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Aim: To investigate ergonomic and demographic issues reported by palliative care workers in southern Taiwan. Method: A structured questionnaire was completed by staff members from 11 nursing homes within southern Taiwan. Questions focused on age, sex, height, weight, shift-work details, duration of current employment, nature of current employment, the presence of injury and pain during the past 12 months, the phase lag before the onset of injury, and sick leave details. Results: A total of 125 health-care workers were recruited. Most were female (89.3 percent) and employed full-time (64.8 percent) as patient care assistants (55.2 percent). Most workers were regularly involved in patient-handling tasks (61.6 percent). Almost half (36.8 percent) had suffered a musculoskeletal disorder within the previous year. Lower back injury was reported by 12.0 percent of all employees. Changing patients’ clothes and changing their bed linen were associated statistically with musculoskeletal injury (odds ratio (OR) 2.9, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) 1.4-6.3 and OR 2.8, 95 percent CI 1.4-6.1), respectively. Moving the patients was also related to injury during our research (OR 2.5, 95 percent CI 1.2-5.4). Conclusion: This study has revealed various ergonomic and demographic issues reported by palliative care workers in southern Taiwan for the first time. The prevalence of certain injuries and symptoms are different from other reports.

Although the number of nursing homes is increasing in Australia, few studies have investigated the der- matologic condition of their patients.To address this issue, we conducted one of the first skin disease investigations of nursing home residents in Queensland, Australia.Methods:Our predominant data source was the attending physicians' medical reports, which are updated monthly following their physi- cal examination of each patient.Specialist podiatrists' monthly progress notes were also used as were daily nursing reports.Results:Just over half the patients(54.4%)had at least one skin disease regis- tered among their medical records.Xerosis(dry skin)was the most common affliction, affecting 29.5% of the patients, followed by onychomycosis(tinea unguium)at 22.5% and dermatitis(8.9%).Skin can- cer was recorded in 4.9%, while excoriation(3.1%)and unspecified keratosis(2.2%)were slightly less common.Being bedridden was identified as a risk factor for both xerosis(OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.8-8.7)and onychomycosis(OR 18.0, 95% CI 7.5-49.0).Conclusion:Overall, our research suggests that skin dis- eases are reasonably common among Australian nursing home patients.The presence of certain der- matologic conditions differed from other reports.J Epidemiol 2002;12:336-340.

To establish the prevalence of skin disease among nursing home workers in southern Taiwan, dermatological examination was performed on 75 nursing home staff from 11 institutions in Tainan county. Fungal infections were the most common skin diseases identified, affecting 21.4% of all employees. Other conditions included xerosis (13.3%), scabies (10.7%) and dermatitis (8.0%). Fungus was found mainly on the feet and hands (68.7% and 31.3% of all fungal cases respectively). Most xerosis sites were identified on the lower leg (90.0% of all xerosis cases), while all workers with scabies had the disease on their forearm. Dermatitis was diagnosed predominately on the forearm (50.0% of all dermatitis cases). The prevalence of fungus and scabies was higher than other studies, while dermatitis occurred less frequently than previous reports. Although not statistically significant, we believe that wet work and occupational contact with nursing home patients may have been important risk factors for these conditions.

Skin disease is one of the most important occupational disorders for workers of industrialised nations. Among them, health care staff are a particularly vulnerable subgroup due to their continuous handwashing and exposure to skin irritants. Smith et al. previously reported a high prevalence of skin disease among nursing home staff in Australia and Taiwan . However, dermatological investigations of their Japanese counterparts are rare. As such, we decided to conduct an epidemiological study of skin disease among typical palliative care staff in central Japan.

Although musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) represent a significant occupational issue for most nursing home staff, few epidemiological studies have been conducted in Korea.We investigated the prevalence of, and risk factors for, MSD within South Korea's largest nursing home using a previously validated, self-reporting questionnaire.From a total of 130 registered employees, 91 (70.0%) successfully completed questionnaires were obtained. The majority were female (80.2%, n=73), with an age range of 27 to 62 years and an average age of 47.0 years (SD 8.0). MSD occurred in varying amounts and was classified into distinct categories depending on body site. The most commonly affected region was the shoulder (reported by 35.2%), followed by the arm (22.0%), knee (20.9%) and lower back (19.8%). Three statistically significant risk factors were consistently identified among all 4 MSD sites: manually handling patients (OR 5.1 to 20.8), changing a patient's clothes (OR 6.7 to 30.1) and working as a nursing aide (OR 3.7 to 74.3).Overall, the present results suggest that employment within a South Korean nursing home incurs certain hazards depending on job description and daily work tasks. The MSD prevalence differed from other occupations within South Korea and previous nursing home studies.