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ISSN 1051-9815 (P)
ISSN 1875-9270 (E)
Impact Factor 2024: 1.7
WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary, international journal which publishes high quality peer-reviewed manuscripts covering the entire scope of the occupation of work. The journal's subtitle has been deliberately laid out: The first goal is the prevention of illness, injury, and disability. When this goal is not achievable, the attention focuses on assessment to design client-centered intervention, rehabilitation, treatment, or controls that use scientific evidence to support best practice.
WORK occasionally publishes thematic issues, but in general, issues cover a wide range of topics such as ergonomic considerations with children, youth and students, the challenges facing an aging workforce, workplace violence, injury management, performing artists, ergonomic product evaluations, and the awareness of the political, cultural, and environmental determinants of health related to work.
Dr. Karen Jacobs, the founding editor, and her editorial board especially encourage the publication of research studies, clinical practice, case study reports, as well as personal narratives and critical reflections of lived work experiences (autoethnographic/autobiographic scholarship),
Sounding Board commentaries and
Speaking of Research articles which provide the foundation for better understanding research to facilitate knowledge dissemination.
Narrative Reflections on Occupational Transitions, a new column, is for persons who have successfully transitioned into, between, or out of occupations to tell their stories in a narrative form. With an internationally renowned editorial board,
WORK maintains high standards in the evaluation and publication of manuscripts. All manuscripts are reviewed expeditiously and published in a timely manner.
WORK prides itself on being an author-friendly journal.
WORK celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015.
*WORK is affiliated with the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT)* *WORK is endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA)* *WORK gives out the yearly Cheryl Bennett Best Paper Award*
Abstract: BACKGROUND: More knowledge about how recovery may promote health among parents with small children is needed. OBJECTIVE: To explore whether insufficient time for leisure was associated with poorer perceived health and higher stress in working parents. A further aim was to explore potential gender differences in the association between insufficient time for leisure and poor perceived health. METHODS: A postal survey including the perceived stress scale and three measures of subjective health – self-rated health (SF-36), work-related fatigue (Swedish occupational fatigue questionnaire), and Lund subjective health complaints – as well as questions about time for leisure…was completed by 965 women and 597 men. Risk ratios for poor perceived health and stress were estimated using Poisson regression, in which also gender interaction was analysed. RESULTS: The results showed higher risk for perceived stress among parents reporting insufficient time for relaxation, and more subjective health complaints among those reporting insufficient time to spend with their children. Overall, effects were larger among women than among men. CONCLUSION: A good balance between work and leisure seems to be of importance for working parents’ perceived health and stress.
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Keywords: Gender, health promotion, human activities, relative risks
Abstract: BACKGROUND: In Iranian orthotic and prosthetic workshops, the majority of activities are carried out by manpower and the tasks are labor-intensive. In these workshops, ergonomic aspects of working conditions are seldom considered. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted in orthotic and prosthetic workshops with the objectives of determination of prevalence rate of MSDs among employees and assessment of ergonomics working conditions. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, all employees (n = 42; 29 males and 13 females) in 11 active orthotic and prosthetic production centers of Shiraz city participated. Data were collected using Nordic Musculoskeletal disorders Questionnaire (NMQ)…and observational technique by an ergonomics checklist for assessment of working conditions. RESULTS: The means (SD) of age and job tenure (years) in the study individuals were 37.26 (10.21) and 12.8 (9.39), respectively. The most prevalent MSD symptoms in the past 12 months were reported in the lower back (42.9%), shoulders (40.5%) and knees (40.5%). Working conditions assessment showed that the main ergonomic problems in the workshops studied originated from awkward working posture, improper workstation design, poorly designed hand tools and incorrect manual material handling. CONCLUSION: Any interventional program for working conditions improvement should, therefore, focus on these areas.
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Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorders, ergonomics assessment, orthosis and prosthesis
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The number of older workers is increasing throughout the industrialised world and older workers are known to be more frequent in the injury-prone agricultural sector. OBJECTIVE: This paper sought to extend knowledge by reviewing evaluated intervention studies intended to decrease risks and work injuries among older workers in agriculture. METHODS: A systematic literature review regarding: evaluated intervention projects on injury prevention, including participants aged 55 years and older, and working in agriculture. RESULTS: This review identified evaluated intervention projects regarding: i) intervention in injury prevention; ii) interventions to increase knowledge in health…and safety tasks and practice; and iii) interventions to increase the use of safety equipment in work. The evaluations reviewed showed that the interventions were less successful in involving older agricultural workers than their younger counterparts. The evaluations also showed that the outcome of interventions was generally less positive or brought about no significant difference in risk awareness and behaviour change among older agricultural workers. CONCLUSIONS: Many articles and statistics describe injuries in agriculture. Especially older farm workers are one of the groups with most work injuries and deaths. Despite this, an important finding in this review was shortage of implemented and evaluated intervention studies orientated toward reduce injuries among older workers in agriculture. This review also found that no intervention project in the evaluations studied had a clear positive effect. Many intervention studies have problems with or lack of evaluation in the study design. Based on the results in this review, important future research tasks are to improve the design of interventions, devise implementation methods and formulate appropriate evaluation methods to measure the outcome of the interventions. Intervention programmes also need to involve older workers specific physical and cognitive age aspects in the design to increases their willingness to participate and to be successful to reduce injuries.
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Keywords: Risk prevention, accidents, injury, occupational health, age management, farm, health and safety practice, older employees, work risk education, extended working life
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Increase in the occurrence of existing diseases, continual emergence of new or exotic diseases and re-emergence of old diseases have placed increasing demands on biomedical services in Malaysia. Biomedical technicians play an important role in operating biomedical instruments. However, there are no clear specifications about characteristics and traits for these semi-professional employees. Employers in a few studies claimed that biomedical graduates are not ready to enter and face challenges in the job market. OBJECTIVE: Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify technical and generic skills for a biomedical technician from the perspectives of the…biomedical technicians and their employers. METHODS: A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument developed by the researchers. The sample consisted of 20 hospital managers and 186 biomedical technicians who are currently working in Malaysian government hospitals. RESULTS: The findings show that there are no difference in the perceptions of hospital managers and biomedical technicians regarding technical and non-technical skills. CONCLUSIONS: These findings resulted in a checklist which can be used for institutions to produce future biomedical technician graduates in order to meet job demands. However, future research is needed to validate the findings and explore the variables in depth.
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Abstract: BACKGROUND: In addition to demonstrating that human emotions improve work attention performance, numerous studies have also established that music alters human emotions. Given the pervasiveness of background music in the workplace, exactly how work attention, emotions and music listening are related is of priority concern in human resource management. OBJECTIVES: This preliminary study investigates the relationship between work attention performance and emotions arising from listening to music. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty one males and 34 females, ranging from 20–24 years old, participated in this study following written informed consent. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial (RCT)…was performed in this study, which consisted of six steps and the use of the standard attention test and emotion questionnaire. RESULTS: Background music with lyrics adversely impacts attention performance more than that without lyrics. Analysis results also indicate that listeners self-reported feeling “loved” while music played that implied a higher score on their work-attention performance. Moreover, a greater ability of music to make listeners feel sad implied a lower score on their work-attention performance. CONCLUSIONS : Results of this preliminary study demonstrate that background music in the workplace should focus mainly on creating an environment in which listeners feel loved or taken care and avoiding music that causes individuals to feel stressed or sad. We recommend that future research increase the number of research participants to enhance the applicability and replicability of these findings.
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