Documents et al. 306 results

"Objective
A consensual definition of occupational burnout is currently lacking. We aimed to harmonize the definition of occupational burnout as a health outcome in medical research and reach a consensus on this definition within the Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts (OMEGA-NET).
Methods
First, we performed a systematic review in MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Embase (January 1990 to August 2018) and a semantic analysis of the available definitions. We used the definitions of burnout and burnout-related concepts from the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) to formulate a consistent harmonized definition of the concept. Second, we sought to obtain the Delphi consensus on the proposed definition.
Results
We identified 88 unique definitions of burnout and assigned each of them to 1 of the 11 original definitions. The semantic analysis yielded a first proposal, further reformulated according to SNOMED-CT and the panelists` comments as follows: "In a worker, occupational burnout or occupational physical AND emotional exhaustion state is an exhaustion due to prolonged exposure to work-related problems”. A panel of 50 experts (researchers and healthcare professionals with an interest for occupational burnout) reached consensus on this proposal at the second round of the Delphi, with 82% of experts agreeing on it.
Conclusion
This study resulted in a harmonized definition of occupational burnout approved by experts from 29 countries within OMEGA-NET. Future research should address the reproducibility of the Delphi consensus in a larger panel of experts, representing more countries, and examine the practicability of the definition."

"This report funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers highlights how indirect, cross-border climate risks, known as transboundary climate risks, impact the Nordic countries – and what governments can do to advance action to adapt to these risks.
Climate change is projected to have devastating impacts on people and ecosystems if the world does not reach the goals set in the Paris Agreement – and significant impacts even if it does. Traditionally the focus in public discussions and policy has been on direct climate impacts such as extreme weather events.
However, there is a growing recognition that many of the more serious impacts may be indirect, cascading and cross-border. This is especially the case in Nordic countries that are both less vulnerable to direct impacts and more exposed to international connections than many other countries."

"Objective:
The aim of this study was to identify the occupational risk for a SARS-CoV-2 infection in a nationwide sample of German workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 February-31 August 2020).
Methods:
We used the data of 108 960 workers who participated in a COVID follow-up survey of the German National Cohort (NAKO). Occupational characteristics were derived from the German Classification of Occupations 2010 (Klassifikation der Berufe 2010). PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections were assessed from self-reports. Incidence rates (IR) and incidence rate ratios (IRR) were estimated using robust Poisson regression, adjusted for person-time at risk, age, sex, migration background, study center, working hours, and employment relationship.
Results:
The IR was 3.7 infections per 1000 workers [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.3-4.1]. IR differed by occupational sector, with the highest rates observed in personal (IR 4.8, 95% CI 4.0-5.6) and business administration (IR 3.4, 95% CI 2.8-3.9) services and the lowest rates in occupations related to the production of goods (IR 2.0, 95% CI 1.5-2.6). Infections were more frequent among essential workers compared with workers in non-essential occupations (IRR 1.95, 95% CI 1.59-2.40) and among highly skilled compared with skilled professions (IRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.07-1.72).
Conclusions:
The results emphasize higher infection risks in essential occupations and personal-related services, especially in the healthcare sector. Additionally, we found evidence that infections were more common in higher occupational status positions at the beginning of the pandemic."

"Objectives
The quantitative job-exposure matrix SYN-JEM consists of various dimensions: job-specific estimates, region-specific estimates, and prior expert ratings of jobs by the semi-quantitative DOM-JEM. We analyzed the effect of different JEM dimensions on the exposure–response relationships between occupational silica exposure and lung cancer risk to investigate how these variations influence estimates of exposure by a quantitative JEM and associated health endpoints.
Methods
Using SYN-JEM, and alternative SYN-JEM specifications with varying dimensions included, cumulative silica exposure estimates were assigned to 16 901 lung cancer cases and 20 965 controls pooled from 14 international community-based case-control studies. Exposure–response relationships based on SYN-JEM and alternative SYN-JEM specifications were analyzed using regression analyses (by quartiles and log-transformed continuous silica exposure) and generalized additive models (GAM), adjusted for age, sex, study, cigarette pack-years, time since quitting smoking, and ever employment in occupations with established lung cancer risk.
Results
SYN-JEM and alternative specifications generated overall elevated and similar lung cancer odds ratios ranging from 1.13 (1st quartile) to 1.50 (4th quartile). In the categorical and log-linear analyses SYN-JEM with all dimensions included yielded the best model fit, and exclusion of job-specific estimates from SYN-JEM yielded the poorest model fit. Additionally, GAM showed the poorest model fit when excluding job-specific estimates.
Conclusion
The established exposure–response relationship between occupational silica exposure and lung cancer was marginally influenced by varying the dimensions of SYN-JEM. Optimized modelling of exposure–response relationships will be obtained when incorporating all relevant dimensions, namely prior rating, job, time, and region. Quantitative job-specific estimates appeared to be the most prominent dimension for this general population JEM."

"Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) can be relevant in achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal of decent work by 2030. However, further OSH actions are needed. This paper identifies the role of OSH in addressing two of many determinants of decent work: new forms of work/innovative technologies and worker aging. The authors conducted a discursive analysis of the two determinants and provided examples for consideration. New forms of work/innovative technologies can not only promote but also undermine the future of decent work, and unhealthy aging impedes longer working lives. With a focus on the OSH aspects of new forms of work/innovative technologies and aging, decent work is more likely to be achieved."

"Background:
The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) have promoted the concept of decent work as a Sustainable Development Goal for 2030 to address critical global problems. Occupational safety and health (OSH) are components of decent work, primarily through the ILO social protection objective of the goal, and are linked to various other objectives.
Objective:
This Commentary applies a previously published staging framework to stimulate thinking about how the OSH field can contribute further to the achievement of decent work.
Methods:
To advance the contribution of the framework, the different functions of OSH (research, practice, advocacy, governance, and professional education) were used to identify impediments to achieving decent work and develop recommendations for each determinant in the framework.
Results:
Promoting and achieving decent work are complex issues that require a multifactorial approach. Numerous recommendations supporting systems thinking and transdisciplinary approaches are provided.
Conclusions:
The OSH field can expand to further address decent work."

"Background:PFASs, synthetic chemicals, can be encountered by humans through occupational or environmental exposure, and some reports suggest that they can disrupt endocrine and hormonal activities. In this comprehensive review and meta-analysis, we explored the connection between exposure to PFASs and the risks of breast and female genital cancers. Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature from IARC Monographs, ATSDR documents, and PubMed (as of January 2024) for cohort, case-control, and ecological studies on PFAS exposure and breast or female genital cancers. Four reviewers independently screened studies, and data extraction included study design, patient characteristics, and effect size measures. The quality of studies was assessed using the modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Forest plots of relative risks (RR) were constructed for breast and female genital cancer. Meta-analyses were conducted using random-effects models, stratified analyses, dose-response assessments, and publication bias evaluation. Results: The meta-analysis included 24 studies, comprising 10 cohort, 13 case-control, and one ecological study. The summary relative risk (RR) of breast cancer for PFOA exposure was 1.08 (95% CI = 0.97-1.20; n=21), and for PFOS was 1.00 (95% CI = 0.85-1.18; n=12). The RR for ovarian cancer and PFAS was 1.07 (95% CI = 1.04-1.09; n=12). The stratification by quality score, year of publication, and expo-sure source did not reveal any differences. However, analysis by geographical region (p=0.01) and study design (p=0.03) did show differences, particularly in terms of incidence. Stratified analyses of the dose-response relation-ship did not reveal a trend in the risk of breast cancer or female genital cancers, and no publication bias was found for either cancer type. No results were available for cervical and endometrial cancers. Conclusion: In summary, our results suggest an association between PFAS exposure and ovarian cancer and a possible effect on breast can-cer incidence in some specific groups. However, bias and confounding cannot be excluded and prevent conclusions regarding causality."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"This report marks our second collective effort to document contemporary international strike trends. The initiative originated from two online workshops held in 2022 and 2023, which brought together researchers studying working-class protests using the protest event analysis method. Following these discussions, research groups from six countries collaborated to publish the International Strike Report 2022 on May 1, 2024.
This year, researchers and research groups from five additional countries (Argentina, Belgium, South Africa, the UK and Uruguay) have joined the project. This 2023 report examines strike trends across eleven countries, aiming to enhance visibility and provide insight into global workers' strikes. While compiling this report requires substantial effort, we remain committed to continuing this work in the years ahead.
Due to the labor-intensive nature of protest event analysis, this report focuses on 2023 rather than 2024. However, we hope to narrow this gap in future reports."

"Background
The initial lockdown during the pandemic of COVID-19 led to adjustments in working conditions, including extensive use of telecommuting whenever possible, putatively influencing both work-related and home-related stress.
Objectives
Our aim was to measure the impact of teleworking on work-related and home-related during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
The international study was conducted using an online questionnaire to collect demographic and stress-related data from individuals worldwide during the 2020 pandemic year. Work-related and home-related stress levels were evaluated using an uncalibrated visual analog scale, with a range from 0 (none) to 100 (maximum).
Results
A total of 13,537 individuals from 44 countries completed the survey between January and June 2020. A total of 7356 individuals were engaged in professional activities. Of these, 6639 continued to work, of which 2573 carried on as usual and 4066 teleworked. The teleworkers demonstrated a considerably (p < 0.001) lower level of work-related stress (58 ± 31.6) in comparison to those who maintained their usual work schedule (63.6 ± 31.1). However, there was no statistically significant variation in home-related stress between the two groups. The risk of high levels of work-related stress (stress > 80) was multiplied by 1.76 in women (1.54 to 2.01; p < 0.001), by 1.43 (1.27 to 1.61; p < 0.001) for those who did not telework, by 5.31 (4.57 to 6.18; p < 0.001) for those with high levels of home-related stress (stress > 80), and by 1.46 (1.22 to 1.76; p < 0.001) for those from continents outside Europe. Home-related stress is also a risk factor for work-related stress, and vice versa. Sociodemographic risk factors for higher levels of home-related stress were age < 50 years old, women, working < 50 h per week, continents outside Europe, and not teleworking were no longer risk factors.
Conclusion
Telework emerged as a viable option during the initial phase of the global pandemic. This mode of work was associated with lower levels of work-related stress compared to workers who were required to work in a conventional manner. In terms of home-related stress, telecommuters experienced more stress than those who continued to work as usual."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"Ce second état de la situation de l'Obvia s'inscrit dans un contexte où l'intelligence artificielle générative se déploie de plus en plus au sein des organisations. Depuis sa création, l'Obvia a mené divers travaux de recherche qui ont mis en lumière les principaux enjeux et problématiques liés au développement, au déploiement et à l'adoption de l'intelligence artificielle. Si les préoccupations techniques et éthiques entourant l'IA générative demeurent centrales, nous ne pouvons passer sous silence un phénomène plus profond et préoccupant qui émerge parallèlement, soit l'affaiblissement des valeurs fondamentales de la science. La liberté académique et l'indépendance scientifique sont de plus en plus mises à mal, suscitant de vives inquiétudes tout en démontrant l'importance de promouvoir le travail scientifique. C'est dans ce contexte préoccupant que s'inscrit l'édition 2025 de cet état de la situation."