Title: Pollinosis-caused allergies and workers' quality of life

Authors: Sakae Yamamoto, Taka'aki Koyatsu

Addresses: Department of Management Science, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601, Japan. Nihonbashi-Gakkan University, Kashiwa, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba, 277-0005, Japan

Abstract: Allergies caused by pollinosis influence workers| physical and psychological conditions. These changed conditions also influence the workers| human error. Authors assumed that human performance was based on cognitive activities, that is, self-monitoring of allergies and work errors, and the attribution of allergies. In order to investigate the above, a questionnaire research was firstly carried out. Next, a workers| cognitive model was built, and the effect of pollinosis on this model was considered. Next, an experiment to simulate the affect of allergies was conducted. The model was checked through this experiment. Pollinosis workers avoid making any errors or mistakes in their work, based on their recognition that they are allergic to pollen. This behaviour augments their psychological fragility and is considered to trigger the shift to fatigue.

Keywords: pollinosis; cognitive aspects; allergies; quality of life; human performance; worker performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2003.002535

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2003 Vol.5 No.1/2, pp.105-117

Published online: 23 Jul 2003 *

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