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Background: The surveillance programme for uncompensated work-related diseases (UWRDs) in France relies on a network of occupational physicians (OPs) who volunteer to report all UWRDs diagnosed during a biannual 2-week observation period. Aims: To describe this programme and the usefulness of its results. Methods: During the observation period, OPs record job title and employment sector for each worker. For each potential UWRD, they complete a one-page report form. Results: Between 2007 and 2012, the number of reporting OPs ranged from 705 to 965 and they saw between 78 884 and 114 154 employees annually. The UWRD incidence rate reports varied from 5 to 5.3% for men and from 6.5 to 7.7% for women, with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) being most frequent, followed by mental ill-health. Incidence rates, except for hearing loss, were higher for women than men in all categories and, in 2012, were twice as high for women (3.1%) as for men (1.4%) for mental ill-health. Incidence rates in every category increased with age up to 54 years. The highest rates for MSDs were observed among blue-collar workers (6.9% in women and 4% in men in 2012) and the lowest rates in professionals/managers (1.1 and 0.4%, respectively). Conversely, the latter had the highest incidence of mental health disorders (5.9 and 3.3%). Conclusions: This 'Fortnight' protocol provides useful data on the frequency of diseases linked to employment and allows us to estimate the incidence of UWRDs, whether recognized as compensable or not, as well as their trends over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. The objective was to answer the following questions: What is the prevalence of potentially work-related diseases in the general practice population? What is the incidence of consulting a GP for a potentially work-related disease? What is the relationship between diseases seen in general practice and work ability? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: In contrast to the enormous importance of work to the life of humans and societies, the working environment has so far played only a minor role in health monitoring. However, increasingly it is realized that work has a strong public health impact and therefore is also a cost factor to modern societies. The aim of the project WORKHEALTH, which is currently being carried out under the EU health monitoring programme, is the establishment of indicators for work-related health monitoring in Europe from a public health perspective. Working procedure: The work will be carried out by means of three work packages: a synopsis of existing work-related indicator sets together with the identification of areas still to be developed, resulting specification of new indicators for work-related health monitoring, and the development of operational definitions for these indicators. The project includes strong links to the fields of occupational health and safety, public health, social insurance and labour inspectorates to include demands from, as well as to disseminate results to, these different institutions also involved in aspects of work-related health monitoring. Expected results and contributions: Expected results will be indicators for work-related health monitoring that have been developed jointly with the participation of all Member States and different stakeholders within this field, and which permit comparable and reliable data at a national as well as European level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of social change and a transformation in the work situation, interest in the problem of burnout has grown over the past decade. There is a conspicuous discrepancy, however, between what is regarded as certain knowledge and what is published opinion. To date, there is no generally accepted definition of burnout, or binding diagnostic criteria. According to the most common description at present, burnout syndrome is characterized by exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced satisfaction in performance. Because of its aetiopathogenesis, burnout is today mainly regarded as the result of chronic stress which has not been successfully dealt with. This paper gives an overview of the current definition for burnout syndrome and states possible contemporary hypotheses for its aetiology. By examining diagnostic criteria and possible therapies, methods of prevention are discussed. There is an urgent need for further investigations to determine whether burnout syndrome is a work-related disease. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]