Incidence and risk factors associated with lower back pain among university office workers.

This prospective cohort study investigated the incidence of lower back pain (LBP) and the risk factors for LBP among university-based office workers. Participants were 159 office workers in one Thailand university who met the inclusion criteria of the cohort group. Data were collected using a follow-up interview questionnaire and measurements of physical fitness and lighting intensity. Results showed that the incidence of LBP during 12-month follow-up was 83.0%. Physical fitness tests showed that the back, leg and hand grip strengths were significantly lower in LBP cases than in non-cases. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the risk factors associated with LBP were body mass index ≤ 25 (adjusted relative risk [RRadj] = 3.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.27, 9.55]), poor back-pain preventive behavior (RRadj = 3.44, 95% CI [1.08, 10.98]) and inappropriate workstation width (RRadj = 5.72, 95% CI [1.44, 22.70]). In conclusion, most workstations (91.8%) had a lighting intensity lower than the standard requirement (400-500 lx). The results indicate the nature of hazards affecting LBP in office workers in the academic workplace. In order to prevent LBP in this group of office workers, ergonomics education and the better design of workspace, improved lighting and greater emphasis on the physical fitness of staff are needed.

Navigating Interprofessional Spaces: Experiences of Clients Living with Parkinson's Disease, Students and Clinical Educators.

When students in interprofessional education and practice programmes partner with clients living with a long-term condition, the potential for a better client and educational experience is enhanced when the focus is on client self-management and empowerment. This paper reports the findings from a phenomenological study into the experiences of five clients, six speech language therapy students, eight physiotherapy students, and two clinical educators participating in a university clinic-based interprofessional programme for clients living in the community with Parkinson's Disease. Collaborative hermeneutic analysis was conducted to interpret the texts from client interviews and student and clinical educator focus groups held immediately after the programme. The overarching narratives emerging from the texts were: "client-centredness"; "who am I/why am I here?"; "understanding interprofessional collaboration and development"; "personal and professional development, awareness of self and others"; "the environment - safety and support". These narratives and the meanings within them were drawn together to develop a tentative metaphor-based framework of "navigating interprofessional spaces" showing how the narratives and meanings are connected. The framework identifies a temporal journey toward interprofessional collaboration impacted by diverse identities and understandings of self and others, varying expectations and interpretations of the programme, intra- and interpersonal, cultural and contextual spaces, and uncertainty. Shifts in being and doing and uncertainty appear to characterise client-driven, self-management focused interprofessional teamwork for all participants. These findings indicate that students need ongoing opportunities to share explicit understandings of interprofessional teamwork and dispel assumptions, since isolated interprofessional experiences may only begin to address these temporal processes.

Assessing readiness to work in primary health care: the content validity of a self-check tool for physiotherapists and other health professionals.

INTRODUCTION: The New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy has emphasised the importance of well-coordinated service teams in managing complex chronic conditions. There is international evidence that physiotherapists can contribute effectively to the prevention and management of these conditions. However, there are few examples of physiotherapists in New Zealand (NZ) engaging in primary health care (PHC). It has been recognised that professional development is necessary to optimise physiotherapists' participation in PHC. AIM: The aim of this study was to both design a self-check tool that physiotherapists could use as an initial step in preparing to work in PHC and to assess the content validity of the tool. METHODS: A literature review informed the development of the self-check tool. The tool was reviewed by members of the Physiotherapy New Zealand PHC working party to establish content validity. RESULTS: The tool was found to have excellent content validity with an overall score of 0.937, exceeding the acceptable index of 0.8. Item validity was excellent or acceptable for all except two items, which were subsequently modified in the final tool. DISCUSSION: This investigation provides initial support for the tool's potential use by physiotherapists as a means of determining their readiness to work in PHC. It could have application beyond individual professional development to the wider context of team and organisational development. Additionally, with minor modifications the tool could have broader application to other professional groups.

Functional analysis of an extracellular catalase of Botrytis cinerea.

Summary There is evidence that the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea is exposed to oxidative processes within plant tissues. The pathogen itself also generates active oxygen species and H(2)O(2) as pathogenicity factors. Our aim was to study how the pathogen may defend itself against cellular damage caused by the accumulation of H(2)O(2) and the role of an extracellular catalase in its detoxification during the infection of tomato and bean plants by B. cinerea. Chloronaphthol staining followed by light microscopy showed that H(2)O(2) accumulates in the infection zone in tomato and bean leaves. An extracellular catalase gene (denominated Bccat2) was cloned from B. cinerea. Exposure of mycelium to H(2)O(2) in liquid culture resulted in increased Bccat2 mRNA levels in a concentration-dependent manner. Bccat2 mRNA was detected at early stages of tomato leaf infection, suggesting that B. cinerea experiences oxidative stress. Bccat2-deficient mutants were generated by transformation-mediated gene disruption. Mutants were more sensitive then the wild-type strain to H(2)O(2)in vitro, but they partly compensated for the absence of BcCAT2 by activating other protective mechanisms in the presence of H(2)O(2). Bccat2-deficient mutants did not display a consistent reduction of virulence on bean and tomato leaves. Cerium chloride staining of infected leaf tissue for ultrastructural studies showed that Bccat2-deficient mutants were exposed to H(2)O(2) comparably to the wild-type. The results suggest that B. cinerea is a robust pathogen adapted to growing in hostile oxidizing environments in host tissues.