Occupational Health and Safety Research to Practice

This presentation will describe a program of research focused on the design, implementation, evaluation and translation of knowledge gained from a studying the impact of a comprehensive violence prevention program in the health care and social service workplace. The discussion will focus on the role of an active research project advisory committee, used of mixed research methods, and strategies for translating and disseminating study findings.

Speakers & Presentation Topics

Socioeconomic Disparities in Health and in Occupational Exposures: Relevance for Workplace Health Promotion and Protection Programs

Laura Punnett, Sc.D., Professor, Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace

Like many other occupational hazards, musculoskeletal risk factors are more common in low-status, low-wage jobs. The distribution of ergonomic and psychosocial stressors also differs between men and women and often by ethnic group, as well. Many of the so-called "non-occupational" risk factors for MSDs (e.g., smoking, obesity, lack of exercise) are in fact associated with psychosocial strain at work, and all of these same factors also increase the risk of cardiovascular morbidity. Thus MSDs provide a useful model for how injury and disease risk factors tend to cluster in patterns that are highly predictable from the perspective of work organization. A better understanding of work organization and its impacts on exposure and health can inform a more effective approach to workplace interventions and health promotion programs with potential benefit for the health of our diverse and aging workforce.

Socioeconomic disparities in health and in occupational exposures: Relevance for workplace health promotion and protection programs

Evaluation of Workplace Violence Prevention Interventions
“A model for implementing, evaluating and translating violence prevention intervention research in the health care and social service workplace”

Jane Lipscomb, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Director, University of Maryland Baltimore (UMAB) School of Nursing, Work and Health Research Center

Sponsored by

Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety (MCOHS), a NIOSH-supported Education and Research Center at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health

Division of Environmental Health Sciences

Centers for Public Health Education and Outreach