Work plays an important role in one's life for many reasons. It provides us with economic, social, and personal satisfaction and accounts for a substantial percentage of our waking hours. But in today's knowledge-driven economy, organization of work has been changing at a warp speed as a consequence of economic, social and technological aspects of changes brought down by globalization and liberalization worldwide. While this situation has eliminated some risks of the earlier industrial era, it is introducing others. In such a dynamic business environment, where can business leaders and managers find competitive advantage? It lies in balancing people and performance goals. This is the line of approach for healthy organization research that examines organizational context with regard to: People, work organization, management practices, employee wellbeing and performance. The healthy organization concept proposes that along with the profits, employee's well being should also be an important goal for organizations. In this paper, the researcher undertakes an extensive review of literature in the mainstream business literature and establishes the agenda for healthy organization research among other research paradigms.

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Background: We report the results of a moderately large study (1071) to study the prevalence of hypertension among software professionals in the Indian subcontinent employed at 27 different companies in Bangalore. The focus of our study is on the age gradient of hypertension prevalence and exploring the association of workplace psychosocial predictors of hypertension. Materials and Methods: We used mixed methods sampling strategy, the first stage of which involved stratified sampling to select the clusters of software companies in Bangalore and the second stage involved selecting individual companies through purposive sampling. Job stress questionnaire was self-administered to collect information on job stress and blood pressure classification is done based on 7 ^th report of Joint National Commission. Results: The prevalence of hypertension among Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services professionals was 31% and pre-hypertension was 45.7%. The prevalence of stage-1 hypertension in the age group of 19-25 years was 18% and 23% in 26-30 years group while the prevalence of stage-2 hypertension in the age group of 19-25 years was 5% and 3% in 26-30 years group. The results indicate that dimensions of workplace autonomy and workplace environment are associated with hypertension. Conclusions: Hypertension affects the young urban Indians a decade earlier compared to available evidence. Furthermore, there is an association of autonomy and work-environment with hypertension. This signifies further exploration of underlying endocrine mechanisms. Funding: The funding UCLA International Research and Training Program and the Public Health Foundation of India provided the funding for this study. Results: The study was supported through Fogarty/UCLA International Research and Training Program (Grant Number: D43 TW000013) and the Public Health Foundation of India

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Background: Work hazards have been a major cause of concern in driving industry especially in taxi drivers. This study integrates the various factors that influence physical and emotional well-being of taxi drivers into the theoretical model that shows that the work environment, stress and personality characteristics directly influence taxi drivers' health. Objective: The aim of the following study is to study the relative and combined influence of work environment, personality characteristics and stress on the health of taxi drivers. Meterials and Methods: The present study is cross-sectional (descriptive) study taxi drivers in Mumbai. They are selected using multistage random sampling method. Calculated sample size is 508. Data produced after the survey is analyzed using IBM SPSS 16.0 software. Results: Nearly 65% of taxi drivers belonged to middle-age group of 21-40 years of age. Majority (59%) of taxi drivers belonged to the lower upper socio-economic class. 70% of taxi drivers worked for more than 8 h daily. 63% gave the history of one or more addictions. 52% taxi drivers had type B1 personality, only 6% had stress prone and aggressive type A1 personality. Traffic congestion (67.1%) was reported as the leading stressor followed by narrow bottle neck roads (43%), too many speed breakers (41%), rude gestures and behavior by other drivers (42%) and bad weather (36%). Nearly 86% taxi drivers had one or more symptoms of morbidities. Gastrointestinal symptoms predominated followed by musculoskeletal symptoms and depression. Conclusion: Socio-demographic attributes, work environment, stress and personality significantly influence physical and psychological morbidities in taxi drivers.

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Introduction: Chronic Mountain Sickness (CMS) is a maladaptation condition that can affect people who reside permanently at high altitude (HA). It is characterized by polycythemia, hypoxemia and dyspnea and can be fatal. Over 140 million people live permanently at HA around the world. Unfortunately, research into CMS is lacking and accurate data on the prevalence of this condition do not exist for many regions around the world. In this study, we sought to examine prevalence rates of CMS in the Indian Himalayas, focusing on the Northern State of Himachal Pradesh. Materials and Methods: We surveyed 83 individuals (69 males) in eight towns across the HA districts of Sirmaur, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, India. Altitudes ranged from 2350 to 4150 m. We used an adapted Qinghai CMS scoring system to diagnose CMS. Information related to subject demographics, medical history, socioeconomic status, and geography were collected to identify risk factors for CMS. Physiologic recordings of oxygen saturation (SpO ₂ ) and pulse rate were made through pulse oximetry. Results: Overall CMS prevalence was 6.17% and mean altitude was 3281 m. At altitudes above 3000 m CMS prevalence rose to 13.73%. All cases of CMS were mild and there was a significant positive correlation between CMS scores and altitude (R = 0.784, P = 0.0213). Mean SpO ₂ was 90.7 ± 0.4% and mean pulse rate was 80.3 ± 1.3 bpm. SpO ₂ significantly correlated with altitude (R = −0.929, P < 0.001). In our study, age, gender, and tobacco use were not independent risk factors for CMS. Individuals with CMS lived at higher altitudes than their non-CMS counterparts (3736.00 ± 113.30 m vs. 3279.80 ± 69.50 m, respectively; P = 0.017). Conclusion: CMS prevalence in HA towns of the Indian Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh is 6.17% and 13.73% for towns above 3000 m. Further research is required to determine the prevalence of CMS in other regions of the world and to determine risk factors associated with CMS.

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Objectives: The objective was to examine the association between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and farming-related activities, gender, pesticides exposure, and exposure to chemicals other than pesticides in Saskatchewan. Materials and Methods: Male and female study participants were taken from two separate case-control studies conducted in Saskatchewan province, Canada. A case was defined as any man or woman aged 19 years and older with a first diagnosis of NHL registered by the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency during the study period. Conditional logistic regression was used to fit the statistical models. Results: Farming exposure and exposure to pesticides-contaminated cloths were related to an increased risk of NHL. Exposure to pesticides was strongly associated with an increased risk of NHL, especially for men. Conclusion: For men, the incidence of NHL was associated with exposure to pesticides after adjusting for other independent predictors.

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Malignant mesotheliomas of the pleura, epithelial type, were observed in two brothers. Both the patients had histories of severe exposure to asbestos, having worked as insulators. The latency periods in the two cases were 26 and 38 years, respectively. Available literature data suggest that mesothelioma occurrence among blood-related people is favored by a genetic predisposition.

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