Housekeeping

Since former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announced his “Womenomics” initiative to increase the number of Japanese women in the workplace, the number of married working women aged 25-54 has risen from 58% in 2000 to 71% in 2016. However, most of these women are not engaged in career-track jobs; the number of women in executive or managerial positions, as well as high level government jobs, lags well behind that of other industrialized nations. This is partly attributed to the fact that Japanese working women who are married with children still bear the brunt of childcare, housekeeping, and caring for elderly relatives. Japanese teachers, especially, work long hours, and have little time for career development activities which might lead to advancement. Although outsourcing at least some domestic tasks might improve Japanese women teacher’s lives, few do so. In this paper, we examine the results of a survey on attitudes toward hiring help to better understand why female educators in Japan tend to not outsource domestic work, and suggest the development of an app which might help those who are seeking to find and employ domestic workers.

This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com How to cite this article: Chheda P, Rajan Sreeraj S. Prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and quality of life in housekeeping workers of a tertiary care hospital in Navi Mumbai, India: A descriptive study. MGM J Med Sci 2020;7:133-40. Abstract Context: Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in India is 90%, leading to loss of working hours, poor quality of life (QoL), and reduction in productivity of the life of the employers. Housekeeping profession, considered a major workforce industry, requires manual labor demanding awkward postures and repetitive movements, leading to MSDs and impacting QoL. Objectives: The objective of this study was to find the prevalence of the symptoms of MSDs and QoL in the housekeeping workers of the hospital. Settings and Design: A descriptive study was carried out among housekeeping workers of MGM Hospital, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Materials and Methods: With Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) and WHO-QOL-BREF scale, 82 housekeeping workers were contacted, and an interview-based session was held. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive analysis and graphical representation were carried out using MS Excel. Results: Of the participants, 68.29% were females with a mean age of 42.28 ± 7.4 years, and 31.70% were males with a mean age of 42.04 ± 8.3 years. The prevalence of the symptoms of MSDs was higher in knees followed by lower back and lower leg. Females (80.36%) were affected more than males (61.54%). WHOQOL-BREF for QoL showed a moderate impact without much gender difference. Conclusion: The study concluded that there is a high prevalence of the symptoms of MSDs in housekeeping staff, more likely in the lower back, knee, and lower leg, and WHO QOL-BREF shows comparable mean scores among males and females. Keywords: Global burden of disease, housekeeping workers, musculoskeletal disorders, quality of life Key messages: Studies addressing the influence of MSDs and QoL on the housekeeping workforce of hospitals are scarce and data addressing the same helps to spread more awareness on areas needing attention and prevention programs needed for this population.

This paper sheds light on tourist's emotional experiences on holiday, which are central to increase our understanding of tourist behaviour. Tourists usually travel to cities with good impression. Choosing a travel destination is definitely a complicated decision-making process for tourists. For safety concerns, some tourists intentionally visit somewhere familiar and nearby, but avoid nations or areas with high crime rates or political instability. A wide range of perceptions governs the desirability and appeal of a destination to the potential traveler. The importance of investigating perceptions of travel risks has been recognized with in a number of different disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, criminology and marketing. It is often assumed that perceptions of safety and security may influence individuals' destination choice. Consumers use information gathered from various sources like word of mouth, different forms of media, guidebooks, talking to friends and relatives, to form a perception of a particular destination.This is a quantitative study conducted in Malaysia. The respondents who participated in this research were the nationals of Malaysia, India, China, Indonesia, Australia, and France, etc. The study found that most holidaymakers perceive earthquake, tsunami, SARS, terrorist activities, swine flu as risk. The results of the study suggest that safety, peace and stability are major concerns for tourists' while choosing their travel destination.