Predictive power of work situation awareness by work overload and job stress among workers: implication for occupational health

Backgrounds: Situation awareness is an important factor in industrial accidents. Improving situation awareness may help to prevent occupational accidents. Determination of factors influencing situation awareness will help to plan and take measures for betterment of working condition and development of a safer workplace. In this study, we examined the role of work overload and job stress in predicting work situation awareness among workers

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. A sample consisting of 180 employees in National Petrochemical Company in 2014 was selected using stratified random sampling method; the participants filled out the questionnaires containing questions on demography characteristics, work situation awareness of Sneddon, Mearns and Flin [2013], work overload of Beehr, Walsh and Taber [1976], and job stress scale of Cohen and colleagues [1983].The data were analyzed by SPSS software using coefficient correlation and stepwise regression. Statistical differences were considered significant at P<0.001

Results: The results showed that there were internal correlation among work overload, job stress and work situation awareness. Also, the results of stepwise regression analysis revealed that work overload and job stress significantly predicted, respectively, almost 11% and 35% of variances of work situation awareness among workers

Conclusion: Work overload and job stress are two main factors for predicting work situation awareness. To improve workplace safety, interventional measures should focus on enhancing the situation awareness via workload and job stress reduction

Work stress, sleepiness and predicting work situation awareness among workers

Objective: An important factor in the prevention of industrial accidents is the employees' ability to maintain their awareness of the work situation, understand the information it holds, and predict the development of the situations. In this study, we examined the role of work stress and sleepiness in predicting work situation awareness among workers

Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study, conducted in 2014. The sample consisted of 180 employees in the National Petrochemical Company. They were selected according to the stratified random sampling method and responded to questionnaires about demographic characteristics, work situation awareness of Sneddon, Mearns, and Flin [2013], work stress of Cohen et al. [1983], and Epworth sleepiness scale. The data were analyzed by correlation coefficient and stepwise regression by using the SPSS 15

Results: The results showed that there were internal correlation among work stress, sleepiness, and work situation awareness. Also, the results of stepwise regression analysis revealed that work stress and sleepiness significantly predicted, respectively, almost 23% and 26% of variances of work situation awareness among workers

Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, work stress and sleepiness can predict work situation awareness. Therefore, considering these variables can be important in promoting the awareness of work situation among workers

[ role of anxiety and alexithymia in predicting disordered eating behaviors among students: implication for health promotion]

Introduction: Disordered eating behaviors due to their relationship with adverse physical and psychological outcomes have become a main concern in public health. The previous studies have shown anxious mood and alexithymia are related with adverse medical and psychological disorders including gastrointestinal disorders and eating disorders

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of anxiety and alexithymia in predicting disordered eating behaviors among student

Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 477 student of Allameh Tabataba'i University who was selected by multiple cluster sampling. Participants responded to the questionnaires of demographic characteristics, anxiety of Costello and Comrey [1967], Twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia and disordered eating behaviors of Garner and colleagues [1982]. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression

Results: Results showed that there was significant internal correlation among anxiety, alexithymia and disordered eating behaviors [p<0.01]. Also, stepwise regression analysis indicated that anxiety and alexithymia significantly predicted, respectively, 40% and 29% of the variance of disordered eating behaviors [p<0.01]

Conclusion: This study results suggest the importance of anxiety and alexithymia in predicting disordered eating behaviors and these factors can explain the high degree of variance of this behaviors