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IntroductionIn Portugal, most adults have inadequate levels of vitamin D. Active duty military personnel need to be always ready for duty, perform tasks in specific contexts and overcome high physical and mental demands, which raises the relevance of knowing their vitamin D levels. This study aims to characterise vitamin D levels of Portuguese active duty military personnel and evaluate the effect of military status on the prevalence of vitamin D sufficiency, adjusted for season of the year, age and gender.MethodsA retrospective cross-sectional study, based on vitamin D measurements carried out at the Armed Forces Hospital between 2014 and 2020, was fulfilled including the variables age, gender, vitamin D level and dosing date for military personnel and civilians. Comparison of proportions test and the generalised linear regression model were used for data analysis with a significance level of 5%.ResultsOut of 2782 subjects, 62.7% were military personnel. Mean±SD level of vitamin D was 24.5±10.6 ng/mL and 23.7±11.5 ng/mL in military personnel and civilians, respectively. In the military personnel, the prevalence of vitamin D sufficiency, insufficiency and deficiency was, respectively, 25.2%, 40.1% and 34.6%. Prevalence of vitamin D sufficiency was similar in the civilians cohort and, also, between Armed Forces branches. Military status had no effect on the prevalence of vitamin D sufficiency, especially after adjustments.ConclusionsWe present data on vitamin D levels of Portuguese active duty military personnel. Our results found that military personnel are no more at risk of vitamin D inadequacy than civilians, but only a quarter of active duty military personnel had vitamin D sufficiency. Therefore, they can benefit from vitamin D levels assessment towards vitamin D levels optimisation. Further studies are still needed, especially among military personnel with higher risk of vitamin D deficiency.

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Background Occupational low back pain (LBP) is a relevant condition among hospital nursing assistants (NA). Objective To characterize the context of LBP among NA who sought medical care for this reason. Methods We conducted structured interviews to characterize the participants' sociodemographic profile, state of health and most relevant LBP episode. Next we subjected the participants to brief objective physical examination and reviewed their occupational health records. Results We interviewed 30 NA, most of whom were middle-aged women with excess weight and sedentary lifestyle. The most relevant LBP episodes were characterized by severe pain (93.3%) and resulted in functional restrictions for 63.3% of the sample. Job tasks most frequently associated with LBP were patient transfer (23.3%) and lifting/carrying loads >12 kg (20%). Although all the participants had sought medical care, 80% still complained of pain at the time of the interviews. On physical examination, the Lasegue and Bragard signs were found in 11 participants. We found significant association (p Conclusions According to most participants, LBP episodes occurred while performing tasks involving high physical demands, such as patient transfer and lifting/carrying loads >12 kg. The influence of individual factors notwithstanding, prevention and treatment of LBP among NA requires integrated occupational health interventions to minimize its impact on health and absenteeism.

RESUMO Introdução: O stresse ocupacional ocorre quando as exigências do emprego excedem a capacidade do trabalhador para lhes dar resposta; este tem uma prevalência bastante relevante e pode originar problemas de saúde mental e física, nomeadamente a nível cardiovascular, estando descrito um risco aumentado de mortalidade a este nível. O ambiente militar naval em contexto operacional pode aumentar o risco de exposição a situações de stresse. O objetivo deste estudo é abordar a questão do stresse ocupacional na guarnição de uma unidade naval da Marinha Portuguesa durante um exercício militar de grande envergadura. Métodos: Aplicou-se a versão resumida da Job Stress Scale à guarnição de uma fragata da classe Bartolomeu Dias; a informação recolhida foi inserida numa base de dados em ficheiro Microsoft Office Excel. Os valores médios de cada dimensão foram calculados para a amostra e por categoria profissional. Aplicou-se o teste t de student e o teste z para comparação de, respetivamente, médias e proporções entre amostras segundo a categoria profissional. Procedeu-se também à construção de gráficos representativos do modelo “exigência mental do trabalho - controlo do trabalhador” para a globalidade da amostra, versus categoria profissional e fez-se o cálculo de prevalências populacionais com intervalo de confiança a 95% corrigido para a população. Resultados: Os limites centrais dos quadrantes do modelo “exigência mental do trabalho - controlo do trabalhador” encontrados para a amostra foram 16,12±1,58 (exigência mental do trabalho) e 19,75±2,24 (controlo do trabalhador); no caso da dimensão “apoio social no trabalho” o valor médio encontrado foi de 18,93±2,92. Verificaram-se diferenças estatisticamente significativas a favor da categoria profissional “oficiais” versus “sargentos” ou “praças” no valor médio das dimensões “controlo do trabalho” (p