<p><font face="Arial"> <p align="left">The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors contributing to work-related musculoskeletal injuries amongst underground mine workers in Kitwe, Zambia.</p> </font></p>

<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> <p align="left">&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">In addition to football and basketball, volleyball has become a very popular sport globally over the last 30 years. The International Federation of Volleyball represents about 150 million players in approximately 170 countries. While a large body of research has been conducted regarding the nature and prevalence of volleyball injuries internationally, very little has been done locally or on the African continent to assess the status of injuries incurred at professional or amateur levels. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of injuries sustained by professional volleyball players of a club in the WPVU in one season. An exploratory, descriptive, nonexperimental approach was used for this study on 42 volleyball players at the University of the Western Cape Volleyball Club. A self&ndash / administered questionnaire that was based on a questionnaire used in a Dutch national volleyball study was used in the present study. A response rate of 89.4% was obtained. The collected data were captured and analysed by means of the Statistical Package for Social Science version 14.0 (SPSS). The associations between variables were evaluated by means of the chi-square test and a 5% level of significance was used. The results were displayed using tables, bar chart, and pie chart. Most of the volleyball players sustained one or more injuries in the season, giving a prevalence rate of 88.1%. The incidence rate was 1.2 injuries per player. Injuries prevalence was higher among male players 54.1% than female players 45.9%. Among the injured players, ankle and knee injuries showed the highest injury prevalence with 25.5% for each followed by 19.6% for shoulder injuries. The study revealed 69.2% injury prevalence with a higher significance (p=0.04) that players who are injured in the ankle were in contact. Half of the injuries (50%), which occurred gradually, were prevalent in the shoulder, followed by the knee (28.6%), then the ankle and fingers (14.3%). Players in the left and right front row were significantly (p=0.008) more prone to be injured during spiking. Awareness programmes highlighting prevention strategies and physiotherapy intervention are required for coaches and players at the University of the Western Cape Volleyball Club to assist in the prevention of volleyball injuries.</p>

A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was used to gather data with a self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 226 nurses. The study population included all registered nurses of Kabgayi District Hospital and Nyanza District Hospitals and their respective health centers. To be included, the nurses had to have suffered from WRLBP during the previous 6 months before data collection. The Nordic Back Pain Questionnaire, the Oswestry Disability Index and an open-ended questionnaire regarding perceived risk factors have been used. Descriptive statistics to summarize data and inferential statistics such as chi- square test to test the relationship between different variables of the study have been studied at 5% levels. Correlation coefficients in terms of cross-tabulation were also studied at 1% level of significance.

<p>Nursing is worldwide regarded as a high risk occupation for the development of work-related low back pain (WRLBP). LBP is one of the most common causes of disability, creating an important socio-economic problem in modern society. Studies report that more than 80% of&nbsp / workers suffer from WRLBP once in their occupational lives. Among nurses, the lifetime prevalence has been found to be higher, varying up to 90% of a nursing population. The current study aimed at determining the prevalence, perceived disability and contributing/risk factors to WRLBP among nurses in Rwanda, identifying the perceived contributing risk factors of WRLBP and intervention strategies received by those nurses. A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was used to gather data with a self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 226 nurses. The study population included all registered nurses of Kabgayi District Hospital and Nyanza District Hospitals and their respective health centers. To be included, the nurses had to have suffered from WRLBP during the previous 6 months before data collection. The Nordic Back Pain Questionnaire, the Oswestry Disability Index and an open-ended questionnaire regarding perceived risk factors have been used. Descriptive statistics to summarize data and inferential statistics such as chisquare test to test the relationship between different variables of the study have been studied at 5% levels. Correlation coefficients in terms of cross-tabulation were also studied at 1% level of significance. The current study highlights one-month prevalent rates of 70.4%, and one-week prevalent rates of 54.4%. WRLBP among nurses has been found to be significantly associated with gender according to the p-value of 0.007 among the studied variables, and good correlation coefficients between disability scores, together with the length of WRLBP and BMI with 0.0001, 0.0030 respectively. Nurses in the current study reported WRLBP as a result of a wide range of factors related to their work, manual handling being the major physical work activity exposing them to WRLBP. The perceived risk factors for WRLBP reported in this study were classified into 4 categories. The first category included work positional factors such as standing, sitting, bending, and awkward work postures. The second group included work-related nursing tasks such as lifting patients and items at work, repositioning and transferring patients, bed making, washing patients, and many others. In the third group, psychosocial factors like poor relationship with colleagues, work pressure and reduced job satisfaction have been listed. Finally, some non-occupational factors such as aging, pregnancy, menstruation, history of back pain, being female and body built have also been perceived as contributing factors to WRLBP. The Oswestry Disability Index demonstrated a mild to moderate disability due to WRLBP in this group of nurses. WRLBP has a negative impact in health services due to activity limitation, lost time and lowered productivity. The study concludes that nurses must be protected from ergonomic work stressors, and improvement of awareness of&nbsp / urses with regards to ergonomic stressors seems to be crucial. However, an effort by different parties concerned with the problem at all levels in Rwanda is needed. The government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Health in particular, will be recommended to put strategies in place for the management, reduction and prevention of WRLBP amongst health workers, especially in the nursing population.</p>

Temos aktualumas, problematiškumas: Nutukimas – multidisciplininė problema, apie nutukimą Lietuvoje buvo kalbama nepakankamai. Nutukimas labiausiai paplitęs tarp vyresnio amžiaus žmonių ir priklauso nuo socialinių bei gyvensenos veiksnių. Kyla klausimas, kaip keičiasi epidemiologinė nutukimo situacija tarp suaugusių Lietuvos gyventojų. Siekiant sumažinti nutukimo paplitimą tarp Lietuvos gyventojų, būtina sukurti nutukimo kontrolės programą, skatinančią gyventojų fizinį aktyvumą ir sveiką mitybą. Objektas: nutukimo paplitimas tarp suaugusių darbingo amžiaus Alytaus miesto ir rajono gyventojų. Tikslas: įvertinti nutukimo paplitimą tarp suaugusių darbingo amžiaus miesto ir kaimo gyventojų. Uždaviniai: • Išanalizuoti nutukimo paplitimą tarp suaugusių darbingo amžiaus miesto ir kaimo gyventojų. • Įvertinti ir palyginti kūno masės ryšį su mitybos įpročiais tarp suaugusių darbingo amžiaus gyventojų. • Įvertinti ir palyginti kūno masės ryšį su fiziniu aktyvumu tarp suaugusių darbingo amžiaus gyventojų. Hipotezė: Asmenys gyvenantys kaime turi didesnę riziką nutukti, nei asmenys gyvenantys mieste. Išvados: • Išanalizavus tyrimo duomenis pastebėjome, kad nutukimo dažnumas priklauso nuo gyvenamosios vietos. Darbingo amžiaus asmenys gyvenantys kaime dažniau turi problemų su antsvoriu ir nutukimu, nei asmenys gyvenantys mieste. • Kūno masės ryšys su mitybos įpročiais suaugusių darbingo amžiaus asmenų gyvenančių kaime yra didesnis, nei asmenų gyvenančių mieste. Kaime gyvenančių asmenų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Topicality of the subject: Obesity - a multidisciplinary problem; it was not discussed enough about obesity in Lithuania. Obesity is most common among elderly people and depends on social and lifestyle factors. The question is how the epidemiological situation of obesity among all adults in town and country is changing. To reduce the prevalence of obesity between the population of town and country, it is necessary to create obesity control program promoting physical activity and healthy eating. Object: assess the prevalence of obesity among adults of working age in town and country. Goal: to find out the prevalence of obesity among adults of working age in Alytus town and district. Tasks: • To analyze the prevalence of obesity among adults of working age in urban and rural population. • To evaluate and compare the weight of the connection between the eating habits of adult working age population. • To evaluate and compare the relationship of body weight with physical activity among adults of working age population. Hypothesis: People living in country areas have a higher risk of obesity than those living in the town. Implications: • An analysis of survey data found that the obesity rate depends on the residence. Working-age people living in rural areas often have problems with overweight and obesity than those living in the city. • Body weight connection to dietary habits, in adults of working age people living in rural areas are higher than those living in the city. The... [to full text]

Several parasites that require two or more hosts to complete their life cycles are known to manipulate host behaviour, enhancing their transmission to the next host. The intertidal snail, Littorina sitkana, is host to a diverse assemblage of parasites dominated by trematodes. Trematodes often use snails as first intermediate host and vertebrates as definitive host. Trematode infections can affect host behaviours such as dispersal and foraging. I identified four sites in Barkley Sound that varied in trematode prevalence and species richness. I measured dispersal of snails at these sites and in the laboratory to assess effects of trematode infection on behaviour. I measured feeding rate under laboratory conditions. Trematode effects lowered snail grazing activity at three of the four sites studied, suggesting trematode infection lowers feeding rate of L. sitkana, potentially affecting algal composition of the intertidal zone. Infected male snails travelled longer distances in some sites but shorter distances in others. There was an almost significant effect of trematode infection on vertical displacement of L. sitkana in the field. I estimated survival rates on each site through intensive capture-mark-recapture experiments. There was differential survival among sites, but no negative correlation between survival estimates and trematode prevalence. / Graduate / 0718 / 0329 / 0472 / mayala@uvic.ca

<p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2001. Härtill 6 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu

ABSTRACT An Examination of the Differences in Risk Factors and their Association with Variations in HIV Prevalence between Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, and Senegal (Under the direction of RICHARD ROTHENBERG, M.D., M.P.H. FACULTY MEMBER) Background: Extensive evidence suggests there are large variations in the prevalence of HIV infection among Sub-Saharan African countries. Some studies associated these variations in HIV prevalence to differences in the rate of HIV spread while others attributed the variations to risky sexual behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in risk factors for HIV infection between Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, and Senegal, to determine the association between HIV status and risk factors within and among countries, and identify best predictive risk factors that help explain variations in HIV prevalence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using nationally representative data from The Demographic and Health Surveys Program. Population-based samples of adults aged 15-49 representing 21,878 in Cameroon (2011), 14,682 in Cote d’Ivoire (2011-2012), and 20,102 in Senegal (2010-2011) were used in the study. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were performed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were calculated, and models were explored. Results: There are statistically significant (p Conclusion: There are differences in risk factors among the three countries and these differences can explain some of the variations in HIV prevalence. Further research is necessary to help capture variations in HIV prevalence that cannot be explained by differences in risk factors. These findings will help advance prevention efforts. KEYWORDS: HIV, AIDS, risk factors, HIV infection, HIV prevalence, Sub-Saharan Africa

Syftet med denna studie var att beräkna preliminär prevalens för sjukdomen multipel skleros (MS) i Värmland, med prevalensdag 21 december 2002, och jämföra den med andra prevalensstudier i Sverige. Utifrån patientjournaler vid länets sjukvårdsinrättningar noterades basala och medicinska data på ett registreringsformulär. För klassificering av MS har Poser ́s kriterielista tillämpats och granskningen av journaler har utförts av specialist neurologer. Prevalensen för definite/probable MS i Värmland, baserad på siffror som var insamlade augusti 2004, var 151/105 (95% CI 136-165), för kvinnor var prevalensen 211/105 (95% CI 187-235) och för män 89/105 (95% CI 73-105), vilket innebär att MS var 2,37 gånger vanligare för kvinnor. Vid jämförelse av den preliminära prevalens för Värmland och Västerbotten visade det sig att Värmland hade nästan lika hög prevalens och kan liksom Västerbotten betecknas som högriskområde för MS. / The purpose of this study was to estimate the preliminary prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the County of Värmland, with prevalence date 21 December 2002, and to compare this with other prevalence studies in Sweden. The clinical data of the patients were collected from medical files at the medical care facilities in the county. For classification of MS the criteria by Poser were used. The diagnoses were scrutinised by neurologists. Based on the collected data, August 2004 the prevalence of definite/probable MS in Värmland is 151/105 (95% CI 136-165), for women 211/105 (95% CI 187-235), for men 89/105 (95% CI 73-105), resulting in a female to male ratio of 2,37. When comparing these results with prevalence numbers from Västerbotten County in the north of Sweden and Gothenburg respectively, our prevalence number reaches the level of that from Västerbotten, indicating that Värmland, as well as Västerbotten, is a high risk zone for MS. / <p>ISBN 91-7997-154-7</p>

Over the past few years, workers have been confronted with increasing pressures at work and at home. This is mainly the result of the growing number of dual-earner couples as well as changes and pressures in the nature of the workplace. Workers are challenged to manage multiple roles in both their work and home domains. Recently, a new measuring instrument was developed to measure work-home interaction, namely the Survey Work-Home Interaction - Nijmegen (SWING). This instrument measures both the direction of influence (work-to-home and home-to-work) and the quality of influence (negative vs. positive). The objectives of this study were firstly to determine the construct validity and reliability of the Survey Work-Home Interaction - Nijmegen (SWING), and secondly to determine the prevalence of work-home interaction in various demographic groups in the nursing environment. A cross-sectional survey design was used. Random samples (N = 363) were taken from hospital nursing staff in Johannesburg, Klerksdorp, Krugersdorp, Potchefstroom and Pretoria. The SWING and a biographical questionnaire were administered. Structural equation modelling (SEM), Cronbach alpha coefficients, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to reach the objectives. SEM showed that a four-factor model, which measures negative work-home interference, positive work-home interference, negative home-work interference and positive home-work interference, fitted the data best. Cronbach alpha coefficients showed that all four factors were reliable. Regarding the prevalence of work-home interaction among different demographic groups, the results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between demographic groups based on race, educational level, type of position, flexibility of arrangements at the workplace as well as between full-time and part-time work. Recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.