Search

Background The education sector has been heavily impacted by COVID-19. While the impact on school-aged children has received much attention, less attention has focused on the experiences of educators. Aims To compare various dimensions of the psychosocial work environment and health outcomes between educators engaged in online learning to those engaged in in-person learning in the Canadian province of Ontario. Methods Responses from 5438 educators engaged in either online or in-person learning were collected between 23 November and 21 December 2020; three months after the start of the 2020/21 academic year in September 2020. Psychosocial outcomes included quantitative demands, work pace, predictability, role conflicts, and social support from supervisors and co-workers; assessed using an abbreviated version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. Secondary outcomes included burnout and sleep troubles. Ordinary Least-Squares regression models examined adjusted mean differences in the levels of outcomes for respondents in in-person versus online learning, after adjustment for a variety of covariates. Results Compared to respondents engaged in in-person learning, respondents engaged in online learning reported less predictability, higher role conflicts and less support from supervisors and co-workers. Statistically significant differences in work pace, burnout and sleep troubles were also observed across learning modes, although these differences did not exceed previously suggested thresholds for minimum important differences. Conclusions Important differences in the psychosocial work environment were observed between respondents engaged in in-person learning versus online learning. Addressing these differences is required, given the potential continued importance of online learning within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Relatively few longitudinal studies have explored the relationship between psychosocial work conditions and diabetes incidence. Given the increasing global burden of diabetes this is an important area for public health research. Aims To examine the relationships between dimensions of the psychosocial work environment on the subsequent incidence of diabetes among men and women in Ontario, Canada over a 9 year period. Methods We used data from Ontario respondents (35 to 60 years of age) to the 2000–01 Canadian Community Health Survey linked to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan database for physician services and the Canadian Institute for Health Information Discharge Abstract Database for hospital admissions. Our sample of actively employed labour market participants with no previous diagnoses for diabetes was followed for a 9 year period to ascertain incident diabetes. Results There were 7443 participants. Low levels of job control were associated with an increased risk of diabetes among women, but not among men. Counter to our hypotheses high levels of social support were also associated with increased diabetes risk among women, but not among men. No relationship was found between any psychosocial work measure and risk of diabetes among men. Conclusions Given the increasing prevalence of diabetes worldwide, job control could potentially be an import ant modifiable risk factor to reduce the incidence of diabetes among female, but not among male, workers. More research is needed to understand the pathways through which low social support may protect against the development of diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musculoskeletal disorders of the back and spine are a leading cause of disability in working-age populations. There is limited information on the potential consequences of childhood socioeconomic and health status on the risk of incident back pain in early adulthood. The authors describe factors associated with having had a first episode of back pain during the past year in the Ontario Child Health Study, a prospective cohort study of children who were aged 4–16 years at the time of enrollment in 1983 and were resurveyed in 2001. Respondents reporting a first episode of back pain (n = 143) were compared with respondents who had never experienced back pain (n = 896). The annual incidence of a first episode of back pain in this sample of young adults was 74.7/1,000. Following adjustment for age, sex, childhood conditions, childhood health status, and measures of early adult health, behavior, socioeconomic status, and work environment, the risk of incident back pain was associated with both low (odds ratio (OR) = 1.86, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14, 3.03) and moderate/high (OR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.07, 3.02) levels of psychological distress, current heavy smoking (OR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.10, 3.10), lower levels of parental education in childhood (OR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.06, 2.80), and emotional or behavioral disorders in childhood (OR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.02, 3.41). The associations of low childhood socioeconomic status and childhood emotional and behavioral disorders with risk of incident back pain in early adulthood are important findings with implications for better understanding the etiology of soft-tissue disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As the population ages, a greater demand for long-term care services and, in particular, nursing homes is expected. Policy analysts continue to search for alternative, less costly forms of care for the elderly and have attempted to develop programs to delay or prevent nursing-home entry. Health care administrators require information for planning the future demand for nursing-home services. This study assesses the relative importance of predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics in predicting and understanding nursing-home entry.Methods: Proportional hazard models, incorporating changes in needs over time, are used to estimate the hazard of nursing-home entry over a 5-year period, using health and sociodemographic characteristics of a representative sample of elderly residents from Manitoba, Canada.Results: After age, need factors have the greatest impact on nursing-home entry. Specific medical conditions have at least as great a contribution as functional limitations. The presence of a spouse significantly reduces the hazard of entry for males only.Conclusions: The results suggest that the greatest gains in preventing or delaying nursing-home entry can be achieved through intervention programs targeted at specific medical conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]