Suchergebnisse

Abstract

Objectives
Experience of psychosocial environments by workers entering trade apprenticeships may differ by gender. We aimed to document perceived harassment and to investigate whether this related to mental ill-health.


Methods
Cohorts of workers in welding and electrical trades were established, women recruited across Canada and men from Alberta. Participants were recontacted every 6 months for up to 3 years (men) or 5 years (women). At each contact, they were asked about symptoms of anxiety and depression made worse by work. After their last regular contact, participants received a "wrap-up" questionnaire that included questions on workplace harassment. In Alberta, respondents who consented were linked to the administrative health database that recorded diagnostic codes for each physician contact.


Results
One thousand eight hundred and eighty five workers were recruited, 1,001 in welding trades (447 women), and 884 in electrical trades (438 women). One thousand four hundred and nineteen (75.3%) completed a "wrap up" questionnaire, with 1,413 answering questions on harassment. Sixty percent of women and 32% of men reported that they had been harassed. Those who reported harassment had more frequently recorded episodes of anxiety and depression made worse by work in prospective data. In Alberta, 1,242 were successfully matched to administrative health records. Those who reported harassment were more likely to have a physician record of depression since starting their trade.


Conclusions
Tradeswomen were much more likely than tradesmen to recall incidents of harassment. The results from record linkage, and from prospectively collected reports of anxiety and depression made worse by work, support a conclusion that harassment resulted in poorer mental health.

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic raised considerable challenges to obtain reliable guidance to help occupational health practitioners, workers, and stakeholders building up efficient prevention strategies at the workplace, between the constant increase of publications in the domain, the time required to run high-quality research and systematic reviews, and the urgent need to identify areas for prevention at the workplace. Social Media and Twitter, in particular, have already been used in research and constitute a useful source of information to identify community needs and topics of interest for prevention in the meatpacking industry. In this commentary, we introduce the methods and tools we used to screen relevant posts on Twitter. Twitter analytics is a way to capture real-time concerns of the community and help ensure compliance with the notion of social accountability. As such research has limitations in terms of exhaustiveness and level of evidence, it should be considered as provisional guidance to direct both actions at the workplace and further conventional research projects.