Navigate
  • Home
  • Random Post
  • Archive



    • Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

    Search
    Click Tags under Articles
    NOTE: SEARCH BY KEYWORD FUNCTIONS BELOW ARE TEMPORARILY MALFUNCTIONING. USE AT OWN RISK.
     Or Display Full Article by


    Posts tagged "workplace"

    Tuesday, Sep 1st, 2009 ↓

    Workplace Bullying Is Associated With Sleep Disturbances →

    Sept 1, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—A study in the Sept.1 issue of the journal SLEEP shows that current or past exposure to workplace bullying is associated with increased sleep disturbances. Associations also were found between observed bullying and sleep disruption, indicating that bullying has detrimental effects even when it is experienced indirectly.

    The study shows a high prevalence of workplace bullying, with 11 percent of women and nine percent of men experiencing “hostile behavior” in the work environment at least weekly and for at least six months during the previous 12 months. After adjustment for covariates such as age, occupation, weekly work hours and depressive symptoms, exposure to bullying was significantly associated with self-reported sleep disturbances. The adjusted odds ratio of having disturbed sleep was more than two times higher in men who currently were experiencing workplace bullying (OR=2.29) or had been exposed to daily or almost daily bullying (OR=2.39); women were nearly two times more likely to report having sleep disturbances if they had experienced daily or almost daily bullying (OR=1.73) or had been exposed to bullying for more than five years (OR=1.87).

    Thirty-two percent of women and 31 percent of men also reported that they had observed bullying in the workplace in the previous 12 months. The adjusted odds ratio of having disturbed sleep was 60 percent higher in men and twenty percent higher in women who only observed bullying, and it was more than two times higher in men (OR=2.38) and nearly two times higher in women (OR=1.81) who both observed and experienced bullying. .

    Principal investigator Isabelle Niedhammer, PhD, epidemiologist and researcher at the UCD School of Public Health & Population Science at the University College Dublin in Ireland, said that exposure to any form of violence or harassment at the workplace may strongly increase the risk of having sleep disturbances.

    “Workplace bullying may be considered as one of the leading job stressors and would be a major cause of suicide and other health-related issues,” said Niedhammer. “Our study underlines the need to better understand and prevent occupational risk factors, such as bullying, for sleep disorders.”

    For full article, see link above.

    Comments (View)
    Tags: workplace job work stress bullying bully sleep disturbance disorder suicide prevention risk violence harassment behaviour hostile
    Wednesday, Aug 5th, 2009 ↓

    Workplace Yoga And Meditation Can Lower Feelings Of Stress →

    Aug 5, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.

    The study offered participants a modified version of what is known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a program established in 1979 to help hospital patients in Massachusetts assist in their own healing that is now in wide use around the world.

    In this context, mindfulness refers in part to one’s heightened awareness of an external stressor as the first step toward relaxing in a way that can minimize the effects of that stress on the body.

    While the traditional MBSR program practice takes up an hour per day for eight weeks supplemented by lengthy weekly sessions and a full-day retreat, the modified version developed at Ohio State University for this study was designed for office-based workers wearing professional attire.

    For full article see link above.

    Comments (View)
    Tags: workplace work employee stress office meditation yoga sleep quality mindfulness body
    Friday, Jun 5th, 2009 ↓

    Mother's Workplace Exposure to Hair Spray, Phthalates Link to Urogenital Anomalies in Infant Boys →

    May 27 09 (Medscape) — Background: Hypospadias is one of the most common urogenital congenital anomalies affecting baby boys. Prevalence estimates in Europe range from 4 to 24 per 10,000 births, depending on definition, with higher rates reported from the United States. Relatively little is known about potential risk factors, but a role for endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has been proposed.

    Objective: Our goal was to elucidate the risk of hypospadias associated with occupational exposure of the mother to endocrine-disruptor chemicals, use of folate supplementation during pregnancy, and vegetarianism.

    Design: We designed a case-control study of 471 hypospadias cases referred to surgeons and 490 randomly selected birth controls, born 1 January 1997-30 September 1998 in southeast England. Telephone interviews of mothers elicited information on folate supplementation during pregnancy and vegetarianism. We used a job exposure matrix to classify occupational exposure.

    Results: In multiple logistic regression analysis, there were increased risks for self-reported occupational exposure to hair spray [exposed vs. nonexposed, odds ratio (OR) = 2.39 ; 95% confidence interval (CI) , 1.40-4.17] and phthalate exposure obtained by a job exposure matrix (OR = 3.12 ; 95% CI, 1.04-11.46) . There was a significantly reduced risk of hypospadias associated with of folate use during the first 3 months of pregnancy (OR = 0.64 ; 95% CI, 0.44-0.93) . Vegetarianism was not associated with hypospadias risk.


    Conclusions: Excess risks of hypospadias associated with occupational exposures to phthalates and hair spray suggest that antiandrogenic EDCs may play a role in hypospadias. Folate supplementation in early pregnancy may be protective.

    For full medical article, see link above.

    Comments (View)
    Tags: women pregnancy workplace phthalate EDCs endocrine infant congenital
    Friday, Mar 6th, 2009 ↓

    Workplace Health Program Is Cost-Effective, Improves Productivity →

    February 22, 2008 (Austin, Texas) — DirecTV has substantially improved productivity among its employees through an aggressive commitment to workplace health, according to findings from a 3-year pilot program presented here at Prevention Medicine 2008, the annual conference of the American College of Preventive Medicine.

    For full medical article, see link above.

    NOTE FROM ACTIVE HEALTHCARE: in this stenuous economic times, it is tempting for cash-strapped employers to cut down on employee benefits as a cost-saving measure.  However, the best method of retaining key employees and keep them as productive as possible is to provide them with a health and wellness promoting environment.

    Call us to find out how to implement this cost-effective measure at your place of work.  No company too small.

    Comments (View)
    Tags: workplace health productivity cost-effective