Adaptación de puesto de trabajo y relación con absentismo / Workplace accommodation and absenteeism

OBJETIVO: Uno de los principios de la Prevención de Riesgos Laborales es adaptar el trabajo a la persona siendo especialmente importante en caso de trabajadores sensibles. Por ello nos propusimos obtener el perfil clínico-laboral de los trabajadores solicitantes de adaptación/cambio de puesto, conocer el resultado de los informes que realizamos y analizar el absentismo. Material y MÉTODOS: Revisamos las historias clínico-laborales de los trabajadores que solicitaron adaptación/cambio de puesto durante los años 2008 y 2009 en nuestro Servicio. RESULTADOS: obtuvimos que un perfil de trabajador mayoritariamente de sexo femenino, auxiliar de enfermería, con una edad media de 52 años, en un servicio hospitalario, con contrato indefinido, patología musculoesquelética y sin minusvalía reconocida. CONCLUSIONES: Tras nuestro informe, la mayor parte de los trabajadores fueron adaptados o cambiados. La media de días de absentismo tras la adaptación disminuyó en la mayoría de los casos

OBJECTIVES: One of the principles of Occupational Risks Prevention is to adapt the work to the person with special attention being paid to sensitive workers. To that end, we proposed creating a worker profile for the workers that requested a workplace accommodation/ transfer, see the results of the reports and analyze absenteeism. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In order to do this, we reviewed the clinicaloccupational histories for those who requested a workplace accommodation /transfer in 2008 and 2009 in our department. RESULTS: The results showed that the worker profile was mostly that of a female nursing assistant, with an average age of 52 years, working at the hospital on a permanent contract, with a musculoskeletal pathology and without a recognized disability. CONCLUSIONS: After our report, most of the workers had their workplace adapted or changed. The day average of absenteeism decreased after workplace accommodation

Adaptación de puesto de trabajo en dos casos de narcolepsia / Workplace accomodations for two workers with narcolepsy

Describimos dos casos de trabajadores valorados en nuestro Servicio de Prevención, el primero trabajaba como pinche de cocina de un hospital y la segunda era médico de Atención Primaria, ambos estaban diagnosticados de narcolepsia y tenían reconocido distinto grado de minusvalía. Se evaluaron los riesgos de sus puestos de trabajo, se analizaron sus tareas, se les realizó un reconocimiento médico y se prescribieron unas recomendaciones adaptativas, incluyendo evitar la exposición a riesgo de accidentes y medidas para adecuar la higiene del sueño. La narcolepsia es una enfermedad poco frecuente pero con importantes repercusiones socio-laborales. Un mejor conocimiento de la enfermedad y la adaptación de puestos de trabajo pueden ayudar a mejorar la calidad de vida los trabajadores que la padecen(AU)

We describe the case of two workers evaluated in our occupational health unit. The first worker was a kitchen aide; the second was a primary care physician. Both had been diagnosed with narcolepsy and had obvious disability. We assessed occupational hazards related to their jobs, analysed their tasks, and performed medical examinations. Afterwards, we offered recommendations to the patients, consisting of avoidance of situations involving a risk of work accidents and improving their sleep habits. Narcolepsy is a rare disorder, but it has important social and occupational consequences. A better understanding of the disease and some work accommodations can help improve the quality of life of affected workers(AU)

A meta-analysis of the efficacy of fibromyalgia treatment according to level of care.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this paper was to compare the efficacy of the treatments for fibromyalgia currently available in both primary care and specialised settings. METHODS: Published reports of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) researching pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments in patients with fibromyalgia were found in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and PsychInfo databases. The most recent electronic search was undertaken in June 2006. RESULTS: We identified a total of 594 articles. Based on titles and abstracts, 102 full articles were retrieved, 33 of which met the inclusion criteria. These RCTs assessed 120 treatment interventions in 7789 patients diagnosed with primary fibromyalgia. Of them, 4505 (57.8%) were included in the primary care group of our study and 3284 (42.2%) in the specialised intervention group. The sample was mostly made up of middle-aged women, who have had fibromyalgia for a mean period of 6 to 10 years. The mean effect size of the efficacy of the 120 treatment interventions in patients with fibromyalgia compared with controls was 0.49 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.39 to 0.58; p < 0.001). In the primary care group it was 0.46 (95% CI = 0.33 to 0.58) while in specialised care it was 0.53 (95% CI = 0.38 to 0.69), with no statistical significance in the differences. We analysed the efficacy of treatments by comparing primary and specialised care in the different fibromyalgia groups and there were no significant differences. The variables of the studies that affected the improvements in the efficacy of fibromyalgia treatment were low quality of the studies and a shorter duration of treatment. However, both factors were biased by the heterogeneity of the studies. Other variables that also improved outcome and were not biased by the heterogeneity of the studies, were younger age of the patients and shorter duration of the disorder. On the contrary, gender and type of treatment (pharmacological vs. psychological) did not affect outcome. CONCLUSION: Based on this meta-analysis and despite the heterogeneity of specialised care studies and of the other limitations described in this article, treating fibromyalgia in specialised care offers no clear advantages.