[Relationship between perceptions of safety climate at workplace and depressive disorders in manufacturing workers].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk factors for depressive disorders in manufacturing workers and to provide a basis for developing health promotion measures at workplace. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was performed in 8085 front-line production workers from 33 manufacturing enterprises in Nanhai District of Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. The questionnaire contained a survey of demographic characteristics, the Safety Climate Scale, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, etc. The multilevel logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the risk factors for depressive disorders in workers. RESULTS: A total of 6260 workers completed the survey; their mean age was 31.1 ± 8.6 years, and 53.2% of them were males. The multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that after adjustment for sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, and martial status, more depressive disorders were reported in the enterprises with higher score of "production safety training" than in those with lower score (OR = 1.46, 95%CI = 1.07 ∼ 1.97); fewer depressive disorders were reported in the enterprises with higher score of "colleagues concerned about production safety" than in those with lower score (OR = 0.08, 95%CI = 0.03 ∼ 0.26); the relationships of "safety warnings and precautions" and "managers concerned about production safety" with workers' depressive disorders were not statistically significant (OR = 0.78, 95%CI = 0.48 ∼ 1.28; OR = 1.08, 95%CI = 0.68 ∼ 1.72). CONCLUSION: Depressive disorders in manufacturing workers are related to the safety climate at workplace, which indicates that a good safety climate at workplace should be created to prevent and control depressive disorders in workers.

[Associations of occupational safety atmosphere and behaviors with unintentional injuries].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the associations of perception of safety atmosphere at workplace, occupational safety attitude and behaviors with occupational unintentional injury among manufacturing workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed and a self-administered questionnaire was used to inquire socio-demographic characteristics, perceived safety atmosphere, occupational safety attitudes, occupational safety behaviors and occupational unintentional injuries among 10585 manufacturing workers selected from 46 enterprises in Guangdong. Structural equation modeling was applied to assess the relationship of the perception of safety atmosphere at workplace, occupational safety attitude, and occupational safety behaviors with occupational unintentional injury. RESULTS: Among 24 pathways supposed in structural equation model, 20 pathways (except for the attitude toward occupational safety, the attitude toward managers' support, the work posture and individual protection) were significantly related to the occupational unintentional injuries. The further analysis indicated that the perceived safety atmosphere might impact the occupational unintentional injuries by the attitude toward occupational safety and occupational safety behaviors. CONCLUSION: Workers' perception of safety atmosphere indirectly influenced on occupational unintentional injuries through occupational safety attitudes and occupational safety behaviors.

[An assembly line lighting survey analysis and its optimal illumination range research].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and analyze present conditions of the assembling line illumination in our country, and to set the recommended values of illuminance standard. METHODS: Questionnaires and field surveys were used in this investigation. A total of 752 workers from seven factories in textile, shoes and electronics industries were selected for the questionnaire survey and site measurement, and corresponding analyses made with SPSS 13.0 statistic software. RESULTS: Uniformity of illumination, definition in working face, general satisfactory degrees, asthenopia were significantly correlated with each other. Assembly line illuminances for five different visual characteristics were recommended in this paper. The illuminances were 500-1 000-1 500 lx, 300-500-1 000 lx, 200-300-750 lx, 100-300-500 lx, 50-100-200 lx, respectively. CONCLUSION: Present conditions of the assembling line illumination are less than satisfactory, uniformity of illumination is on the low side, and there is no assembling line illuminance standard for general satisfactory degrees and asthenopia of workers. The related work should be further improved.

[The interactive effect of job task and psychosocial factors on work-related musculoskeletal disorders].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the interactive effect of job task and psychosocial factors on the outcomes of musculoskeletal disorders. METHODS: 653 workers from different type of manufacturing industries and administration office recruited in a cross-sectional epidemiological survey. The Quick Exposure Check (QEC) was applied to assess the ergonomic load of job task, Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) for identifying psychological characteristics, and Nordic Standardized Questionnaire for investigating outcomes of WMSDs. RESULTS: The prevalence of WMSD in shoulder, upper back, lower back and hand/wrist were significantly different under a variety of combined job task and psychosocial characteristics (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The more physical and psychological loads, the higher prevalence of WMSDs were revealed. By using multivariate analyses, a potential interactive effect was found in terms of the WMSDs symptoms in hand/wrist, shoulder, upper back and lower back after adjusted by work year, age, and gender. CONCLUSIONS: Higher physical load and greater psychosocial risk are more frequent self-reported symptoms of WMSDs than those of lower exposures. Ergonomic intervention strategies aimed at reducing the incidence of WMSDs should not only be focused on control of physical work factors but also psychosocial risks of relevance.