# Editorial: Women in science: Occupational health and safety 2021

Caterina Ledda, Martine Duclos, Begoña Martínez-Jarreta

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

## To cite this version:

Caterina Ledda, Martine Duclos, Begoña Martínez-Jarreta. Editorial: Women in science: Occupational health and safety 2021. Frontiers in Public Health, 2022, 10, pp.1064075. 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1064075. [hal-04013629](https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04013629)

HAL Id: hal-04013629

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04013629

Submitted on 3 Mar 2023

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

Check for updates

OPEN ACCESS

EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Susana Viegas,
New University of Lisbon, Portugal

*CORRESPONDENCE
Caterina Ledda
caterina.ledda@unict.it

SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to Occupational Health and Safety, a section of the journal Frontiers in Public Health

RECEIVED 07 October 2022
ACCEPTED 17 October 2022
PUBLISHED 28 October 2022

CITATION
Ledda C, Duclos M and
Martínez-Jarreta B (2022) Editorial: Women in science: Occupational health and safety 2021.
*Front. Public Health* 10:1064075.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1064075

COPYRIGHT
© 2022 Ledda, Duclos and
Martinez-Jarreta. This is an
open-access article distributed under
the terms of the [Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use,
distribution or reproduction in other
forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright
owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is
cited, in accordance with accepted
academic practice. No use, distribution
or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.

# Editorial: Women in science: Occupational health and safety 2021

Caterina Ledda¹*, Martine Duclos² and
Begoña Martínez-Jarreta³

¹Occupational Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy, ²Department of Sport Medicine and Functional Exploration, University Hospital CHU G. Montpied, INRAE, UNH, CRNH Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne University, Clermont-Ferrand, France, ³Consolidate Research Group "Toximol" and GSII-03-Occupational Medicine, Aragon Institute of Health Research (IIS-Aragon) and University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

KEYWORDS

woman, women, gender medicine, health promotion, workplace, total worker health

## Editorial on the Research Topic

### Women in science: Occupational health and safety 2021

The proportion of women and men in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at undergraduate levels is relatively equal, however, there is a lack of representation of women in senior positions in Public Health. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) data in 2016, <30% of researchers in STEM are women (1). In the field of Occupational Health and Safety, there are many highly influential and successful women who are contributing to the field and tackling important questions (2). Yet, female scientists are still underrepresented in various aspects of academic life. Several initiatives have been recently created to increase the visibility of women in science (e.g., awards for women in STEM). However, evidence indicates that a gender bias is still present throughout many scientific disciplines.

This Research Topic has fostered the growth and better understanding of scientific research in occupational medicine by making visible the contributions on the field of some of the most prominent researcher women from different parts of the European continent.

Curtis et al. suggest that the industry's work environment can be hostile and unsupportive for women, contributing to tradeswomen's injury risk and psychological distress.

Felszeghi presents the model, which promotes multidisciplinary health service, combined with education and research as a novel element, and will outline its impact on national and international research. Related to this research, Pina et al. allows to highlight specific areas of user-professional conflict in Primary Care. Furthermore, the inclusion of intervention proposals by the professionals allows to propose starting points for the development of complete plans. The same research group (Pina et al.) provides evidence
of the psychological consequences of the perception of user
violence in the Primary Health Care staff. Furthermore, it
is evident that the emergence of burnout syndrome in these
professionals is related to exposure to verbal or non-physical
violence together with low job satisfaction.

Moreover, Kaluznaj et al. demonstrate a high prevalence
of painful conditions among Latvian employees; urgent
attention to diagnostics, treatment, and prevention
is needed to ensure the musculoskeletal health and
productivity of this population with a special focus on
women and young as occupational diseases (OD) were
more prevalent among women. They also reported that
workers aged 18-24 years had a higher prevalence of various
types of pain. The consequences of a sedentary lifestyle
is highlighted.

In another investigation Matisāne et al. shows that
knowledge of the English language for occupational
safety and health experts working in Latvia is
not sufficient.

Xia et al. demonstrated that exposure to passive smoking was a risk factor for overall decreased physical and mental health status among Chinese nurses.

Finally, following the articles received, we would like
to launch the message relating to improving the adoption
and implementation of Total Worker Health® in workplace

settings, involving multidisciplinary teams and workers in
research (3).

Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct,
and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it
for publication.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed
or endorsed by the publisher.

References

1. Unesco. *Just 30% of the World's Researchers Are Women. What's the Situation in Your Country?* Available online at: https://en.unesco.org/news/just-30-world%E2%80%99s-researchers-are-women-whats-situation-your-country (accessed Oct 5, 2022).

2. Ramaci T, Pellerone M, Ledda C, Rapisarda V. Health promotion, psychological distress, and disease prevention in the workplace: a

cross-sectional study of Italian adults. *Risk Manag Healthc Policy*. (2017) 10:16
7–75. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S139756

3. Newman LS, Scott JG, Childress A, Linnan L, Newhall WJ, McLellan DL, et al. Education and training to build capacity in total worker health®: proposed competencies for an emerging field. *J Occupat Environ Med*. (2020) 62:e38 4–91. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001906