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Rising Risk Factors and Management of Disability in Working-Age Adults

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Occupational Safety and Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2023) | Viewed by 1990

Special Issue Editors

Department of Medicine and Health Sciences “V. Tiberio”, University of Molise, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
Interests: occupational medicine; social medicine; disability; health promotion; vaccines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford 81, 00188 Roma, Italy
Interests: occupational medicine; vaccination; vaccine hesitancy; occupational hazards; public health; environmental health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Workers in the healthcare sector have an increasing incidence of infectious, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases as well as on-the-job-injuries. Accordingly, the average working-age mortality rates increased in the US after 2010. Therefore, it is clear that employees in the healthcare sector deserve special attention in terms of prevention, care, and treatment of disabilities. The first aim of this Special issue is to offer an update on the rising risk factors for the health of healthcare workers. Secondly, we will face the timeless challenges related to the management of social disability in working-age adults. Although more research is needed to understand causal mechanisms, we recommend the urgency of adequate policy, because not acting to address the several health risk factors and social disabilities among working-age adults threatens the future wellbeing of families and communities. 

Dr. Stefano Rizza
Prof. Dr. Marco Trabucco Aurilio
Dr. Luca Coppeta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • working-age
  • shift work
  • disability
  • social
  • healthcare sector

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 864 KiB  
Article
Work Ability and Quality of Life in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
by Wojciech Tański, Krzysztof Dudek and Tomasz Adamowski
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13260; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192013260 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1401
Abstract
Background. Reduced work participation has social implications (sickness absence, economic impact) and consequences for the individual patient (impoverishment, depression, limited social interaction). As patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more likely to experience job loss and/or at-work productivity loss and are at higher [...] Read more.
Background. Reduced work participation has social implications (sickness absence, economic impact) and consequences for the individual patient (impoverishment, depression, limited social interaction). As patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more likely to experience job loss and/or at-work productivity loss and are at higher risk of sickness absence and, ultimately, permanent work productivity, consideration should be given to the association between work productivity or partial work capacity and quality of life (QoL). The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between QoL and the risk of work disability, as well as to estimate the risk of a future event and identify factors affecting the risk of work disability in RA inpatients. Material and methods. This cross-sectional study included 142 inpatients (65 male) aged 47 (38–58) years, who met the established criteria for a diagnosis of RA and treatment with biologic drugs. Only standardized tools were used to examine the patients: WHOQOL-BREF, MFIS and AS-WIS. Results. An analysis of the QoL scores on the WHOQOL-BREF demonstrated that the patients’ QoL was lowest in the physical health domain and highest in the social relationships domain. The median WHOQOL-BREF total score in the group studied was 62.8, which indicates a moderate QoL. The median total score for the risk of work disability (AS-WIS) was 10.1, which indicates that the level of risk of work disability in the patients was higher than the average level reported in the literature. A multivariate analysis showed that the following were significant independent determinants of a higher risk of work disability: low QoL in the WHOQOL-BREF physical health (β = 0.961; p = 0.029) and psychological health (β = 1.752; p = 0.002) domains, being in a relationship (β = 0.043; p = 0.005) and the use of opioids for pain (β = 3.054; p = 0.012). Conclusions. RA patients presented with moderate QoL, moderate fatigue (MFIS) and high risk of disability (AS-WIS). There is an association between a high risk of work disability and lower QoL, especially in the physical and psychological health domains. The lower the QoL in those domains, the higher the risk of work disability. The identification of factors increasing the risk of work disability will help in planning tailored interventions to improve at-work productivity loss and thus prevent work disability. Full article
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