Health‐related quality of life and working conditions on public transport workers in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2012

Vinculin Identified as a Potential Biomarker in Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome Based on iTRAQ and LC-MS/MS-Based Proteomic Analysis

Local vibration can induce vascular injuries, one example is the hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) caused by hand-transmitted vibration (HTV). Little is known about the molecular mechanism of HAVS-induced vascular injuries. Herein, the iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) proteomics approach was applied to conduct the quantitative proteomic analysis of plasma from specimens with HTV exposure or HAVS diagnosis. Overall, 726 proteins were identified in iTRAQ. 37 proteins upregulated and 43 downregulated in HAVS. Moreover, 37 upregulated and 40 downregulated when comparing severe HAVS and mild HAVS. Among them, Vinculin (VCL) was found to be downregulated in the whole process of HAVS. The concentration of vinculin was further verified by ELISA, and the results suggested that the proteomics data was reliable. Bioinformative analyses were used, and those proteins mainly engaged in specific biological processes like binding, focal adhesion, and integrins. The potential of vinculin application in HAVS diagnosis was validated by the receiver operating characteristic curve.

Association between caregivers' health-related quality of life and care recipients' health outcomes

AIMS

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between family caregivers' health-related quality of life and health outcomes in care recipients.

METHODS

A total of 160 female caregivers in Japan were initially assessed using self-reported baseline questionnaires to determine physical and mental aspects of their health-related quality of life. Based on these scores, they were divided into three groups: lower, middle, and higher quality of life. We followed up with the 133 participants (after excluding those that did not respond) 6 years later to assess the health of their care recipients; 36 caregivers continued to provide home care, while 97 reported that their care recipient had died or been admitted into institutionalized care.

RESULTS

Statistically, a higher risk for care recipients' health deterioration was strongly associated with the mental component score in the lower caregivers' quality of life group of than for the middle group, after adjusting for the care recipients' age, health status, and caregivers' age at baseline. There was no significant association between deterioration of health of care recipients and physical component scores of the caregivers.

CONCLUSION

Caregivers' poor health-related quality of life, particularly poor mental health, may be linked to the deterioration of care recipients' health.

Sleep Quality and Health-Related Quality of Life in Workers of Kermanshah Industrial Town: A Correlation Study

Background:

Sleep Quality (SQ) is one of the most important predictors of quality of life in individuals. This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of life and SQ of industrial male workers in Kermanshah.

Materials and Methods:

In this cross-sectional study, 404 male workers selected by stratified sampling in the Kermanshah Industrial Town participated. The research questionnaires included demographic information checklist, the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Data were analyzed by SPSS18 software, using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and partial correlation tests.

Results:

The mean age of respondents was 35.33 ± 7.31; ranged from 20 to 62 years old. The mean score of mental health and physical health were 55.01 ± 21.62 and 54.96 ± 21.93, respectively. Out of all participants, 58.6% of participants had a score of 50 or less in terms of health-related quality of life (HRQL). Two dimensions of subjective SQ (1.48 ± 0.97) and sleep duration (1.48 ± 0.97) had the worst mean score, and sleep efficiency (0.05 ± 0.3) had the most favorable mean score. The results of the Pearson's correlation test showed that the total score of SQ had a negative and significant correlation with the main dimensions of quality of life (P < 0.001). The highest correlation was found between physical pain (r = 0.350) and mental health (r = 0.332) with SQ.

Conclusion:

This study showed that more than half of the workers reported poor HRQL. Besides, a considerable number of workers had some degree of sleep disorders. The results of the study showed that there is a moderate correlation between SQ and HRQL.

Mental health status of Chinese physicians working in intensive care unit

PURPOSE

Physicians working in intensive care unit (ICU) are prone to suffer from mental health problems, but there are still very limited data of mental health status of ICU physicians in China. Therefore, this study was to investigate their psychological status.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

ICU physicians were contacted electronically and asked to complete the Symptom Check-list 90 (SCL-90) for Chinese from December 13 to December 14 in 2018. A total of 1749 valid questionnaires were collected. Fifteen potential relevant factors that could affect the mental health status of ICU physicians were also analyzed by multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS

The total mean score of SCL-90 for surveyed subjects was 175.49 ± 65.79. Near half of the respondents were identified with psychological symptoms. The pooled estimates of all the nine factors, including somatization, obsession-compulsion, interpersonal-sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, and paranoid ideation among ICU physicians, were significantly higher than those in the general population (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that education, title, working hours per week, frequency of night shift were risk factors for psychological symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

The situation of psychological health of ICU physicians in China is worrying, and it is urgent to take some effective measures to improve their mental health.

Condiciones laborales, salud y calidad de vida en conductores

Objetivo: Conocer las condiciones laborales, salud y calidad de vida de los trabajadores que se dedican al rubro de la conducción. Materiales y Métodos: Se realizó revisión integrativa en las bases de datos Medline/PUBMED, BVS, WEB OF SCIENCE, SCOPUS, referente a artículos publicados desde el año 2010 a 2019, en relación a la temática de salud, condiciones laborales y calidad de vida de trabajadores que se desempeñan en el área de la conducción, siguiendo los lineamientos planteados según Ganong. Resultados: 29 estudios cumplieron con los criterios seleccionados, los cuales fueron realizados en población trabajadora del ámbito de locomoción colectiva como buses, taxis, motocicletas y en el área de transportes, como camiones. Discusión: La realidad que experimentan estos trabajadores crea consciencia y abre un espacio para implementar políticas de salud que busquen su bienestar, y a la vez es una puerta de entrada a crear conocimiento sobre la necesidad de estudiar a este grupo poblacional. Conclusiones: La calidad de vida y las condiciones laborales de estos conductores, en su mayoría es deficiente y esto los afecta de manera negativa en distintos ámbitos. Por otra parte, la salud de este grupo de trabajadores se ve perjudicada por las condiciones en el trabajo que muchos de ellos puedan tener, así mismo la mayoría carece de buenas prácticas de salud, teniendo hábitos poco saludables, que se relacionan directamente con la labor que realizan. Como citar este artículo: Sepúlveda Guerra Elena Belén,  Valenzuela Suazo Sandra Verónica, Rodríguez Campo Varinia Alejandra. Condiciones laborales, salud y calidad de vida en conductores. Revista Cuidarte. 2020; 11(2): e1083. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.1083

Precarious working conditions and health of metropolitan bus drivers and conductors in Minas Gerais, Brazil

BACKGROUND

To investigate the relationship between precarious working conditions and the health of bus drivers and conductors.

METHODS

Data were gathered by means of a survey and interviews conducted in 2012 with 1607 employees of the public transport system of the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Nine proxy variables were used to create a precariousness score, ranging from 0 to 9, on a comparative scale: score 0 "less precarious" and 9 "more precarious." Negative self-evaluations of health, medical diagnoses of depression and sleep disorders, common mental disorders, musculoskeletal pain and medical leave were assessed. Poisson regression was used to assess associations between precariousness and health adjusted for age, sex, education, vibration, and noise.

RESULTS

The sample was composed of 853 drivers and 754 conductors. Most were men (87%), with age below 40 years (67.4%) and medium educational level (64.5%). The maximum precariousness score observed was 7. Most individuals were in the groups of scores 3 (26.7%) and 4 (26.1%). The prevalences of the health situations were: common mental disorders, 26.3%; medical diagnosis of depression, 9.7%; medical diagnosis of sleep disorder, 14.6%; musculoskeletal pain, 43.0%; medical leave (absenteeism), 34.8%; and negative self-evaluation of health, 20.2%. The prevalences of health conditions, with the exception of negative self-evaluations of health, were significantly higher among workers with higher levels of precarious working conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Worse health, particularly common mental disorders, was associated with self-assessed work precariousness.

Quality of life in a sample of Brazilian adults using the generic SF-12 questionnaire

Summary Objective: This study describes the summary scores of the Short Form-12 (SF-12) questionnaire, according to socio-demographic factors obtained in a probabilistic and representative sample of the Brazilian urban population. Method: Five thousand (5,000) individuals, over the age of 15, were assessed in 16 capital cities, in the five regions of the country. The selection of households was random. Face-to-face approach was applied in the household interviews. The SF-12 questionnaire was used to assess quality of life. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were also evaluated: gender, age, marital status, skin color, region of the country and use of the public health service. Results: The mean value (SD) of the SF-12 for the entire population was 49.3 (8.7) for the physical component (PCS-12) and 52.7 (9.7) for the mental component (MCS-12). Statistical differences were found for gender (PCS-12 and MCS-12), age (PCS-12) and working status (PCS-12 and MCS-12). Women, elderly, widowed and unemployed individuals, those with lower income and with complaints in the last seven days showed lower mean values (PCS-12 and MCS-12). Conclusion: From this point forward, we can provide the basis for comparisons with future research that use the SF-12 for quality of life assessment in Brazil. The Brazilian population has a lower degree of quality of life related do the physical component, and the SF-12 is a useful and discriminative instrument for assessing quality of life in different socio-demographic groups.

Effects of the Residential Environment on Health in Japan Linked with Travel Behavior

This paper aims to clarify how the residential environment is associated with overall health-related quality of life (QOL) via active travel (walking and cycling), by reflecting the influence of different trip purposes in Japan. The health-related QOL includes physical, mental, and social dimensions. For this study we implemented a questionnaire survey in 20 cities in Japan in 2010 and obtained valid answers from 1202 respondents. The residential environment is defined in terms of distances to and densities of different daily facilities extracted from both the survey and external GIS data. We found that the effects of residential environment on active travel behavior are mixed and limited, depending on types of trip makers. Unexpectedly, travel behavior has no direct effects on the health-related QOL. The residential environment, which is only observed indirectly via lifestyle habits for commuters, has limited effects on health. As for noncommuters, neither their travel behavior nor the residential environment influences their health-related QOL.