Human brucellosis in South Africa: Public health and diagnostic pitfalls.

Human brucellosis in South Africa (SA) is under-diagnosed and under-reported. This is because many clinicians have little or no experience in managing affected patients, and in part because of the nonspecific and insidious nature of the disease. A case of human brucellosis caused by Brucella melitensis in a patient from the Western Cape Province of SA is described, and the resulting exposure of staff members at two medical microbiology laboratories, as well as the public health investigation that was conducted, are discussed. This article aims to highlight the need for strengthening integration between public health, medical and veterinary services and exposing deficiencies in public health, veterinary and laboratory practices.

Job Burnout, Work Engagement and Self-reported Treatment for Health Conditions in South Africa.

The purpose of the study being reported here was to investigate the relationship of job burnout and work engagement with self-reported received treatment for health conditions (cardiovascular condition, high cholesterol, depression, diabetes, hypertension and irritable bowel syndrome), while controlling for age, gender, smoking and alcohol use. The sample comprised 7895 employees from a broad range of economic sectors in the South African working population. A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Structural equation modelling methods were implemented with a weighted least squares approach. The results showed that job burnout had a positive relationship with self-reported received treatment for depression, diabetes, hypertension and irritable bowel syndrome. Work engagement did not have any significant negative or positive relationships with the treatment for these health conditions. The results of this study make stakeholders aware of the relationship between job burnout, work engagement and self-reported treatment for health conditions. Evidence for increased reporting of treatment for ill-health conditions due to burnout was found. Therefore, attempts should be made to manage job burnout to prevent ill-health outcomes.

Work overload, burnout, and psychological ill-health symptoms: a three-wave mediation model of the employee health impairment process.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The study reported here investigated the causal relationships in the health impairment process of employee well-being, and the mediating role of burnout in the relationship between work overload and psychological ill-health symptoms, over time. The research is deemed important due to the need for longitudinal evidence of the health impairment process of employee well-being over three waves of data. DESIGN: A quantitative survey design was followed. Participants constituted a longitudinal sample of 370 participants, at three time points, after attrition. METHODS: Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling methods were implemented. RESULTS: Work overload at time one predicted burnout at time two, and burnout at time two predicted psychological ill-health symptoms at time three. Indirect effects were found between work overload time one and psychological ill-health symptoms time three via burnout time two, and also between burnout time one and psychological ill-health symptoms time three, via burnout time two. CONCLUSIONS: The results provided supportive evidence for an "indirect-only" mediation effect, for burnout's causal mediation mechanism in the health impairment process between work overload and psychological ill-health symptoms.

A confirmatory investigation of a job demands-resources model using a categorical estimator.

A confirmatory investigation of a job demands-resources model was conducted with alternative methods, in a sample of 15,633 working adults aggregated from various economic sectors. The proposed model is in line with job demands-resources theory and assumes two psychological processes at work which are collectively coined "the dual process." The first process, the energetic, presents that job demands lead to ill-health outcomes due to burnout. The second process, the motivational, indicates that job resources lead to organizational commitment due to work engagement. Structural equation modelling analyses were implemented with a categorical estimator. Mediation analyses of each of the processes included bootstrapped indirect effects and kappa-squared values to apply qualitative labels to effect sizes. The relationship between job resources and organizational commitment was mediated by engagement with a large effect. The relationship between job demands and ill-health was mediated by burnout with a medium effect. The implications of the results for theory and practice were discussed.