The State of Higher Education in Occupational Health and Safety in Central Asian Countries.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dzhusupov KO
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6748294 | biostudies-other | 2018 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Similar Datasets
Project description:Eastern European and Central Asian countries are undergoing rapid socioeconomic and political reforms. Many old industrial facilities are either abandoned, or use outdated technologies that severely impact the environment. Emerging industries have less regulation than in developed countries and environmental and occupational problems seem to be increasing. Under a US National Institutes of Health pilot grant, we developed an interdisciplinary One Health research network in Southeastern Europe and West-Central Asia to identify environmental and occupational problems. From 2012 to 2014, this GeoHealth Hub engaged 11 academic centers and 16 public health institutions in eight different countries: Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, and the United States with a goal of strengthening environmental and occupational research and training capacities. Employing face-to-face interviews and large group meetings, we conducted an evidenced-based needs and opportunities assessment focused on aquatic health, food safety, and zoonotic diseases. Comprehensive reviews of the published literature yielded priority research areas for each of the seven GeoHealth Hub countries including heavy metal and pesticide contamination, tick-borne diseases, rabies, brucellosis, and inadequate public health surveillance.
| S-EPMC4828928 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThere is a lack of trained Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals able to meet the current and future demand for such expertize in the United States. Many OSH professionals are required to perform duties, which are outside of their primary area of expertize; thus, expansion of continuing education (CE) may be necessary to properly train individuals for new OSH responsibilities.MethodsThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-funded Education and Research Centers collectively developed and distributed an internet-based survey to gauge the CE needs and interests of the OSH workforce.ResultsA total of 2064 responses were received. The most common primary professions represented were safety (28%), occupational health nursing (18%), and industrial hygiene (12%). The majority of respondents (61%) reported that they perform work activities outside of those associated with their primary OSH profession. The CE offerings with the highest interest among respondents were related to safety. Other courses with high levels of interest included topics such as legal issues in OSH (88%), compliance (88%), risk management (85%), OSH management (83%), risk communication (83%), and communication in accident prevention (81%). Health and safety leadership (82%), health and safety culture (78%) and total worker health (74%) were also significant interests.ConclusionsIt is important to be responsive to the evolving needs of the OS&H community. Developing relevant courses will help ensure that OS&H professionals have access to the training they need to perform essential job functions and keep employees healthy and safe.
| S-EPMC7427339 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundOccupational health hazards and injuries are an alarming concern among traffic police. Occupational injuries affect the physical, social, and mental well-being of police personnel, which has various public health implications. The evaluation of occupational health and safety policies and regulations for the traffic police relies on their occupational exposure and health hazard statistics and assessments.ObjectiveThe purpose of this scoping review is to systematically explore, analyze, and describe relevant findings from all studies conducted on occupational exposure and associated health hazards among traffic police in South Asia.MethodsThe scoping review will include studies that assessed occupational exposure prevalence, types, knowledge, predisposing factors, and prevention strategies. Databases like PubMed, Springer Link, EBSCOhost, the Cochrane library, and Google Scholar will be used to obtain both published and unpublished works in the English language. Relevant gray literature, including governmental and international organization reports, will be examined. After removing duplicates and screening titles and abstracts, the full-text analysis will begin. Arksey and O'Malley's methodology framework for scoping reviews will be followed. According to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews, the scoping review will be reported. Two qualified reviewers will independently conduct article screening and data extraction. The extracted data will then be tabulated and accompanied by an explanation to facilitate comprehension. We will extract relevant article results using NVivo (version 10; QSR International) and thematic content analysis. The included articles will be evaluated using the mixed methods appraisal tool (version 2018).ResultsThe scoping review will provide insight into how occupational health hazards affect traffic police physically and psychologically in South Asia. The theoretical conceptualization of different aspects of the occupational health of traffic police will emphasize future studies in this region, which will inform policy makers to revise their occupational health and safety policies and principles. It will have implications for taking necessary preventive measures in the future to reduce occupational injuries and fatalities resulting from different types of occupational hazards.ConclusionsThis scoping review will describe the overview of occupational hazards among South Asian traffic police and will provide insights for policy makers to implement changes and to adapt new strategies.International registered report identifier (irrid)PRR1-10.2196/42239.
| S-EPMC10034605 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Emerging countries are at the frontier of climate change actions, and carbon emissions accounting provides a quantifiable measure of the environmental impact of economic activities, which allows for comparisons of emissions across different entities. However, currently there is no study covering detailed emissions inventories for emerging countries in Central Asian. This paper compiles detailed and accurate carbon emissions inventories in several Central Asian countries (i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Palestine, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) during the period 2010-2020. Using the IPCC administrative territorial approach, we for the first time compile their emissions inventories in 47 economic sectors and five energy categories. Moreover, we also investigate decoupling status based on Tapio decoupling model and examine emissions driving factors based on the index decomposition analysis method. The primary results illustrate that carbon emissions in Central Asian countries are increasing with huge differences. Decoupling results highlight that most of the sample countries still need more effort to decouple the economy and emissions except that Pakistan achieves an ideal strong decoupling state. The results of the decomposition indicate that the economy and population both raise emissions, while energy intensity and carbon intensity are negative drivers in some countries. We propose practical policy implications for decarbonization and energy transition roadmap in Central Asian countries.
| S-EPMC10567892 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This review aimed to identify risk factors for occupational accidents and illnesses among young workers in the Nordic countries and to attain knowledge on specific vulnerable groups within the young working force that may need special attention. We conducted a systematic review from 1994 to 2014 using five online databases. Of the 12,528 retrieved articles, 54 met the review criteria and were quality assessed, in which data were extracted focusing on identifying occupational safety, health risk factors, and vulnerable groups among the young workers. The review shows that mechanical factors such as heavy lifting, psychosocial factors such as low control over work pace, and organizational factors such as safety climate are all associated with increased injury risk for young Nordic workers. Results show that exposures to chemical substances were associated with skin reactions, e.g., hand eczema. Heavy lifting and awkward postures were risk factors for low back pain, and high job demands were risk factors for mental health outcomes. The review identified young unskilled workers including school drop-out workers as particularly vulnerable groups when it comes to occupational accidents. In addition, apprentices and young skilled workers were found to be vulnerable to work-related illnesses. It is essential to avoid stereotyping young Nordic workers into one group using only age as a factor, as young workers are a heterogeneous group and their vulnerabilities to occupational safety and health risks are contextual. Politicians, researchers, and practitioners should account for this complexity in the education, training and organization of work, and workplace health and safety culture.
| S-EPMC6429009 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC10697614 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We compared the mental health of higher education students with that of nonstudents. Moreover, we examined whether the mental health of students predicts their probability of obtaining a higher education degree, and whether the extent to which mental health affects educational attainment varies by gender. Drawing on a risk and resilience framework, we considered five facets of mental health that may be implicated in distinct ways in the educational attainment process: positive attitude towards life, self-esteem, self-efficacy, negative affectivity, and perceived stress. We used data from a nationally representative panel study from Switzerland (Nstudents = 2070, 42.8% male; Nnonstudents = 3755, 45.9% male). The findings suggest that overall, the mental health of higher education students was relatively similar to that of nonstudents, although students exhibited slightly higher self-esteem, slightly weaker self-efficacy, greater negative affectivity, and higher levels of perceived stress. The effects of different facets of mental health on higher education degree attainment were mostly statistically and/or practically insignificant. However, positive attitudes towards life had a substantial positive effect on the probability of being awarded a higher education degree. Mental health was equally important for male and female students' educational attainment.Supplementary informationThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11618-023-01187-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
| S-EPMC10942912 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:This study evaluates the impact of the State of Mind Ireland-Higher Education (SOMI-HE) Mental Fitness intervention on student wellbeing, resilience, and physical activity (PA) participation. DESIGN:A mixed-methods research design, comprising of a self-report questionnaire, and semi-structured focus group interviews at pre, post and follow-up phases were employed. Participants were a sample of 134 higher education students (29% male: 71% female; mean age range 18 to 25 years old). The quantitative outcome measures of wellbeing, resilience and PA data were analysed using SPSS version 26.0, (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) with appropriate statistical analysis. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis to capture the long-term outcomes and impact of the intervention. RESULTS:The results indicate a significant intervention effect on participants' wellbeing (t (120) = -4.27, p < 0.001), PA levels (t (126) = 3.91, p < 0.001) and motivational readiness for exercise change (?2 (1, n = 131) = 6.9, p < 0.009 (2-sided). Qualitative findings suggest a sustained long-term increase in PA and resilience skills for positive mental health, and reduced stigma and barriers to positive mental health. CONCLUSION:The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the SOMI-HE evidence-based intervention, and beneficial outcomes of a salutary approach to higher education student mental health.
| S-EPMC7432411 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe burden of ischemic heart disease (IHD) is high. There is limited information on the burden of IHD in identified high risk areas like Central Asia (CA) which is comprised of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This study addresses the burden of IHD in CA at the regional and country levels.MethodsUsing data from the latest iteration of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), this study provides age-adjusted mortality, prevalence, and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) of IHD by sex in the CA region, and national levels for countries in this region from 1990 to 2017.ResultsThe CA region has a higher IHD burden than the rest of the world over the studied period. Amongst the countries within this region, age-standardized mortality and DALY rates in Uzbekistan are the highest not only in CA but worldwide, while Armenia consistently has the lowest IHD burden in CA. Unhealthy diet, high systolic blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol are the risk factors with the highest attributable IHD DALYs.ConclusionIncreasing burden of IHD over time in CA can be partially explained by the economic crisis in the 1990s. There is considerable variation in IHD DALY rates among countries in the CA region. The reasons for such differences are likely multifactorial such as differences in risk factors distribution, health care effectiveness, political, social and economic factors.
| S-EPMC7876559 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Along with the rapid urbanization and economic growth in China over the last four decades, the higher education in Fire Safety Science and Engineering has been developed and changed significantly. This work systemically reviews the origin and evolution of fire safety higher education history in China, from Fire Protection Technology (before the 1980s) to Fire Safety Science and Engineering (from about 1985 to the 2010s) and to Human-Oriented Public Safety and Smart Firefighting (from the 2010s to today). The scopes of fire safety discipline are discussed by introducing the requirements of firefighters, registered professional fire protection engineers and safety engineers in China. The courses and curriculum in fire safety higher education in representative universities are introduced and compared in detail. By comparing their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, we explain the context of fire safety education in different universities. From a historical viewpoint, we introduce the unique features and the diversity developed in different institutes, based on the evolution of programme documents and first-hand teaching materials. This review aims to introduce the higher education systems of fire safety in China to the world and encourage more international collaboration with the Chinese fire safety science and engineering communities in the future. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10694-023-01416-5.
| S-EPMC10173216 | biostudies-literature