Quality of work community and workers' intention to retire

Purpose

To study the workers’ perception of the quality of work community and its association with intention to retire early, separately among women and men working in Finnish postal service.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was sent to all Finnish postal services employees aged ≥ 50 years in 2016 and 44% (n = 2096) replied to the survey (mean age 56.3, 40% women). Employee’s intention to retire before statutory retirement was measured on a scale of 1–5 and dichotomized. The quality of work community was defined by four composite variables: equality at work, flexibility at work, supportive work environment and health or other reason and trichotomized by their tercile values. Odds ratio (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations of quality of work community with intention to retire were calculated separately for men and women using log binomial regression models adjusted for potential confounders.

Results

About one-third of respondents intended to retire early with no significant gender difference in retirement intention. Low equality at work (women OR 2.77, 95% CI 1.60–4.81; men 2.84, 1.80–4.48) and low flexibility at work (women 3.30, 1.94–5.60; men 2.91, 1.88–4.50) was associated with higher likelihood of intention to retire. Among women intention to retire was found less likely due to low supportive work environment (0.52, 0.31–0.89) and among men due to intermediate health or other reason (0.65, 043–0.98).

Conclusion

The results highlight the importance of the quality of work community as well as the promotion of work-related health in order to encourage employees to remain at workforce for longer.

Evaluation of the postal service for referral of specimen of drug resistance tuberculosis in Amhara region, Ethiopia; mixed method

BACKGROUND

In Ethiopia, specimens of presumptive drug resistant tuberculosis cases are transported by courier system from district sample collection centers to reference laboratories. It is essential to track the effectiveness of the referral system and identify challenges in order to take timely and appropriate actions. We assessed turnaround time and quality of specimens, and explored challenges of the specimen referral system in Amhara region, Ethiopia, 2017.

METHODS

With mixed methods, we retrospectively examined 385 randomly selected presumptive drug resistance TB specimens, and interviewed 53 purposively selected key informants from laboratories and post offices. We calculated median TAT and proportion of acceptable quality. We analyzed qualitative data thematically.

RESULTS

Of the 385 specimens, 94.5% (364/385) had acceptable quality at arrival in the reference laboratories. All the 364 specimens had result. Three - fourth (76.1%) of results were dispatched to the referring health facilities within the recommended turnaround time. Ineffective communication and lack of feedback among institutions were mentioned as challenges.

CONCLUSION

The postal service was effective in keeping quality and majority of test results were timely delivered. Yet, there were operational challenges. Therefore, effective communication, using dedicated vehicle for specimen shipment and awareness creation on specimen collection and handling are recommended.