Archives of Hygiene Sciences
Volume:8 Issue: 3, Summer 2019

Fatigue is one of the most important issues relating with safety and other aspects of human life. To understand fatigue and its relative factors and causes, there is a need to useful instruments, such as self-reported scales. The purpose of this study is to identify and present useful self-reported scales to measure fatigue.

Data were extracted from following three databases, ISI Web of Science, Scopus and Science direct and the search was undertaken for the period of 1996-2018. The search scope of this study was in ergonomics and health outcomes and the language of elected scales was in English. The articles that used objective fatigue scales or used the subjective scales for sleep-related studies were excluded from the review. Screening and appraisal of 12540 articles resulted in 115 articles being included in this review.

According to the obtained results, details of 12 self-reported fatigue scales are reported. These scales are divided in two types; five scales of them are in unidimensional scale group and the others are multidimensional scales. The Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) scale is the shortest form of scales in this study. Although, the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory (MFSI) and Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory (SOFI) scales by more items can evaluate five aspects of fatigue. Six questionnaires of these scales were measured fatigue among working people.

There are several scales with acceptable validation to distinguish and measuring fatigue in studies or at work.

Permit-to-work system is a process used to prevent accidents in the process industries. Evaluation and monitoring of the performance of a permit to work system reveal its inherent weaknesses and reduce accidents in process industries. Since there exists no local tool for monitoring the performance of permit-to-work system in refineries and process industries, such as petrochemicals, the present study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing the performance and effectiveness of permit-to-work system in an oil refinery located in southern Iran.

Six criteria were identified as the main components of permit-to-work system and the initial questionnaire was designed after reviewing the literature and existing guidelines in permit-to-work system, as well as interviewing industry and university experts familiar with permit-to-work system. The criteria included risk assessment, risk prevention and control, coordination and information, sense   of responsibility, Clarity and transparency, and documentation.The face validity and content validity of the questionnaire were evaluated based on the viewpoints of 25 industrial and academic experts using Lawshe's method. Cronbach's alpha test was rendered using SPSS software(version 25) based on 100 referred questionnaires out of a total of 120 questionnaires distributed among operational staff (site staff, senior staff, control room staff), security officers, and shift officers who were in charge of issuing or approving work permits in the refinery.

The initial questionnaire consisted of 65 questions out of which 50 questions were selected after the assessment of face and content validity of the questionnaire and 15 questions with CVR <0.37 and CVI <0.79 were removed and Cronbach's alpha for the whole questionnaire was measured at 0.81.

Assessment of the validity and reliability of the questionnaire revealed that the designed questionnaire has appropriate validity and reliability to evaluate the performance and efficacy of permit-to-work system. Accordingly, this questionnaire can be used as an efficient instrument to evaluate the performance of  permit-to-work system in process industries, such as oil refineries and petrochemicals.

Dentists and gynecologists seem not to have sufficient information regarding oral and dental care to provide pregnant women. Moreover, their lack of preparation and undesirable attitude prevent them from transmitting any information. This study aimed to evaluate dentists' and gynecologists' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding oral and dental care during pregnancy in Qom, Iran in 2017.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 130 participants who were selected using the convenience sampling method. Subsequently, they were assigned into dentist (n=65) and gynecologist (n=65) groups. The data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Moreover, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and t-test. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

According to the results, there was a significant difference between dentists' and gynecologists' levels of knowledge (P=0.000), attitude (P=0.000), and practice (P=0.000) (i.e., 80.85, 81.93, and 86.53 in the dentist group, respectively) and (i.e., 58.46, 72.65, and 70.76, in the gynecologist group, respectively). Furthermore, the gynecologists' age correlated significantly with the level of knowledge (P=0.04) and attitude (P=0.04). However, gynecologists' age was not correlated with the level of practice. Moreover, there was a significant difference between gynecologists' work experience and level of knowledge (P=0.016). Nonetheless, work experience had no correlation with gynecologists' levels of attitude and practice.

Based on the results, dentists and gynecologists obtained favorable mean values of knowledge, attitude, and practice in this study. However, dentists had higher scores in this regard. Therefore, greater interactions should be encouraged between oral health practitioners and those working in the health care system to improve their performance. Additionally, there is a need to update the information levels of these health care professionals in order to establish guidelines for prenatal dental care.

Sohan is one of the confectionery products produced in Qom, Iran. Microbial contamination of confectionary items is crucial in terms of hygienic and economic issues. This sort of spoilage shortens the storage time and causes an outbreak of food poisoning. Due to the high utilization of these products, it is vital to implement microbiological management to improve shelf life and maintain quality. The present study aimed to evaluate the levels of microbiological contamination in Sohan.

In this study, the Sohan products of Qom were classified according to the Code of Health, standard logo, as well as ISO 9001:2008 and 22000:2005 certifications. Then, 1 to 2 boxes (out of 7 boxes) were purchased from an official representative shop in Qom. The diagnostic and enumeration tests for Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli (E. coli), coagulase-positive staphylococcus, as well as molds and yeasts, were performed in accordance with the national standards of 2461-1, 2946, 6806-3, and 10899-2, respectively.

Results of this study showed that 71.4% of the samples contained Enterobacteriaceae, and 14.2% of the samples contained coagulase-positive staphylococci higher than the determined standard levels. In addition, no case of contamination with molds, yeasts, and E. coli was observed among the samples.

Findings of the present investigation indicated the necessity for the precise implementation of Good Hygiene Practices in the factories manufacturing this product.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is considered one of the most important human vector-borne diseases in Iran. The current study aimed to determine some epidemiological aspects of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Mazandaran, Northern Iran.

This descriptive study was conducted using the epidemiological data, including demographic and clinical features collected from 379 patients diagnosed with leishmaniasis in health centers affiliated to the Deputy for Health Center of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences within 2009-2017. The disease was diagnosed based on clinical information and direct microscopic examination of the samples. Data were analyzed in SPSS software using nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests.

A total number of 379 individuals were diagnosed with CL during a 9-year period. Considering the population in Mazandaran, the incidence rate was reported as 1.27 per 100,000 population. It was also revealed that most of the cases of CL (n=279; 73.6%) were males and the majority of patients (n=137; 36.1%) were in the 20-29 age group. In addition, the majority of the ulcers were observed in hand (n=152; 26.7%) and foot (n=129; 22.6%), respectively. Moreover, just one ulcer was spotted in most of the patients (n=143; 37.7%). As the final note, the incidence was at the highest level during autumn in November (n=61; 16.1%).

As evidenced by the obtained results, cutaneous leishmaniasis poses a daunting challenge to the public health in Mazandaran. This disease can be attributed to several factors, including agricultural activities, animal husbandry, and frequent national and international holidaymakers' visits to the province. With this background in mind, the results of the currents study could contribute greatly to the effective control of this disease.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) are among the most common types of occupational diseases and damages, especially in repair and maintenance occupations. There are various methods for the prediction of the risk factors affecting the prevalence of WRMSDs. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of three ergonomic risk assessment tools, namely the Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment (NERPA), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), for screening the musculoskeletal disorders in the employees of repair and maintenance occupation in a power plant equipment industry in Alborz province, Iran, in 2017.

This cross-sectional study was carried out on all employees in the repair and maintenance department of a power plant equipment industry, including 295 subjects in six occupational groups. The General Nordic Questionnaire was used to determine the levels of musculoskeletal disorders. The REBA, RULA, and NERPA methods were employed in order to predict the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. Finally, the data related to the real values of musculoskeletal disorders and risk values predicted by the three mentioned methods were analyzed through Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and kappa agreement coefficient at the significance level of 0.05 using SPSS software (version 25).

Mean age of the participants was reported as 37.52±3.61 years. Correlation values between the levels of musculoskeletal disorders and risk levels predicted in the RULA, NERPA, and REBA were observed to be 0.764, 0.723, and 0.689, respectively (P<0.05). Correlation coefficient values of the risk levels predicted in the RULA method with NERPA and REBA were 0.767 and 0.620, respectively (P<0.05).

Based on comparing the correlation level of prevalence rates of musculoskeletal disorders with predicted risk levels in the three studied methods, the results indicated that the best method for predicting the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in different examined tasks was the RULA method. However, none of the methods had adequate comprehensiveness for the assessment of all four risk levels.

Agricultural and industrial activities are primary risk sources of heavy metal (HM) pollution in the water environment. Indices are well-known approaches for assessing HM contamination in the aquatic environment.

Water samples were collected in polyethylene bottles and transported to the laboratory for further analysis. Samples were examined during the winter and spring. The inductively coupled plasma was used to determine HMs concentrations collected from 48 stations. The Wilcox signed-rank test was applied to examine the HMs values in two different months. In addition, Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between HMs.

Based on the findings of the present study, the HM contents in the analyzed samples showed no high values, except for lead and nickel (15% of samples) in spring. The potential ecological risk indices revealed that about 25% and 41% of samples demonstrated high and significantly high pollution levels in spring, respectively, while these values declined to 37% and 8% in winter. Only one sampling point showed risk characterization ratio ≥ 1 for zinc in winter. Moreover, the ecological risk of the surface water potentially decreased in the order of water bodies > dry farming > agricultural lands > barren lands areas.

According to the obtained results, the presence of lead and nickel indicated the main anthropogenic sources of HMs in the studied area, especially in the west and south of Zanjan. Anthropogenic inputs of HMs could be related to mining, agricultural, and industrial activities

Nowadays, occupational accidents associated with severe harms for people and heavy economic and social loss are counted among the serious complications of the societies. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between stress, anxiety, fatigue, workload, morning-evening type, and occupational accidents among the workers of the porcelain industry in 2017 in Iran.

This cross-sectional study with a descriptive-analytical approach was performed in one of the porcelain factories of Iran. The samples were selected through simple random sampling method out of the study population consisting of 205 rotating- and day-shift workers and day-working individuals of the factory workforce. The study instruments included a researcher-made demographic questionnaire (for age, work experience, gender, marital status, work shift, and the number of accidents), Checklist Individual Strength (CIS) for assessing people fatigue, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Morningness-Eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) developed by Horne and Ostberg. All the data were analyzed by Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, t-test, and structural equation using LISREL and SPSS software version 20.    

Our results showed that 62.2% and 3.8% of the workers were male and female, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of the age of the participants was 32.27±6.17 years. The mean work experience of the individuals was found to be 6.44±4.49 years. According to the findings of this study, 56.7% and 50.9% of the 108 people who had sleep apnea were rotating- and day-shift workers, respectively. The mean score of MEQ among all the participants was revealed as 45.15±4.94, which is categorized as intermediate. The personal ability score was obtained as 64.23±14.4 in day-shift people and 61.12±10.66 in rotating-shift individuals. Workload, stress, and sleeplessness were diagnosed as the factors of fatigue among all the workers (P<0.05).

According to the results of the present investigation, sleepiness, high workload, and stress are prevalent among the workforce of the porcelain industry. The mentioned factors significantly lead to fatigue. However, sleepiness was found to be significantly correlated with fatigue in people working a rotating shift