<p>Cultural bias in health assessment has been asserted in various scientific reports. The aim of this study was to determine whether ethnicity effects how patients are represented in such medical certificates that are needed to obtain a certain Swedish social insurance. The setting was an analysis of 18 medical certificates for patients whose parents were born in Sweden, respectively of 18 medical certificates of patients whose parents immigrated to Sweden from non European countries. The main objective was comparison of the two groups to test for ethnical heteronormative representations of the patients and their parents. The method used is mainly based on critical discourse analysis in combination with Fowlers (1996) semantic tools used to decipher disparity in the discourse. The text analysis is combined with theories of Said (1978), Johansson (1993) and de los Reyes (2006) regarding social representations of the ethnically non European “The Others”. Results of the study show that presentations of the two ethnical groups generally do differ both when it comes to representations of the patient as well as of the parent. Substantial differences are found in descriptions of patient aggression and asocial behaviour. The results render the conclusion that ethnical heteronormative representations can be found even in such documents that have the purpose of objectively certifying individual circumstances, conditions and difficulties.</p>

Cultural bias in health assessment has been asserted in various scientific reports. The aim of this study was to determine whether ethnicity effects how patients are represented in such medical certificates that are needed to obtain a certain Swedish social insurance. The setting was an analysis of 18 medical certificates for patients whose parents were born in Sweden, respectively of 18 medical certificates of patients whose parents immigrated to Sweden from non European countries. The main objective was comparison of the two groups to test for ethnical heteronormative representations of the patients and their parents. The method used is mainly based on critical discourse analysis in combination with Fowlers (1996) semantic tools used to decipher disparity in the discourse. The text analysis is combined with theories of Said (1978), Johansson (1993) and de los Reyes (2006) regarding social representations of the ethnically non European “The Others”. Results of the study show that presentations of the two ethnical groups generally do differ both when it comes to representations of the patient as well as of the parent. Substantial differences are found in descriptions of patient aggression and asocial behaviour. The results render the conclusion that ethnical heteronormative representations can be found even in such documents that have the purpose of objectively certifying individual circumstances, conditions and difficulties.

The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated to occupational accidents that occurred in a metal mechanic industry which operates in the automotive, highway construction, agricultural and construction businesses as well as auto parts manufacturing and in association with printing, machining, welding and surface treatment sets. To do so, a descriptive statistics analysis and an analytical approach were carried out, through the adjustment of a multivariable logistic regression model, considering both employees who had suffered accidents and those who had not. Initially, a conceptual model of approach for this study was synthesized and an exploratory research was developed, one which was composed of a data collection step and a case study step. In the data collection, the internal data of the organization being studied were used, in the case study step, relevant factors were estimated and identified and the ones which have the greater influence on occupational accidents. The following covariates were tested in the model: the functions executed, company time, work shift, age and sex. Among the covariates tested, the following showed statistically significant: executed function, age and employees sex, what suggests that a welder or a production assistant, aged up to twenty six years old and male has greater probability to suffer as occupational accident. Besides, a descriptive analysis was carried out referring to the medical certificates and comparisons between the records of injured employees, showing other factors such as the lesion place, the day of the week and the time that most accidents occurred. Generally speaking, it was possible to conclude that a male welder, with up to two years of company time, working the night shift and aged up to twenty six years old is more likely to have a lesion on the fingers, on Wednesdays, between 6pm and 8pm. It is believed that the results obtained in this research may contribute to broaden the knowledge about the factors associated to occupational accidents in the company being studied, providing subsides to the managers, in order to base their decisions to mitigate the number of occupational accidents. / O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar os fatores associados aos acidentes de trabalho ocorridos em uma empresa metal mecânica atuante no segmento automotivo, rodoviário, agrícola, construção e fabricante de peças e conjuntos com operações de estamparia, usinagem, solda e tratamento de superfície. Para isso foi realizada uma análise estatística descritiva e uma abordagem analítica, por meio do ajuste de um modelo de regressão logística multivariável, considerando os funcionários acidentados e não acidentados. Inicialmente foi sintetizado um modelo conceitual de abordagem deste estudo, e foi elaborada uma pesquisa exploratória, composta de uma etapa de coleta de informações e de uma etapa de estudo de caso. Na coleta de informações foram utilizados os dados internos da organização em estudo, no estudo de caso, foram identificados e estimados os fatores relevantes e que mais tenham influência sobre os acidentes de trabalho. Foram testadas no modelo as seguintes covariáveis: as funções executadas, o tempo de empresa, o turno de trabalho, a idade e o sexo. Dentre as covariáveis testadas, mostraram-se estatisticamente significativas: função executada, idade e sexo dos funcionários, o que sugere que um soldador ou ajudante de produção, com idade até vinte e seis anos, do sexo masculino possui maior probabilidade de sofrer acidente de trabalho. Além disso, foi realizada análise descritiva referente aos atestados médicos e comparações entre os registros dos acidentados, demonstrando outros fatores como local da lesão, dia da semana e horário que mais ocorreram acidentes. De um modo geral, foi possível concluir que um soldador também do sexo masculino, com até dois anos de empresa, trabalhando à noite e com idade até vinte e seis anos possui maior risco de ter lesão nos dedos das mãos, nas quartas-feiras, entre 18:00h e 20:00h. Acredita-se que os resultados obtidos nesta pesquisa contribuem para ampliar o conhecimento sobre os fatores associados aos acidentes de trabalho na empresa em estudo, fornecendo aos gestores subsídios para que possam embasar suas decisões no sentido de minimizar o número de acidentes ocupacionais.