Personal factors

Home and recreational activities involving forceful exertions or awkward postures cau also lead to or aggravate back injuries. Some examples include sports and home repair work. Physical fimess, weight, diet, exercise, personal habits, and lifestyle may also affect the development of back injuries. Individuals not in good physical condition tend to have more injuries. Excessive body weight can place added stress on the spine and is often associated with a higher rate of back injuries. 

Previous trauma or certain medical conditions involving bones, joints, muscles, tendons, nerves, and blood vessels can also contribute to back-related disorders. Psychological factors, such as stress, may influence the reporting of injuries, pain thresholds, and even the speed or degree of healing. Physically fit individuals tend to have fewer and less severe injuries. Remember to consult with a physician or physical therapist about which aerobic, strength, and flexibility exercises to do. This is especially important for those individuals who have preexisting injuries or medical conditions. 

The immediate causes of accidents and near miss incidents are the high risk acts and high risk conditions and once determined lead to identification of the root causes in the form of personal factors and job factors. 

The personal factors could be stress, lack of skill, lack of knowledge, inadequate motivation, physical or mental shortcomings, or a poor attitude toward safety. Many investigations focus on the personal factors in an effort to find fault and tend to ignore the environmental job factors. 

The investigator should remember that accidents have multiple causes and the investigation should not cease when one cause has been identified. Immediate cause analysis by means of inspection, examination, and interviews should continue until all the contributing high risk situations are identified. 

Once the immediate causes have been identified, a root cause analysis can be done to derive the root causes. A simple but effective method to do this is to take each immediate cause in turn and ask Why Why Why The answers wiU reveal the root causes. 

As the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (British Standards Institute, 1999) reported  

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Personality. Personality factors such as tendency to anger, discontent, e.xcitability, and hostility, as well as low order of adjustment and liigh impulsiveness can also contribute to maladjustments and accidents."... 

Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Harrison, R. P.,. Emery, G. (1983). Development of the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale A measure of personality factors in psychopathology. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 

The typical person is influenced by both an optimistic bias and an illusion of control (Frewer et al., 1994). When these are lost or compromised, panic can occur. While panic disorder can afflict an individual, panic also occurs as a collective phenomena. While it has been thought that emotional instability will lead some people to be more likely to panic, this is not always found. However, people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to attach importance to information provided during the crises than more emotionally stable individuals (Verbeke and Van Kenhove, 2002). Furthermore, some people are more likely to believe they are sick or affected than others. Feldman et al. (1999) examined the panic predisposition of people based on their classification by the big five personality factors. People were inoculated with a common cold virus, and those who were classified as neurotic were more likely to report unfounded illness and more symptoms than other groups. In contrast to this, openness to experience was associated with reporting unfounded symptoms in those with verifiable colds, whereas conscientiousness was associated with reporting unfounded illness in those who were not ill (Feldman et al, 1999). 

Besides studies and surveys, which are available in limited numbers, general publications on factors that influence consumer decision can be considered as well. Most of the authors agree that customer satisfaction is the key factor for a positive attitude towards a new technology, and this can only be achieved if the services offered by this technology exceed the old ones. However, many agree that customer satisfaction is a very subjective matter and depends on a number of personal factors, such as personality, education and interests, so that universal selling arguments are hard to find. 

Personality factors also play a role but are sometimes overlooked. Clients turn to lawyers to solve or avert problems they face, and they want to have confidence in their attorneys. An assertive, confident lawyer inspires that trust. Much of the incentive for chemists to go to the trouble and expense of acquiring a law degree arises from the desire for the increased personal contact that is offered by a career in law over many of the traditional careers in chemistry. Thus, personality is an important attribute of a good and successful lawyer. 

He Y, Miao M, Herrinton LJ, Wu C, Yuan W, Zhou Z, Li DK (2009) Bisphenol A levels in blood and urine in a Chinese population and the personal factores affecting the levels. Environ Res 109 629-633... 

Corr, P.J., Kumari, V. Individual differences in mood reactions to d-amphetamine a test of three personality factors. J. Psychopharmacol. 14, 371-377, 2000. 

Within the personal factors, clearly family disruption, trauma and physical or sexual abuse can all predispose to conduct disorder in adolescence and personality disorder in adulthood (Paris 1996b, Spataro et al. 2004). Links between such factors and subsequent substance misuse have been consistently found (Bartholomew Rowan-Szal 2002, Poikolainen 2002), while the associations between established personality disorder and drug... 

The choice of an NSAID thus requires a balance of efficacy, cost-effectiveness, safety, and numerous personal factors (eg, other drugs also being used, concurrent illness, compliance, medical insurance coverage), so that there is no best NSAID for all patients. There may, however, be one or two best NSAIDs for a specific person. 

Other therapists work with a "moderate dose—LSD 150-400 fig. Exact dose is individually specified on the basis of the patient s body weight, drug sensitivity (if that can be determined), and personality factors. The dose should be sufficient to allow for a full range of psychedelic response at the same time, the patient should not be overwhelmed or made confused or unable to communicate effectively. A brief therapy, one or a few sessions in a few weeks or months, is the aim. 

Stodgill RM. 1948. Personal factors associated with leadership A survey of the literature. ] Psychol 25 35. 

These reports suggest that occasionally SSRIs can be associated with increased sexual desire and behavior. This might be associated with mood instability, for example in a manic or mixed affective state, but in some people personality factors are likely to be important. 

Next to the personality factors are the candidate s stands on various issues. You see five issues, each with a sliding scale of one (at the far left, representing liberal) to six (conservative). A Republican who wants to get tough on crime, for example, will have a rank of six. A Democrat who wants to solve the unemployment problem will haye a rating of one. 

As mentioned in chapter 2, individuals particular personality style and unique psychodynamics will often dramatically influence how they respond to pharmacotherapy. Robert Michaels (1992) has commented that in general clinical practice two-thirds of patients with Axis I disorders appear to respond quite well either to medication treatment or to brief, targeted psychological interventions, such as cognitive-behavioral or interpersonal therapy. However, a significant minority of patients with clear-cut Axis I disorders don t respond well to such treatments, primarily due to serious co-morbid character pathology. In treating these people, at the very least the clinician must be alert to how personality factors influence treatment outcome often medication treatment must be accompanied by more intensive psychotherapy that addresses the personality disorder. 

Norback D, Michel I, Widstrom J. Indoor air quality and personal factors related to the sick building syndrome. Scand J Work Environ Health 1990 16 121-8. 

There are numerous misconceptions or generalizations about placebo response. Common misconceptions include but are not limited to the following One-third of all patients respond to placebo therapy response is brief certain demographic or personality factors predict response those who respond to placebo therapy do not have medical problems and giving placebo is equivalent to no intervention. In addition, placebo response in one clinical trial or disease state does not ensure equivalent placebo response in other disease states. 

Personal factors Stress, eating on the move. Non-ulcer dyspepsia... 

In connection with any judgment upon the work of previous workers in this field, it is well to remember that the personal factor is particularly important where essential oils are concerned. Slight variations in conditions of production, or of laboratory analysis, may result in divergences in physical properties—for example, in odor—which may lead to unfair conclusions. 

Seeber A, Demes P, Golka K, et al Subjective symptoms due to solvent mixtures, dioxin, and toluene impact of exposure versus personality factors. Neurotoxicology 21 677-684, 2000... 

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