Work Conditions And Serious Psychological Distress Among Working Adults Aged 18-64
Differences in work conditions, such as job autonomy, job insecurity, and shift work may lead to health disparities in the population. In 2021, working adults aged 18–64 who usually worked the evening or night shift (4.8%) or a rotating shift (3.9%) were more likely to experience serious psychological distress compared with day shift workers (2.3%). According to a Data Brief in April 2023 from the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of workers experiencing serious psychological distress increased as monthly variation in earnings increased. Serious psychological distress was higher among workers who reported difficulty changing their work schedule (4.2%) compared with those who reported it was easy or somewhat easy to change their work schedule (2.2%). Adults who worked when they were physically ill in the past three months were more likely to experience serious psychological distress (5.8%) than those who did not work when physically ill (1.9%).
Chronic Pain Among Adults: United States, 2019-2021
Chronic pain (i.e., pain lasting ≥3 months) is a debilitating condition that affects daily work and life activities for many adults in the United States and has been linked with depression; Alzheimer disease and related dementias; higher suicide risk; and substance use and misuse. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for April 14, 2023 indicates that during 2021, an estimated 20.9% of U.S. adults (51.6 million individuals) experienced chronic pain, and 6.9% (17.1 million individuals) experienced high-impact chronic pain (i.e., chronic pain that results in substantial restriction to daily activities) with a higher prevalence among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native adults, adults identifying as bisexual, and adults who were divorced or separated. Clinicians, practices, health systems, and payers should vigilantly attend to health inequities and ensure access to appropriate, affordable, diversified, coordinated, and effective pain management care for all patients.
HEALTH TECHNOLOGY CORNER
Smart Surgical Implant Coatings Provide Early Warning And Prevention Of Infection
The prevalence of orthopedic implants is increasing with an aging population. These patients are vulnerable to risks from periprosthetic infections and instrument failures. Both infection and device failure are major problems with orthopedic implants, each affecting up to 10% of patients. Several approaches to fighting infection have been attempted, but all have severe limitations. Newly developed “smart” coatings for surgical orthopedic implants can monitor strain on the devices to provide early warning of implant failures while killing infection-causing bacteria, according to a manuscript published on May 5, 2023 in the journal Science Advances. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign investigators report that the coatings integrate flexible sensors with a nanostructured antibacterial surface inspired by the wings of dragonflies and cicadas. The coatings prevented infection in live mice and mapped strain in commercial implants applied to sheep spines to warn of various implant or healing failures.
Can Wearables Capture Well-Being?
Machine learning models applied to physiological metrics collected from wearable devices can have some predictive ability in identifying resilience states and a positive psychological construct. Applying such models, a type of artificial intelligence (AI), to data collected passively from wearable devices can identify a patient’s degree of resilience and well-being, according to investigators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Findings reported on May 2, 2023 in the journal JAMIA Open support wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch®, as a way to monitor and assess psychological states remotely without requiring the completion of mental health questionnaires. Resilience, i.e., an individual’s ability to overcome difficulty, is an important stress mitigator, reduces morbidity, and improves chronic disease management. Digital technology growth presents an opportunity to obtain a better understanding of who is at psychological risk and an improved means of tracking the impact of psychological interventions.