ABSTRACT
Background The aging of the labor force has become a global trend, and various occupational activities can affect blood biochemical indexes and increase the risk of metabolic diseases. Elderly workers are the main laborers in the solar greenhouse industry, and their blood biochemical indexes need more attention. Objective The purpose of this study is to explore the alternation of selected blood biochemical indexes and provide clues for conducting management programs of metabolic diseases in the elderly solar greenhouse workers. Methods The research subjects of the greenhouse group and the non-greenhouse group were selected from a vegetable production base in Northwest China. The elderly workers were selected from a recruited subjects pool for an earlier project by means of matching and non-matching respectively. The matching conditions were gender (consistent), age (±2 years old), body mass index (BMI) (±1 kg·m−2), education level (±1 level), smoking (consistent), and drinking (consistent). Routine clinical tests were used to detect serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), fasting blood glucose (GLU), and albumin (ALB), and single-factor and multi-factor analyse were used to identify different indexes in matching and non-matching samples, respectively. The matching and the non-matching samples included 80 pairs of subjects and 327 subjects, respectively. Results In the matching sample set, the greenhouse group's HDLC [(1.61±0.34) mmol·L−1] was lower than the non-greenhouse group's [(2.09±0.37) mmol·L−1] (P<0.05), the level of TG/HDLC in the greenhouse group was (1.17±0.74), higher than that in the non-greenhouse group (0.78±0.47) (P<0.05), and the level of LDLC/HDLC in the greenhouse group was (1.87±0.36), also higher than that in the non-greenhouse group(P<0.05), while there was no statistical difference of the other indexes between the two groups (all Ps>0.05). In the non-matching sample set, the results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that solar greenhouse working correlated with decreased HDLC, and increased TG/HDLC and LDLC/HDLC among the elderly workers (all Ps<0.05). Conclusion Solar greenhouse working may correlate with variations of selected blood biochemical indexes in elderly workers, and the occupational health surveillance of elderly workers should be strengthened.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>The number of elderly workers has also been increasing and poor psychological well-being in elderly workers has been reported. The aim of this study is to elucidate the factors that are related to poor psychological well-being in elderly workers.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We administered General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) as an indicator of psychological well-being to 330 male elderly workers in the age range of 50-69, and analyzed different psychological factors, namely sense of coherence (SOC), and physical and lifestyle variables such as blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, smoking frequency, alcohol intake, exercise frequency, and body mass index (BMI) that are related to GHQ-12.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>When the cut-off point of GHQ-12 was 2/3, 97 workers who showed high GHQ-12 score were classified as one group having poor psychological well-being. A statistically significantly lower SOC score, higher stress score, lower frequency of exercise, higher smoking score and higher BMI, but not longer working hours or higher shift work score in the workers with higher GHQ-12 scores were observed than in the workers with normal GHQ-12 scores. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the low SCO score, low frequency of exercise, high smoking frequency and high BMI significantly contributed to the high GHQ-12 score.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>A low SOC score in elderly workers is assumed to be directly related to poor psychological well-being, or via the development of lifestyle problems such as lack of exercise, obesity, and smoking in elderly workers. This assumption must be confirmed by conducting future intervention studies on lifestyle.</p>
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The number of elderly workers has also been increasing and poor psychological well-being in elderly workers has been reported. The aim of this study is to elucidate the factors that are related to poor psychological well-being in elderly workers. Methods: We administered General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) as an indicator of psychological well-being to 330 male elderly workers in the age range of 50-69, and analyzed different psychological factors, namely sense of coherence (SOC), and physical and lifestyle variables such as blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, smoking frequency, alcohol intake, exercise frequency, and body mass index (BMI) that are related to GHQ-12. Results: When the cut-off point of GHQ-12 was 2/3, 97 workers who showed high GHQ-12 score were classified as one group having poor psychological well-being. A statistically significantly lower SOC score, higher stress score, lower frequency of exercise, higher smoking score and higher BMI, but not longer working hours or higher shift work score in the workers with higher GHQ-12 scores were observed than in the workers with normal GHQ-12 scores. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the low SOC score, low frequency of exercise, high smoking frequency and high BMI significantly contributed to the high GHQ-12 score. Conclusions: A low SOC score in elderly workers is assumed to be directly related to poor psychological well-being, or via the development of lifestyle problems such as lack of exercise, obesity, and smoking in elderly workers. This assumption must be confirmed by conducting future intervention studies on lifestyle.