Measuring workplace bullying: reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the negative acts questionnaire.

OBJECTIVES: Workplace bullying is increasingly being recognized as a serious problem within the work environment. Previous studies in European countries have reported the prevalence of workplace bullying and its association with poor mental health, using the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R: Einarsen & Hoel, 2001), but there have been very few studies in Japan. The authors translated the 22-item NAQ-R into the Japanese language and examined the internal consistency reliability and concurrent and construct validity, including factor-based validity, of this scale in a sample of Japanese civil servants. METHODS: A total of 830 males and 796 females were surveyed, using anonymous questionnaires including the NAQ-R, Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror (LIPT), and scales for interpersonal relations at work and psychological distress (response rate, 46.7%). RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the internal consistency reliability of the NAQ-R were high (0.91-0.95) for males and females. Workplace bullying measured by the NAQ-R was strongly associated with that measured by the LIPT and other scales on workplace bullying. The NAQ-R was associated with high psychological distress, high intragroup and intergroup conflict, low supervisor and coworker support, and low interactional justice, as expected. Although three factors were extracted, this findings differed slightly from the factor structure previously reported (Einarsen et al., 2009). However, Factor 1 explained most of the variance, indicating that a one factor structure fitted the data better. CONCLUSION: The present study showed acceptable levels of reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the NAQ-R among Japanese civil servants.

Bullying (ijime) among Japanese hospital nurses: modeling responses to the revised Negative Acts Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Workplace bullying interferes with provision of optimal care to patients and contributes to decreased job satisfaction and withdrawal of nurses from the workforce. Little is known about bullying (ijime) or its measurement among Japanese hospital nurses. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to describe responses and explore dimensionality of a Japanese translation of the 23-item revised Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ-R), a frequently used measure of bullying. METHOD: Responses of 881 registered nurses working in hospitals in Japan who answered all 23 NAQ-R items were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize item responses, the principal components analysis approaches used by other international investigators were replicated, and five exploratory maximum likelihood factor analysis models were estimated. RESULTS: Responses to the 5-point (1 = never to 5 = daily) NAQ-R items were skewed, and 19% of the nurses replied never to all 23 items. The principal components analysis produced three components with eigenvalues greater than 1, and all five maximum likelihood exploratory factor analytic models were rejected using the chi-square test statistic. Model comparison based on the Akaike Information Criterion identified the five-factor maximum likelihood model as the best approximating structure. DISCUSSION: Dimensionality of the NAQ-R item set included verbal bullying, physical bullying, exploitation, undervaluation, and isolation. The solution reflected experiences of bullying reported in international studies, unique characteristics of Japanese bullying, and skewness in the data. Item response theory is recommended as an alternative way to gain insight into item functioning when the NAQ or its translations are used to measure nursing workplace bullying.

Use of anthropometric indicators in screening for undiagnosed vertebral fractures: a cross-sectional analysis of the Fukui Osteoporosis Cohort (FOC) study.

BACKGROUND: Vertebral fractures are the most common type of osteoporotic fracture. Although often asymptomatic, each vertebral fracture increases the risk of additional fractures. Development of a safe and simple screening method is necessary to identify individuals with asymptomatic vertebral fractures. METHODS: Lateral imaging of the spine by single energy X-ray absorptiometry and vertebral morphometry were conducted in 116 Japanese women (mean age: 69.9 +/- 9.3 yr). Vertebral deformities were diagnosed by the McCloskey-Kanis criteria and were used as a proxy for vertebral fractures. We evaluated whether anthropometric parameters including arm span-height difference (AHD), wall-occiput distance (WOD), and rib-pelvis distance (RPD) were related to vertebral deformities. Positive findings were defined for AHD as > or = 4.0 cm, for WOD as > or = 5 mm, and for RPD as < or = two fingerbreadths. Receiver operating characteristics curves analysis was performed, and cut-off values were determined to give maximum difference between sensitivity and false-positive rate. Expected probabilities for vertebral deformities were calculated using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean AHD for those participants with and without vertebral deformities were 7.0 +/- 4.1 cm and 4.2 +/- 4.2 cm (p < 0.01), respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for use of AHD-positive, WOD-positive and RPD-positive values in predicting vertebral deformities were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.69, 1.01) and 0.52 (95% CI: 0.42, 0.62); 0.70 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.90) and 0.67 (95% CI: 0.57, 0.76); and 0.67 (95% CI: 0.47, 0.87) and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.69), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratio for a positive result (LR) for use of combined AHD-positive and WOD-positive values were 0.65 (95% CI: 0.44, 0.86), 0.81 (95% CI: 0.73, 0.89), and 3.47 (95% CI: 3.01, 3.99), respectively. The expected probability of vertebral deformities (P) was obtained by the equation; P = 1-(exp [-1.327-0.040 x body weight +1.332 x WOD-positive + 1.623 x AHD-positive])-1. The sensitivity, specificity and LR for use of a 0.306 cut-off value for probability of vertebral fractures were 0.65 (95% CI: 0.44, 0.86), 0.87 (95% CI: 0.80, 0.93), and 4.82 (95% CI: 4.00, 5.77), respectively. CONCLUSION: Both WOD and AHD effectively predicted vertebral deformities. This screening method could be used in a strategy to prevent additional vertebral fractures, even when X-ray technology is not available.

Family names and the length of the y chromosome in Brazilian blacks

A variabilidade das regiöes heterocromática e eucromática do cromossomo Y humano foi estudada, pelo emprego de uma metodologia da análise quantitativa e através de medidas densitométricas, em 60 negros normais e näo aparentados (30 com sobrenomes de conotaçäo religiosa e 30 sem sobrenome de conotaçäo religiosa) de Salvador, Bahia. Trinta indivíduos caucasóides de origem européia, normais e näo aparentados, de Curitiba, Paraná, constituíram o grupo controle. A regiäo heterocromática e o tamanho total do cromossomo Y foram, em média, maiores nos caucasóides do que nos negros com e sem sobrenomes de conotaçäo religiosa, sendo as médias observadas nestes últimos intermediárias entre as dos caucasóides e dos negros com sobrenome de conotaçäo religiosa. Estes dados estäo de acordo com os de publicaçöes anteriores, que demostram que nos negros com sobrenomes de conotaçäo religiosa há mais ancestrais negros do que naqueles sem sobrenomes de conotaçäo religiosa.

Mating types in a mixed and multicultural population of Salvador, Brazil

Um total de 982 casais de Salvador, BA, foi classificado de acordo com sobrenome, nível educacional, ocupaçäo, religiäo (passada e presente), raça e consangüinidade. Verificou-se uma tendência geral para a homogamia com referência a todos os ítens, exceto sobrenomes. Uma vez que os sobrenomes estäo associados à raça, esse fato mostra que a populaçäo está mais próxima da panmixia - quando se consideram características näo relacionadas à cor e aos traços fisionômicos - do que seria sugerido apenas pela consideraçäo da homogamia racial. Algumas preferências heterogâmicas, relativamente à raça, também foram verificadas (cada categoria de homem com a categoria mais próxima e mais clara de mulher; mulheres mulatas claras com homens brancos). A freqüência de casamentos consangüíneos diminui à medida em que aumenta a mistura negra; esse fato pode ser devido a diferenciais socioeconômicos. O grau de endocruzamento mostra uma queda com o tempo na populaçäo geral