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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]

OBJECTIVE: To examine the proportion of a recent cohort of immigrants to Canada who were working in jobs that were more physically demanding than those in which they worked before migration to Canada. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort of immigrants to Canada with occupational position measured before and 2 and 4 years after arrival in Canada. SUBJECTS: Respondents to Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC). The LSIC surveyed a representative sample of immigrants, aged 15 and older, who arrived in Canada between November 2000 and December 2001. For the purpose of this study, the sample was restricted to respondents who had worked before immigrating and were working when re-interviewed 2 (n = 4331) or 4 (n = 4238) years after arrival in Canada. MAIN OUTCOME: Employment in an occupation with higher physical demands than that employed in before arrival in Canada. RESULTS: Respondents with less proficiency at speaking English and family class or refugee applicants were the most likely to be employed in occupations with higher physical demands both 2 and 4 years after arrival in Canada. CONCLUSIONS: Employment in a more physically demanding occupation may pose particular risks of workplace injury. In this sample of immigrants to Canada, respondents with poorer English skills and refugees (factors that may increase this risk) were more likely to be employed in more physically demanding occupations. Greater attention to the prevention of workplace injuries among particular groups of new immigrants to Canada is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Literature pertaining to the relationship between workplace factors and depression has been compartmentalized: work conditions, family conditions, and work-family balance have been studied separately as predictors of depressive symptoms but not concurrently.Objective: Work conditions and work-family spillover were considered concurrently as modifiable workplace factors associated with depressive symptomatology, while controlling for confounding socio-economic factors.Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 218 female health care workers who completed a survey assessing work conditions [Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) scale and Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ)], work-family balance (work-family spillover scale), sociodemographic information, and depressive symptoms [Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale].Results: Path analysis supported the presence of a direct relationship between depressive symptoms and high effort-reward imbalance, high negative work-family spillover, low positive family-to-work spillover, and low education. The indirect effect of low support from work was mediated by negative work-to-family spillover and high effort-reward imbalance. The indirect effect of high effort-reward imbalance was mediated by increased negative work-to-family spillover. The indirect effect of having children 18 years or younger was mediated by decreased positive family-to-work spillover. An indirect effect of low education was mediated by high effort-reward imbalance and high negative work-to-family spillover.Conclusions: The association between work conditions and depressive symptomatology is mediated by increased negative work-to-family spillover. The impact of having young children is mediated by decreased positive family-to-work spillover. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors of work injuries among Canadian adolescents and young adults and to examine provincial differences in work injury rates. Methods: Information on work and injuries were obtained from a representative sample of 14 541 Canadians aged 15–24 years. Respondents reported medically attended, work related injuries in the past 12 months, work hours, and type of occupation. A multivariate logistic regression on likelihood of work injury included demographic and work variables, as well as province of residence. Results: Even when factors expected to vary by province such as occupation were statistically controlled, Saskatchewan youth were about twice as likely to be injured at work compared to Ontario youth. Type of job was a major correlate of injury risk, with all jobs showing higher risk than administrative clerical jobs. Even with type of job controlled, visible minorities, students, and 15–17 year aids had a reduced likelihood of work injury than their counterparts. Conclusions: Many young Canadians sustain work injuries that have clear medical costs and potential long term health consequences. Individual level explanations for youth's increased risk for workplace injuries (for example, inexperience or developmental factors) need to be supplemented with a better understanding of the broader social, economic, and political factors across jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gradients that link socioeconomic status and cardiovascular mortality have been observed in many populations, including those of countries that provide publicly funded comprehensive medical coverage. The intermediary causes of such gradients remain poorly elucidated.Objective: To examine the relationships among socioeconomic status, other health factors, and 2-year mortality rates after acute myocardial infarction (MI).Design: Prospective cohort study.Setting: Ontario, Canada.Patients: 3407 patients who were hospitalized for acute MI in 53 large-volume hospitals in Canada from December 1999 to February 2003.Measurements: The authors obtained self-reported measures of income and education and developed profiles of the patients' prehospitalization cardiac risks and comorbid conditions. To create these profiles, the authors used the patients' self-reports and retrospectively linked no less than 12 years' worth of previous hospitalization data. Mortality rates 2 years after acute MI were examined with and without sequential risk adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, social support, cardiovascular history and risk, comorbid conditions, and selected in-hospital process factors.Results: Income was strongly and inversely correlated with 2-year mortality rate (crude hazard ratio for high-income vs. low-income tertile, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.35 to 0.57]; P < 0.001). However, after adjustment for age and preexisting cardiovascular events or conventional vascular risk factors, the effect of income was greatly attenuated (adjusted hazard ratio for high-income vs. low-income tertile, 0.77 [CI, 0.54 to 1.10]; P = 0.150). Noncardiovascular comorbid conditions and in-hospital process factors had negligible explanatory effect.Limitations: Previous cardiovascular risks were ascertained through self-report or retrospectively through the longitudinal tracking of the hospitals' administrative databases. The study began with a cohort of patients who had an index cardiac event rather than with asymptomatic individuals.Conclusions: Age, past cardiovascular events, and current vascular risk factors accounted for most of the income-mortality gradient after acute MI. This observation suggests that the "wealth-health gradient" in cardiovascular mortality may be partially ameliorated by more rigorous management of known risk factors among less affluent persons. *For a list of members of the SESAMI Study Group, see the Appendix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare employment and income of working-age (18-64 years) people with and without diabetes.Research Design and Methods: We conducted a prospective population-based cohort study based in Manitoba, Canada, consisting of 25,554 individuals without diabetes and 608 with diabetes, of whom 242 had a complication of the disease. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of employment and income variables were determined.Results: Diabetic individuals with complications were twice as likely not to be in the labor force (OR 2.07 [95% CI 1.49-2.87]) than nondiabetic individuals. This difference was not evident for diabetic individuals without complications (OR 1.20 [0.93-1.56]). Diabetic individuals without complications had incomes similar to those of nondiabetic individuals. The total income of diabetic individuals with complications was 72% of the income of nondiabetic individuals. When the analysis was limited to only those in the labor force, diabetic workers with complications still had only 85% the employment income of nondiabetic people. Diabetic individuals with complications received 58% more social support income. In a separate analysis of aboriginal individuals, complicated diabetes was not associated with an increased likelihood of not working or a decrease in employment income.Conclusions: In general, complications of diabetes and the absence of the disease affect the ability to earn income in Manitoba, Canada. This effect was not identified in the aboriginal population of the province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to a research conducted on the relationship between the socioeconomic status and the health status of a person who had undergone heart attack. Researchers have observed that the poorer people do worse after heart attack than the wealthier people. The possible explanation for this observation can be that the poorer patients have more stress and lesser access to health care and have difficulty in making positive changes in their lifestyle after they have a heart attack. So, there is a link between the health factors, income and death of a person within two years after a heart attack.

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]