Background: Nurses often experience occupational accidents and injuries. The mental workload is one of the factors that often cause tiredness. Perilous behaviors possibly occur more in tired persons resulting in injuries. The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation between mental workload and nursing occupational accidents in public hospitals of Kashan, as well as factors affecting them. Methods: The analytic-descriptive study described herein consisted of nursing staff from public hospitals of Kashan, Iran. Information was collected using a three-part questionnaire from a selected clustery of 406 nursing personnel in 2016. The questionnaire was used to collect demographics, assess mental workload (per the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX)), and assess frequency of accidents. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16. Results: A total of 455 occupational accidents were recorded for 2016 with about 2.27±1.21 accidents per nurse.
Taxi drivers are daily exposed to frequent and prolonged whole-body vibration. This can cause complications such as back pain among them. Since the vibration level depends on many factors, the present study was performed to model the impact of vehicle speed on the attributes of whole-body vibration among the Peugeot 405 taxi drivers. In this experimental study, the whole-body vibration was measured while other variables including tire pressure, engine speed, road gradient, number of passengers, and type of tire, springs, and shock absorbers had been fixed. The measurements were done according to ISO2631-1 at different speeds of 20, 40, 60, and 80 km/h. Increasing the vehicle speed caused an increase in the average value of vibration attributes including Z-axis (vertical) r.m.s. acceleration, 8-h equivalent acceleration, vibration dose value (m/s 1.75), and crest factor (P < 0.05). At the speed of 80 km/h, the average vibration dose value (17.6 m/s 1.75) exceeded the upper limit of the ISO 2631-1:1997 health caution zone (>17). Further, 8-h equivalent acceleration, at the speeds of 60 and 80 km/h, was beyond the upper limit (>0.9 m/s 2). According to the crest factor, increasing speed would cause greater vibration peaks along the Z-axis (worst-case axis). The amount of whole-body vibration is sensitive to speed changes so that urban taxi drivers who are usually driving at low speeds for inner-city transits will be exposed to a lower average value of whole-body vibration. Due to the evident effect of speed on whole-body vibration attributes, it is strongly recommended to be given full consideration to this factor in preparing vibration control plans for vehicles.
Introduction: Taxi drivers' exposure to repeat whole-body vibrations can cause back pain and digestive disorders. Since this type of vibration depends on the car components, this study was carried out to determine the influence of tire characteristics on the amount of whole-body vibrations transmitted to the Peugeot 405 taxi drivers. Methods: In this experimental study, vibration characteristics were measured according to the ISO2631-1 with each of the statuses: tubeless tires fixed and fluid in it (normal air or nitrogen) and also the fluid in the tires fixed with tubes or tubeless on asphalt-paved road. Other variables including tire pressure, engine speed, road gradient, number of passengers, springs, and shock absorbers were kept constant. Then the effect of changes was analyzed using an appropriate statistical test. Results: After changing nitrogen to normal air and tubeless tires to tube, the average of RMS in Z-axis, eight-hour equivalent acceleration A(8) and crest factor were reduced (P > 0.05). Also, A(8) reduced from health risk zone (> 0.9 m/s 2) to caution zone (0.45-0.9 m/s 2) with a value of 0.8 m/s 2. conclusions: The amount of vibration transmitted to the whole body is sensitive to existence of tubes and tires inflation so that we can reduce the amount of whole-body vibration to lower than the upper limit of the health risk by changing the characteristics of the tire.
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