• Association between perceived stress, coping profile and fear during the COVID-19 pandemic among male and female police students
    Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak was a sudden unknown stressor that could cause fear among people. Police officers were in the front lines, often unknowingly in direct contact with infected individuals, thus fear of getting infected (i.e., fear of COVID-19) could be higher in this population. Police students are preparing for the job of police officers and how they cope with a sudden unknown situation could be of importance for job performance and their mental health if such a situation occurs. This study aimed to investigate the association of perceived stress and coping strategies with fear of COVID-19 in police students. 
  • Functional, communicative and critical health literacy among older Polish citizens
    The level of health literacy possessed by an individual (functional, communicative, critical) determines their ability to effectively self-manage a chronic disease. The aim of the study was to assess the level and functional, communicative, and critical determinants of health literacy in the group of chronically ill older adults. 
  • Muscle fatigue related to human posture using a brush cutter for landscape gardening: a preliminary study
    Brush cutters are widely used in Chinese landscape gardening and agricultural laboring which leads the operators being exposed to many risks. Low back pain (LBP) is particularly common and can lead to substantial personal, community and financial burdens. The aim of the presented study was to measure the activity and function of each torso muscle of the operator when using the bush cutter, so as to evaluate the muscle injury of the operator during using several common brush cutters for different landscape tasks.
  • Investigation and analysis of occupational physical injuries among healthcare staffs during allopatric medical aid for the fight against COVID-19
    Occupational health impairment of medical personnel manifested as a prominent problem in COVID-19. The aim of this study is to investigate the occupational physical injuries of front-line medical staffs in Hubei province during the fight against COVID-19.
  • Is dental prophylaxis justified in activities in the field of occupational medicine?
    The increasing incidence of tooth decay in people of all ages justifies the need to constantly search for effective methods of preventing its development, also in the context of the assessment of the impact of occupational harm. The research hypothesis of this paper assumed that due to the specificity of the profession, students of the gastronomic school have forced, additional contact with food, which may make it difficult for them to maintain proper oral hygiene and, consequently, increase the incidence of caries.
  • Reducing noise nuisance in open space offices by masking unwanted sounds with sound columns in the shape of pyramids
    In order to obtain the appropriate acoustic conditions of the working environment in large-spacious open space offices, quite a lot of acoustic adaptation is necessary, e.g. allowing the reverberation time to be limited to approx. 0.2–0.4 s. If the background noise in these rooms is characterized by very low A-level sound levels (<30 dB), the acoustic adaptation alone may be insufficient. In such cases, it may be necessary to use a system that generates sounds and creates an "artificial" acoustic background. Such a system is called a sound masking system. It is important that it must mask the sound at all workstations, which are often the case in these rooms. Therefore, masking systems include a plurality of masking speaker sources that are evenly distributed throughout the room, most often in a sound-absorbing false ceiling.
  • Work in stressful conditions in medical emergency system during the COVID-19 pandemic
    The pandemic caused a change in the way of providing healthcare services, limiting direct access to doctors, suspending planned treatments and medical consultations, but despite the risks and restrictions, the medical rescue system as a key element of health care for the society continues to function. The system provides medical assistance to patients in the most severe condition, both with a negative result for SARS-CoV-2, as well as with a positive or undiagnosed result. It is a review aimed at analyzing the most important psychological aspects of the work of emergency medical care system personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar search were used to analyze the problem. The following keywords were used to search for information sources: paramedic, work, emergency medical care system, emergency department, ambulance service, COVID-19, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus. The articles were selected in terms of the psychological aspects of the work of the emergency medical care system personnel during the pandemic in 2020–2021. The psychosocial problems that come to the fore during a pandemic include increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, emotional exhaustion, vicarious traumatization, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In the context of the increased risk of psychological problems due to pandemic, it is necessary to provide psychological support to the medical staff, both in terms of psychological support for the entire team and individually.
  • Measurement of the stress response in laboratory conditions - a review of studies using stress induction protocols
    Stress is one of the main causes of mental and physical health problems and leads to a decline in work efficiency. Appropriate methods of diagnosing the level of stress allow for a reliable verification of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing it, as well as the assessment of individual differences in reactivity to stress. The aim of the study was to review the available studies, which used the most commonly used stress induction protocols in laboratory conditions and measured stress using physiological parameters. The review included studies using the following protocols: MIST, MA, TSST, Stroop test and PASAT, and including the measurement of brain and heart activity, cortisol concentration and muscle tone. The analyzes included works available in the PubMed database and published in 2015–2021, in which the studies were conducted on healthy adults. An analysis of the available studies revealed that the procedures alter the activity of the autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular system and the brain. In addition, TSST is the protocol most often used to assess the level of stress, differences in reactivity to induced stress depending on differences between individuals in the level of intensity of personality traits or the comparison of specific groups of people. Measurements of induced stress typically use the analysis of cortisol levels in response to stress and changes in cardiac activity. A commonly used method in neuroimaging studies is the MIST task. An analysis of the research findings revealed that the protocols, in addition to inducing a typical physiological response, are associated with a reduction in physiological stress responses in some individuals.

Medycyna Pracy (Occupational Medicine) - full list