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Background Presenteeism has received increasing attention in occupational health research but the evidence for its association with perceived leadership is scant. Aims To assess the association of perceived leadership and presenteeism among industrial workers. Methods Survey responses from employees on perceived leadership were linked to the personnel register of a food industry company. The Presenteeism Scale method was used to determine the presenteeism percentage. Perceived leadership was measured as a composite variable of six individual items on motivating and participating leadership. Generalized linear models were used to determine the association of perceived leadership with presenteeism. Results There were 847 participants. The majority of office workers of both genders reported better perceived leadership than factory workers. We found that perceived poor leadership was associated with a higher likelihood of presenteeism (rate ratio (RR) 1.64, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) 1.51-1.78). However, there was variation amongst and within occupational groups and genders, with a higher risk of presenteeism amongst male factory workers (RR 2.28, 95% CI 2.02-2.52) than female office workers. Conclusions Leadership was found to be significantly associated with presenteeism, with a greater risk of presenteeism in those reporting poor perceived leadership. The association between levels of perceived leadership and presenteeism was stronger in men than women. Organizations should focus on motivating leadership practices to reduce the risk of presenteeism, especially among men.

Background Finland has one of the oldest populations in Europe. Gerontological nursing is unfortunately not appealing to nurse students. Objectives This study aimed to examine nurse students' attitudes towards older adults and their suggestions about gerontological nursing course. Design A cross-sectional, descriptive study. Settings One university of applied sciences in Finland. Participants A total sample of nurse students (n = 523). Methods Data were collected in 2015 using KAOP scale that included background questions and one open question. The data were analyzed statistically and thematized. The themes were then quantified as frequencies. Results The response rate was 47.5%. The mean age was 26.9 years. The results showed that students' attitudes were positive towards older adults. Factor analysis produced a four factor (characteristic value >1.0) model (explanation rate 44%, x2 118,770, df = 74 and p = .001). A four-factor model was however not justifiable, as only one variable loaded onto the fourth factor. The range of the communalities of the variables chosen for the factor analysis was between 0.37 and 0.99. There were seven such variables and their reliability was high (α = 0.71). The positive attitude was described by reciprocal understanding, social skills of older adults and older adults' ability to maintain their home and themselves. Of the suggestions for improving the teaching of gerontological nursing, 60% were related to the contents of teaching, 37% to didactic solutions and 3% to the capabilities of the teacher. Conclusions Students consider older adults as individuals with their own personalities and many resources, a view that should not be lost after graduation. The study showed a demand for moving teaching away from classrooms to the real environments of older people's care. Using various methods such as lectures by experts by experience can make the topic more appealing.

This study assesses potential presenteeism costs and the association of these with a company's business figures.We conducted the questionnaire surveys in alternate years between 2003 and 2007 and linked them to sickness absence register data. Perceived work ability levels were assessed and converted into presenteeism days using the Presenteeism Scale tool. Sickness absence and presenteeism days were converted into monetary figures using median monthly salary information.The share of presenteeism costs was constant at about 1% of annual turnover and about 3.7% of personnel costs. The lowest annual presenteeism cost per employee was EUR 986 and the highest was EUR 1302. The lowest number of presenteeism days per employee in a year was 8.7 days and the highest number was 10.4 days. Estimated losses to a company due to sickness absences and presenteeism ranged from EUR 4.6 million to EUR 5.6 million annually. The potential presenteeism costs to the company and to Finnish society were vast.Presenteeism is a costly problem but more research is needed to reveal the connections between presenteeism and a company's turnover, personnel costs and profit.

We conducted three studies among healthcare professionals and explored the need for service and social robots in the healthcare sector. The methods consisted of cross-sectional surveys and literature reviews. The survey data were analyzed with cross-tabulations, a logistic regression model, a Pearson correlation test, and a factor analysis. The literature reviews showed that there were only a few papers which discussed the use of service and social robots as tools by healthcare workers. Both professional care workers and healthcare educators perceived that robots were able to increase productivity. The results also showed that robots are able to reduce the mental workload of workers and to increase the diversity of work. Robots were also considered as good devices for activating the patients’ motoric and cognitive skills and for making them happy. Even if the attitudes were positive and people were not afraid that robots may take over workplaces, the ecosystem of social robotics is still fragmented and the number of intervention studies among professional care workers is small. Policymakers should create a strategy for promoting service and social robots in the healthcare sector. The strategy should take into account robotics in education and implementation of robots in healthcare facilities.

Robostress is a user’s perceived or measured stress in relation to the use of interactive physical robots. It is an offshoot from technostress where a user perceives experience of stress when using technologies. We explored robostress and the related variables. The methods consisted of a cross-sectional survey conducted in Finland, Qatar and Japan among university students and staff members (n = 60). The survey data was analyzed with descriptive statistics and a Pearson Correlation Test. The results presented that people perceived stress when or if using the robots and the concept of robostress exists. The reasons for robostress were lack of time and technical knowledge, but the experience of technical devices and applications mitigate robostress. Scopus

We explored the attitudes of the Heads of Education and the Directors of Research towards the need for Social Robotics Courses in Finland. The methods consisted of a cross-sectional survey (n = 21) and data was analyzed with descriptive methods and Pearson correlation tests. The results showed that the attitudes of respondents towards social robots were positive and they stated that robotics courses would be essential for universities. The respondents reported that the social service and healthcare sector will use social robots in the near future, but more training sessions are needed. So far, universities have offered only few applied robotics courses for healthcare students. This study also found that the surveyed universities have not yet taken into account the development of service and social robotics in the healthcare sector. - 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Background Work Ability Score (WAS) is a common instrument for assessing work ability but its validity in assessing presenteeism and productivity loss is unknown. Aims To validate a WAS-based measure, the Presenteeism Scale (PS), and to evaluate its accuracy as a presenteeism instrument among forestry employees. Methods This validation study was based on questions of perceived WAS assessed using the Work Ability-Personal Radar (WA-PR) instrument and on questions of perceived productivity loss and presenteeism assessed using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Pearson's correlation test was used to ascertain the associations between variables. The association of productivity loss with presenteeism was evaluated using a logistic regression model. The predictive ability of presenteeism was tested using the receiver-operating characteristic curve. Results There were 339 respondents in the cross-sectional survey, 257 in the WA-PR and 107 respondents participating in both surveys. The prevalence of presenteeism was 48%. Presenteeism was significantly (P < 0.05) higher among those reporting productivity losses. Presenteeism is extremely accurate in predicting perceived productivity loss but less accurate in predicting PS-based productivity loss. The odds ratio (OR) of self-estimated productivity loss was 77 times higher (OR 77.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 25.36-236.12) among those with presenteeism. Correspondingly, OR of productivity loss based on the PS was three times higher (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.16-8.04). Conclusions The PS may be a valid tool for predicting productivity loss and may be as good as other instruments. However, further research is needed to improve its accuracy.

This paper presents an approach to assessing presenteeism (on-the-job productivity loss) that is related to perceived work ability. The aim of this explorative research was to find out if perceived work ability could be a robust indicator, interchangeable with presenteeism, in Finnish food industry organizations. The developed approach was based on existing presenteeism research as well as on register and survey data. The approach demonstrates that one step downward on the 10-point perceived work ability scale theoretically reduces employees' on-the-job productivity by ˜5 percentage points. At the company level, on-the-job productivity loss was 3.7% (mdn 0), while sickness absence was 5.0% (mdn 2.2). The probability of productivity loss among factory workers was fourfold compared to women in office work. The developed approach makes it possible to assess perceived productivity loss at the level of an individual and an organization. Perceived work ability may, in fact, be a robust indicator for assessing perceived productivity loss.

Progress in the field of human-technology interaction offers interesting possibilities to promote health through gaming. The authors’ objective was to carry out user-centered research to develop an interactive game called Tamhattan that was designed to promote health awareness of adolescents. The interactive gaming environment enables gaming in both mobile and PC contexts with games based on health knowledge. The platform supports socially networked gaming and learning. It enables input with game controls, positioning (GPS), and gestures, as well as multimodal feedback through visual and auditive modalities. The research started with a survey of the health issues that should be addressed in the games. Adolescents were engaged in design and testing of the games throughout the process. Finally, the gaming environment was used in actual teaching contexts in local schools. The results of these user and gaming experience studies are presented and discussed.