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A methodological question concerning the evaluation of hearing loss due to occupational noise
No full textLa vecchia e la nuova normativa riguardante l’esposizione lavorativa a rumore
No full textBackground: Obesity is an international social problem. Objectives: This study was aimed at evaluating the relationship of overweight and obesity with social dynamics and correlated biological indicators. Subjects and Methods: The study was carried out on a group of healthcare workers employed in a large hospital in the province of Messina (Sicily, Italy). A total of 1010 subjects (377 men and 633 women) aged between 16 and 64 years, living in the province of Messina since birth. The educational level, BMI (Body mass index), arterial blood pressure and ECG of each subject was examined. Results: The results showed that 52% of the men and 66.5% of the women were of normal weight, while the men showed greater susceptibility to overweight (M 33.2% > F16%). Obesity was found in both sexes (M 13.3%, F 13.6%). Moreover, it was observed that arterial blood pressure tends to increase with age and body weight, and that the incidence of overweight falls as educational level rises. Conclusions: The study supports the hypothesis that there is a growing incidence of overweight and obesity in subjects of working age employed in the healthcare sector
The Italian decree 195/2006 on the protection of workers against risks arising from noise
No full textThe Italian decree 195/2006 incorporates the European Directive 2003/10/CE on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (noise). It is rather different to previous decree 277/1991, particularly as regard of the new exposure limit value and the elimination of annex VI and VII. We discus here only two aspects that we consider relevant and quite critical: 1) the calculation of the exposure limit values as noise equivalent level: it is a method that underestimates the potential damage of impulsive noise, so the risk evaluation remains quite inaccurate. 2) to take account of the attenuation provided by the individual hearing protectors worn by the worker in determining the worker's effective exposure when applying the exposure limit values: this must not apply to the obligations of employer to control the risk at source avoiding or reducing exposure to the minimum. Furthermore the attenuation power of individual hearing protectors is difficult to measure because his variability during the time and among different subjects. Then we evaluate and discus the new duties of Occupational Physician in this matter. The daily exposure limit values and action values are in fact in part modified as well as the methodology for organize the programs of prevention, health surveillance, information and formation of workers. As support for his activity we proposed the guidelines that The Italian Society of Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene (SIMLII) has published in 2003, which provides recommendations for the health surveillance for the prevention of noise induced hearing loss at the workplace
Perdita uditiva dei lavoratori del comparto ceramica: profilo di danno valutato mediante studio longitudinale
No full textOver the period 1980-1990, 2024 workers in ceramic plants in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy were evaluated for exposure to noise and hearing loss. Data collected by the National Health Service Local of Occupational and Preventive Medicine Units were used. In a relatively young population (34.8 years mean age, 8.98 years s.d.) exposed for not too long to > 90 dBA noise levels (87.2 for less than 4 years) a statistically significant effect of exposure was found only on the audiometric frequency of 6 kHz (95% confidence interval for mean hearing loss for 1 year exposure to > 90 dBA: 0.05-0.72 dB). An initial isolated loss at the audiometric frequency of 6 kHz was found to be significantly associated with (was a prognostic indicator of) a subsequent impairment at 4 kHz
La percezione dello stress nel terziario: utilità e indicazioni del Job Content Questionnaire
No full text«Job stress in the service industry. Evaluation of the Italian version of the Job Content Questionnaire». Background:
Recent changes in work organization have greatly expanded the service industry, where stress perception
appears to be the major factor of discomfort. Job stress remains a critical issue in occupational exposure assessments.
Objectives: To assess the compliance and the consistency of the three major constructs (Psychological Job Demand
(PJD); Decision Latitude (DL); and Social Support at Work (SSW)) of the Italian version of the Job Content
Questionnaire (JCQ) adopted in the MOPSY and JACE studies and their gender-specific distributions in a large
sample of civil servant in northern Italy. Methods: JCQ was administered to 2601 men and 5761 women
employed in six different departments of the Municipality of Milan. Two JCQ versions – short and intermediate –
which differ by the number of items that assess DL for inclusion of SSW, were used in different sub-samples. Compliance
was measured in terms of participation rate and percentage of missing items. A construct-specific Cronbach
alpha coefficient was used to assess internal consistency. As a measure of external consistency the correlation coefficients
between the three constructs were adopted. Results: The participant rate was very high in the entire sample:
75.3% in men and 76.2% in women. The percentage of missing items was small and acceptable, ranging from
3.61% for DL to 6.33% for SSW. The Cronbach alpha coefficients ranged from 0.72 for PJD to 0.88 for SSW.
Assumptions for external validity were satisfied in both gender groups. The percentage of perceived high job stress
diminished in older men, but the age trend was inverse among women, indicating gender differences in the possibility
of improving work conditions and career. Interferences with the family-related load and responsibilities may
play a significant role. In both gender groups, a satisfactory SSW level reduced perceived high job stress. Conclusions:
The adopted versions of the JCQ, originally developed in American and north European socio-cultural contexts,
demonstrated satisfactory levels of compliance, and internal and external consistency. The JCQ adequately
described perceived job stress in the groups of workers under study
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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