Suchergebnisse

Back-related injuries have become a major health problem in the workplace, affecting as many as 35 percent of the work force and accounting for about 25 percent of all compensation claims. This study evaluates a back injury prevention program among employees in a northern California county in 1989-90. Six divisions of the county government were selected for the study because they had the highest prevalence of back pain experienced and the most back-related injuries in recent years. Four of the six divisions were randomly selected as the intervention group and the remaining two, the control group. Overall, 77 percent or 205 of the targeted employees in the intervention group participated in the study. The intervention group was given an identical health risk assessment (HRA) before and after the 1-year back injury prevention program that offered employees a combination of education, training, physical fitness activities, and ergonomic improvement. The control group was neither given the HRA nor offered the program. The back injury and cost data of both the control and intervention groups were collected before and after the 1-year intervention. The results showed a modest overall decline in back pain prevalence rates, but significant improvement in satisfaction and reduction in risky behaviors. Cost-benefit analysis showed the net benefit of introducing back injury prevention program was $161,108, and the return on investment is 179 percent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Objective. To compare the primary care quality among different health care structures in Tibet, China. Methods. A self-administered questionnaire survey including Primary Care Assessment Tool-Tibetan version was used to obtain data from a total of 1386 patients aged over 18 years in the sampling sites in two prefectures in Tibet. Multivariate analysis was performed to assess the association between health care structures and primary care quality while controlling for sociodemographic and health care characteristics. Results. The services provided by township health centers were more often used by a poor, less educated, and healthy population. Compared with prefecture (77.42) and county hospitals (82.01), township health centers achieved highest total score of primary care quality (86.64). Factors that were positively and significantly associated with higher total assessment scores included not receiving inpatient service in the past year, less frequent health care visits, good self-rated health status, lower education level, and marital status. Conclusions. This study showed that township health centers patients reported better primary care quality than patients visiting prefecture and county hospitals. Government health reforms should pay more attention to THC capacity building in Tibet, especially in the area of human resource development.