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Design and Development of a Visual Comfort Questionnaire (VCQ) for Employees in the Workplace
Mostafa Rahmiani Iranshahi, Masoud Shafiee Motlagh, Elahe Dortaj, Maryam Farhadian,
Volume 9, Issue 4 (3-2022)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Visual comfort is an important and influential factor on safety, mental health, sleep quality, and musculoskeletal disorders of employees in the workplace. This study aimed to design and develop a questionnaire to assess the visual comfort of employees in the workplace.
Methods: The study was performed on 101 participants (88 men and13 women) in the food industry. First, the available lighting questionnaires in the field of lighting were reviewed, and a question bank was set up. Twenty questions were considered in two sections of natural and artificial lighting (10 questions in each section) based on the opinion of 10 experts in this field. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed using the content validity index (CVI) based on the comments of experts. To validate the questionnaire in the workplace, The lighting of employees' workstations was evaluated according to the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) standards and compared with the results of the questionnaire.
Results: The Cronbach's alpha of natural and artificial lighting visual comfort questionnaire was 0.858 and 0.922, respectively. The total CVI of the questionnaire was 1. There was a significant positive relationship between the score of the visual comfort questionnaire and the workstations' illumination (P = 0.001). More than 97% of employees who had workstations with the desired lighting reported excellent levels of visual comfort.
Conclusion: The visual comfort questionnaire had good and acceptable reliability and validity. This tool is recommended for the use of visual comfort asessments of employees in work environments given the fewer number of and simplicity of sentences.

A Survey on the Sleep Quality in Agricultural Tractor Drivers in Different Climatic Conditions
Ehsan Houshyar, Hadi Daneshmandi,
Volume 9, Issue 4 (3-2022)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Among the various agricultural activities, working and driving with farm tractors in different weather conditions lead to fatigue and burnout. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sleep quality of farm tractors drivers in different weather conditions.
Methods: Amongst tractor drivers in Behbahan, Eqlid, and Kavar, 90 participants (Kavar: 27; Eqlid: 33; Behbahan: 30) were selected. The required data was gathered using the demographic characteristics questionnaire and standard questionnaire Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). We used Kruskal-Wallis and Post-hoc pairwise comparison tests to analyze the data (α = 0.05).
Results: The results showed that there were no significant differences in sleep quality and sleep quality parameters between different region tractors drivers (P > 0.05); but there were significant differences in mental sleep quality (P = 0.001), in terms of delays in falling asleep (P = 0.02), going to sleep duration (P = 0.04) and between Kavar and Behbehan tractor drivers, and also there are significant differences in going to sleep duration (P = 0.04) between Kavar and Eqlid tractor drivers.
Conclusion: Working in critical cold weather (like nights in Eqlid) or critical hot weather (like noon in Behbahan) should be strongly forbidden by providing with a suitable working schedule especially while tractor drivers without driver’s cabin. Drivers’ cabins safeguards drivers against temperature, wind and dust, and, therefore increase their comfort and sleep quality.

The Effect of Environmental and Ergonomic Stimuli of the Work Environment on Employees’ Behavior by the Mediating Role of General Health
Mehdi Fadaei, Mahdi Homayounfar, Mansour Soufi, Amir Daneshvar,
Volume 10, Issue 1 (7-2022)
Abstract
Objectives: Considering the importance of employees' behavior in service organizations and its significant impact on their success and failure, the present study investigates the environmental and ergonomic factors affecting the mental health and behavior of employees in one of the branches of Islamic Azad University.
Methods: The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlational in terms of data gathering and analysis. The statistical population of the study includes: 315 employees of Rasht Branch of Azad University, out of them 196 people were selected by random sampling method and the necessary data were collected using a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling and SMART PLS3 software were used to test the hypotheses.
Results: According to the findings, workplace layout affects on use of work equipment (0.389), use of office chair (0.252) and environmental conditions (0.538), but the effect of workplace layout on the posture of employees was not confirmed in 5 percent significance level. Also, the effect of posture (0.586), layout (0.440), work equipment (0.458), office chair (0.345) and environmental conditions (0.550) on public health and also the effect of general health (0.690) and environmental conditions (0.158) on employees’ behavior is significant. Examining the indirect relationships of the research model also shows that workplace layout affects employee behavior through the general health and environmental conditions. Workplace layout influences employees’ behavior through work equipment, office chair, environment conditions and general health.
Conclusion: The indirect effect of workplace layout on employees’ behavior through public health has the highest impact (0.304), therefore, making policies for the general health, can improve employees’ behavior.

Determining the Effect of Ergonomic Principles of the Work Environment on the Burnout of Employees of Ilam Petrochemical Company with the Role of Safety Culture Moderator
Mohammad Reza Omidi, Nabi Omidi, Hadi Meftahi, Maryam Panahi,
Volume 10, Issue 4 (3-2023)
Abstract
Objectives: Considering the role of human resources in every organization, it is very important to address issues that lead to the reduction of occupational injuries in the workplace, it is clear that preventing the occurrence of job burnout in improving people's mental health. It plays an important role. One of the topics that can be useful in reducing job burnout is the application of ergonomic knowledge and compliance with safety principles, which is the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of workplace ergonomic principles on job burnout with the moderating role of safety culture.
Methods: The current research is descriptive survey research, the statistical population of this research is all the employees of Ilam Petrochemical Company, which was obtained by using the Cochran formula, and the sample size is equal to 310 people; The main tools for collecting information in this research include demographic profile questionnaires, ergonomic principles, job burnout, and safety culture. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the professors using face and content validity methods, and the reliability was also confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In this research, structural equations based on path analysis in SMART PLS software were used to analyze and test research hypotheses.
Results: The impact of ergonomic principles on the burnout of Ilam Petrochemical employees is negative and significant with coefficients (T = 12.26, R2 = -0.42), and the cultural impact of safety on burnout is also negative and significant with coefficients
(T = 14.07, R2 = -0.32). is, the test of the main hypothesis shows that safety culture moderates the effect of ergonomic principles on job burnout and causes more reduction of job burnout.
Conclusion: Compliance with the principles of ergonomics in the work environment and the existence of a safety culture in Ilam Petrochemical will reduce job burnout.

Performance of Vests based on Nanofibers and Packages of Phase Change Materials to Reduce Thermal Stress in a Hot Work Environment: An Experimental Study
Ali Davoodizadeh, Mohsen Aliabadi, Majid Habibi Mohraz, Maryam Farhadian, Masoud Shafiee Motlagh,
Volume 11, Issue 2 (9-2023)
Abstract
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cooling vests based on nanofibers and packages of phase change materials (PCM) in reducing the thermal stress of medical personnel in hot workplaces.
Methods: In this experimental study, 20 males were exposed to 10 combined scenarios of temperatures of 24°C and 32°C in a room simulating atmospheric conditions and having 5 samples of cooling vests. Physiological parameters, including skin surface temperature, tympanic temperature, and oral temperature were measured before and after exposure to air temperature conditions by simulating the activity metabolism of hospital workers. The normal distribution of the data was checked with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and the analysis of the effect of the scenarios was performed through the analysis of variance with repeated measurements.
Results: The results confirmed that in the condition without a vest, the air temperature of 32°C compared to the air temperature of 24°C had a greater effect in increasing the tympanic body temperature (P<0.05). The significant effect of using nanofiber vests along with PCM packages was observed in reducing skin temperature, tympanic temperature, and oral temperature in hot temperature conditions with effect sizes of 0.498, 0.568, and 0.349, respectively (P<0.05). The effect size of increasing the air temperature was lower than that of the type of cooling vests on the physiological responses, indicating that the effectiveness of the designed vests is enhanced with an increase in temperature (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The use of nanofiber cooling vests and PCM packages is effective in maintaining the body temperature stability of medical personnel in hot environments due to ideal weight and acceptable effect size.

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