company with the aim of developing and validating ...
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Background: Most workers are exposed to a variety of hazards in their workplace. Devising a comprehensive checklist and developing an index for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) assessment could be useful. This study was conducted in a heavy automotive company with the aim of developing and validating an OSH assessment index.Methods and Materials: We used the experiences and comments of OSH experts to devise a checklist for OSH assessment. Weighting various harmful factors was done using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was applied to measure the reliability of the checklist (SPSS version 20). In the studied industry, 150 workstations were assessed using the developed comprehensive checklist. In order to validate the total index, we assessed its correlation with 4 groups of occupational statistics (i.e. accident frequency, severity rates, lost working time rate, and occupational disease incidence rate). A p value of < 0.05 was considered significant.Results: Among 7 sub-indices, sub-indexes of occupational health and the workplace order (w=0.21) and housekeeping (w=0.04) had the highest and the lowest AHP weights, respectively. The mean of ICC was found to be 0.978. The total index (OSHITotal) and the Accident Severity Rate (ASR) had a strong inverse significant correlation (r = -0.774, P=0.002).Conclusion: The developed index covered important occupational hazards. The inter-evaluator reliability for this index was high.
Rezvan Zare; Alireza Choobineh; Sareh Keshavarzi
Volume 4, Issue 3 , July 2016, , Pages 115-120
Abstract
Background: Working conditions have considerably changed and exposure to psychosocial risk factors, particularly occupational stress, has recently had an increasing trend. Studies have shown that sickness absence was the worst outcome of occupational stress. The present study aimed to assess the relationship ...
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Background: Working conditions have considerably changed and exposure to psychosocial risk factors, particularly occupational stress, has recently had an increasing trend. Studies have shown that sickness absence was the worst outcome of occupational stress. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between dimensions of occupational stress and sickness absence in a gas company in Boushehr, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 employees of a gas company, Boushehr, Iran who were selected through random sampling. Osipow occupational stress questionnaire was used to determine the participants’ stress levels. Then, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The participants’ mean of sickness absence was 2.164.57± days per year. Besides, 1.5%, 32.5%, 36.3%, and 29.8% of the participants had low, low to moderate, moderate to severe, and severe occupational stress, respectively. Additionally, the mean of total stress was moderate to severe among the study participants. This was also the case concerning the stress dimensions. The results revealed a significant relationship between the number of sickness absences and dimensions of occupational stress, including workload, role insufficiency, role conflict, responsibility, physical environment, and total stress (P=0.0001). Conclusion: The majority of the employees had high levels of occupational stress. Besides, a significant association was observed between the dimensions of occupational stress and sickness absence. Accordingly, to decrease the number of sickness absence, we should take measures to reduce occupational stress.
alireza besharati; Ali Ghanbari; Alireza Choobineh; Seyed Hamidreza Tabatabaee; Hadi Daneshmandi
Volume 3, Issue 3 , July 2015, , Pages 101-106
Abstract
Background: Proper training on how to correctly handle loads is one key point for prevention of low back disorders. This study was conducted with the objectives of assessing manual material lifting activities and comparing two methods of training intervention in a porcelain company. Methods: In this ...
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Background: Proper training on how to correctly handle loads is one key point for prevention of low back disorders. This study was conducted with the objectives of assessing manual material lifting activities and comparing two methods of training intervention in a porcelain company. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial which was conducted in a porcelain company, all male employees with lifting activities (n=204) participated. The data were collected using Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire and Lift/ Lower Force Risk Assessment software for assessing manual material lifting. Intervention methods included booklet and oral training. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and Chisquare tests using SPSS software (Version 17.0). Results: The most prevalent musculoskeletal disorders symptoms were reported in the knee (52.5%), feet (45.1%), and lower back (43.6%). Risk assessment before intervention showed that in 62.7% of the workers studied, the level of exposure to musculoskeletal risks was in Action Level (AL) 1, 31.9% in AL 2 and 5.4% in AL 3. The risk assessment after intervention showed that in 77.5% of the workers studied, the level of exposure to musculoskeletal risks was in Action Level (AL) 1, 20.6% in AL 2 and 2% in AL 3 (P<0.001). Also, statistical analysis revealed that oral training (24.5%) was more effective than the booklet training (11.8%) (P=0.018). Conclusion: This study showed that training intervention could be effective in correction of methods of manual material lifting of workers. It seems oral training for workers of porcelain industry is more effective than the booklet training. Trial registration number: IRCT2015050322071N1.
Naeimeh Asadi; Alireza Choobineh; Sareh Keshavarzi; Hadi Daneshmandi
Volume 3, Issue 1 , January 2015, , Pages 8-12
Abstract
Background: Manual load lifting is the most common and stressful activity that imposes high biomechanical pressures on the body, particularly on the back. Diverse studies have shown that load lifting can cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders among workers. This study was conducted to assess manual ...
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Background: Manual load lifting is the most common and stressful activity that imposes high biomechanical pressures on the body, particularly on the back. Diverse studies have shown that load lifting can cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders among workers. This study was conducted to assess manual lifting activity using NIOSH equation and WISHA index and compare the results of the two methods in workers with manual lifting activities.Methods: This cross- sectional study was carried out among 120 workers with manual lifting activity in 7 industrial settings of Shiraz city. Nordic Musculoskeletal disorders Questionnaire (NMQ) and demographic questionnaire, as well as NIOSH lifting equation and WISHA index were used to gather the required data. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS, 19.Results: The results showed that back problems were the most frequent musculoskeletal disorders among the workers studied (68.3%). The results of lifting evaluation indicated that 79.2% of the individuals in the NIOSH method and 39.2% in WISHA index were at risk of back injuries. The kappa value was equal to 0.29, indicating a fair agreement between the results of assessment by the two methods.Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed a fair correlation between these two assessment methods, so they might be used interchangeably.
Mostafa Barzideh; Alireza Choobineh; Hamidreza Tabatabaee
Volume 2, Issue 2 , April 2014, , Pages 66-71
Abstract
Background: Evidence shows that job stress potentially has adverse effect on individuals’ health and organizational productivity. It has, therefore, become an important issue in the occupational health context. The aims of this study were to investigate job stress dimensions among nurses of Shiraz ...
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Background: Evidence shows that job stress potentially has adverse effect on individuals’ health and organizational productivity. It has, therefore, become an important issue in the occupational health context. The aims of this study were to investigate job stress dimensions among nurses of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) hospitals and comparing the results with the findings of the previous studies conducted in other countries. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 385 randomly selected nurses of SUMS participated. The Persian version of Job Content Questionnaire (P-JCQ) and demographic questionnaire were used for data collection. The linguistic validity and psychometric properties of P-JCQ have been assessed and approved in a previous study. One sample t-test was used to examine the differences between means of job stress dimension scores of the present and those of the previous studies carried out in other countries. Results: The means (SD) of decision latitude, psychological job demands, social support, physical job demands and job insecurity were found to be 58.15 (6.50), 38.19 (5.14), 22.67 (3.67), 16.03 (2.58), and 7.74 (3.85), respectively. The results revealed that decision latitude and social support dimensions were in a low level among the study subjects. In contrast, psychological job demand, physical job demand, and job insecurity dimensions were shown to be in a high level. Conclusion: The SUMS hospital environment collectively imposes higher job stress on the nurses as compared to that of other countries. To prevent harmful effects of job stress on the nurses’ health and job performance, developing macro-ergonomic strategies in this working environment, such as enhancing job control, reducing job demands, and providing supportive climate, seem necessary.
Alireza Choobineh; Masoud Neghab; Reza Rostami; Jafar Hassan Zadeh; Esmaeel Soleimani; Hadi Daneshmandi
Volume 1, Issue 1 , July 2013, , Pages 27-32
Abstract
AbstractBackground/Objective: This study was undertaken to addresspsychological health effects of dentists’ exposure to low ambientlevels of mercury.Methods: One hundred and six dentists and 94 generalpractitioners were randomly selected from clinics in Shiraz city,Iran. Subjects were asked to complete ...
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AbstractBackground/Objective: This study was undertaken to addresspsychological health effects of dentists’ exposure to low ambientlevels of mercury.Methods: One hundred and six dentists and 94 generalpractitioners were randomly selected from clinics in Shiraz city,Iran. Subjects were asked to complete the Persian version ofGeneral Health Questionnaire. The data were analyzed usingχ2 test, independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney’s U test.Results: Both groups were similar as far as all demographicvariables, except age, were concerned. No significant differencewas noted between the dentists’ mean total score of GHQ-28 (17.9)and that of referent subjects (16.34). These scores were significantlylower than the cut-off point of 23 (P<0.01). The mean scores forsomatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, and depression weresignificantly higher in dentists than in the referent subjects. Theresults also showed a significant association between GHQ-28total scores and length of exposure to mercury (P=0.034); withincrease in the job tenure, GHQ-28 total score also increased,indicating a decrement in psychological health status.Conclusion: The current findings revealed that, in general,the dentists’ psychological health status was poorer than thereferent subjects. Additionally, in all GHQ subscales, thedentists’ scores were significantly different from those of theircounterparts. Given the fact that exposure to mercury is the mostimportant differentiating variable between both groups, and thatneuropsychological disorders are the most common toxic effectof mercury, the difference between psychological health statusof the two groups is likely to be related to exposure to mercury.Please cite this article as: Choobineh AR, Neghab M, Rostami R, HassanzadehJ, Soleimani E, Daneshmandi H. The Relationship between Mercury Exposureand Psychological Health Status of Dentists. J Health Sci Surveillance Sys.2013;1(1):27-32.Keywords: Dentist; Mental health; Mercury
Alireza Choobineh; Hadi Daneshmandi; Shahed Asadi; Shahram Ahmadi
Volume 1, Issue 1 , July 2013, , Pages 33-40
Abstract
Background/Objective: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the most common causes of occupational injuries. This study was conducted with the objectives of determination of prevalence rate of MSDs and ergonomics assessment of the risk of MSDs among workers of a petrochemical company. Methods: ...
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Background/Objective: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the most common causes of occupational injuries. This study was conducted with the objectives of determination of prevalence rate of MSDs and ergonomics assessment of the risk of MSDs among workers of a petrochemical company. Methods: In this study, 261randomly selected workers in a petrochemical company with at least one year of job tenure participated. Office and operational personnel were studied separately. In office jobs, data were collected using Nordic musculoskeletal disorders questionnaire (NMQ) and ergonomics checklist for assessment of work conditions. In operational jobs, NMQ and QEC (Quick Exposure Check) methods were applied to gather the required data. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software. Results: The most prevalent MSDs symptoms were reported in the lower back (36.2%), upper back (31%), neck (31%) and knees (30.3%). The results showed that the prevalence of MSDs indifferent body regions of the office staff was higher than those of operational workers. Also, in 40.9% of the observed cases, total ergonomics index was in action category 1 (inappropriate working conditions) and 59.9% of the subjects taken in action category 2 (appropriate working conditions). The results of assessment by QEC technique among operational workers showed that in 82.8% of the workers studied, the level of exposure to musculoskeletal risks was high or very high. Conclusions: The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the office staff was higher than that of operational subjects. To improve the working conditions, taking risk factors of the lower back, upper back, neck and knees into consideration seems to be essential.