Aproximación epidemiológica al estudio de las condiciones de empleo, trabajo y salud en la población inmigrante colombiana en España

El objetivo es analizar las condiciones de trabajo en inmigrantes colombianos y sus problemas de salud asociados. Para tal fin, se realizó un estudio epidemiológico descriptivo, en población inmigrante colombiana trabajadora activa o en paro, mediante encuesta personal, recogiendo información sobre características personales y laborales e indicadores de salud. Los resultados indican que existe un porcentaje importante de inmigrantes con contrataciones temporales o sin contrato y jornadas de trabajo semanales por encima de las 40 horas. Una quinta parte no se encuentra de alta en la seguridad social. La gran mayoría de las mujeres (92%) tienen salarios menores o iguales a los 1.200 euros. La población percibe discriminación en espacios sociales y laborales. Se reportan problemas de salud con diferencias por sexo. Casi una tercera parte no ha recibido información sobre prevención de accidentes y daños a la salud. Se evidencian así, situaciones de precariedad que exigen estrategias para garantizar mecanismos de protección social para esta población.

Percepción de la transición a la maternidad: estudio fenomenológico en la provincia de Barcelona

Objetivos: Describir necesidades y experiencias de madres con hijos menores de un año, identificar los factores que dificultan la transición a la maternidad y orientar en el contenido de un programa de promoción de la salud a desarrollar en sesiones grupales de apoyo a la maternidad. Diseño: Estudio cualitativo con enfoque fenomenológico. Emplazamiento: Ocho centros de Atención Primaria de la provincia de Barcelona, entre julio de 2011 y julio de 2012. Participantes: Un total de 21 madres que participan en dinámicas grupales de apoyo a la maternidad. Método: Selección opinática de las participantes en las entrevistas semiestructuradas. Las transcripciones se analizaron en su estructura (análisis de contenido latente) y contenido (análisis de contenido manifiesto), obteniéndose diferentes categorías. Resultados: Las participantes en el estudio definen el constructo de la maternidad en torno a 3 categorías: los cambios en el estilo de vida, los sentimientos y las percepciones. Identifican como momentos más estresantes: «el nuevo rol», «los cambios en la relación de pareja», «sentimientos encontrados», «experiencias del embarazo y parto», «la idealización», «la falta de apoyo», «llantos», «cólicos», «interpretar las señales del niño», «baño», «descanso», «opiniones contradictorias», «aprendizaje» y «adquisición de nuevas habilidades». Destacan como temas principales para las dinámicas grupales: alimentación, desarrollo, relación afectiva, confianza materna, participación de los padres, papel de la familia, aspectos emocionales, descanso, masaje, baño, prevención de accidentes, cólicos, primeros auxilios, puericultura, recursos y vacunas. Conclusión: Las dinámicas grupales deben contextualizarse de acuerdo a las necesidades percibidas por las madres y permitir la participación de otras figuras familiares.

FAA aviation news : a DOT/FAA flight standards safety publication.

Title from cover.

Multisensorial obstacles detection and classification for ADAS and autonomous driving

A reliable perception of the real world is a key-feature for an autonomous vehicle and the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Obstacles detection (OD) is one of the main components for the correct reconstruction of the dynamic world. Historical approaches based on stereo vision and other 3D perception technologies (e.g. LIDAR) have been adapted to the ADAS first and autonomous ground vehicles, after, providing excellent results. The obstacles detection is a very broad field and this domain counts a lot of works in the last years. In academic research, it has been clearly established the essential role of these systems to realize active safety systems for accident prevention, reflecting also the innovative systems introduced by industry. These systems need to accurately assess situational criticalities and simultaneously assess awareness of these criticalities by the driver; it requires that the obstacles detection algorithms must be reliable and accurate, providing: a real-time output, a stable and robust representation of the environment and an estimation independent from lighting and weather conditions. Initial systems relied on only one exteroceptive sensor (e.g. radar or laser for ACC and camera for LDW) in addition to proprioceptive sensors such as wheel speed and yaw rate sensors. But, current systems, such as ACC operating at the entire speed range or autonomous braking for collision avoidance, require the use of multiple sensors since individually they can not meet these requirements. It has led the community to move towards the use of a combination of them in order to exploit the benefits of each one. Pedestrians and vehicles detection are ones of the major thrusts in situational criticalities assessment, still remaining an active area of research. ADASs are the most prominent use case of pedestrians and vehicles detection. Vehicles should be equipped with sensing capabilities able to detect and act on objects in dangerous situations, where the driver would not be able to avoid a collision. A full ADAS or autonomous vehicle, with regard to pedestrians and vehicles, would not only include detection but also tracking, orientation, intent analysis, and collision prediction. The system detects obstacles using a probabilistic occupancy grid built from a multi-resolution disparity map. Obstacles classification is based on an AdaBoost SoftCascade trained on Aggregate Channel Features. A final stage of tracking and fusion guarantees stability and robustness to the result.

A comparison of road accidents in developing countries with special reference to Jamaica

This research was originally undertaken to aid the Jamaican government and the World Bank in making funding decisions relative to improvement of road systems and traffic control in Jamaica. An investigation of the frequency and causes of road accidents and an evaluation of their impact on the Jamaican economy were carried out, and a model system which might be applied was developed. It is believed that the importance of road accident economic and manpower losses to the survival of developing countries, such as Jamaica, cannot be overemphasized. It is suggested that the World Bank, in cooperation with national governments, has a role to play in alleviating this serious problem. Data was collected from such organizations as the Jamaica Ministry of Construction, Police Department, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. A variety of methodologies were utilized to organize this data in useful and understandable forms. The most important conclusion of this research is that solvable problems in road systems and in traffic control result in the unnecessary loss of useful citizens, in both developed and developing countries. However, a lack of information and understanding regarding the impact of high rates of road accident death and injury on the national economy and stability of a country results in an apparent lack of concern. Having little internal expertise in the field of road accident prevention, developing countries usually hire consultants to help them address this problem. In the case of Jamaica, this practice has resulted in distrust and hard feelings between the Jamaican authorities and major organizations involved in the field. Jamaican officials have found confusing the recommendations of most experts contracted to study traffic safety. The attempts of foreign consultants to utilize a technological approach (the use of coding systems and computers), methods which do not appear cost-effective for Jamaica, have resulted in the expenditure of limited funds for studies which offer no feasible approach to the problem. This funding limitation, which hampers research and road improvement, could be alleviated by such organizations as the World Bank. The causes of high accident rates are many, it was found. Formulation of a plan to address this serious problem must take into account the current failure to appreciate the impact of a high level of road accidents on national economy and stability, inability to find a feasible approach to the problem, and inadequate funding. Such a plan is discussed in detail in the main text of this research.

Relación entre la calificación de los elementos de un sistema de gestión y los indicadores de accidentalidad en empresas del sector de la construcción en Colombia

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo determinar la relación que existe entre la implementación de un sistema de gestión de seguridad y salud en el trabajo (SGSST), y la frecuencia y la severidad de la accidentalidad en la industria de la construcción en Colombia. Para ello se seleccionaron 35 empresas que realizan actividades relacionadas con la edificación, infraestructura e interventoría, que hubiesen implementado un SGSST para la intervención de los riesgos de accidentes y que contaran con la evaluación del mismo. La evaluación del SGSST está enmarcada en cinco dimensiones o criterios: planeación, política, implementación, manejo integral del accidente y revisión por la gerencia. Cada una evaluada a través de diferentes requisitos y se presentan en una escala de 1 a 10, siendo 10 el nivel más alto del cumplimiento por requisito. Teniendo los resultados de esta calificación, la tasa (proporción entre los accidentes reportados y los trabajadores de cada empresa) y los días de incapacidad (ausentismo por accidente de trabajo), se realizó un análisis de las medidas descriptivas consolidado por las empresas del estudio: tendencia central y dispersión para número de trabajadores, tasa de accidentalidad, días de incapacidad y el resultado de los totales de cada criterio de la evaluación y el gran total. Para estudiar la relación entre los resultados de la evaluación y los indicadores de tasa y días, se llevó a cabo un análisis de correlación y regresión lineal entre los indicadores de accidentalidad y los resultados de las puntuaciones de los criterios. Esta correlación se realizó tanto para la primera evaluación como para la segunda. En las dos mediciones las correlaciones fueron negativas mostrando que existe una disminución en la tasa de accidentalidad y días de incapacidad entre una evaluación y la otra. En el análisis de regresión, en la primera evaluación por cada unidad que aumentó la calificación global, se presentó una reducción de la tasa de frecuencia de 0.140. En la segunda evaluación por cada unidad que aumentó la calificación global, la tasa se redujo en 0.159. Ambos hallazgos soportan la necesidad de implementar un SGSST para ayudar a reducir el número inaceptable de lesiones y enfermedades en la industria de la construcción.

The collection and use of road and traffic information for road accident investigation and prevention

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

Injury prevention in Queensland : report to Queensland Injury Prevention Council

Injury is the fourth leading cause of death in Australia. Injury rates in Queensland are amongst the highest in Australia and 21.5% of people surveyed for this research reported that their lifestyle or that of an immediate family member had been permanently affected by injury. Injury results in over 40,000 hospital admissions and 200,000 attendances at hospital Emergency Departments in Queensland each year. Queensland's death rate from injuries is higher than the national average, with consistently higher rates of deaths related to transport injuries. Queensland statistics also show higher than national average rates of injuries due to falls, homicide and accidental drowning. (Pike, Muller, Baade & Ward, 2000) In 2000-01 injuries represented over $4 billion (or 8%) of total health system expenditure, and 185,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), or 7% of the total morbidity burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2003. (Begg, Vos, Barker, Stevenson, Stanley & Lopez, 2007). Injury is one of seven key health areas identified by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments for priority attention as National Health Priority Areas

Targeting injury prevention strategies to adolescents of Pacific Islander descent : what will work?

Background: Ethnicity is rarely considered in injury prevention program development, even though this is known to impact on participation in injury risk behaviour. An understanding of injury, risk behaviour and risk and protective factors specific to adolescents of Pacific Islander descent will inform the development of prevention strategies appropriate to this group.----- Aims: To determine patterns of injury and associated risk behaviour among adolescents of Pacific Islander descent, and to understand the risk and protective factors that influence injury rates among this group.----- Methods: A total of 875 Year 9 students from five Queensland high schools completed a survey during health classes. Seventy-one students (n = 38 male) identified as Pacific Islander. The survey consisted of scales examining injury, risk taking behaviour, and relationships with family, school and police.----- Results: The leading causes of injury among adolescents of Pacific Islander descent were sports (48%) and transport (e.g. 45% reported bicycle injuries). Interpersonal violence related injuries were also relatively frequent, with 28% having been injured in a fight. Reports of alcohol use were relatively low (20% c.f. 40% of the remaining sample), however reports of other risk behaviours were relatively high (e.g. 43% c.f. 25% of remaining sample reported a group fight).----- Discussion and conclusions: Conclusions will be drawn regarding risk-related injuries reported by adolescents of Pacific Islander descent and those of other ethnic backgrounds. Additionally, risk and protective factors relating to family, school and police will be explored, in order to inform prevention strategies appropriate to this group.

The importance of school connectedness in adolescent risk taking and injury prevention

Background: Injury is the leading cause of mortality for young people in Australia (AIHW, 2008). Adolescent injury mortality is consistently associated with risk taking behaviour, including transport and interpersonal violence (AIHW, 2003), which often occurs in the context of alcohol and other substance use. A rapid increase in risk taking and injury through early to late adolescence highlights the need for effective school based interventions. Aim: The aim of the current research was to examine the relationship between school connectedness and adolescent risk and injury, in order to inform effective prevention approaches. School connectedness, or students’ feelings of belongingness to school, has been shown to be a critical protective factor in adolescence which can be targeted effectively through teacher interventions. Despite evidence linking low school connectedness with increased health risk behaviour, including substance use and violence, research has not yet addressed possible links between connectedness and a broader range of risk taking behaviours (e.g. transport risks) or injury. Method: This study involved background data collection to inform the development of an intervention. A total of 595 Year 9 students (aged 13-14 years) from 5 Southeast Queensland high schools completed questionnaires that included measures of school connectedness, risk taking behaviour, alcohol and other substance use, and injuries. Results: Increased school connectedness was found to be associated with fewer transport risk behaviours and with decreased alcohol and other substance use for both males and females. Similarly, increased school connectedness was associated with fewer passenger and motorcycle injuries for male participants. Both males and females with increased school connectedness reported fewer alcohol related injuries. Implications: These results indicate that school connectedness appears to have protective effects for early adolescence. These findings may also hold for older adolescents and indicate that it may be an important factor to target in school based risk and injury prevention programs. A school connectedness intervention is currently being designed, focusing on teacher professional development. The intervention will be implemented in conjunction with a curriculum based injury prevention program for Year 9 students and will be evaluated through a large scale cluster randomised trial involving 26 schools.

The inclusion of first aid in an injury prevention curriculum

Prompt first aid can have considerable benefits. The Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) program aims to teach, in part, first aid skills along with additional injury prevention strategies. The approach to including first aid is both as an injury prevention strategy and a way in which to reduce the severity of injuries once they occur. This paper outlines an implementation trial of the SPIY program with particular emphasis on the delivery and implementation of first aid skills. SPIY demonstrated effectiveness with regard to first aid knowledge and as an injury prevention program. SPIY is taught in the Year 9 Health curriculum by HPE teachers. Students and teachers who undergo or deliver such training offer important perspectives about implementation. In addition independent observation of delivery provides further information about the program. The research aimed to examine teachers‟ and students‟ experiences of first aid activities within a school-based injury prevention and control program and identify key issues in delivery from independent observation of the program. Focus groups were held with 8 teachers who delivered, and 70 students who participated in the SPIY curriculum program. Results showed favourable reports on the delivery of first aid material however teachers noted challenges in delivering practical activities. In sum, first aid can be effectively implemented within the high school setting and both students and teachers identified multiple benefits and positive experiences after undertaking first aid training.

A short-term evaluation of a school-based early adolescent injury prevention program

This paper reports on the development of a school-based intervention to reduce risk-taking and associated injuries. There is limited but important evidence that intervention design should ensure participation does not lead to an increase in target risk behaviors with some studies in alcohol and drug prevention finding unexpected negative effects. The short-term evaluation of Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) examined change in interpersonal violence, alcohol and transport-related risks. Intervention (n = 360) and comparison (n = 180) students were surveyed pre/post-intervention. A qualitative analysis based on focus groups (70 students) explored experiences of change. Findings indicate significant positive changes reinforced by students’ reports. A decrease in reported risk-taking for the intervention group and an increase in the comparison group were observed. These findings endorse SPIY as a useful curriculum approach to reducing injuries and lend support to the future conduct of a long-term outcome evaluation.

Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards injury prevention : a population based telephone survey

Public knowledge and beliefs about injury prevention are currently poorly understood. A total of 1030 residents in the State of Queensland, Australia responded to questions about injury prevention in or around the home, on the roads, in or on the water, at work, deliberate injury, and responsibility for preventing deliberate injury allowing comparison with published injury prevalence data. Overall the youngest members of society were identified as being the most vulnerable to deliberate injury with young adults accounting for 59% of responses aligning with published data. However, younger adults failed to indicate an awareness of their own vulnerability to deliberate injury in alcohol environments even though 61% of older respondents were aware of this trend. Older respondents were the least inclined to agree that they could make a difference to their own safety in or around the home but were more inclined to agree that they could make a difference to their own safety at work. The results are discussed with a view to using improved awareness of public beliefs about injury to identify barriers to the uptake of injury prevention strategies (e.g. low perceived injury risk) as well as areas where injury prevention strategies may receive public support.

Teachers’ understanding of school connectedness : implications for the development and implementation of school based injury prevention strategies

Aim: Worldwide, injury is the leading cause of death and disability for young people. Injuries among young people are commonly associated with risk taking behaviour, including violence and transport risks, which often occur in the context of alcohol use. The school environment has been identified as having a significant role in shaping adolescent behaviour. In particular, school connectedness, the degree to which adolescents feel that they belong and are accepted at school, has been shown to be an important protective factor. Strategies for increasing school connectedness may therefore be effective in reducing risk taking and associated injury. Prior to developing connectedness strategies, it is important to understand the perspectives of those in the school regarding the construct and how it is realised in the school context. The aim of this research was to understand teachers’ perspectives of school connectedness, the strategies they employ to connect with students, and their perceptions of school connectedness as a strategy for risk taking and injury prevention. Method: In depth interviews of approximately 45 minutes duration were conducted with 13 Health and PE teachers and support staff from 2 high schools in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Additionally, 6 focus group workshop discussions were held with 35 Education department employees (5-6 per group), including teachers from 15 Southeast Queensland high schools. Results: Participants were found to place strong importance on the development of connectedness among students, including those at risk for problem behaviour. Strategies used to promote connectedness included building trust, taking an interest in each student and being available to talk to, and finding something positive for students to succeed at. Teachers identified strategies as being related to decreased risk taking behavior. Teacher training on school connectedness was perceived as an important and useful inclusion in a school based injury prevention program. Conclusions: The established link between increased school connectedness and decreased problem behaviour has implications for school based strategies designed to decrease adolescent risk taking behaviour and associated injury. Targeting school connectedness as a point of intervention, in conjunction with individual attitude and behaviour change programs, may be an effective injury prevention strategy.