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http://dx.doi.org/10.15269/JKSOEH.2015.25.2.211

The Relationship between Experience of Workplace Violence and Musculoskeletal Pain among Wage Workers in South Korea  

Yoon, Jaehong (School of Health Policy and Management Korea University College of Health Science)
Sung, Hyoju (Department of Public Health Sciences Graduate School of Korea University)
Kim, Yugyun (Department of Public Health Sciences Graduate School of Korea University)
Kim, Seung-Sup (School of Health Policy and Management Korea University College of Health Science)
Publication Information
Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene / v.25, no.2, 2015 , pp. 211-219 More about this Journal
Abstract
Objectives: We aimed to examine the association between experience of workplace violence and musculoskeletal pain among wage workers in South Korea. Methods: We analyzed a cross-sectional survey of 29,601 wage workers from the third wave Korean Working Conditions Survey in 2011. Experience of workplace violence was assessed through three questions, "Over the past 12 months, have you ever experienced: (1) physical violence, (2) bullying, or (3) sexual harassment at workplace?" Musculoskeletal pain was measured using the three questions, "Over the past 12 months, have you ever experienced: (1) low back pain, or (2) upper limb pain(i.e. shoulder, neck, and arm), or (3) lower limb pain(i.e. hip, leg, knee, and foot)?" Wage workers could answer 'Yes' or 'No' to each of the three questions. Multivariate negative binomial regression was applied to examine the association between workplace violence and musculoskeletal pain after adjusting for confounders including self-reported physical work factors. All analyses were performed using STATA/SE version 13.0. Results: Physical violence was associated with low back pain(PR: 2.16, 95% CI: 1.77, 2.65), upper(PR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.45, 1.88) and lower limb pain(PR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.52, 2.15) among male wage workers whereas it was related to upper(PR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.53, 2.26) and lower limb pain(PR: 2.95, 95% CI: 2.47, 3.53) among female wage workers. Significant association was observed between sexual harassment and upper(PR: 1.25, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.56) and lower limb pain(PR: 2.41, 95% CI: 1.97, 2.93) among female wage workers whereas the association was only significant in the analysis with lower limb pain(PR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.17, 2.97) among male wage workers. Bullying was associated only with lower limb pains among both male(PR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.32, 2.37) and female(PR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.69, 2.61) wage workers. Conclusions: This study found that experience of workplace violence, particularly physical violence and sexual harassment, was associated with musculoskeletal pain among Korean wage workers.
Keywords
bullying; musculoskeletal symptoms; physical violence; sexual harassment;
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