Wearable Device Validity in Measuring Steps, Energy Expenditure, and Heart Rate Across Age, Gender, and Body Mass Index: Data Analysis From a Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: This paper examined whether the criterion validity of step count (SC), energy expenditure (EE), and heart rate (HR) varied across studies depending on the average age, body mass index (BMI), and predominant gender of participants. METHODS: Data from 1536 studies examining the validity of various wearable devices were used. Separate multilevel regression models examined the associations among age, gender, and BMI with device criterion validity assessed using mean absolute percent error (MAPE) at the study level. RESULTS: MAPE values were reported in 970 studies for SC, 328 for EE, and 238 for HR, respectively. There were several significant differences in MAPE between age, gender, and BMI categories for SC, EE, and HR. SC MAPE was significantly different for older adults compared with adults. Compared with studies among normal-weight populations, MAPE was greater among studies with overweight samples for SC, HR, and EE. Comparing studies with more women than men, MAPE was significantly greater for EE and HR. CONCLUSIONS: There are important differences in the criterion validity of commercial wearable devices across studies of varying ages, BMIs, and genders. Few studies have examined differences in error between different age groups, particularly for EE and HR.

Men and Women's Occupational Activities and the Risk of Developing Osteoarthritis of the Knee, Hip, or Hands: A Systematic Review and Recommendations for Future Research.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence for an increased risk of osteoarthritis in the hip, knee, hand, wrist, finger, ankle, foot, shoulder, neck, and spine related to diverse occupational activities of men and women and to examine dose-response information related to the frequency, intensity, and duration of work exposures and the risk of osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Established guidelines for systematic reviews in occupational health and safety studies were followed. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library were searched from inception to December 2017. Studies were reviewed for relevance, quality was appraised, and data were extracted and synthesized. RESULTS: Sixty-nine studies from 23 countries yielded strong and moderate evidence for lifting, cumulative physical loads, full-body vibration, and kneeling/squatting/bending as increasing the risks of developing OA in men and women. Strong and moderate evidence existed for no increased risk of OA related to sitting, standing, and walking (hip and knee OA), lifting and carrying (knee OA), climbing ladders (knee OA), driving (knee OA), and highly repetitive tasks (hand OA). Variability in dose-response data resulted in an inability to synthesize these data. CONCLUSION: Evidence points to the potential for OA occupational recommendations and practice considerations to be developed for women and men. However, research attention is needed to overcome deficits in the measurement and recall of specific work activities so that recommendations and practice considerations can provide the specificity needed to be adopted in workplaces.

A systematic literature review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety regulatory enforcement.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the strength of evidence on the effectiveness of legislative and regulatory policy levers in creating incentives for organizations to improve occupational health and safety processes and outcomes. METHODS: A systematic review was undertaken to assess the strength of evidence on the effectiveness of specific policy levers using a "best-evidence" synthesis approach. RESULTS: A structured literature search identified 11,947 citations from 13 peer-reviewed literature databases. Forty-three studies were retained for synthesis. Strong evidence was identified for three out of nine clusters. CONCLUSIONS: There is strong evidence that several OHS policy levers are effective in terms of reducing injuries and/or increasing compliance with legislation. This study adds to the evidence on OHS regulatory effectiveness from an earlier review. In addition to new evidence supporting previous study findings, it included new categories of evidence-compliance as an outcome, nature of enforcement, awareness campaigns, and smoke-free workplace legislation. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:919-933, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Process and implementation of participatory ergonomic interventions: a systematic review.

Participatory ergonomic (PE) interventions may vary in implementation. A systematic review was done to determine the evidence regarding context, barriers and facilitators to the implementation of participatory ergonomic interventions in workplaces. In total, 17 electronic databases were searched. Data on PE process and implementation were extracted from documents meeting content and quality criteria and synthesised. The search yielded 2151 references. Of these, 190 documents were relevant and 52 met content and quality criteria. Different ergonomic teams were described in the documents as were the type, duration and content of ergonomic training. PE interventions tended to focus on physical and work process changes and report positive impacts. Resources, programme support, ergonomic training, organisational training and communication were the most often noted facilitators or barriers. Successful PE interventions require the right people to be involved, appropriate ergonomic training and clear responsibilities. Addressing key facilitators and barriers such as programme support, resources, and communication is paramount. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: A recent systematic review has suggested that PE has some effect on reducing symptoms, lost days of work and claims. Systematic reviews of effectiveness provide practitioners with the desire to implement but do not provide clear information about how. This article reviews the literature on process and implementation of PE.

Workplace interventions to prevent musculoskeletal and visual symptoms and disorders among computer users: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The literature examining the effects of workstation, eyewear and behavioral interventions on musculoskeletal and visual symptoms among computer users is large and heterogeneous. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature used a best evidence synthesis approach to address the general question "Do office interventions among computer users have an effect on musculoskeletal or visual health?" This was followed by an evaluation of specific interventions. RESULTS: The initial search identified 7313 articles which were reduced to 31 studies based on content and quality. Overall, a mixed level of evidence was observed for the general question. Moderate evidence was observed for: (1) no effect of workstation adjustment, (2) no effect of rest breaks and exercise and (3) positive effect of alternative pointing devices. For all other interventions mixed or insufficient evidence of effect was observed. CONCLUSION: Few high quality studies were found that examined the effects of interventions in the office on musculoskeletal or visual health.

Preventing injury, illness and disability at work.

This discussion paper is intended to start a dialogue about prevention among those who are interested in making workplaces safer and healthier. The following four key themes are presented to build a framework for further discussion and activity: theme 1 -- with multiple causes for workplace injury, illness, and disability, preventing these problems requires multiple solutions, operating in synergy; theme 2 -- efforts to reduce workplace injury, illness, and disability must build on both primary and secondary prevention approaches, merging these to create a more effective strategy; theme 3 -- before which strategies work and which do not can be agreed upon, a shared understanding is needed of how the effectiveness of occupational health interventions should be evaluated; and theme 4 -- building relationships between those who do research and those who use research knowledge is important if relevant research is to be produced that is readily taken up and applied to improve occupational health and safety.