BackgroundMusculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are important health problems in working populations. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of MSD among school teachers from urban and rural areas in Chuquisaca, Bolivia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 60 randomly selected schools. In total, 1062 teachers were invited to participate (response 58%). The Spanish version of the Standardized Nordic questionnaire was used assessing the 12-months and 7-days prevalence of MSD as well as the 12-months prevalence of work limiting pain. Prevalence were calculated for the different parts of the body; as summary measures, MSD in any part of the body and in ≥3 parts of the body were assessed. Crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression models adjusting for age, sex, teaching level and school type.ResultsPrevalence of MSD in any part of the body was 86% during the last 12 months, 63% during the last 7 days and 15% for work limiting pain. MSD was most common in the neck (12-months prevalence 47%) and least common in the wrist/hands (26%). In the adjusted model, teachers working in rural areas presented significantly higher odds than teachers from urban schools for work-limiting pain during the last 12-months considering any part of the body (aOR 2.2; 95% CI 1.1–4.1), and for ≥3 parts of the body (aOR 3.7; 95% CI 1.3–10.6).ConclusionThe prevalence of MSD is high in School teachers, even more in teachers working in rural areas. It is needed to identify risk factors for MSD in teachers in order to propose appropriate strategies to control and reduce it.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12891-017-1785-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Exposure to HEV among HIV-infected patients in Spain is very common, and this increases with age. Evolution to chronic infection is extremely unusual. Most cases of acute HEV infection seem to be clinically and biochemically unexpressive, therefore going unnoticed.

The role of business ethics in developing more sustainable societies is crucial, but we first have to review the concept of sustainability itself and its ethical roots. The objective of this work is to rethink the current concept of sustainability by providing it with a sound universalistic ethical rationale. We propose that ethics is the key by which disputes and conflicts among the economic, social, and environmental domains can and ought to be resolved. This work argues that if we fail to recognize the essential ethical grounding of sustainability, or if we take it for granted, then sustainability can easily lose its way and can end up unjustified.

Psychological distress is associated with the psychosocial work environment in Andean underground miners. Interventions in mining populations should take the psychosocial work environment into account.

This paper presents evidence of the geographical distribution of deaths due to lightning over Mexico for the period 1979–2011. Over 7300 deaths occurred during this period, an average of 230 per year, which translates into an average fatality rate per million inhabitants of 2.72 (1979–2011). A total of 60% of the fatal victims occur in only 7 out of the 32 states in Mexico, with the largest fraction occurring in the state of Estado de México (24%). The largest death toll is found in the young male population, in rural regions of the states of Estado de México, Michoacán, and Oaxaca, where the population density is low. The results have indicated a clear bias in the fatal victims toward boys and young males (under the age of 25), with more than 45% of the total deaths in that segment of the population. While female deaths constitute a small fraction of the total number, the under-25 age segment also has the largest number of fatal victims. A county-level analysis of socioeconomic indicators clearly suggests that the geographical distribution of deaths is not correlated with population density nor with the maximum lightning density, but rather with vulnerability. The spatial distribution of deaths is better correlated with exposure to thunderstorms, agricultural activities, and low education levels. The large social vulnerability of those regions combined with the lack of recognition of the problem by society and the government are more likely responsible for the large death toll.