Safe Home Care Project members have been presenting our work to stakeholders in the fields of home care and healthy aging.

Recent Conference Presentations

Global Carework Summit, Toronto, Canada June 2019

Presentation title: Cleaning and Disinfection in Home Care: A Qualitative Study to Characterize Aides’ Cleaning Work and Assess Safety and Health Exposures. Presented by Pia Markkanen, Sc.D.

Home Care Aide Council of Massachusetts Annual Conference, Framingham. MA. June 2019

Poster title: Highlights of the Safe Home Care Cleaning & Disinfection Study. Presented by Pia Markkanen, Sc.D. and Catherine Galligan, M.S.

Highlights of Spring and Summer, 2019

The Safe Home Care

Project has been shar-

ing work from the Safe

Cleaning and Disinfec-

tion phase of research.

As this work contin-

ues, the Project is pre-

paring for the next

research focus involv-

ing interventions to

create conditions of

home care delivery

that protect both

home care workers

and their clients.

For more information,

visit our website at

https://www.uml.edu/

SafeHC.

Our current project: Spring/Summer 2019

Find more on our website, including:

• Links to our publications

• Resources for Safe Home Care

www.uml.edu/SafeHC

SAFE HOME CARE PROJECT WHAT’S NEW

New Publications

Karlsson ND, Markkanen PK, Kriebel D, et al. Home care aides’ experiences of verbal abuse: a survey of characteristics and risk factors Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2019;76:448-454. https://oem.bmj.com/content/76/7/448

The Safe Home Care Project is a project of the

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the

University of Massachusetts Lowell and is funded by

the National Institute for Occupational Safety and

Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC), Grant R01OH008229.

Noor Sheikh, Sc.D.

Dissertation title: Changes in Symptoms and Respiratory Biomarkers Due to Airborne Exposure to Clean-ing and Disinfecting Products Among Home Care Aides: A Longitudinal Repeated Measures Study.

Summary: Self-reported symptoms, spirometry and eNO results show that home care aides developed short term respiratory symptoms when using everyday cleaning products. Self-reported respiratory symptoms among the HC aides was highest for use of the bleach-based products. Although some symp-toms were reported, no significant increase in symptoms was found among aides when using the quats-based, green, and distilled water (control) spray products. Spirometry and eNO showed a similar pattern with a decline in FEV1 and mean eNO solely for the bleach-based cleaner. This is concerning because the use of bleach-based products has been reported as common among home care aides.

Meet Our Team : Recent Doctoral Graduates Safe Home Care Project

Safe Home Care Project

University of

Massachusetts Lowell

600 Suffolk Street, Suite

503

Lowell, MA 01854

Phone: 978-934-3386

Email:

SafeHomeCare@uml.edu

Nicole Karlsson, Sc.D.

Dissertation title: Challenging Client Behaviors and Home Care Occupational Safety and Health.

Summary: Dr. Karlsson’s research explored verbal abuse and physical abuse among home care aides. A key finding of the study was that client requests for the aides to perform task beyond the scope of the documented care plan may contribute to aides experiencing adverse physical, financial and psychosocial impacts.

Left: Dr. David Kriebel, Dr. Susan Sama, Dr. Noor Sheikh and Dr. Margaret Quinn after Dr. Sheikh completed her dissertation defense.

Left: Dr. Pia Markkanen, Dr. Nicole Karlsson, Dr. Margaret

Quinn and Dr. David Kriebel after the completion of Dr.

Karlsson’s dissertation defense.