Faculty Research and Publications

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Browsing Faculty Research and Publications by Author "Awosoga, Olu A."

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    Caring for paid professional caregivers: investigating the health status of long-term care and assisted living facilities workers in Alberta
    (University of Lethbridge, 2020) Awosoga, Olu A.; Doan, Jon B.; Steinke, Claudia; Sajobi, Tolulope T.; Murphy, Sheli; Baerg, Scott; Bolarinwa, Remi; Nord, Christina; Varsanyi, Stephanie E.; Dosu, Benjamin; Lucchesi, Annita
    This is a report on the health status of paid professional caregivers in long-term care (LTC) and Assisted Living (AL) Facilities that was carried out in Alberta Province between June 2017 and October 2019.
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    Perception of safe horizontal reaching distance changes with repetitive occupational loading in novice lifters
    (Elsevier, 2015) McCubbing, Dustin C.; Shan, Gongbing; Gonzalez, Claudia L. R.; Awosoga, Olu A.; Doan, Jon B.
    Safe work behaviours rely on accurate perceptions of injury risks, and workers who have a misperception of risk can be injured. Despite the importance of perception-action coupling, little is known about modification of those perceptions with changing physical or cognitive STATE. It is hypothesized that changing values for perceived affordances could evidence these modifications. A better understanding of how worker characteristics (e.g., level of fatigue) affect perceptions of affordance and their corresponding behaviours, may help when developing strategies for ergonomic best practices, particularly in manual material handling (MMH) activities. The aim of this study was to compare safe perceptions of affordance from workers that completed repetitive STATE loading. Seventy-five novice MMH workers (23 male; mean age = 21.43, SD = 3.24) made perceived affordances of their safest horizontal reaching distance (acceptable limit) to complete a model task. STATE loading consisted of physical or cognitive fatigue or a control. The levels of fatigue were assessed at five-minute intervals using Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) values and Multi-Fatigue Inventory (MFI) values, respectively. A significant main effect of TIME indicated a decrease of perceived safest reaching distance observed from baseline through subsequent measurements (p<.001). The magnitude of these changes did not differ significantly between groups, suggesting that general learning more than specific STATE loading may be a major contributor to modification of affordance perceptions. However, it remains important to consider TIME and STATE influences on perceptions for safe occupational handling. Novice workers’ initial perceptions of safe working affordance may put them at risk for soft tissue injury. Physical and cognitive loading similarly affect perceived safe affordances.
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    Well-being of professional older adults' caregivers in Alberta's assisted living and long-term care facilities: a cross-sectional study
    (Springer Nature, 2023) Awosoga, Olu A.; Odole, Adesola C.; Onyeso, Ogochukwu K.; Doan, Jon; Nord, Christina; Nwosu, Ifeoma B.; Steinke, Claudia; Ojo, Joshua O.; Ekediegwu, Ezinne C.; Murphy, Sheli
    Background For the care need of older adults, long-term care (LTC) and assisted living (AL) facilities are expanding in Alberta, but little is known about the caregivers’ well-being. The purpose of the study was to investigate the physical health conditions, mental and emotional health (MEH), health behaviour, stress levels, quality of life (QOL), and turnover and absenteeism (TAA) among professional caregivers in Alberta’s LTC and AL facilities. Methods This cross-sectional survey involved 933 conveniently selected caregivers working in Alberta’s LTC and AL facilities. Standardised questions were selected from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Short Form-36 QOL survey revalidated and administered to the participants. The new questionnaire was used to assess the caregivers’ general health condition (GHC), physical health, health behaviour, stress level, QOL, and TAA. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha, Pearson’s correlation, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple linear regression. Results Of 1385 surveys sent to 39 facilities, 933 valid responses were received (response rate = 67.4%). The majority of the caregivers were females (90.8%) who were ≥ 35 years (73.6%), worked between 20 to 40 h weekly (67.3%), and were satisfied with their GHC (68.1%). The Registered Nurses had better GHC (mean difference [MD] = 0.18, p = 0.004) and higher TAA than the Health Care Aides (MD = 0.24, p = 0.005). There were correlations between caregivers’ TAA and each of MEH (r = 0.398), QOL (r = 0.308), and stress (r = 0.251); p < 0.001. The most significant predictors of TAA were the propensity to quit a workplace or the profession, illness, job stress, and work-related injury, F (5, 551) = 76.62, p < 0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.998. Conclusion Reducing the caregivers’ job stressors such as work overload, inflexible schedule, and poor remuneration, and improving their quality of life, health behaviour, and mental, emotional, and physical health conditions may increase their job satisfaction and reduce turnover and absenteeism.