Challenges to and facilitators of occupational epidemiology research in the UK.

This study investigated the challenges and facilitators of occupational epidemiology (OE) research in the UK, and evaluated the impact of these challenges. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with leading UK-based OE researchers, and a survey of UK-based OE researchers were conducted. Seven leading researchers were interviewed, and there were 54 survey respondents. Key reported challenges for OE were diminishing resources during recent decades, influenced by social, economic and political drivers, and changing fashions in research policy. Consequently, the community is getting smaller and less influential. These challenges may have negatively affected OE research, causing it to fail to keep pace with recent methodological development and impacting its output of high-quality research. Better communication with, and support from other researchers and relevant policy and funding stakeholders was identified as the main facilitators to OE research. Many diseases were initially discovered in workplaces, as these make exceptionally good study populations to accurately assess exposures. Due to the decline of manufacturing industry, there is a perception that occupational diseases are now a thing of the past. Nevertheless, new occupational exposures remain under-evaluated and the UK has become reliant on overseas epidemiology. This has been exacerbated by the decline in the academic occupational medicine base. Maintaining UK-based OE research is hence necessary for the future development of occupational health services and policies for the UK workforce.

SleepSure: a pilot randomized-controlled trial to assess the effects of eye masks and earplugs on the quality of sleep for patients in hospital.

OBJECTIVE:: To determine the short-term effects of supplying hospital inpatients with earplugs and eye masks, preparatory to a full-scale trial. DESIGN:: A single-centre, open-label, two-arm, parallel group, randomized-controlled trial. SETTING:: A total of 13 medical and surgical wards in a large teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS:: Everyone admitted to hospital aged 18 years or older, who stayed overnight and had the mental capacity and sufficient understanding of English to give consent, the ability to complete the study questionnaire and the ability to use earplugs and eye masks unaided was considered. INTERVENTIONS:: The intervention group was provided with earplugs and eye masks for use the following night, and the control group received standard care. MAIN MEASURES:: Sleep quality assessed using the SleepSure questionnaire after the first night of using the intervention, use of earplugs and eye masks, number of falls throughout their inpatient stay, use of zopiclone during inpatient stay, length of stay and recruitment rate. RESULTS:: A total of 1600 patients were admitted; out of which, 626 (39%) were eligible and 206 (13% total, 33% eligible) recruited (intervention group, 109). The intervention group's mean sleep quality score was 6.33 (95% confidence interval (CI): 5.89-6.77), compared with 5.09 (95% CI: 4.66-5.52) in the control group ( p < 0.001). There were no differences in use of zopiclone, falls or length of stay between the groups. Of the intervention group, 91 (86%) reported using the earplugs and/or eye masks. CONCLUSIONS:: The intervention seems feasible, and effective, but trial eligibility rate and rate of recruitment into the study were limited.