Rotating night shift work and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among steelworkers in China: a cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVES: In a 24/7 society, the negative metabolic effects of rotating night shift work have been increasingly explored. This study aimed to examine the association between rotating night shift work and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in steelworkers. METHODS: A total of 6881 subjects was included in this study. Different exposure metrics of night shift work including current shift status, duration of night shifts (years), cumulative number of night shifts (nights), cumulative length of night shifts (hours), average frequency of night shifts (nights/month) and average length of night shifts (hours/night) were used to examine the relationship between night shift work and NAFLD. RESULTS: Current night shift workers had elevated odds of NAFLD (OR, 1.23, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.48) compared with those who never worked night shifts after adjustment for potential confounders. Duration of night shifts, cumulative number of night shifts and cumulative length of night shifts were positively associated with NAFLD. Both the average frequency of night shifts (>7 nights/month vs ≤7 nights/month: OR, 1.24, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.45) and average length of night shifts (>8 hours/night vs ≤8 hours/night: OR, 1.27, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.51) were independently associated with overall NAFLD after mutually adjusting for the duration of night shifts and other potential confounders among night shift workers. No significant association was found in female workers between different exposure metrics of night shift work and NAFLD. CONCLUSIONS: Rotating night shift work is associated with elevated odds of NAFLD in male steelworkers.

[Association between joint of heat and noise and metabolic syndrome in steel workers].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship between joint of heat and noise, and metabolic syndrome in a steel rolling factory workers. METHODS: A total of 590 steel workers were selected as subjects by cluster sampling method from workers of a steel factory. They were investigated by face to face way with the unified questionnaire which contents included personal information, occupational history, personal history, habits and other factors. Furthermore, height, weight, waist circumference and blood pressure were measured. Referring to the 2005 International Diabetes Federation (IDF) issued by the metabolic syndrome (MS) worldwide uniform definition combines waist diagnosis MS. A database was built by Epidata 3.0 software, and data was analyzed by SPSS 17.0. RESULTS: 571 steel workers were from 22 to 60 years, mean age (41.2 -7.9) years old. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in steel workers was 17.9%. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome of those who exposed to high temperature was 18.8%, higher than that of those who did not expose to high temperature (5.3%), there was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome of those who exposed to noise was 20.6%, higher than that of those who did not exposed to noise (14.0%) (P < 0.05). After adjusting for the effects of confounding factors, the prevalence of MS those who exposed to high temperatures and noise is 1.118 times as high as that of those who did not exposed to high temperatures and noise. CONCLUSIONS: The combined effects of heat and noise is related to the increasing prevalence of MS of steel workers.

Effects of extreme meteorological factors and high air pollutant concentrations on the incidence of hand, foot and mouth disease in Jining, China.

Background: The evidence on the effects of extreme meteorological conditions and high air pollution levels on incidence of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is limited. Moreover, results of the available studies are inconsistent. Further investigations are imperative to elucidate the specific issue. Methods: Data on the daily cases of HFMD, meteorological factors and air pollution were obtained from 2017 to 2022 in Jining City. We employed distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) incorporated with Poisson regression to explore the impacts of extreme meteorological conditions and air pollution on HFMD incidence. Results: We found that there were nonlinear relationships between temperature, wind speed, PM2.5, SO2, O3 and HFMD. The cumulative risk of extreme high temperature was higher at the 95th percentile (P95th) than at the 90th percentile(P90th), and the RR values for both reached their maximum at 10-day lag (P95th RR = 1.880 (1.261-2.804), P90th RR = 1.787 (1.244-2.569)), the hazardous effect of extreme low temperatures on HFMD is faster than that of extreme high temperatures. The cumulative effect of extreme low wind speeds reached its maximum at 14-day lag (P95th RR = 1.702 (1.389-2.085), P90th RR = 1.498(1.283-1.750)). The cumulative effect of PM2.5 concentration at the P90th was largest at 14-day lag (RR = 1.637 (1.069-2.506)), and the cumulative effect at the P95th was largest at 10-day lag (RR = 1.569 (1.021-2.411)). High SO2 concentration at the P95th at 14-day lag was associated with higher risk for HFMD (RR: 1.425 (1.001-2.030)). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that high temperature, low wind speed, and high concentrations of PM2.5 and SO2 are associated with an increased risk of HFMD. This study not only adds insights to the understanding of the impact of extreme meteorological conditions and high levels of air pollutants on HFMD incidence but also holds practical significance for the development and enhancement of an early warning system for HFMD.

Job category differences in the prevalence and associated factors of insomnia in steel workers in China.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of insomnia and risk factors among different job categories of steel workers in China, in order to improve their quality of occupational life. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional face-to-face survey was conducted which involved 5834 steel workers from a large enterprise located in northern China, including front-line, maintenance and inspection, and other auxiliary workers. The Athens Insomnia Scale and the Job Content Questionnaire were used to assess the status of insomnia and job stress/social support, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors influencing insomnia. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of insomnia was determined at 42.0% (95% confidence interval: 40.7%-43.2%). For front-line, maintenance and inspection, and other auxiliary workers, the prevalence was 42.3%, 39.8%, and 47.9% (p = 0.001), respectively. The participants with high stress and low support, and those who had experienced ≥2 major life events in the past 12 months, compared to those with low stress and high support, and those without major events, displayed an increased risk of insomnia among all 3 job categories (the adjusted odds ratio ranged 1.56-2.38 and 1.30-1.75, respectively). The educational level, shift work, alcohol consumption, and present illness were identified as influencing factors of insomnia for 1 or 2 job categories. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of insomnia was the highest in the group of other auxiliary steel workers among the 3 job categories of steel workers under consideration. While the influencing factors of insomnia differed among the groups, job stress and major life events were common risk factors of insomnia among the 3 categories of steel workers. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2020;33(2):215-33.

Comprehensive Evaluation System of Occupational Hazard Prevention and Control in Iron and Steel Enterprises Based on A Modified Delphi Technique.

The study designs a comprehensive evaluation system for the prevention and control of occupational hazards, calculates its weight coefficient, and provides a potential strategic and effective tool for the scientific evaluation of occupational hazards in the iron and steel enterprises. The system was established through induction and analysis of relevant literature, personal interview, theoretical analysis, Delphi expert consultation, and special group discussions. Using an improved analytical hierarchy process fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model and on the basis of the improved Delphi expert investigation, the weight of the operability comprehensive evaluation index system is constructed. A three-level index system is established on the basis of harmful factors of occupational activities, health status of employees, protection facilities of occupational hazards, occupational health management, and so on. The index system structure is 4-20-95, and the weight coefficients of the four dimensions are 0.2516, 0.2428, 0.2550, and 0.2506. The recovery rate of the questionnaire was 82.5%, 100.0%, and 100.0%. The effective rates were 75.0%, 100.0%, and 100.0%. Conversely, the expert authority coefficients of the four dimensions are 0.875, 0.769, 0.832 and 0.800. Results show that the consistency factors of the four dimensions are statistically significant. Cronbach's α coefficient, standardized Cronbach's α coefficient, and split-half reliability of the comprehensive evaluation index system are 0.959, 0.950, and 0.810, respectively. After factor analysis, four common factors were extracted on the basis of expert opinions, and the cumulative variance was 63.1%. The comprehensive evaluation system for the prevention and control of occupational hazards in the iron and steel enterprises proposed by the study is relatively complete and reasonable.

Development and evaluation of a deep learning approach for modeling seasonality and trends in hand-foot-mouth disease incidence in mainland China.

The high incidence, seasonal pattern and frequent outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) represent a threat for millions of children in mainland China. And advanced response is being used to address this. Here, we aimed to model time series with a long short-term memory (LSTM) based on the HFMD notified data from June 2008 to June 2018 and the ultimate performance was compared with the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and nonlinear auto-regressive neural network (NAR). The results indicated that the identified best-fitting LSTM with the better superiority, be it in modeling dataset or two robustness tests dataset, than the best-conducting NAR and seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA) methods in forecasting performances, including the minimum indices of root mean square error, mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error. The epidemic trends of HFMD remained stable during the study period, but the reported cases were even at significantly high levels with a notable high-risk seasonality in summer, and the incident cases projected by the LSTM would still be fairly high with a slightly upward trend in the future. In this regard, the LSTM approach should be highlighted in forecasting the epidemics of HFMD, and therefore assisting decision makers in making efficient decisions derived from the early detection of the disease incidents.

Effect of Interaction Between Noise and A1166C Site of AT1R Gene Polymorphism on Essential Hypertension in an Iron and Steel Enterprise Workers.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the interaction of Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) gene polymorphism and occupational noise on the occurrence of essential hypertension (EH) in steel and iron enterprise men workers. METHODS: A case control study of 935 iron and steel enterprise men workers was conducted, which included 312 cases of hypertension and 623 cases without hypertension. The noise at the workplace was assessed. Polymorphism of AT1R of the workers was examined using polymerase chain reaction - restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS: Polymorphism of AT1R (AC+CC vs. AA, odds ratio [OR] = 1.760, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.061∼2.920) and noise (greater than or equal to 85 dB(A),OR = 1.641, 95%CI: 1.225∼2.198) were independent determinants of EH using multivariate Logistic regression. Compared with AA carriers without noise, AC+CC interacted with noise (OR = 2.519, 95%CI: 1.254∼5.062) based on the multiplied model. CONCLUSIONS: AC+CC genotype of AT1R and noise were the risky factors of EH. These factors also interacted with each other.