Iranian Journal of Ergonomics

Investigating the Effect of Fear of COVID‑19 on Psychological Well-being of Nurses with the Moderating Role of Resilience

Fariborz Fathi Chegeni

Background and Objectives: The widespread and contagious nature of the covid-19 virus with it's daunting number of hospital admissions has had ill effects on the psychological well-being of nurses as front line workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fear of COVID-19 on psychological well- being in nurses with the moderating role of resilience, in Khorramabad Shohadaye Ashayer Hospital.
Methods: The present research is a descriptive study in the branch of field studies in terms of applied purpose and data collection, using survey. The statistical population of the study included 230 nurses working in Khorramabad Shohadaye Ashayer Hospital. Based on Krejcie and Morgan's table, a sample size of 140 people was selected via stratified random sampling method. To measure the variables of the research, a questionnaire was used which included three sections of Fear of COVID-19, psychological well- being and resilience. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha method and its validity was confirmed using convergent validity. For data analysis, structural equation modeling and PLS software have been used.
Results: The results show that at the 95% confidence level, Fear of COVID-19 has a negative and significant effect on nurses' psychological well- being (P < 0.05; β = -0.509) and resilience has a moderating role in relation to Fear of COVID- 19 and psychological well- being (P < 0.05; β = -0.225).
Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be said that fear of Covid- 19 played a significant role in reducing the psychological well- being of nurses and, nurses with higher resilience showed less psychological well- being than nurses with lower resilience.

Exploring Factors Influencing the Workload in Nursing Assistants: A Qualitative Study

Maryam Kaboli

Background and Objectives: A high workload is a major challenge to health care workers, especially first- line supporters, like nurse assistants, and this has many negative consequences. This study aimed to identify the factors affecting the workload of nurse assistants in one of Tehran hospitals.
Methods: The research is descriptive- qualitative using qualitative content analysis, with the participation of 13 nurse assistants selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi- structured interviews and after each interview, the data were loaded and analyzed in MAX QDA software and this process continued until data saturation. Please match the last sentence with the farsi version.
Results: In the findings of continuous data analysis, a total of 473 codes were found in the factors affecting workload in the process of nurse assistants' work system. Finally, they were classified into five categories of Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model (person, task, organization, tools, equipment and environment).
Conclusion: Most factors affecting workload are obtained in the organizational component and the least in the environmental component of the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model, which indicates the significant role played by interpersonal relationships in the workplace and hospital rules on the workload of nurse assistants.

Design and Development of a Visual Comfort Questionnaire (VCQ) for Employees in the Workplace

Masoud Shafiee Motlagh

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.

The Survey of Relationship between the Sleep Quality with Cognitive Failures and Job Performance among Airport Staff

Abdolrasoul Rahmani

Background and Objectives: Mental and physical fatigue of airport staff reduces their job standards and productive concentration. The objective of this study was to examine the sleep quality and its effect on cognitive failure and job performance among airport staffs.
Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 200 staff of an airport were chosen by simple random sampling method. The data collecting tools were four questionnaires that comprised demographic characteristics, sleep quality, cognitive failures, and job performance. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and regression tests.
Results: Based on the findings, the mean total scores of the sleep quality, cognitive failures, and job performance were 6.78 ± 3.23, 65.22 ± 20.36 and 39.59 ± 5.59, respectively. The results showed that the mean score of sleep quality in the two areas of sleep latency (1.5 ± 0.82) and sleep duration (1.43 ± 1.05) was higher than other subscales. According to the findings, there was a significant inverse relationship between sleep quality score and cognitive failures score with job performance score (r = -0.195, P < 0.05), While the sleep quality score and cognitive failure score showed a positive and significant correlation (r = 0.389, P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The findings demonstrated a significant relationship between sleep quality and cognitive failure, so that with decreasing this factor, cognitive failure of airport staff also increased and the probability of the human error increased. Therefore, enhancing the sleep quality and comfort by providing ergonomic solutions the cognitive failure in staff and consequently job performance would be greatly prevented.

Comparative Study of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Quality of Life between Traditional and Semi-modern Paddy Farmers of Gilan

Fatemeh Chaharaghran

Background and Objectives: Musculoskeletal disorders and low quality of life are the most common problems among paddy farmers in the world. Paddy farmers are exposed to inappropriate postures, long working hours and stressful environmental conditions. The aim of this study was to compare different farming methods of rice cultivation (traditional and semi-modern) on the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and life quality of paddy farmers.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in rice fields with 150 paddy farmers as a sample group (100 traditional paddy farmers and 50 semi-modern paddy farmers). Musculoskeletal disorders and quality of life were assessed using the Nordic questionnaire and the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile, respectively.
Results: The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the neck, lower back and shoulders is higher in traditional paddy farmers compared to farmers who work in semi-modern rice cultivation system. Present results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between various rice cultivation methods and musculoskeletal disorders on life quality. Furthermore, different farming methods of paddy cultivation have no significant effect on paddy farmers' life quality.
Conclusion: The prevalence of lower back musculoskeletal disorders among paddy farmers portrays the consequence from long-term exposure to inappropriate posture from strenous activity.

Studying the Role of Workplaces Layout on Employees Health: Sick Building Syndrome

Sahar Toofan

Background and Objectives: Workplace architecture is one of the most important factors influencing employees' health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is necessary to study the role of workplace design on the emergence of various types of health problems among employees. The present research aims to study the prevailing conditions at the case studied workplaces and to identify the role of factors influenced by interior layout (location-ergonomics, lighting, indoor air quality (IAQ), temperature, noise, design style, and cleaning) on the emergence of Sick Building Syndrome among employees.
Methods: In the present study, three administration buildings (roads and urban development office, construction engineering organization, and airport) in Urmia, Tabriz are investigated as case studies and a total of 226 employees working in these buildings are selected as samples. Then, they are asked to fill out a questionnaire to collect the required data. The reliability of the questionnaire is confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.
Results: The findings indicate that despite the advantages of open plan layout for the organization of work environments, it still has many negative consequences such as too much noise and distraction, lack of ergonomics, congestion, reduced privacy, and the lack of personal control of environmental conditions. In general, it is not considered an efficient layout design for the workplace.
Conclusion: The results indicate that to effectively deal with the emergence of sick building syndrome and provide a healthy work environment, it is necessary to establish a balance between various parts in the workplace layout design including private office space, shared workplace, and/or open plan according to the nature and type of work while taking into account the factors and parameters influenced by the layout design and environmental properties.

Anxiety Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Relationship with Job Satisfaction and Mental Health of Health Care Centers Staff (Case study: Yazd County)

Abbasali Jafari-Nodoushan

Background and Objectives: With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, staff's job satisfaction and mental health potentially threatened especially in health care centers. The study aimed to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 virus on job satisfaction and mental health of staff health care centers of Yazd city in 2020.
Methods: The study is a descriptive-survey study and was conducted by selecting 265 stratified random samples among the staff of health care centers in Yazd city. Research tools include the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire, and the Corona Disease Anxiety Scale. Data analysis was performed by ANOVA, Chi-square independence, and Pearson correlation tests.
Results: The results showed that staff's job satisfaction and mental health were moderate and serious respectively, and COVID-19 anxiety has a significant correlation with staff's job satisfaction (r = -0.611, P = 0.009) and mental health (r = -0.826, P = 0.001). Age, gender, and marriage had a significant impact on job satisfaction, mental health, and COVID-19 anxiety (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: It is suggested that healthcare providers increase their financial and moral support to healthcare staff during conditions like the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, introducing rotational staff and hiring new staff is a considerate action that can be taken by the relevant managers to improve the staff's job satisfaction and mental health.

A Survey on the Sleep Quality in Agricultural Tractor Drivers in Different Climatic Conditions

Ehsan Houshyar

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.