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Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data

Waste management workers experience high stress and physical strain in their work environment, but very little empirical evidence supports effective health management practices for waste management workers. Hence, this study investigated the effects of worker characteristics and biometric indices on...

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Autores principales: Kageyama, Itsuki, Hashiguchi, Nobuki, Cao, Jianfei, Niwa, Makoto, Lim, Yeongjoo, Tsutsumi, Masanori, Yu, Jiakan, Sengoku, Shintaro, Okamoto, Soichiro, Hashimoto, Seiji, Kodama, Kota
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36498046
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315964
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author Kageyama, Itsuki
Hashiguchi, Nobuki
Cao, Jianfei
Niwa, Makoto
Lim, Yeongjoo
Tsutsumi, Masanori
Yu, Jiakan
Sengoku, Shintaro
Okamoto, Soichiro
Hashimoto, Seiji
Kodama, Kota
author_facet Kageyama, Itsuki
Hashiguchi, Nobuki
Cao, Jianfei
Niwa, Makoto
Lim, Yeongjoo
Tsutsumi, Masanori
Yu, Jiakan
Sengoku, Shintaro
Okamoto, Soichiro
Hashimoto, Seiji
Kodama, Kota
author_sort Kageyama, Itsuki
collection PubMed
description Waste management workers experience high stress and physical strain in their work environment, but very little empirical evidence supports effective health management practices for waste management workers. Hence, this study investigated the effects of worker characteristics and biometric indices on workers’ physical and psychological loads during waste-handling operations. A biometric measurement system was installed in an industrial waste management facility in Japan to understand the actual working conditions of 29 workers in the facility. It comprised sensing wear for data collection and biometric sensors to measure heart rate (HR) and physical activity (PA) based on electrocardiogram signals. Multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate significant relationships between the parameters. Although stress level is indicated by the ratio of low frequency (LF) to high frequency (HF) or high LF power in HR, the results showed that compared with workers who did not handle waste, those who did had lower PA and body surface temperature, higher stress, and lower HR variability parameters associated with higher psychological load. There were no significant differences in HR, heart rate interval (RRI), and workload. The psychological load of workers dealing directly with waste was high, regardless of their PA, whereas others had a low psychological load even with high PA. These findings suggest the need to promote sustainable work relationships and a quantitative understanding of harsh working conditions to improve work quality and reduce health hazards.
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spelling pubmed-97390882022-12-11 Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data Kageyama, Itsuki Hashiguchi, Nobuki Cao, Jianfei Niwa, Makoto Lim, Yeongjoo Tsutsumi, Masanori Yu, Jiakan Sengoku, Shintaro Okamoto, Soichiro Hashimoto, Seiji Kodama, Kota Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Waste management workers experience high stress and physical strain in their work environment, but very little empirical evidence supports effective health management practices for waste management workers. Hence, this study investigated the effects of worker characteristics and biometric indices on workers’ physical and psychological loads during waste-handling operations. A biometric measurement system was installed in an industrial waste management facility in Japan to understand the actual working conditions of 29 workers in the facility. It comprised sensing wear for data collection and biometric sensors to measure heart rate (HR) and physical activity (PA) based on electrocardiogram signals. Multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate significant relationships between the parameters. Although stress level is indicated by the ratio of low frequency (LF) to high frequency (HF) or high LF power in HR, the results showed that compared with workers who did not handle waste, those who did had lower PA and body surface temperature, higher stress, and lower HR variability parameters associated with higher psychological load. There were no significant differences in HR, heart rate interval (RRI), and workload. The psychological load of workers dealing directly with waste was high, regardless of their PA, whereas others had a low psychological load even with high PA. These findings suggest the need to promote sustainable work relationships and a quantitative understanding of harsh working conditions to improve work quality and reduce health hazards. MDPI 2022-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9739088/ /pubmed/36498046 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315964 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kageyama, Itsuki
Hashiguchi, Nobuki
Cao, Jianfei
Niwa, Makoto
Lim, Yeongjoo
Tsutsumi, Masanori
Yu, Jiakan
Sengoku, Shintaro
Okamoto, Soichiro
Hashimoto, Seiji
Kodama, Kota
Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data
title Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data
title_full Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data
title_fullStr Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data
title_full_unstemmed Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data
title_short Determination of Waste Management Workers’ Physical and Psychological Load: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biometric Data
title_sort determination of waste management workers’ physical and psychological load: a cross-sectional study using biometric data
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36498046
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315964
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