Journal of Occupational Health and Epidemiology
Volume:10 Issue: 1, Winter 2021

The issue of addiction among teenagers is critically important due to the sensitive nature of this life stage and its role in their future life. The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and emotion-regulation training on rumination and social anxiety in teenagers prone to addiction living in group foster care centers in 2018.

This is an experimental research with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design. The statistical population included all male teenagers aged 13 to 18 years living in group foster care centers of Tehran in 2018. Using the convenience sampling method, 45 teenagers were selected and randomly divided into two experimental groups and a control group (n= 15 per group). The research instrument included the Addiction Potential Scale (APS), the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), and the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS). SPSS version 22.0 was further used to analyze the data.

The mean of the post-test scores of rumination and physiological symptoms in the cognitive therapy group (55.00±2.00 and 10.47±1.88, respectively) and the emotion-regulation group (61.80±5.28 and 11.40±1.24, respectively) were significantly lower than them in the control groups (69.07 ± 1.99 and 13.00 ± 1.55, respectively). The results indicated a significant effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and emotion-regulation training on rumination and social anxiety in teenagers (p<0.05).

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and emotion-regulation training can be used to reduce the social anxiety and rumination of teenagers prone to addiction.

COVID-19 is a viral infection that causes pneumonia with dyspnea, cough, and fever. Its outcomes are more severe in patients with diabetes, hypertension, and other disorders than in healthy people. New-onset diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) have been reported as the complications of COVID-19 in several studies. It seems that the prevalence of DKA due to Covid-19 is increasing. Therefore, two cases of individuals with DKA due to COVID-19 are presented in this study to inform other researchers about the details of this phenomenon.

Demographic characteristics, medical histories, physical examinations, laboratory investigations, real-time RT-PCR tests, computed tomography (CT) imaging studies, given treatments, clinical courses, and management outcomes were documented prospectively.

In the present experience, the manifestation of COVID-19 disease in the second case with a history of diabetes was more severe than in the first case. In the second case, with underlying diabetes and COVID-19, the DKA manifestation was associated with consciousness loss, severe restlessness, and respiratory distress; however, in the first case, with COVID-19 without diabetes, the DKA manifestation was associated with anorexia, weight loss, and lack of respiratory distress, which were milder symptoms than the second case.

Due to the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus and COVID-19 in Iran, it is recommended to raise awareness of DKA symptoms among health professionals.

During the transit of digested animal source foods, gut microbiota synthesize metabolites that can affect the body cells. One of these metabolites, i.e. Trimethylamine (TMA) that is an intermediary metabolite, ultimately leads to the production of Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). Several studies have been conducted to show the association between TMAO and different diseases. This article aimed to search literature in order to review published findings about the possible association between TMAO and cancer.

In this literature review, a comprehensive electronic search of different databases was done using "Trimethylamine N-oxide" and "cancer" as the main keywords.

Research suggests that TMAO can be related to the increased risk of cancer. The results showed a higher level of serum TMAO in cancer patients, most importantly colorectal cancer (CRC), than in healthy controls.  Nevertheless, inflammation, oxidative stress, and DNA damage could be the reasons for the link between TMAO and cancer. Limiting dietary intake of animal products can reduce levels of TMAO.

It is concluded that a higher rate of TMAO production could potentially be associated with the development of different types of cancers, particularly CRC.

Health concerns are among the major concerns of the staff dealing with infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. This study aimed to examine health anxiety (HA) in the healthcare workers (HCWs) of COVID-19 patients from March to May 2020.

The statistical population of this descriptive study consisted of all 101 HCWs of COVID-19 patients at Ali ibn-Abi Talib Hospital in the Rafsanjan County, who were invited to help with this survey using the census sampling method. They completed the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). The data were analyzed using ANOVA and the independent t-test.

A total of 39 (38.6%) of the participants witnessed the death of COVID-19 patients. Out of the 101 staff, 72.3% suffered from mild anxiety, 24.8% from moderate anxiety, and 3% from health anxiety. The mean score of health anxiety was significantly higher in male participants (p= 0.040) and also in those who witnessed the death of COVID-19 patients (p= 0.036). There was a significant negative correlation between health anxiety and work experience (p=0.032) so that health anxiety was higher in employees with less experience (p= 0.033).

The level of anxiety and health anxiety in staff dealing with COVID-19 patients is high. Due to negative effects of anxiety on effectiveness of employee performance, it is necessary to make necessary interventions to improve their mental state.

Non-organizational or non-occupational factors are among the most important risk factors that significantly influence the emergence of occupational accidents. This study aimed to investigate the association between non-organizational factors and occupational accidents.

In this descriptive study the structural equation modeling was applied on the data that was collected using a self-developed questionnaire. The random selected sample (n=360) included damaged people referred to the emergency department in Tehran province for treatment during a five-year period (2019-2015). The data analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS AMOS v. 23.0. The goodness of fit indices, including χ2/df, RMSEA, GFI, CFI, NFI, and TLI, were evaluated.

The mean age and work experience of the expertschr('39') panel was 37.52±2.73 and 9.90±3.18 years, respectively. The Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient of the non-organizational factors of occupational accidents was calculated as 0.86. Generally, 35.3% of accidents were due to slip and fall, as well as falling the heavy object with 24.1%. The non-organizational index was estimated at 2.95. The factor analysis findings showed a statistically significant association between the non-organizational factors and the occupational accidents (p<0.05).

The results showed a reverse and significant association between the index of non-organizational factors with the title and type of accidents, cause of accidents, type of outcome or damage caused by accidents, and time of accident occurrence. Additionally, this index indicated a direct significant association with the gender, age, work experience, education, marital status, and the type of shift work schedule of the affected people.

In the present era, training is one of the most complex tasks in the human resource management of organizations and also one of the factors in organizational productivity. This study was conducted to identify the dimensions and components of adequate training of nurses with an emphasis on psychological empowerment.

The present study is quantitative and qualitative research with a descriptive-exploratory design, and in terms of purpose, it is applied research. In the qualitative approach, to collect the necessary data, in-depth interviews were done. The sample included 30 cases consisting of university faculty members and senior managers of nurses. In the quantitative approach, 200 nurses were selected by simple random sampling. To analyze the data, Strauss and Corbin (1990) approach and fuzzy Delphi technique have been used.

  Based on the findings, the main components of the adequacy of nurseschr('39') education include training, evaluation and psychological empowerment. The results showed that, among these three dimensions, the largest gap for optimizing the model was related to the psychological empowerment dimension, which can be filled by focusing on the sense of competence, sense of significance and sense of effectiveness of nurses.

The results showed that psychological empowerment by creating a sense of competence, meaningfulness, and effectiveness led to the participation of nurses in the training courses voluntarily and without coercion because they felt they needed to know more, and by psychological empowerment, they will be able to achieve the adequacy of training.

Haematotoxicity occurs following acute and chronic low dose exposures to lead. This study aimed to assess the association between occupational lead exposure and haematological parameters among roadside and organized panel beaters in Enugu Metropolis, Nigeria, 2018-19. 

This was a cross-sectional and analytical study of 428 roadside and organized panel beaters. A multistage sampling technique was used to select participants. Blood lead and haematological parameters were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer at 238.3nm wavelength and Mindray Auto Haematology Analyzer, respectively. Comparative analyses were performed using Chi-square, Man Whitney U-test, T-test, correlation, and statistical significance.

All the haematological parameters on both sectors of panel beaters had mean values within the normal reference values. 7 (3.3%) on both sectors had abnormal haemoglobin and 4 (1.9%) and 3 (1.4%), respectively, had abnormal WBC. There was weak linear correlation among roadside and organized panel beaters of blood lead: Hb (r= -0.061, P= 0.371) and (r= 0.026, P= 0.709), RBC (r= -0.036, P= 0.596) and (r= -0.004, P= 0.956), and TWBC (r= -0.044, P= 0.524) and (r= 0.092, P= 0.180), respectively.

Haematological parameters on both sectors were found to be within the normal reference range. There was a non-significant weak linear correlation between blood lead and the parameters. Haematological investigations should be included as part of routine biomonitoring in occupational health practice as an indicator of lead exposure.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of sexual relationship enrichment program training on the sexual satisfaction of dual-career couples.

This research was a single-case experiment. The statistical population was all couples referred to the counseling center in Ardabil in 2019. In this study, three couples were purposefully selected as a sample. Larsonchr('39')s (1998) Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire was used to collect data, and visual shape analysis, clinical significance, and improvement rate were used to analyze them.

The mean of sexual satisfaction before treatment for first to third couples was 55.16, 57.37, and 58.4, respectively, after treatment, it was 70.2, 71.8, and 73, respectively, and in the follow-up stage, it was 70.66, 72.33, and 73.66, respectively, indicating an increase compared to the baseline stage. The reliable change index after treatment for the first to third couples was equal to 2.83, 2.71, and 2.74, respectively, and in the follow-up stage, it was equal to 2.92, 2.81, and 2.87, respectively, showing that for all three couple participants, these values were higher than the standard value of Z = 1.96.

The results of the present study, along with other studies, showed the importance of sexual relationship enrichment program training in increasing the level of sexual satisfaction in dual-career couples.