We aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze the association of employees working in various kinds of open-plan offices with sick leave data, compared to those working in traditional cell offices. Databases of PubMed, PubPsych, and Psyndex were systematically searched following the PRISMA statement. Pooled summary estimates of odds ratio (OR) were calculated comparing sick leave of employees in cell offices with those working in small open-plan offices (4–9 people), and those in various open-plan office solutions (≥4 people). We used Forest plots visualizing study-specific estimates and the pooled fixed and random effects estimators. Five studies were identified (2008–2020) with a total of 13,277 (range 469–6,328) participants. Compared with employees working in cell offices, those working in small open-plan offices were associated with higher odds of sick leave days (OR=1.27; 95% CI 0.99–1.54; p=0.046) as well as those working in various kinds of open-plan offices with ≥4 colleagues (OR=1.24; 95% CI 0.96–1.51; p=0.004). Our results are consistent with those of earlier reviews focusing on other effects of open-plan office solutions such as health and well-being. Different solutions for office design and architectural lay-out should be the focus of future studies to balance pros and cons of open-plan offices.

An imbalance in the key organizational psychology constructs viz. “Workload”, “Reward”, “Community”, “Control”, “Values” and “Fairness” are potential factors leading to negative occupational mental health, i.e. burnout. Burnout, a psychological syndrome is the combination of emotional exhaustion, sense of reduced compassion and accomplishment. To note, the concept of occupational mental health in a nation with second largest workforce is nascent. Further, the utility of existing western tools in Indian subcontinent is limited by culturally inappropriateness, patented, less comprehensible and other factors. Present study attempted to develop tools to screen occupational mental health and workplace areas. Conventional steps involved in psychological tool development, viz. construct identification, drafting of pertinent questions, content validation, field testing of questions and others were adopted. After series of steps, tools for screening occupational mental health and key constructs influencing mental health at workplace (workplace assessment) were developed. The screening tools exhibited adequate test−retest reliability, internal consistency/reliability (cronbach’s α>0.73) and correlation (correlation coefficient >0.6) with the general mental health in larger evaluation of 153 consenting workers. The proposed simple and easy to administer tool requires development of normative scores thereby aiding early diagnosis and management of those requiring intervention.

Female nurses experience work-family conflict due to performing multiple roles, leading to burnout. Thus, this study aimed to verify the association between burnout and the multiple work and family roles performed among Japanese female nurses. The data for 2,255 nurses at 23 Japanese hospitals obtained from the Work Environment for Nurses Study in Japan were used. The variables included burnout, demographic information, additional work roles, and child-rearing or caregiving. Half of the nurses were categorized under the “no-role” group (NRG), approximately a quarter under the “work-role” group (WRG), 16% under the “family-role” group (FRG), and 7.3% under the “multiple-role” group (MRG). Compared to the NRG, the FRG and MRG showed statistically lower emotional exhaustion (B=−0.79, p<0.05; B=−0.94, p<0.05, respectively) and depersonalization (B=−0.80, p<0.05; B=−1.09, p<0.05, respectively). Personal accomplishment was not statistically different among the four groups. Burnout was relatively low among nurses with family roles, suggesting that family roles may have a positive spillover effect on work-related emotions.

To evaluate whether financial aid for acupuncture therapy is beneficial for non-manufacturing job workers (office workers) who are aware of reduced job performance due to health issues (presenteeism), a four-wk pragmatic multicenter randomized controlled trial was conducted with office workers who were aware of their presenteeism. The control group only implemented the workplace-recommended presenteeism measures, whereas the intervention group received financial aid for acupuncture therapy of up to 8,000 JPY (Japanese yen) in addition to implementing the presenteeism measures recommended by each workplace. The major outcome measure was the World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire relative presenteeism score. A total of 203 patients were assigned to the intervention (n=103) and control (n=108) groups. The intervention group underwent a median of 1.0 (interquartile range [IQR], 1.0 to 2.0) sessions of acupuncture for neck disorders (64%), back disorders (16%), and depressed mood/anxiety/irritation (5%), among others. Results showed that the intervention group had slightly better job performance than the control group (effect size [r]=0.15, p=0.03). Financial aid for acupuncture therapy may help compensate for losses incurred by enterprises in the form of 14,117 JPY per worker a month.

This study aimed to determine the effect of physiotherapists’ physical burden caused by different bed heights during manual therapy. Thirty-three male physiotherapists performed tasks simulating lumbar massage and passive hip abduction range-of-motion exercise (ROM) on the beds with low height (LH) and adjusted height (AH), with each task performed three times. The anterior inclination angle of the physiotherapist’s trunk was measured, the surface electromyograms of the erector spinae and trapezius muscles were recorded, and perceived stress was assessed. The indexes obtained were statistically compared for different bed heights. Additionally, the lumbar disc compression force and flexion torque were estimated. The lumbar burden caused by the excessive bending and the biomechanical burden and perceived stress were stronger at LH than AH. In ROM tasks using the right hand, the muscle activity was lower at the left lumbar region at LH than at AH. At LH, the anterior inclination angle increased and the lumbar muscle activity declined as the number of tasks increased. The burden on the shoulders was not significantly different by bed heights. Our results showed that, when physiotherapists perform manual therapy, it is necessary to adjust the bed height to reduce physical burden and ensure higher quality of service.

When using a local exhaust hood to remove harmful substances from the production process, the exhaust airflow rate must be calculated according to the capturing velocity specified by the relevant regulations. The Numano and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) equations are used in Japan and the US, respectively, for estimating the exhaust airflow rate of slot hoods. However, these equations differ from each other, and when using these equations to calculate the exhaust airflow rate of the capture hood, whether using Japan’s equation or ACGIH, the hood type (slot or rectangular hood) should be distinguished at first. Therefore, this study performs experiments and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to investigate the relationship between the centerline velocity and the aspect ratio for five types of capture hoods. The results showed good agreement between simulated and experimental centerline velocities when the distance from the hood face. A dimensionless velocity was introduced and a significant difference in the relationship between the centerline velocity and the distance from the hood face with different aspect ratios was found. A unified equation was obtained that can express the relationship between exhaust airflow rate and centerline velocity regardless of the aspect ratio of the hood face of the free-standing capture hood.

To clarify the combined effect of the sub-factors of organizational commitment, this study examined the relationships between organizational commitment profiles and work engagement, psychological distress, and turnover intention among nurses. A cross-sectional survey was conducted; 455 nurses (38 men and 417 women) were included in the statistical analysis. We extracted six clusters through k-means cluster analysis and applied a one-way analysis of variance and χ² test for work engagement, psychological distress, and turnover intention. Consequently, significant differences were found in work engagement and turnover intention (both p<0.05), and no significant difference was found in psychological distress. These results indicate the formation of affective and normative commitment among nurses in working energetically or preventing turnover. Additionally, no negative effects related to increases in continuance commitment were identified in this study.