A ranking of occupations based on the blood pressures of incumbents in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I
Article Abstract:
It is popularly reported and accepted that certain high-level jobs are stressful, and that this stress tends to result in high blood pressure. A subsample of persons in approximately 400 occupations who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (NHANES-I), were drawn for this study. Participants (1) were 25 years old or older, (2) stated that their employment was in one of the appropriate 400 3-digit census categories, and (3) had the key data of age, gender, body mass, and blood pressure in their records. The sample was reduced to 8,130 of the 18,837 original subjects in the subsample. Blood pressures were tabulated by occupational groups, and broken down into diastolic and systolic pressures. The highest of the diastolic blood pressures (observed during the heart's rest phase) were recorded in bartenders, laundry and dry cleaning workers, administrators and public administrators. Child care workers, bus drivers, and bus drivers also had relatively high blood pressures. Musicians, and some college and university teachers, dental assistants, and X-ray technicians had the lowest blood pressure averages. Similar occupational distributions were found in the systolic pressure tabulations. Workers in the highest job strain positions must constantly deal with the public, are easily monitored by their supervisors or have little, if any, decision making responsibility. Educational achievement, ethnicity and alcohol consumption were not considered in the ranking process for statistical reasons. The authors suggest that the age of the NHANES-I records, the absence of data pertaining to women in the workforce, and the decline of jobs in the manufacturing sector significantly affect the results. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journal of Occupational Medicine
Subject: Health care industry
ISSN: 0096-1736
Year: 1991
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Fatal hand tool injuries in construction
Article Abstract:
Hand tools are major sources of work injury. Previous research has mostly focused on nonfatal traumatic injuries associated with hand tools. Patterns of fatal hand tool injuries have now been extracted by analysis of 36 reports of death related to hand tool use. The types of injuries are discussed in terms of energy: contact with the energy supply (electrical wiring, pressurized lines and tanks, and so on used to power a tool); energy transfer (the work done by the tool on the construction material); falling (movement as kinetic energy); and contact with potential energy in the environment (electrical lines, combustibles, explosives, and so forth). Details associated with many of the incidents are described. The most common fatal injuries were from supply energy, almost all low-voltage electrocutions. An unanticipated pattern was death from falling. Less common was contact with environmental potential energy, such as explosive substances or energized electrical conductors. All but six deaths could have been prevented by taking required protective measures. Education of workers about the lethal nature of low voltage and the importance of grounding tools, the education of welders and others to recognize potential hazards in the environment, and implementation of required protective measures would help to decrease the incidence of deaths related to the use of hand tools. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journal of Occupational Medicine
Subject: Health care industry
ISSN: 0096-1736
Year: 1990
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