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Health and Safety Promotion in the Workplace

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 12459

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Angela Carta

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Guest Editor

Section of Occupational Medicine, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Interests: occupational medicine; occupational epidemiology; workplace preventive intervention; evidence-based prevention; health promotion; ergonomics

Dr. Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor

Section of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Interests: occupational health and safety; healthcare workers; radiation protections; infectious diseases; fitness for work

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Applied research has shown that the workplace influences the physical, mental, economic, and social wellbeing of workers. Private and public organizations are increasingly acknowledging that a healthy, qualified, and motivated workforce is essential for future success in a global market.

Health and safety promotion in the workplace include everything done by employers, their employees, and society to promote health and wellbeing among people at work. The workplace can be considered an ideal setting for health promotion, thanks to the presence of logistic infrastructures, organizational support, and regular availability of workforce, thus allowing to reach and follow up on a large audience.

Despite the generally accepted concept that the workplace is an important arena for health promotion campaigns of many kinds, workplace health promotion programs are not yet widely adopted.

This Special Issue seeks papers that offer insights into how health and safety promotion in the workplace which could contribute to improve workforce health and wellbeing. We would like to offer to researchers the opportunity to publish papers on international studies from different perspectives in order to advance knowledge and practice in the field of workplace health promotion. Particularly welcomed are data from field studies, effectiveness intervention studies, and reviews related to workplace health promotion, as well as taking into account the implications of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic on mental health and workers’ behavior.

Dr. Angela Carta
Dr. Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

health and safety promotion
improving and maintaining mental health
physical activity
healthy eating
drug and alcohol abuse
tobacco-free workplace
violence at work
health screening intervention
promoting a healthy lifestyle
safe and healthy return to work

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1245 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Smoking Habits and Workplace Health Promotion among University Students in Southern Italy: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Investigation

by Elpidio Maria Garzillo, Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco, Anna Rita Corvino, Alessia Giardiello, Antonio Arnese, Francesco Napolitano, Gabriella Di Giuseppe and Monica Lamberti

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(17), 10682; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710682 - 27 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1860

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the tobacco smoking prevalence, habits and awareness among a cohort of healthcare students from a university hospital in southern Italy and the associations with socio-demographic determinants. A secondary outcome was to estimate the educational needs to receive information on smoking-related risk factors. Five hundred and forty-nine students completed a self-administered questionnaire (180 male and 369 female, average age 25 yo, ±5.9 SD), enrolled from October 2018 to November 2019 at the University of Naples ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’, and the collected data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The sample’s prevalence of current smokers was 25.3%, without a significant sex difference. The multiple logistic regression model showed the link between smoking habits and alcoholic beverage consumption (p < 0.001) and living with smokers (p = 0.003). The enrolled cohort does not seem to need more information about the risks of cigarette smoking (p = 0.028). The data analysis and the comparison with the current literature allowed the authors to hypothesise a training model to be adopted within a workplace health promotion programme managed by an occupational physician. This model included targeted training for smoking dissuasion, focusing on sex and gender, cohabitant’s influence, and combined addiction management. Further research will focus on the effectiveness of these proposed models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Safety Promotion in the Workplace)

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11 pages, 949 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of a Physical Exercise Intervention on Pain in Workplaces: A Case Study

by Xabier Río, Iker Sáez, Javier González, Ángel Besga, Eneko Santano, Natxo Ruiz, Josu Solabarrieta and Aitor Coca

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1331; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031331 - 25 Jan 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3772

Abstract

Interventions that promote physical activity and healthy habits in workplaces have proven to be effective in reducing risk factors associated with numerous pathologies. This study examines the effects of an individualized physical exercise program that lasts five minutes for 30 working days on the perceived pain of workers, as well as analyzing adherence to it within workplaces. Data were collected through a visual analog scale of 1–10 of the perception of pain by anatomical areas, and, thus, we could observe variations in the perceived pain of workers through a program of five individualized exercises for one minute each based on the analysis of the worker and the job position. Significant differences were observed in three of the four centers analyzed (1: p = 0.006; 2: p = 0.009; 3: p = 0.000; 4: p = 0.791). A five-minute exercise program in the work environment appears to be an effective tool in terms of time and an improvement in workers’ perception of pain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Safety Promotion in the Workplace)

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8 pages, 309 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Synergistic Effect of Time of Exposure, Distance and No Use of Personal Protective Equipment in the Determination of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Results of a Contact Tracing Follow-Up Study in Healthcare Workers

by Giuseppe La Torre, Mattia Marte, Carlo Maria Previte, Lavinia Camilla Barone, Filippo Picchioni, Marta Chiappetta, Augusto Faticoni, Daniela Marotta, Elena Mazzalai, Vanessa India Barletta, Shizuka Kibi, Vittoria Cammalleri, Barbara Dorelli, Monica Giffi, Roberta Noemi Pocino, Anna Paola Massetti, Caterina Fimiani, Ombretta Turriziani, Ferdinando Romano, Guido Antonelli, Alberto Deales, Claudio Maria Mastroianni, Fortunata Vasaturo and on behalf of Collaborative Group Sapienza Show full author list Hide full author list

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(18), 9456; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189456 - 8 Sep 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2223

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the effect of contact time, contact distance and the use of personal protective equipment on the determination of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers (HCWs). This study consists of an analysis of data gathered for safety reasons at the Sapienza Teaching Hospital Policlinico Umberto I in Rome through the surveillance system that was put into place after the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic. The studied subjects consist of HCWs who were put under health surveillance, i.e., all employees who were in contact with subjects who were confirmed to have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The HCWs under surveillance were monitored for a period encompassing ten days after the date of contact, during which they undertook nasopharyngeal swab tests analysed through RT-PCR (RealStar® SARS-CoV-2 Altona Diagnostic–Germany). Descriptive and univariate analyses have been undertaken, considering the following as risk factors: (a) no personal protective equipment use (PPE); (b) Distance < 1 m between the positive and contact persons; (c) contact time > 15′. Finally, a Cox regression and an analysis of the level of synergism between factors, as specified by Rothman, were carried out. We analysed data from 1273 HCWs. Of these HCWs, 799 (62.8%) were females, with a sample average age of 47.8 years. Thirty-nine (3.1%) tested positive during surveillance. The overall incidence rate was 0.4 per 100 person-days. Time elapsed from the last exposure and a positive RT-PCR result ranged from 2 to 17 days (mean = 7, median = 6 days). In the univariate analysis, a distance <1 m and a contact time > 15′ proved to be risk factors for the SARS-CoV-2 infection, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.62 (95% CI: 1.11–6.19) and 3.59 (95% IC: 1.57–8.21), respectively. The synergism analysis found the highest synergism between the “no PPE use” x “Contact time”. The synergy index S remains strongly positive also in the analysis of the factors “no PPE use” x “Distance” and “Time of contact” x “Distance”. This study confirms the absolute need to implement safety protocols during the pandemic and to use the correct PPE within health facilities in order to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. The analysis shows that among the factors considered (contact time and distance, no use of PPE), there is a strong synergistic effect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Safety Promotion in the Workplace)

22 pages, 5837 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development and Implementation of ‘Just Right’ Physical Behavior in Industrial Work Based on the Goldilocks Work Principle—A Feasibility Study

by Anders Fritz Lerche, Svend Erik Mathiassen, Charlotte Lund Rasmussen, Leon Straker, Karen Søgaard and Andreas Holtermann

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(9), 4707; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094707 - 28 Apr 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3193

Abstract

The Goldilocks Work Principle expresses that productive work should be redesigned to comprise physical behaviors of different intensities in a composition promoting workers’ health and fitness. This study is the first to assess the feasibility of redesigning work in an industrial setting according to the Goldilocks Work Principle. We recruited workers (n = 20) from a brewery in Denmark, and we conducted a participatory 16-week intervention including a workshop and two consultations. The workshop aimed to support the workers in modifying their work, while the consultations assisted the eventual implementation. Feasibility was evaluated as per three aspects: (1) developing modifications of work, (2) implementing these modifications, and (3) changing physical behavior and self-reported fatigue, pain and energy. The three aspects were addressed through records completed by the workers, measurements of workers’ physical behavior and intensity during ‘control’ workdays (i.e., usual work) and ‘intervention’ workdays (i.e., modified work), and self-reported fatigue, pain and energy level following both types of workday. Five modifications to work were developed, and three of these five modifications were implemented. To some extent, physical behavior and intensity changed as intended during ‘intervention’ workdays compared to ‘control’ workdays. Workers were also less fatigued, had less pain, and had more energy after ‘intervention’ workdays. These results suggest that it is feasible to develop and implement modified work based on the Goldilocks Work Principle among industrial workers. However, we also identified several barriers to the implementation of such modifications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Safety Promotion in the Workplace)

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