Health and Wellness Promotion
The Competence Profile of Polish Local Government Officials Responsible for Health-related Tasks View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Piotr Romaniuk
Self-government administration in Poland consists of regional, local and municipal level units. The administration of all three levels is burdened with a range of responsibilities related to health, including health needs assessment, assuring access to health services and implementation of health policy interventions. This makes local administration a natural environment for public health workforce. We investigate the competence profile of local officers who are responsible for health-related tasks in Poland and verify if the competence profile correlates with the social and economic profile of the units and with how the unit engages in health-related tasks. We applied CAWI technique to collect data, having invited to participate all self-government units in Poland. We applied Pearson's χ2, Kruskall-Wallis and Pearson’s correlation tests to examine the variable distribution and features of the investigated factors. Results. Initial results show that 22% of officers has public health related diploma. We found no difference between units’ profile or location. We found correlation between the number of public health trained workforce employed by the unit, and the number of health policy interventions the unit is implementing, as well as the financial engagement in health policy programmes implementation. The public health workforce remains highly underexploited in self-government administration in Poland. At the same time the units which tend to employ area-related specialists more willingly are more active in the field of public health. Legal solutions should create stronger incentives to engage public health specialists in the sphere of local health-related public governance.
Work Fatigue in Chilean Workers: Reviewing Comparative Evidence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hector Vargas
Work fatigue (WF) is a general or specific exhaustion (physical, mental, or emotional dimensions) in workers generated by job, social, or personal conditions. WF results in slower reactions and reduced capacities, among others, and can contribute to occupational accidents, health problems, and reduced productivity. This work seeks to confirm whether variables previously described associated with WF are found in Chilean workers.The 3D-WFI was self-administered in a sample of 250 workers of a security company (24% female; average age = 42 years) who also answered about personal and working conditions. Thus, correlations and mean comparisons were performed. The Ethics Committee of the University approved this project. Higher fatigue was observed in workers between 30 and 49 years, with no differences by sex. The personal variables associated with WF are a decreased perception of health (primarily mental), lower sleep quality and quantity, longer commuting times, and greater household chores. Conversely, less fatigue is associated with fruit consumption, social support, better work and company satisfaction, and higher well-being. Working conditions related to more significant fatigue are increased workload, noise and heat, task monotony, caring for others, emotional labor, and a higher concentration demand. Also, workers with more significant physical fatigue reported more previous accidents at work. Convergences with previous findings are found. Early results suggest relationships between WF and the quality of life, working conditions, and workers' safety. Coping measures, programs on work-family conciliation, promoting health and quality of life, and flexible work schedules are proposed.
