Abstract
Objectives: This study aimed to provide basic data for the improvement of the guidance services for the management of the workplace environment of the specialized health management institution, by making inquiries on the perception and extent of practice by health managers and workers in the workplace. Methods: Workplaces with officially noted environmental hazards of noise, organic compounds and/or dust-metals were selected in a South Korean metropolitan city in 2015. The workplace health managers(hereinafter referred to as 'manager') and workers at 97 workplace were interviewed. Managers are those who are in charge of health management at the corresponding workplace and the workers were subjected to in-depth interviews by sampling one worker for each of the workplace. Results: The majority of the managers acknowledged the guidance services of the specialized health management institution affirmatively. Regarding the extent of practice in accordance with the guidance on engineering improvement, only 23 managers(37.1%) responded. With respect to education, 40 managers(41.2%) responded that it was implemented along with 35 workers(36.1%) who responded that they received education, showing no significant difference between manager and worker. Regarding the actual wearing of the protective equipment, however, 83 of the manager(85.6%) insisted that workers wore the protective devices while only 44 workers(49.5%) responded that they actually wore the devices, thereby illustrating a significant difference between managers and workers. Conclusions: These results suggest the urgent necessity of improvement in the mechanism of guidance services of the specialized health management institution for the workplace environment management.