Karen M. Conrad

Back Injury Prevention Interventions in the Workplace: An Integrative Review

The purpose of this integrative review is to describe the state of knowledge about the effect of worksite back injury prevention programs on selected study outcomes. Fifteen experimental and quasi-experimental studies published between 1987 and 1994 were identified through a comprehensive literature search. The research studies were reviewed and analyzed using a data collection abstracting tool. Four types of back injury prevention intervention programs were identified: back belts, back schools, exercise/flexibility training, and educational classes. Positive program outcomes were reported for all four program types; however, the back school and the exercise/flexibility training programs were studied more frequently and demonstrated a greater proportion of positive results than the other two program types. Conclusions should be viewed cautiously due to the small number of studies reviewed and their methodological limitations. Implications for occupational health nursing practice and future research related to worksite back injury prevention are offered.

Adherence to Worksite Exercise Programs: An Integrative Review of Recent Research

1. Improving worker physical fitness through worksite exercise programs offers many benefits to the employee and the employer. Unfortunately, a small percentage of workers who begin an exercise program adhere to it. 2. It is essential to design program strategies to promote exercise adherence among persons who do not currently exercise at levels that achieve health benefits. 3. The results of this review of worksite research suggest a number of strategies that were successful in increasing at least short term exercise adherence. 4. Carefully controlled studies are needed to identify specific worksite exercise interventions or combination of interventions that maximize the initiation of exercise as well as short and long term adherence. A combination of strategies improves exercise adherence for at least 6 months, but more research is needed to determine long term maintenance of an exercise program.

Effect of worksite health promotion programs on employee absenteeism. A comparative analysis.

Employee absenteeism is an important economic variable that needs to be examined by occupational health nurses when evaluating worksite health promotion programs. Two of the three Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan studies suggested that their programs acted to contain absenteeism among program participants. The worksite programs that met with success tended to be comprehensive and to have strong management support. Strengths of the three studies included the use of comparison groups and pretest measures of absenteeism in the analyses. Limitations included selection bias, subject dropout over time, limited monitoring of the program process, and the use of an analysis method that did not consider the statistical characteristics of the absenteeism variable.

Noise induced hearing loss among male airport workers in Korea.

The purposes of this study of airport workers were to a) determine the prevalence and symptoms of hearing loss, and b) identify compliance in using hearing protective devices (HPDs) and its relationship with hearing loss. This cross sectional epidemiological study was conducted with 255 noise exposed and 195 non-noise exposed, full time, male workers at a large metropolitan airport in Seoul, Korea. The three measures used were the self administered Occupational Hearing Questionnaire (OHQ), an audiological assessment, and a record review of baseline hearing and noise levels of locations in which the employee worked. The results showed a significant difference in prevalence of hearing loss (more than 25dB) between the noise and the non-noise exposed groups (p < .05). About 60.8% of noise exposed workers reported continuous use of the HPDs. The continuous HPD users had significantly lower rates of hearing loss than the occasional users or non-users. The major symptom for workers with low frequency hearing loss was trouble in communication, whereas tinnitus and fullness in the ear were the most common symptoms for the workers with high frequency hearing loss. The airport workers exposed to excessive noise had a great deal of high frequency hearing loss. The degree of hearing loss present reinforces the need for aggressive hearing conservation programs among airport workers exposed to noise.

Beliefs of blue-collar workers: stage of readiness for exercise.

OBJECTIVE To address a theoretical debate regarding contributions of self-efficacy and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in explaining the amount of variance in stage of readiness to exercise among blue-collar workers. METHOD A validated questionnaire was used for assessment. RESULTS LISREL indicated that self-efficacy had the most influence on stage and TPB constructs were subjugated to self-efficacy. Univariate analyses indicated that self-efficacy and TPB variables are important for intervention. CONCLUSIONS Self-efficacy plays a major role in explaining exercise stage among high-risk blue-collar workers, and self-efficacy and TPB constructs are important to consider in designing interventions.

Using clinical data as a surveillance tool in the workplace.

Occupational health nurses routinely collect clinical information and enter it in the workers clinical chart record. While a single chart provides information for making clinical decisions for an individual, the information from many charts is needed for summarizing trends in worker illness and injury across a worker population. With summary information on a group of workers, the occupational health nurse can plan for illness and injury prevention programs.