Work hazards and workers’ mental health: an investigation based on the fifth European Working Conditions Survey

Background:Workplace hazards are a significant source of health impairment for workers and of financial losses for firms. EU directives on workers’ health and safety standards significantly contributed to reduce reported occupational injuries, yet the incidence and prevalence of work-related mental illness is still very high.Objectives:We investigated the association between work-related hazards and individuals’ perceived mental health. We reviewed the existing evidence on the channels through which task-related factors, adverse agents and psychosocial factors are expected to affect workers’ health, with specific regard to mental health.Methods:We used data from the fifth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey, covering over 40,000 face-to-face interviews with workers in 34 countries, which includes information on socio-demographic characteristics, firms and jobs attributes, employment status, as well as working conditions and health status. We carried out an empirical analysis with multivariate regression models in order to estimate the relationship between workers’ mental health problems and workplace risk factors.Results:21,020 interviews were used in the multivariate analysis. We found strong correlations between hazards and various indicators of mental health. Among hazardous agents, low temperatures (β=0.0287) and contact with infectious materials (β=0.0394) were positively associated with mental health outcomes. Among task/sequence-related factors, tiring or painful positions (β=0.0713), repetitive hand/arm movements (β=0.0255), working with VDUs (β=0.0301), repetitive tasks <10 min (β=0.0859) and working in evenings (β=0.00754) were positively associated with mental health. Various psychosocial risk factors related to both the content of the job (for example, frequent disruptive interruptions: β=0.219, working in free time: β=0.0759, poor work-life balance: β=0.228) as well as the job context (for example, bad employment prospects: β=0.177, low decisional autonomy: β=0.245, bad social relations: β=0.186, workplace violence: β=0.411) were positively associated with mental health. The main results of the decomposition show that an important contribution to workers’ overall mental distress at work is associated with psychosocial risk factors (up to 60% for depression/anxiety symptoms and sleep disorders), while the contribution of somatic factors is on average lower (up to 20% for overall fatigue).Conclusions:We argue that action is needed to improve workers’ mental well-being, and reduce the economic costs for both the national health system and employers. Regulations and traditional economic measures are unlikely to prove successful in providing adequate standards of primary and secondary preventive measures in the work place without an appropriate and reliable Risk Assessment Procedure.Key words: Work hazards, risk assessment, job content, mental health     

Myosin light chains and muscle pathology

We evaluated the isoform composition of heavy and light chains of myosin in single muscle fibers from patients with Duchenne dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy, or polymyositis. In all myopathic muscles, there was an increase in the proportion of intermediate fibers which, by analysis of myosin isoforms, fell into two subpopulations, one that contained both fast and slow myosin and another that contained myosin molecular hybrids. The increased proportion of intermediate (or transitional) fibers suggests changes in the equilibrium between fast and slow motor units. These changes could result from regeneration and subsequent maturation of fibers or from direct transformation of mature fibers of one type into the opposite.     

Older adults’ preferences for exercising alone versus in groups: Considering contextual congruence

Background: A growing body of research suggests that older exercisers prefer to exercise alone rather than in group-based settings. One limitation of these studies, however, has been that researchers have failed to take into account the age-related characteristics of groups when asking adults about their preferences for exercise settings.Purpose: The overall purpose of this study was to examine the exercise preferences of 947 adults for involvement in standard exercise classes populated by participants from various categories across the age spectrum.Results: The results revealed that when faced with the prospect of exercising with considerably older or younger exercisers, participants found such an exercise context to be largely unappealing. However, in accordance with the basic tenets of self-categorization theory, the results revealed that older and younger adults alike express a positive preference for exercising in standard exercise classes comprised of similarly aged participants.Conclusions: The findings of this study challenge a growing call for exercise interventions for older adults to be primarily directed at the individual-level, and suggest that group-related intervention strategies may indeed be attractive to older exercisers.     

Early increase of oxidative stress and soluble CD40L in children with hypercholesterolemia.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to analyze the behavior of oxidative stress and its interplay with CD40L, a protein that is implicated in atherosclerosis, in hypercholesterolemic children. BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress has been suggested to play a major role in premature atherosclerosis. METHODS: Forty-one children with hypercholesterolemia (mean age 9.28 +/- 0.5 years) and 40 children with normocholesterolemia (mean age 9.02 +/- 0.69 years) were matched for gender and age. Within each group, children were classified as having or not having a family history of cardiovascular disease. Serum levels of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a marker of oxidative stress, and plasma levels of soluble CD40L (sCD40L) were measured in each child. In a subgroup of children with high (n = 8) or normal (n = 8) levels of serum cholesterol, platelet p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase phosphorylation, a protein involved in the activation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase, was determined. RESULTS: Children with hypercholesterolemia had higher values of 8-OHdG and sCD40L compared with control subjects (0.55 +/- 0.06 ng/ml vs. 0.21 +/- 0.02 ng/ml, p < 0.001 and 0.55 +/- 0.04 ng/ml vs. 0.19 +/- 0.03 ng/ml, p < 0.001, respectively). A significant correlation between 8-OHdG and sCD40L was observed in children with high (r = 0.676, p < 0.001) or normal (r = 0.878, p < 0.001) levels of cholesterol. Children with a family history of cardiovascular disease tended to have higher values of 8-OHdG and sCD40L, but the difference was not significant. Analysis of platelet p38 MAP kinase showed that it was phosphorylated more in children with hypercholesterolemia compared with control subjects (36.8 +/- 5.8 AU vs. 8.0 +/- 4.5 AU, p < 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Children with hypercholesterolemia have an early increase of oxidative stress that may be responsible for up-regulation of CD40L and potentially predispose to premature atherosclerosis.