Development and validation of sustainable employability index among older employees.

BACKGROUND: Sustainable employability (SE) has become an important factor for keeping people in the labour market and enabling the extension of working life. AIMS: We developed and validated an SE index to predict assured workability in 2 years. Additionally, we developed a scoring tool to use in practice. METHODS: A questionnaire survey of postal employees aged ≥50 years was conducted in 2016 and followed up in 2018 (n = 1102). The data were divided into training and validation sets. The outcome was defined as whether the employees had an assured workability after 2 years or not. Multivariable log-binomial regression was used to calculate the SE index. The area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to assess the discriminative power of the index. RESULTS: The probability of assured workability increased with increasing quintiles of the SE index. The highest quintiles of the SE index showed the highest observed and expected assured workability in 2 years. The predictive ability, area under the curve (AUC) for training was 0.79 (95% CI 0.75-0.83) and for validation data was 0.76 (95% CI 0.73-0.80). In the scoring tool, the self-rated health, workability, job satisfaction and perceived employment had the highest contribution to the index. CONCLUSIONS: The SE index was able to distinguish the employees based on whether they had assured workability after 2 years. The scoring method could be used to calculate the potentiality of future employability among late midlife postal employees.

Ingredients and contaminants of traditional alcoholic beverages in Tanzania.

Home-made but commercially available alcoholic beverages were collected in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and analysed for their congener alcohol, additive, aflatoxin and heavy metal contents. Ethanol concentrations of the 15 brewed samples ranged from 2.2 to 8.5% w/v whilst the 2 distilled samples contained ethanol 24.2 and 29.3% w/v. Aflatoxin B1 was found in 9 brewed beverages, suggesting the use of contaminated grain or fruit for their production. The amount of zinc in 4 samples was double the World Health Organization recommended maximum for drinking water (5 mg/litre). One brewed beverage contained toxic amount of manganese (12.8 mg/litre). Both distilled spirits were rich in fusel alcohols and one was fortified by caffeine. The results suggested that impurities and contaminants possibly associated with severe health risks, including carcinogens, are often found in traditional alcoholic beverages. Continuous daily drinking of these beverages is certain to increase health risks. Contaminated grain or fruit rejected from foodstuff production should not be used for the production of alcoholic beverages.

Enalapril in chronic heart failure, a double-blind placebo-controlled study.

The efficacy of enalapril, a new angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, was investigated in a double-blind placebo-controlled study in 24 patients with chronic heart failure. The patients belonging to NYHA functional class II-IV and treated with digoxin and diuretics were randomized to enalapril (12 patients) or placebo (12 patients) treatment for a 12-week period. Assessments were carried out at baseline and at 4 and 12 weeks during the treatment period. Complete data could be obtained on 10 patients receiving enalapril and on 11 patients receiving placebo. NYHA functional class improved by at least one class in 6 of 10 patients in the enalapril group, but only in 1 of 11 patients in the placebo group (chi 2 = 6.54; p less than 0.05). Duration of bicycle ergometer exercise increased significantly in the enalapril group from 8.8 +/- 3.4 to 11.3 +/- 4.2 (4 weeks) and to 11.2 +/- 3.6 min (12 weeks; p less than 0.05 for both), whereas it remained unchanged in the placebo group. Left ventricular ejection fraction by radionuclide ventriculography in the enalapril group increased significantly (baseline: 33.5 +/- 19.9%, 4 weeks: 40.0 +/- 20.0% (p less than 0.001), 12 weeks: 39.6 +/- 20.1% (p less than 0.01], whereas in the placebo group it did not change significantly from the baseline of 48.8 +/- 16.7%. The results indicate that enalapril induces a sustained relief of symptoms and improves exercise capacity in patients with heart failure. This subjective improvement appears to be accompanied by an increase in ejection fraction.

An inborn alcohol tolerance in alcohol-preferring rats. The lack of relationship between tolerance to ethanol and the brain microsomal (Na+K+) ATPase activity.

Alcohol tolerance, measured as performance on the tilting plane after ethanol injection (2.5 g/kg body weight i.p.), was examined in the AA strain of rats which voluntarily drink large amounts of alcohol, in the ANA strain which drink very little alcohol, and in ordinary albino rats which consume intermediary amounts of alcohol. The AAs showed the highest innate ethanol tolerance; the ANAs had the lowest innate tolerance. After chronic alcohol administration, both AA and ANA strains increased their tolerance, but the AAs remained superior to the ANAs. The chronic ethanol treatment did not significantly change the (Na+K+) ATPase activity of the crude microsomal fraction of the brains of the strains.

A difference in the effects of ethanol on ion movements in cerebral tissue slices from alcohol preferring and alcohol avoiding rats.

The sodium and potassium contents in cerebral cortex slices incubated in bicarbonate medium from alcohol preferring (AA) and alcohol avoiding (ANA) rats were measured during electrical stimulation and subsequent recovery. The intracellular quantities were estimated on the basis of the inulin distribution. The amount of intracellular potassium in unstimulated slices from the two strains was different, the AA rats showing a higher level. No differences in the entry of sodium were observed for the two strains when slices incubated with ethanol were subjected to electrical stimulation, but the loss of potassium was 46% greater in the AA rats. During recovery no ethanol-induced inhibition of theloss of sodium ions was seen in either strain, whereas the gain of potassium ions was inhibited in the ANA rats and not in the AA RATS. The potassium gain in the presence of ethanol was 42% greater during the recovery period in the AA rats.

Ethanol-induced changes in cation-stimulated adenosine triphosphatase activity and lipid-proteolipid labeling of brain microsomes.

The experiments described are based on the hypothesis that prolongation of the depressant action of ethanol leads to compensatory changes in neuronal membrane structures involved in impulse conduction and transmission, and that these become manifest as increased tolerance and withdrawal hyperexcitability. Behavioral tolerance was tested by means of the tilted plane test in rats consuming 9-10 g ethanol/kg/day in a liquid diet fed ad lib., or given 5 g/kg every other day by stomach tube, or doses rising from 6 to 9 g/kg/day maintaining continuous intoxication. All treatments were continued for about three or four weeks before testing. Rats consuming ethanol at a self-regulated rate did not develop tolerance, evidently because sufficient alcohol levels were not built up. Prolonged intoxication induced a high degree of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, whereas intoxication every other day induced an intermediate degree of tolerance. When no definite abstinence symptoms were associated with the behavioral tolerance, cation stimulated ATPase activity of the brain microsomal fraction was not changed. With increasing withdrawal excitability, there was a relative increase in Na+, K+-stimulated ATPase and an decrease in Mg2+-stimulated ATPase whereas total activity of the enzyme system was not altered. 14C-serine was used as a precursor in order to detect changes in the metabolism of membrane components. So far, only acute experiments have been carried out in vivo. Heavy intoxication (6 g ethanol/kg by stomach tube) inhibited labeling of brain microsomal lipids and proteolipids. In "hangover", proteolipid labeling had returned to the control level whereas lipid labeling was still depressed. Cerebral cortex slices from rats in a withdrawal state after prolonged intoxication, and from control rats, were incubated in vitro with 14C-serine. Unstimulated tissue showed no effect of the prior treatment. When electrical stimulation was applied, much more activity was recovered in microsomal lipids of slices from withdrawal animals than from controls.

Effects of single doses and daily administration of pyrithioxine (pyritinolum,NFN, RINN) on the alcohol withdrawal syndrome in rats.

Male Wistar rats were made physically dependent on ethanol by intragastric administration (4-10 g/kg/day) for 20 days. The dose of ethanol was adjusted to maintain the maximal level of intoxication compatible with adequate intake of a liquid diet. After withdrawal of ethanol a few animals developed spontaneous tonic-clonic convulsions. A marked increase in susceptibility to sound-induced convulsions and decrease in sensitivity to pain were observed in the rats after withdrawal, and their serum and red cell Mg++ contents were found to be significantly lower and red cell K+ content higher than in controls. Therapeutic amounts (0.01 g/kg/day) of pyrithioxine (pyritinolum NFN, rINN) (bis-3-hydroxy-4-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyridyl-(5)-methyl)-disulphide dihydrochloride monohydrate) given with the ethanol for 20 days made the rats with withdrawal symptoms significantly more responsive to pain and slightly but insignificantly less susceptible to sound-induced withdrawal convulsions, but this pretreatment did not markedly prevent the deviations in electrolyte concentrations. Large amounts of the drug (0.2-0.3 g/kg/day), however, increased the number of spontaneous withdrawal convulsions. Acute administration of pyrithioxine (0.01 g/kg) after cessation of the intoxication period did not mitigate the withdrawal symptoms, and massive amounts (2 g/kg) killed the animals within a few hours. Voluntary alcohol consumption of Alko AA rats ( a high-consumer strain) was not altered by pyrithioxine. The results indicate that pyrithioxine may affect the symptoms of ethanol withdrawal in different ways, the effect depending on both dose level and time of administration. It is suggested that the reason for the slight beneficial effect of pyrithioxine on the withdrawal symptoms when taken regularly in combination with ethanol is the slight protection afforded against intoxication.