Occupational low back disability: effective strategies for reducing lost work time.

1. The important variables related to lost work time in this study are: back diagnosis (lumbar disc displacement), history of back surgery, job satisfaction, and employee reluctance to report low back pain to supervisor. 2. The findings support the complexity of low back disability. Lost work time related to low back pain must be managed using a "holistic" approach by addressing all dimensions of a person (physical, emotional, and environmental). 3. To minimize low back disability, occupational health providers should be part of a community task force with representatives from other disciplines who can plan and develop low back disability guidelines and standards of care.

Evaluation of worksite health enhancement programs.

Although many corporations are planning and implementing health-promotion programs for their employees, few have attempted rigorous and thorough evaluative studies of program impact. This creates a void which properly trained health educators can fill. This article provides health educators with some basic points to consider when evaluating worksite health-enhancement programs. The six key points outlined provide basic concepts to guide the evaluation of worksite health-promotion programs.

Teaching-learning mechanisms in consumer health education.

A study of a special school program on cigarette smoking and health was undertaken in Niagara County, N.Y., to determine whether it produced effects on knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among teachers and parents as well as students and, if so, how these effects were accomplished. Data for parents, the subject of this report, were collected by questionnaire and interview before and after the program from selected parents of students in 36 junior high school classes assigned equally to experimental and control groups. The parents failed to show statistically significant modifications of either knowledge or attitudes after the program. They did, however, show a consistent and significant downward shift in numbers of reported tobacco users. This finding was true for both experimental and control groups, but the change was distinctly greater in the experimental group. Additionally, the changes were greater for urban than for rural parents and for parents with incomes of $10,000 or more than for those with lower incomes. The results for parents differed from those for students and teachers concerning knowledge and attitudes, but they were similar to those for teachers and unlike those for students concerning smoking behavior. The study findings suggest that teaching-learning mechanisms beyond the traditional superordinate-subordinate model may be operative, with pupils, parents, and teachers in roles quite different from what they are generally thought to be. Specifically, the students may serve as mediators of value change and behavior modification for both teachers and parents.