• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.24.1-24.13
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• 2022

Background: In modern society, depression is serious issue that causes socioeconomic and family burden. To decrease the incidence of depression, risk factors should be identified and managed. Among many risk factors for depression, this study examined socioeconomic risk factors for depression. Methods: We utilized first (2006), second (2008), and third (2010)-wave data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA). Depressive symptom was measured with the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Short Form (CES-D-10) in the survey in 2008 and 2010. Three risk factors including job security, employment type and monthly income were measured in the survey in 2006. The association between risk factors and depressive symptom was analyzed by Cox proportional-hazard model. Results: We analyzed data from 1,105 workers and hazard ratios (HRs) for 3 risk factors were significant entirely. In addition, regular worker with high income group is the most vulnerable group of poor job insecurity on depression among male workers (HR: 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-2.81). Finally, HRs for 7 groups who had at least 1 risk factor had higher HRs compared to groups who had no risk factors after stratifying 3 risk factors. In the analysis, significantly vulnerable groups were total 5 groups and the group who had highest HR was temporary/daily workers with poor job security (HR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.36-4.64). The results concerning women, regardless of job type, were non-significant. Conclusions: This study presented one or more risk factors among poor job security, low income, temporary/daily employment type increase hazard for depressive symptom in 2 or 4 years after the exposure. These results inform policy to screen for and protect against the risk of depression in vulnerable groups.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.41-44
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• 2010

Purpose: Along with recent advances in PET/CT instrumentation and imaging technology, the number of patients has also been steadily increasing. This resulted in the increased radiation exposure to radiation workers in PET/CT rooms. In this study, we installed a radiation shield and investigated whether it could reduce radiation exposure to the workers and thus enhance job satisfaction. Materials and Methods: A radiation shield is composed of 5 cm thick lead and has a structure in which a radiation worker sits and watches a patient through lead glass while injecting radiopharmaceutical to the patient. Quarterly absorbed dose of radiation workers was measured using thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLD) and the results were compared for six months each before and after installation of the radiation shield. Exposure dose was also measured using a pocket dosimeter placed at the same location in the front and the back of the radiation shield. In addition, frequency of use of the shield and job satisfaction of radiation workers were investigated using a survey. Results: Quarterly absorbed dose of radiation workers was 2.70 mSv on average before installation of new radiation shield, whereas that dropped to 2.13 mSv after installation of radiation shield, reducing radiation exposure dose by 21%. Exposure dose on the front side of the shield was 61.2 R, whereas that on the back side of shield was 2.8 R. According to the survey, 85% of workers used the shield and were satisfied with the outcome: each radiation worker made injections to patients average of 6.5 times/day and preferred sitting to standing while injecting radiopharmaceutical to patients. Conclusion: Use of radiation shield reduced the exposure dose of radiation workers, which is the ultimate goal of radiation protection to minimize radiation exposure and is an appropriate method for the improvement of hospital working environment. Furthermore, we found that use of radiation shield not only relieves physical and psychological burden of radiation workers but also enhances job satisfaction. This result indicates that use of radiation shield is important for improvement of the radiation workers' job environment in terms of radiation protection.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.229-242
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the current status of the association of job-related information such as employment status, workplace environment, and hazard material exposures with health examination outcomes. Methods: The study used data from KNHANES 2007-2009 representing the three years of 2007-2009, which was conducted annually using a rolling sampling design that involved a complex, stratified, multistage, probability-cluster survey of a representative sample of the non-institutionalized civilian population in Korea. The final analytical sample consisted of 17,240 participants. Information on age, education, smoking history and alcohol intake was collected during the health interview. Job related information consisted of employment status, workplace environment, and hazardous material exposure. The selected indices of health examination were blood pressure, fasting glucose, blood cholesterol, HDL, SGOT, SGPT, and BUN. Results: In multiple logistic regression analysis using hypertension and pre-hypertension as dependent variables and job related categories as independent variables after covariate adjustments, the odds of hypertension and pre-hypertension were significantly lower in those with responsibility and power in their job activities. Interestingly, low odds for hypertension were observed among those who reported that their jobs were fast-paced. Conclusions: This study confirmed that some job-related categories in employment status, workplace environment, and hazardous material exposure had an association with health outcome status. It is worthwhile to comment that high responsibility and power in job activities were revealed as one of the important favorable factors to improve health condition of workers.

• The Journal of Asian Women
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.75-110
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• 2014

This research examines marriage migrant women's interpreting and translation work as an ethnic labor, analyzing its creation and work experiences. Major findings about ethnic labor in the research are as follows: First, Korean gendered and discriminatory- exclusive immigration policy enables the creation of interpreting and translation job to marriage migrant women. While the policy limits settlement and employment fields of male immigrant workers, marriage migration women are allowed to settle and find any job. Second, job security and wage of marriage migrant women's interpreting and translation work are still low, although the job is considered a relatively decent one in foreign immigrant labor market. Finally, they experience conflicts between role as neutral interpreters and identity as migrant women, facing native Koreans' distrust and discrimination against them. In conclusion, this study suggests some issues on marriage migrant women's empowerment and their labor market prospect in terms of the sustainability of this job.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.85-93
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• 2022

Today's customer service providers, who have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction, are experiencing severe stress and job burnout due to various causes. Unlike general companies, the corporation has a relatively high level of dissatisfaction with customer service since there is a large conflict between the provision of kindness and the reasonable handling of civil complaints according to laws and regulations. In order to analyze the environment of the NPS' customer service providers, 5.583 branch employees working at the National Pension Service and 407 call center employees were surveyed online using the questionnaire function of the Enterprise resource planning system. The contents of the survey consisted of a survey on customer-facing employees, the level of awareness of customer-facing workers protection measures, and opinions on improvement and supplementation related to customer-facing workers protection measures. As a result of the survey, 72.8% of the total respondents experienced grievance complaints, and the proportion of call center employees was even higher at 89.0%. In addition, both the branch and the call center had the largest share of complaints about obstruction of business, unreasonable demands, abusive language, and verbal abuse. More than 40% of call center employees in their 20s and 30s experienced the highest frequency of complaints 13 or more times a year. The most difficult thing in the process of responding to complaints was that both branch offices and call centers had insufficient psychological recovery time, lack of space, and lack of help from colleagues and superiors. Based on the survey analysis, it is suggested to establish a countermeasure through case analysis rather than the right to suspend work for civil complaints that cannot be handled, such as customized manuals and action strategies for the age group with high grievance complaints.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1318-1327
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• 2015

In this study, customer service representatives in call centers, the relevance of occupational stress, and turnover intention as well as the investigation of the relevance to that of demographic characteristics, health behaviors, and job-related characteristics is carried out. In particular, the relevance of occupational stress and turnover intention was attempted to be identified. From the response to the surveys of nine hospitals and five companies, there was a total of 158 people during the investigation. The collection of data was conducted by self-administered questionnaire in the period of February 1, 2013 to June 30, 2013. As the result of study, factors related to turnover intention involved age, sleep, job demands and job autonomy as significant variables. In particular, in the relevance of occupational stress and turnover intention, it was revealed that turnover intention decreases as job autonomy increases while turnover intention increases as job demands become higher. The ratio of danger of occupational stress on turnover intention eminently increased in the group of high job demands, low job autonomy, low support of supervisor and co-worker. Therefore, it is considered that efforts for improvement of occupational stress factors are required to decrease turnover intention.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.87-118
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to test construct validity of contextual performance of social worker. The participants in this study included 170 social worker in community welfare center nationwide. A narrative data of social work practice experience and MTMM(multitriat-multimethod) data on job performance were collected. I classified meaningful contextual behavior cases by qualitative methods, and examined discriminant validity of contextual and task performance by CFA model. Data analysis showed that social workers' contextual performance has discriminant validity and sub constructs of this concept have internal consistency. However, some construct are not completely independent.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.26.1-26.15
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• 2023

Background: The objective of this study is to investigate the differences in incidence rates of targeted diseases by classification of occupations among construction workers in Korea. Methods: In a subject-based cohort of the Korean Construction Worker's Cohort, we surveyed a total of 1,027 construction workers. As occupational exposure, the classification of occupations was developed using two axes: construction business and job type. To analyze disease incidence, we linked survey data with National Health Insurance Service data. Eleven target disease categories with high prevalence or estimated work-relatedness among construction workers were evaluated in our study. The average incidence rates were calculated as cases per 1,000 person-years (PY). Results: Injury, poisoning, and certain other consequences of external causes had the highest incidence rate of 344.08 per 1,000 PY, followed by disease of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue for 208.64 and diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue for 197.87 in our cohort. We especially found that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was more common in construction painters, civil engineering welders, and civil engineering frame mold carpenters, asthma in construction painters, landscape, and construction water proofers, interstitial lung diseases in construction water proofers. Conclusions: This is the first study to systematically classify complex construction occupations in order to analyze occupational diseases in Korean construction workers. There were differences in disease incidences among construction workers based on the classification of occupations. It is necessary to develop customized occupational safety and health policies for high-risk occupations for each disease in the construction industry.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.384-388
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• 2019

The horse stable hand workers are one of the most important occupations in horse-racing industry. However, suicide problem of the horse stable hand workers in Korea has raised the necessity of new study on how these workers experience mental health problems such as occupational stress and depression in organizational situation. Therefore, this study investigated the occupational stress and depression level of the horse stable hand workers and identified the structural relationship in the horse-racing industry through a detailed interview. A total of 207 horse stable hand workers participated in this study, and occupational stress and depression level were surveyed using the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) and Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). The results of this study showed that the occupational stress level of horse stable hand workers was higher than the median of Korean population. The significant difference in occupational stress among the detail job grade was also identified. In addition, 34% of the horse stable hand workers showed high risk of depression, and job demand, organizational system, and inappropriate compensation as the subfactors of occupational stress were showed to mainly affect depression. Although there are some limitations according to the field survey, this study also has significant meaning in that it identifies the relationship between the occupational characteristics of the horse stable hand workers and the mental health. It will be necessary to study the diverse organizational situation and individual mental health for new occupations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.49-58
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• 2019

There was a difference in recognition of chemical substances according to cognitive level of GHS, knowledge level of organic solvents and each department of workers. they were showed higher recognition of chemical substances by research group, partially group and good group. To identify the relationship between types of job classification(group of department, group of GHS cognitive level and group of organic solvents knowledge level) and the levels of recognition of chemical substances, a total of 153 workers in a small and medium business workplace. Descriptive statistics(SAS ver 9.2)was performed. the results of recognition of chemical substances were analyzed the mean and standard deviation by t-test, and anova, (P=0.05). These results In general, small- and medium-sized workplaces have low levels of GHS awareness and organic solvents knowledge. The perception of chemical substances according to the departments. In general, the demand for chemical substances education was highly suggested regardless of the job type. There was a significant difference in the perception of health, safety and practice according to the level of GHS cognitive, and a high perception in the incomplete group. There was not much difference in average awareness of health, safety and practice according to organic solvents knowledge level, but there was a high perception in good group. It is very important to regularly check the worker's perception of the workplace and identify problems with the work environment and improve the work environment. In addition, each department presents appropriate safety and health education such as chemical process safety, toxicity of chemical substances and human exposure. We also propose a chemical substances assessment and management plan that integrates safety and health.