The group comparison analysis showed that the group without health condition was younger and more educated than the group with multiple health conditions. For this study, age and low rate of education were associated with an increased number of health conditions.

Similar to health profiles of other populations of North American truck drivers, this study suggests that the majority of truck drivers in the Canadian Maritime Provinces have at least one poor indicator of occupational health.

Similar to health profiles of other populations of North American truck drivers, this study suggests that the majority of truck drivers in the Canadian Maritime Provinces have at least one poor indicator of occupational health.

Dental workers including dental health students experience a high incidence of neck/shoulder symptoms. However, research into interventions has been scarce and largely focused on tools and technological modifications.

This study investigates the feasibility and benefits of a neck/shoulder exercise intervention on work posture and local symptoms in dental health students.

Twenty-three students participated in a 10-week resistance exercise program for 2 minutes daily, 5 days per week. Work posture (evaluated with the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment tool, RULA), muscle strength measures, self-rated symptom severity and function were collected. Feasibility of the intervention was determined with six items scored on a 5-point Likert scale.

The exercise intervention improved work posture score by 1.88 (95% CI 1.05-2.70, p < 0.01) points on the RULA; isometric maximal strength of neck flexor and extensor muscles by 17.2% (95% CI 6.9-27.6%, p < 0.01) and 23.2% (95% CI 10.2-36.3%, p < 0.01) respectively; and clinical performance (77%). Isometric strength of the shoulder muscles, and symptom severity at the neck/shoulder showed no improvement. Adherence to training was 77%.

Ten weeks of exercise was feasible for dental health students, and likely beneficial with improvements in work posture and neck muscle strength.

Ten weeks of exercise was feasible for dental health students, and likely beneficial with improvements in work posture and neck muscle strength.

Compared with people with other disabilities, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have the lowest rates of employment and switch jobs at a higher frequency. Thus, understanding how to support workplace success for people with ASD is important.

Grounded in an ecological conceptual model, this study explores the dual employment perspectives of adults with ASD and supervisors who worked with individuals with ASD.

Using participatory research methods, a purposive sample of ten adults with ASD (all verbal with high school diplomas) and ten supervisors participated in semi-structured interviews on employment experiences. Qualitative analyses were used to identify themes.

Four major themes emerged from an ecological framework to create a strong person-environment fit in the workplace 1) building on interest/experiences/strengths/skills, 2) reducing social demands, 3) clear communication and expectations, and 4) ASD awareness for work environment. Comparisons between the two groups of participants showed substantive differences in expectations and accommodations.

Supervisors, although eager to employ individuals with ASD, could benefit by employing an ecological model to successful employment. Results indicate that multiple lenses on the process of employment for those with ASD can lead to better outcomes in the workplace.

Supervisors, although eager to employ individuals with ASD, could benefit by employing an ecological model to successful employment. selleck inhibitor Results indicate that multiple lenses on the process of employment for those with ASD can lead to better outcomes in the workplace.

Firefighters partake in and are exposed to a range of potentially traumatic events throughout their careers and the impact of such critical events could last a life time. Therefore, capturing such lifetime exposures is necessary for supporting firefighter health.

To estimate the prevalence of critical incidents in firefighters across Canada and determine whether the number of critical events varied based on age, gender, years of service; and to integrate our prevalence estimates using meta-analysis with previous studies to provide a pooled estimate.

We recruited 464 firefighters. Firefighters were asked to complete a self-report Critical Incident Inventory (CII) survey that included questions on exposure to critical events throughout their firefighting careers. Individual CII items were summarized as percentages, number of exposures, the total number and percentages of exposures to each of the six CII sub-scales. We also performed a multivariate enter regression analysis with the CII total score as depehe number of critical incident exposures among firefighters.

Nearly all (96.4%) firefighters were exposed to some form of critical event over the span of their entire firefighting careers. Age, gender and years of service accounted for one-third of the variance in the number of critical incident exposures among firefighters.

Minimum cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been recommended for firefighters due to job requirements. Thus, it is important to identify accurate and readily available methods to assess CRF in this population. Non-exercise CRF estimates (NEx-CRF) have been proposed but this approach requires validation in this population.

To evaluate the accuracy of a NEx-CRF, as compared to a field maximum exercise test, among career military firefighters of both genders using a comprehensive agreement analysis.

We evaluated the accuracy of a NEx-CRF estimate compared to the Cooper 12 min running test among 702 males and 106 female firefighters.

Cooper and NEx-CRF tests yielded similar CRF in both genders (differences <1.8±4.7 ml/kg-1.min-1; effect size <0.34). However, NEx-CRF underestimated Cooper-derived CRF among the fittest firefighters. NEx-CRF showed moderate to high sensitivity/specificity to detect fit or unfit firefighters (71.9% among men and 100% among women). Among men, the NEx-CRF method correctly identified most firefighters with less than 11 METs or greater than 13 METs, but showed lower precision to discriminate those with CRF between 11-13 METs.