Differences between managers' and safety professionals' perceptions of upwards influence attempts within safety practice.

INTRODUCTION: The ability to influence upwards and gain management commitment has been identified as an essential capability for safety professionals, yet little is known about managers' perceptions of their subordinates use and effectiveness of influence tactics. This study utilizes intra-organizational influence theory to explore how safety professionals influence managers who are making important safety decisions. METHOD: Survey data were collected from managers (n = 145) on influence tactics used by safety professionals, perceived outcomes, and factors that promote and impede influence. Survey data from a previous study of safety professionals (n = 385) were used to compare the differences in perceptions between the two groups. RESULTS: Managers perceive that the use of influence tactics provides explanation for safety professionals' effectiveness, with rational persuasion being positively associated with influencing effectiveness, and personal appeals and legitimating being negatively associated with effectiveness. Certain factors (i.e., knowledge, understanding organizational context, interpersonal skills, and experience) were more frequently perceived by managers to enable influence, while others were more frequently reported as barriers (i.e., organizational culture, safety beliefs, and leadership styles of managers). Managers and safety professionals agreed on many of these findings, although safety professionals reported a broader range of tactics as being effective than did managers. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides important contributions to understanding the upward influence behavior of safety professionals, and to our knowledge is the first study to report this behavior from the perspective of managers. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: These findings may prompt safety professionals to reflect on current tactic usage and associated efficacy from managers' perspectives. Safety professionals should also consider the culture of the organization, safety beliefs, and the leadership style of managers prior to influencing, as these factors may negatively impact influencing outcomes. Developing knowledge and skills in both technical and non-technical domains may enhance the strategic influence of safety professionals.

The contribution of respiratory and hearing protection use to psychological distress in the workplace: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: Workers from various industries use personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks, respirators, and hearing protection to reduce their exposures to workplace hazards. Many studies have evaluated the physiological impacts of PPE use, but few have assessed the psychological impacts. The aim of the present study was to carry out a scoping review to compile existing evidence and determine the extent of knowledge on workplace mask, respirator or hearing protection use as a psychosocial hazard (stressor) that could result in a stress response and potentially lead to psychological injury. METHODS: The scoping review followed recognized methods and was conducted using Ovid Emcare, PubMed, Sage Journals, ScienceDirect, Scopus, SpringerLink, Google Scholar and preprint databases (OSF Preprints and medRxiv). Articles on the stressors associated with the use of masks, respirators, and hearing protection were included. The extracted data included author(s) name, year of publication, title of article, study design, population data, stressors assessed, and key findings. RESULTS: We retrieved 650 articles after removal of duplicates, of which 26 were deemed eligible for inclusion for review. Identified factors associated with PPE use that could potentially create a stress response were identified: communication impacts, physical impacts, psychological illness symptoms, cognitive impacts, and perceived PPE-related impacts. Evidence for respirators suggest that there may be psychological injury associated with their use. However, hearing protection appears to have a protective effect in reducing psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and aggression. CONCLUSIONS: Mask or respirator use may lead to an increase in work-related stress. Whereas hearing protection may have protective effects against psychological symptoms and improves speech intelligibility. More research is needed to better understand potential psychosocial impacts of mask, respirator and/or hearing protection use.

Change in Compliance of Staff at 4 Vietnam Universities after the Enactment of Smoke-free Environment Decree.

BACKGROUND: The Tobacco Control Law in Vietnam was adopted in 2012 and came into force from May 2013, followed by a number of guiding sub-law legal documents. Smoke-free campus policy in university is considered an important measure to protect people from secondhand smoking as well as staffs and students will be in favour of the policy. Furthermore, there has been evidence suggested that smoke-free policy had positive impact on active smoking as well as anti-smoking attitude. METHODS: A cross-sectional self-administered study of staff at 4 universities were conducted in 2 phases, Phase 1 as early introduction of the Law (n = 900) and Phase 2 as 1-year post (n = 885). Demographics, tobacco consumption, compliance status and compliance with awareness towards the campus smoking regulations were assessed in both phases. RESULTS: Daily smoking prevalence decreased significantly (P < .05) 1 year after implementing the smoke-free policy, while a significant increase in occasional smoking (P < .01). Compliance of staff to the regulation the campus should be indoor smoke-free was significantly increase at Phase 2 compared to Phase 1, however participants reported there would be places on campus that smokers frequently violated the smoke-free regulations. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicated a significant positive change in compliance of staff at the 4 universities after the implementation of the Tobacco Control Law, included the smoke-free policy. Although the prevalence of tobacco smoking in this study was low, the proportion of respondents who reported to reduce infringement the smoke-free policy suggests support for staff smokers would be beneficial. Raising awareness and enforcement is likely to enhance the long-term outcomes of the implementation of smoke-free environment.

Content validity of the WorkHab functional capacity evaluation.

INTRODUCTION: Validity is a dynamic process and as part of a continual process of evaluation of tools, this study aimed to evaluate content validity of the WorkHab functional capacity evaluation, a tool used in occupational rehabilitation. METHODS: A cross sectional survey of health professionals who conduct FCEs investigated their ratings of item relevance and item difficulty across different categories of work and injuries. The survey also explored the relationship of the WorkHab FCE items with the physical demand items of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). RESULTS: The majority of items of the WorkHab FCE were rated as relevant for manual work and vocational retraining with over 90% agreement between the 106 respondents. Therapists identified the WorkHab items of climbing, crawling and balance as less relevant for sedentary work. Lifting items were perceived as the most difficult for those with a lower back injury, or an upper limb injury. Sixteen of the 18 WorkHab FCE items had 100% agreement with the equivalent items on the DOT. The WorkHab FCE items that had poor agreement with the DOT were mainly sensory items such as see, feel, talk and hear. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study support the content validity for the WorkHab FCE specifically in relation to manual work and for vocational retraining purposes.

Students' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Smoke-Free Universities: Changes Since Enactment of Vietnamese Tobacco Control Legislation.

BACKGROUND: In 2013, legislation in Vietnam regulated smoking in public areas. Included was a ban on indoor smoking at universities. OBJECTIVE: Since awareness and attitude are moderators of the effectiveness of smokefree policy, ou aim was to assess changes in students' knowledge and attitude tosecond hand smoke (SHS) and awareness and support of smoke-free legislation at four Vietnamese universities, one year after legislative changes. METHODS: A two-phase cross sectional study of undergraduate students using self-administered questionnaires (based on the Global Adult Tobacco Survey and the Thrasher survey) was conducted at the introduction of the legislation and one year thereafter. RESULTS: One-year post legislation there were significant increases in knowledge of smoke-free legislation and awareness of universities as smoke-free environments. There was a significant increase in knowledge of harmful effects of SHS on diseases such as examples in the heart and lung, including lung cancer, and miscarriage. Students expressed strong support of smoke-free environments in universities, hospitals, schools, workplaces, public transport, libraries, cinemas and theatres; support was also increased post legislation. Changes were seen in attitude to SHS, and rights of non-smokers and smokers. CONCLUSIONS: Positive changes have occurred in knowledge and attitude toward smoke-free environments and SHS in universities since enactment of Vietnamese tobacco control legislation.

Decreasing In-home Smoking of Adults-Results from a School-based Intervention Program in Viet Nam.

It is indicated that children are involuntarily exposed to secondhand smoke from adults, mainly at their home environment. This study aimed at describing the effectiveness of the school-based intervention to decrease the in-home smoking situation of adults so as to decrease children's exposure to secondhand smoke at home during the year 2011-2012 in a rural district in Hanoi, Viet Nam. This school-based intervention program (intervention and control group) involved 804 children aged 8 to 11 years from August 2011 to May 2012 in a rural district of Hanoi, Viet Nam. Children were taught in class about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and about how to negotiate with fathers not to smoke in-home. Then children applied what they learnt, including staying away from secondhand smoke and persuading fathers not to smoke in-home in order to decrease children's exposure to secondhand smoke. Chi square test, t-test and multinominal logistic regression were applied in data analysis. The results showed that children's reported their father's in-home smoking decreased from 83.0% pre-intervention to 59.8% post-intervention (p < 0.001) in the intervention school while no change happened in the control school. The study found that the better changed smoking location of adult smokers as reported by children associated with the school who received intervention activities (adjusted OR = 2.04; 95% CI: 1.28-3.24). Poorer changed attitudes towards secondhand smoke of children associated with a lower percentage of better change in smoking location of their fathers/other adult smokers (aOR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.28-0.96). Children's poorer changed knowledge towards secondhand smoke also associated with poorer changed smoking location of adult smokers (aOR = 2.88, 95% CI: 1.07-7.76). It is recommended by this study that similar school based intervention approaches should be applied in primary schools in Viet Nam to increase children's awareness on the adverse health effects of secondhand smoke and to help them to be able to avoid their exposure to secondhand smoke at their home environment.

Quantification of the safe maximal lift in functional capacity evaluations: comparison of muscle recruitment using SEMG and therapist observation.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to identify any correlation between muscle activity using surface electromyography (SEMG) and therapist determined safe maximal lift (SML) during the bench to shoulder lift of the WorkHab FCE. This would support construct (convergent) validity of SML determination in the WorkHab FCE. METHOD: An experimental laboratory based study design was used. Twenty healthy volunteers performed the bench to shoulder lift of the WorkHab FCE whilst SEMG of upper trapezius, mid deltoid, thoracic, brachioradialis and bicep muscles were recorded. A summary of the data is presented using descriptive statistics and differences between groups were tested using generalised linear mixed models. RESULTS: Results showed a significant difference in activity and duration of muscle activation with increasing weight lifted [p = 0.000 and p = 0.024 (brachioradialis)]. There was a significant difference between the up lift (bench to shoulder) and the down lift (shoulder to bench) for all muscles (p = 0.000) except the brachioradialis (p = 0.819). No significant change was found in muscle activity before or after the SML. CONCLUSION: Convergent validity of the bench to shoulder lift of the WorkHab FCE was not established as no relationship between the muscle recruitment using SEMG and SML, as determined by therapist observation was identified during this lift.

Inter- and intra-rater reliability of the manual handling component of the WorkHab Functional Capacity Evaluation.

UNLABELLED: The WorkHab Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) is widely used in Australian workplace injury management and occupational rehabilitation arenas; however, there is a lack of published literature regarding its reliability and validity. PURPOSE: This study investigated the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the manual handling component of this FCE. METHOD: A DVD was produced containing footage of the manual handling components of the WorkHab conducted with four injured workers. Therapist raters (n = 17) who were trained and accredited in use of the WorkHab FCE scored these components and 14 raters re-evaluated them after approximately 2 weeks. Ratings were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), paired sample t-tests (intra-rater), chi-squared (inter-rater) and percentage agreement. RESULTS: Intra-rater agreement was high with ICCs for the manual handling components and manual handling score showing excellent reliability (0.94-0.98) and good reliability for identification of the safe maximal lift (ICC: 0.81). Overall inter-rater agreement ranged from good to excellent for the manual handling components and safe maximal lift determination (ICC > 0.9). Agreement for safe maximal lift identification was good. CONCLUSIONS: Ratings demonstrated substantial levels of intra-rater and inter-rater reliability for the lifting components of the WorkHab FCEs.

Test-retest reliability of the manual handling component of the WorkHab functional capacity evaluation in healthy adults.

PURPOSE: The WorkHab Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) is one of many FCEs currently available and is widely used in the Australian workplace injury management and occupational rehabilitation arena. This study investigated the test-retest reliability of manual handling tasks within the WorkHab FCE in healthy adults. METHOD: A convenience sample of 25 healthy subjects, consisting of 19 women and 6 men with a mean age of 29 years (SD: 12.0) participated in this study. Two FCE sessions were held a week apart and subjects completed a floor to bench, bench to shoulder and bench to bench lift. Analysis of the outcomes of the FCE included descriptive analysis, intra-class correlations (ICC), kappa, percentage agreement and 95% limits of agreement where appropriate. RESULTS: The ICCs for the three lifts show an excellent reliability (0.90-0.92), and a moderate reliability for the manual handling score (0.74). Further analysis of the components of the manual handling score found the percentage agreement was high for all components ranging from 72 to 92%; however, the kappa scores suggested poor to moderate reliability (range: -0.06 to 0.52). Internal consistency of the manual handling score was good (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.92) indicating this is a reliable scale. CONCLUSIONS: The ratings for the lifting components identified substantial levels of test-retest reliability for the lifting components of the WorkHab FCE in healthy adults.

Volunteers in public health and emergency management at outdoor music festivals (part 2) : A european study

Volunteers working at outdoor music festivals (OMFs) throughout the world can be subject to public health risks. To reduce these risks it is important that volunteers have the capacity to undertake their responsibilities safely. For this study, volunteer capacity is discussed at two levels. As a group, adequate volunteer capacity includes having sufficient knowledge, skills and experience to perform designated tasks. Individually, adequate volunteer capacity is having a good awareness of potential problems, an understanding of control measures and knowledge of roles, responsibilities and emergency procedures. This study provides a detailed account of volunteer capacity at a prominent OMF in Europe (referred to as 'study festival' from here on in). On the whole, the volunteers in the study reported good knowledge in public health and emergency management at the study festival with the majority having good volunteer capacity. This volunteer capacity was gained through: tailored training programs offered by the organisers prior to the festival, previous experience volunteering; and a proportion also having experience from the health industry. A similar study was undertaken in Australia and was reported in The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, November 2003 (Earl, Stoneham, Capra, 2003). When the findings from the two studies were compared, the European participants had better overall volunteer capacity. In relation to skills, a notable difference between the two study festivals was that the European volunteers had been given training tailored to meet the demands of the work at that festival. The findings from the European study strongly support the introduction of training programs for volunteers working at OMFs. (AU)