Author/Authors :
Habibi، Ehsanollah نويسنده School of Public Health, Depatment of Statistics and Epidemiology, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan , , Dehghan، Habibollah نويسنده Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan , , Zeinodini، Mohhamad نويسنده Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan , , Yousefi، Hosseinali نويسنده Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan , , Hasanzadeh، Akbar نويسنده Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, IUMS, Isfahan, Iran ,
Abstract :
Background: The purpose of this research is to establish the
ability of employees by work ability index (WAI), physical work
capacity (PWC), and finding the correlation between them.
Establishing the PWC index with attention to WAI values for the
purpose of saving in costs and time of PWC measurements is
another aim of this project.
Methods: The present research is an analytic cross-sectional and
one-trail study. The study population consists of 228 randomly
selected registered nurses from hospitals in Isfahan (Iran). The
WAI and PWC were established through WAI questionnaire and
Fax equation and by using ergometer bicycle, respectively. The
resulting data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software.
Results: Average WAI and PWC among the study population were
38.25±4.4 and 4.45±0.7, respectively. Pearson test results showed
no significant correlation between PWC and WAI in different age
groups (r=0.3 and P > 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis
showed that the variables of age and diagnosed diseases were the
most effective factors of WAI (B=0.18 and P > 0.05). Pearson test
revealed a significant correlation between the number of diagnosed
diseases and PWC index in age groups of 40-49 years.
Conclusion: Average WAI in this research, like other studies on
similar jobs is in the acceptable level of > 36. Work ability index
and PWC index in different age groups did not show a significant
correlation and this suggests that there are essential discrepancies
in work ability evaluations made by each index and it is not possible
to predict PWC index using WAI values. Given the PWC results
and the level of nursing staff ’s activity (low, medium) the WAI is
a suitable instrument to establish the professionals’ abilities. This
study revealed that 27.6% of individuals were subject to mediumlow
work ability risk (WAI < 37), which was 1.8 times that of
Finland’s professional health Institute, which could be caused by
shift working and increased working hours.
