BACKGROUND: Food handlers can play a vital role into reducing foodborne diseases by adopting appropriate food handling and sanitation practices in working plants. This study aimed to assess the factors associated with food safety knowledge and practices among meat handlers who work at butcher shops in Bangladesh. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 meat handlers from January to March, 2021. Data were collected through in-person interviews using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three parts; socio-demographic characteristics, assessments of food safety knowledge, and food safety practices. A multiple logistic regression model was used to identify the factors associated with food safety knowledge and practices. RESULTS: Only 20% [95% confidence interval, (CI) 15.7-24.7] and 16.3% (95% CI 12.3-20.7) of the respondents demonstrated good levels of food safety knowledge and practices, respectively. The factors associated with good levels of food safety knowledge were: having a higher secondary education [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 4.57, 95% CI 1.11-18.76], income above 25,000 BDT/month (AOR = 10.52, 95% CI 3.43-32.26), work experience of > 10 years (AOR = 9.31, 95% CI 1.92-45.09), ≥ 8 h per day of work (AOR = 6.14, 95% CI 2.69-13.10), employed on a daily basis (AOR = 4.05, 95% CI 1.16-14.14), and having food safety training (AOR = 8.98 95% CI 2.16-37.32). Good food safety knowledge (AOR = 5.68, 95% CI 2.33-13.87) and working ≥ 8 h per day (AOR = 8.44, 95% CI 3.11-22.91) were significantly associated with a good level of food safety practice. CONCLUSIONS Poor knowledge and practices regarding food safety were found among Bangladeshi meat handlers. Findings may help public health professionals and practitioners develop targeted strategies to improve food safety knowledge and practices among this population. Such strategies may include education and sensitization on good food safety practices.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Bangladesh ; Female ; Food Handling/statistics & numerical data* ; Food Safety/methods* ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Meat ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

Coronavirus Infections ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Elective Surgical Procedures ; statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Infection Control ; methods ; Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional ; prevention & control ; Male ; Occupational Health ; statistics & numerical data ; Orthopedic Procedures ; methods ; statistics & numerical data ; Outcome Assessment, Health Care ; Pandemics ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Patient Safety ; statistics & numerical data ; Pneumonia, Viral ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Risk Assessment ; Safety Management ; Singapore ; Wounds and Injuries ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; surgery

PURPOSE: Vehicle-pedestrian conflicts are common at road intersections when traffic lights change. However, the impact of traffic light on transportation safety and efficiency remains poorly understood. METHODS: A two-stage study was used to survey the proportion of intersections with conflicting traffic lights and the related transportation efficiency and safety were evaluated as well. First, a cross-sectional study estimated the proportion of signalized intersections with conflicting left-turning vehicle-pedestrian traffic lights in Changsha city, China. Second, a natural experiment compared transportation efficiency and safety between intersections with and without conflicting left-turning vehicle-pedestrian traffic lights. Risky conflicts, where motor vehicles violated laws and failed to yield to pedestrians in crosswalk were used as a surrogate for transportation safety. The number of motor vehicles and pedestrians passing through the intersections per second and per meter were used to estimate transportation efficiency. Data were collected and analyzed in 2015 (from March to December). A search of online news from domestic media sources was also conducted to collect pedestrian injury data occurring at the intersections. RESULTS: About one-fourth (57/216) intersections had conflicting left-turning traffic lights (95% CI: 20.5%, 32.3%). Risky vehicle-pedestrian conflicts were more frequently observed at intersections with conflicting lights compared to those without (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 3.13; pedestrians: IRR = 4.02), after adjusting for type of day (weekday vs. weekend), the time period of observation, and motor vehicles traffic flow. Intersections without conflicting vehicle-pedestrian traffic lights had similar transportation efficiency to those with conflicting lights after controlling for covariates (p > 0.05). The systematic review of news media reports yielded 10 left-turning vehicle-pedestrian crash events between 2011 and 2017, involving 11 moderate or severe pedestrian injuries and 3 fatal pedestrian injuries. CONCLUSION Over one-fourth of road intersections in Changsha city, China have conflicting left-turning traffic lights. Conflicting traffic lights cannot improve transportation efficiency, but increase risky conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Motor Vehicles ; statistics & numerical data ; Pedestrians ; statistics & numerical data ; Safety ; Time Factors ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Increasing the establishment of integrated management systems (IMSs) is done with the purpose of leaving traditional management methods and replacing them with modern management methods. Thus, the present study sought to analyze the events and investigate the impact of IMS on health and safety performance indices in an Iranian combined cycle power plants. METHODS: This case study was conducted in 2012 in all units of the Yazd Combined Cycle Power Plant on accident victims before and after the implementation of IMS. For data analysis and prediction of indices after the implementation of IMS, descriptive statistics and Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Chi-square, linear regression, and Cubic tests were conducted using SPSS software. RESULTS: The number of people employed in the power plant in an 8-year period (2004–2011) was 1,189, and 287 cases of work-related accidents were recorded. The highest accident frequency rate and accident severity rate were in 2004 (32.65) and 2008 (209), respectively. Safe T-score reached to below −3 during 2010–2011. In addition, given the regression results, the relation between all predictor variables with outcomes was significant (p < 0.05), except for the variable X1 belonging to the accident severity rate index. CONCLUSION: The implementation of safety programs especially that of IMS and its annual audits has had a significant impact on reducing accident indices and improving safety within the study period. Accordingly, health and safety management systems are appropriate tools for reducing accident rate, and the use of regression models and accident indices is also a suitable way for monitoring safety performance.
Accidents, Occupational ; Linear Models ; Power Plants ; Safety Management ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to explore the causal relationships among staff nurses' job stress factors, patient safety culture perception, and patient safety nursing activities through path analysis. METHODS: The participants, 275 staff nurses with over a year of exp rience working at a university hospital in Seoul, completed structured questionnaires. The data were collected from January 5 to February 28, 2018. The data analysis included descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test and Pearson correlation coefficients using the SPSS/WIN 24.0 program, and path analysis & bootstrapping using AMOS 24.0 program. RESULTS: The path analyses of the hypothesized causal model showed a considerable explanatory power for each of the endogenous variables. About 45 percent of organizational culture was explained by work overload, lack of knowledge/skill, inadequate reward, work environment, and communication. The finding in this study confirmed the mediating effect of patient safety culture perception on the relationships between job stress factors and patient safety nursing activities. CONCLUSION: The proper arrangement of nursing staff, proper treatment and rewards, positive work environment, organizational culture, and smooth communication are needed to promote patient safety nursing activities.
Humans ; Negotiating ; Nursing Staff ; Nursing ; Organizational Culture ; Patient Safety ; Reward ; Seoul ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of hospital ethical climate and nursing professionalism on patient safety management activity by nurses.METHODS: A cross-sectional correlation study design was used. Participants included 142 nurses from two tertiary hospitals in Seoul and Gyunggi-do, South Korea. Data were collected in April and May 2019 using self-report questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple liner regression analysis with SPSS/WIN 21.0.RESULTS: The patient safety management activity correlated positively with hospital ethical climate (r=.32, p < .001) and nursing professionalism (r=.40, p < .001). The patient safety management activity was the factor that most influenced nursing professionalism and position, explaining 21% of the variance (F=12.06, p < .001).CONCLUSION: It is necessary to provide education on professionalism. It is necessary to continuously provide job education and training to nurture competence and quality in professional nurses.
Climate ; Education ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Competency ; Nursing ; Patient Safety ; Professionalism ; Seoul ; Statistics as Topic ; Tertiary Care Centers

BACKGROUND: Respiratory protection equipment (RPE) is the last resort to control exposure to workplace air pollutants. A comprehensive respiratory protection program (RPP) ensures that RPE is selected, used, and cared properly. Therefore, RPP must be well integrated into the occupational health and safety requirements. In this study, we evaluated the implementation of RPP in Iranian petrochemical industries to identify the required solutions to improve the current status of respiratory protection. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 24 petrochemical industries in Iran. The survey instrument was a checklist extracted from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration respiratory protection standard. An index, Respiratory Protection Program Index (RPPI), was developed and weighted by analytic hierarchy process to determine the compliance rate (CR) of provided respiratory protection measures with the RPP standard. Data analysis was performed using Excel 2010. RESULTS: The most important element of RPP, according to experts, was respiratory hazard evaluation. The average value of RPPI in the petrochemical plants was 49 ± 15%. The highest and lowest of CR among RPP elements were RPE selection and medical evaluation, respectively. CONCLUSION: None of studied petrochemical industries implemented RPP completely. This can lead to employees' overexposure to hazardous workplace air contaminants. Increasing awareness of employees and employers through training is suggested by this study to improve such conditions.
Air Pollutants ; Checklist ; Compliance ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Health Resorts ; Iran ; Occupational Health ; Statistics as Topic ; United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the performance of safety care activities among nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals and to identify factors associated with the safety care activities. METHODS: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 455 nurses were recruited from small-medium sized general hospitals. Data were collected with the ‘Questionnaire on Patient Safety Care Activities’ by web based survey. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test and One-way ANOVA with Duncan test for multiple comparison were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The mean score of patient safety care activity was 4.52 out of a total of 5 points. The total score of patient safety care activities according to the characteristics of the subjects was significantly higher than those of patients who had more than 15 years of clinical nursing career (F=7.06, p < .001) and there was a significant difference according to experience of healthcare accreditation (t=−2.10, p=.036). CONCLUSION: In order to raise the level of patient safety care activity among nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals, it is important to retain experienced nurses. Practical training and regular educations on patient safety care activities are required for nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals.
Accreditation ; Delivery of Health Care ; Hospitals, General* ; Humans ; Nursing ; Patient Safety* ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify patient safety awareness and emergency response ability and affecting factors perceived by nursing homes and home visiting caregivers. METHODS: This study was a descriptive study that conveniently extracts nursing caregivers who care for elderly patients in S and G provinces, Korea. Data collection was done by structural questionnaires from April to May 2018. A total of 204 responses consisting of 103 nursing homes and 101 home visiting caregivers were used for data analysis in SPSS Win 22.0. RESULTS: Patient safety awareness and emergency response ability of nursing homes caregivers with each 4.24±0.50, 74.26±09.57 was each higher than that of the home visiting caregivers with 3.68±0.49, 68.02±12.12 (p < .001). The affecting factors of the patient safety awareness were working place, safety education, and daily average working hours with 12 or more (F = 27.30, p < .001) and that of emergency response ability were number of patients per personnel with 9 or more and emergency situation experience (F=14.00, p < .001). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that it is necessary to develop a safety education program that can share indirectly experience emergency situations that occur on the job site.
Aged ; Caregivers* ; Data Collection ; Education ; Emergencies* ; House Calls* ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing Homes* ; Nursing* ; Patient Safety* ; Statistics as Topic ; Workplace

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of job stress on the patient safety nursing activities among nurses. METHODS: The subjects of the study are 258 nurses working at 15 small-medium sized hospitals in D city. Data analysis was done using frequency, percentage, average and standard deviation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: The job stress scored average 3.67 and patient safety nursing activity scored average 4.35. Job stress was positively associated with patient safety nursing activity. It explains 9.49% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Universal and inevitable job stress among nurses should not exceed optimum level to assure patient safety. So, personal and organizational efforts to manage job stress are needed.
Hospitals, General* ; Humans ; Nursing* ; Patient Safety* ; Statistics as Topic