Leisure Opportunities and Fatigue in Employees: A Large Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between perceived leisure availability and fatigue in working individuals and the extent it mediates the known association between work hours and fatigue. A sample of 7,154 working individuals (ages 20–59) was drawn from the Austrian Health Survey 2006–07. The associations were determined using stepwise logistic regression analysis. Individuals perceiving few opportunities for leisure activities had a 2.7 greater likelihood of having prolonged fatigue (95% CI = 2.05–3.29) than those with sufficient leisure, after controlling for relevant confounders. Furthermore, the positive association between weekly hours of work and fatigue was mediated to a greater part by leisure opportunities, indicating that working long hours leads to fatigue by limiting leisure opportunities. The results of this study suggest that the perceived availability of leisure is a source of health and well-being in working individuals.     

Improving access to health facilities in Nouna district,Burkina Faso

The Nouna health district in Burkina Faso, has a population of approximately 275,000 people living in 281 villages, and is served by 25 health facilities, as of 2006. For many people, the time and effort required in traveling to a health facility, which may demand a journey of many kilometers over poor roads on foot, is a deterrent to seeking proper medical care. In this study we examine how access to health facilities in Nouna may be improved by considering the configuration of the road network in addition to the locations of the facilities. We model the situation as a facility location–network design problem and draw conclusions about how best to improve the physical access of the health facilities. Our model shows the extent to which access can be improved when the road network is considered along with facility locations, in contrast to facility locations considered alone.