News of the group and the members
International achievements and honors:
Dr. Ehsan Rafiee Manesh
A) Conferences:
He has presented papers in a number of internal and external congresses including the International Congress on Occupational Safety and Health, the Third International Congress on Occupational and Environmental Health, the 7th National Conference on Occupational Medicine and Occupational Diseases, International Congress on Infection Prevention Strategies for Patients, and International Congress on Pediatric Dentistry. The International Congress on Occupational Cardiovascular Diseases was the last external conference attended by him as a speaker. The main topics of the conference are as follows: Return to work after cardiovascular incidents, shift work and heart diseases, the effects of air pollution on the cardiovascular system, metabolic syndrome and occupational exposures, new occupational-environmental risk factors, and benefits and dangers of occupational physical activity. The paper presented by Dr. Rafiee Manesh in this congress is entitled “The Study of Occupational Physical Activity and Leisure Time in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes”. In this study, 227 patients with ischemic heart disease were randomly selected from patients visiting an academic hospital. A questionnaire, including personal, medical and occupational records, was completed for all the patients under study. Also, patients were asked to complete the physical activity questionnaire (Beck questionnaire). Accordingly, individuals were classified into two groups of low activity and high activity. Based on the results, 55% and 45% of the studied group has low and high occupational physical activity respectively. Also, the amount of physical activity in leisure time was low in most of the studied individuals. The amount of physical activity in leisure time in the group with low occupational activity was lower than that of the group with high occupational activity. According to the results of this study, there was a significant relationship between the level of occupational physical activity and leisure time with acute coronary syndrome. In other words, physical activity at work can be effective in prevention from ischemic heart disease and related risk factors.
B) Papers:
He has published 24 papers in accredited foreign and domestic journals, including 3 valuable articles published in ISI as follows: “The Study of Respiratory Problems and Pulmonary Indices in Employees of a Cement Industry”, “Delayed Polyneuropathy Caused by Chronic Exposure to Pesticides”, and “the Study of Occupational Postures and Musculoskeletal Problems in Dentists”.
His latest article, entitled “The Study of Low Back Pain Risk Factors in Steel Industry Workers”, was published in the Journal of Asian Spine, indexed in PubMed database. This cross-sectional study was aimed at studying low back pain prevalence and its relationship with individual and occupational factors in 385 administrative and manufacturing staff working in a steel industry. In this study, the Nordic modified questionnaire was used and no significant relationship was found between low back pain and the individuals’ current occupational status. However, there was a significant relationship between the prevalence of low back pain with age, work experience and leisure time physical activity. The absence of relationship between the prevalence of low back pain and current occupational status in this study reveals that in comparison with occupational factors, the effect of health-related general factors (including age, weight, work experience, and leisure time physical activity) is probably higher in the development of low back pain.