Wåhlin C1,2, Lum M3, Burnett G4, Ruotsalainen J5
1County Council of Östergötland, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Linköping University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden, 2Karolinska Institutet, Unit of Intervention and Implementation Research for Worker Health, Institute for Environmental Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden, 3National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), e-Communication and Research Translation, Washington DC, United States, 4National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cincinnati, United States, 5Cochrane Work and Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Kuopio, Finland
Background: The variety of available digital strategies for disseminating research in the field of occupational health and safety has expanded explosively. One exciting strategy is blogging. A blog can be used for translating research findings to relevant target groups like employers, employees and experts in the field. It can also generate a dialogue between different stakeholders interested in improving occupational safety and health (OSH). In 2007, the NIOSH Science blog was launched. In 2015, the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center in Linköping started the first Swedish blog on topics related to occupational medicine, ergonomics and environmental medicine.
Purpose: To describe the development process and impact of two OSH blogs.
Methods: We wanted to build a medium with which to communicate effectively to the working population, particularly branches with an increased risk of work-related injuries, and various other stakeholders in the work environment area. To achieve this we used an iterative method of successive purposeful meetings to ensure we had the best available tools and the support of the most relevant external stakeholders from the political and labour market arenas.
Results: To start up the Swedish blog we compiled a blog team consisting of researchers, occupational hygienists, an ergonomist, a psychologist, a physician and a biologist. We created a site for the blog and developed a communication plan. We made sure the team had the necessary education on how to write popular science. Since the start over 185 blog posts have been produced. The blog has had approximately 48.000 unique visitors each year. Topics on the blog have included: sickness and work adaptations, harmful vibration, ergonomics in health care, back problems, equal working life, leadership as well as environmental medicine. Over 700 persons have signed up and are now following the blog: www.arbetsochmiljomedicin.se
Since 2007, the NIOSH blog has published 486 entries. The blog as a whole is viewed on average 40,000 times per month and gets about 70 comments. People from across NIOSH are invited to contribute to the blog, and it covers different OSH topics. At this point the blog has 85 categories that include industry sectors, hazards, illnesses and other topics like epidemiology and personal protective equipment. There have been altogether 24 entries on musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomics. The NIOSH blog has 57,000 subscribers: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/policies/
Conclusion(s): The Swedish blog and the NIOSH blog have proven to be a new way to reach out to the working population and they have become fora for knowledge sharing and dialogue. Both blogs have increased in popularity over time and the style of blogging has improved. The intended target audience has been reached largely by using social media to disseminate blog posts.
Implications: To successfully launch and maintain a blog means having sufficient support (time, money and staff), using a communication plan, choosing a target group, continuously keeping the blog updated, and writing comprehensible texts that are tailored to the audience and the context. We encourage physiotherapists to share knowledge to different target groups. Blogging can be a useful strategy.
Keywords: Blog, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), science communication
Funding acknowledgements: This work was unfunded.
Purpose: To describe the development process and impact of two OSH blogs.
Methods: We wanted to build a medium with which to communicate effectively to the working population, particularly branches with an increased risk of work-related injuries, and various other stakeholders in the work environment area. To achieve this we used an iterative method of successive purposeful meetings to ensure we had the best available tools and the support of the most relevant external stakeholders from the political and labour market arenas.
Results: To start up the Swedish blog we compiled a blog team consisting of researchers, occupational hygienists, an ergonomist, a psychologist, a physician and a biologist. We created a site for the blog and developed a communication plan. We made sure the team had the necessary education on how to write popular science. Since the start over 185 blog posts have been produced. The blog has had approximately 48.000 unique visitors each year. Topics on the blog have included: sickness and work adaptations, harmful vibration, ergonomics in health care, back problems, equal working life, leadership as well as environmental medicine. Over 700 persons have signed up and are now following the blog: www.arbetsochmiljomedicin.se
Since 2007, the NIOSH blog has published 486 entries. The blog as a whole is viewed on average 40,000 times per month and gets about 70 comments. People from across NIOSH are invited to contribute to the blog, and it covers different OSH topics. At this point the blog has 85 categories that include industry sectors, hazards, illnesses and other topics like epidemiology and personal protective equipment. There have been altogether 24 entries on musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomics. The NIOSH blog has 57,000 subscribers: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/policies/
Conclusion(s): The Swedish blog and the NIOSH blog have proven to be a new way to reach out to the working population and they have become fora for knowledge sharing and dialogue. Both blogs have increased in popularity over time and the style of blogging has improved. The intended target audience has been reached largely by using social media to disseminate blog posts.
Implications: To successfully launch and maintain a blog means having sufficient support (time, money and staff), using a communication plan, choosing a target group, continuously keeping the blog updated, and writing comprehensible texts that are tailored to the audience and the context. We encourage physiotherapists to share knowledge to different target groups. Blogging can be a useful strategy.
Keywords: Blog, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), science communication
Funding acknowledgements: This work was unfunded.
Topic: Occupational health & ergonomics; Professional issues; Professional practice: other
Ethics approval required: No
Institution: Linköping University, asked the ethical committe. Answer according to legislation:
Ethics committee: It's reserchers responsibility to assess whether ethic approval i needed
Reason not required: The evaluation involved no human participants. We only report statistics about blog posts, experience of developing the blog.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
