• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.58-68
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• 2020

Purpose: Workers with chronic health problems find it difficult to maintain their work because of socioeconomic difficulties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between physical, ergonomic, and mental health hazards in the workplace and chronic health problems of Korean workers. Methods: A total of 28,807 wage workers participated in the study and were selected using the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey (2017). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine the associations between physical, ergonomic, and mental health hazards and chronic health problems. Results: Of the participants, 1,220 (4.23%) had chronic health problems. Even after adjusting the general characteristics, vibration, noise, high temperature, low temperature, dust, chemical and cigarette smoke, fatigue and painful posture, dragging or pushing or moving of heavy objects, repetitive hand or arm movements, working with a computer or smartphone, use of internet or e-mail, and anxiety situations increased the risk of chronic health problems. Conclusion: The study reaffirms that exposure of physical, ergonomic, and mental health hazards in the workplace significantly increases the risk of chronic health problems.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.379-390
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was conducted to improve the working conditions of dental technicians, through survey for working conditions related to perform one's duty, the extent of personal exposure to substances hazardous and complaint rate and factor of job stress and subjective symptom on musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: Using four types of structured questionnaires: social and demographic factor; the actual conditions of working space; working conditions; and characteristics of dental technicians, respondents filled in the questionnaires and the results were analyzed statistically. Results: The evaluation of comfort in working place found that satisfaction level on indoor noise was the lowest with 2.6 on a five-point scale and privacy space followed 2.8 point. In reasons for dissatisfaction with job, over workload ranked the highest by 25.4% and role overload had the highest by 39.5% in job stress factors. Based on the results, we could draw conclusion that dental technicians were unsatisfied with role overload and heavy workload a day. In reasons for musculoskeletal symptom prevalence, long-patient work was the highest by 24.1%. It was thought to cause dental technicians need deep procession and long-patient work due to the nature of their job. Conclusion: In conclusion, noise reduction and privacy space are required to improve job efficiency of dental technicians. In addition; we need to think of ways to increase the job satisfaction with adequate rest while deep procession and long-patient working.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.996-1007
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the general characteristics, working condition, discrimination experience and job engagement of office workers and to examine the effect of discrimination experience on job engagement. This study was the secondary analysis of date from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey and the subjects included 6,718 office workers. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, x²-test, t-test, and complex samples general linear model(CSGLM). As a result, job engagement was high when they never experienced discrimination. Based on the results of this study, in order to improve job engagement of office workers, manage to prevent discrimination in the workplace should be included.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.185-193
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• 2015

There are so many definition of good work but generally job quality can be useful to analyze the good work. Good work may include some factors about health or working environment. This paper was planned to investigate the level of job quality in Korean employees. Especially comparison of health status between low an high job quality can be analyzed. Korean Working Conditions Survey was used. The various job characteristics were categorized into 6 component of job quality using factor analysis. Statistically mean difference test and cross-tabulation analysis were used to identify the difference of health status and distribution of the level of job quality. The result has shown the different distribution of the level of job quality by the economic sectors and occupations statistically significant. The positive cases of all of six components of job quality was 2.1% of Korean employees and the negative cases of all six components of job quality was 1.5%. The subjective general health status was correlated with job quality but work-related stress was negatively correlated with the level of job quality. This study was heuristic one, more depth analysis will be needed to identify the relationship and causation of job quality and health status.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.132-141
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between psychosocial working conditions and psychological well-being depending on the gender among Korean interactive service workers. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of the data extracted from the 2011 Korean Working Conditions Survey. For the present analysis, 15,669 workers who interact with others at work were selected. Based on the existing literature, a set of variables was chosen from the KWCS. Psychological well-being was measured using the WHO-5 well-being index. Results: The prevalence of poor psychological well-being was significantly higher among men (43.1%) than women (39.6%). Women were more likely to be exposed to demands for hiding emotions, bullying, and discrimination, whereas men were more likely to be exposed to psychological job demands, cognitive demands, demands for responsibility, role conflict and long working hours. Most factors were associated with poor well-being among women and men except demands for hiding emotions, skill discretion and development, physical violence, and sexual harassment. Conclusion: Based on these results, some practical suggestions are offered to help interactive service workers adjust to their duties.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.292-298
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• 2019

Objectives: Presenteeism is currently recognized as a significant global health issue that can potentially cause productivity losses. Hence, many studies have analyzed the relationships between workplace factors and presenteeism. However, few studies have considered non-occupational factors. This study examined the associations between presenteeism and activities outside work, including volunteering, self-development, leisure/sports, and gardening and house repair activities, in Korean wage workers. Methods: This study analyzed the fourth Korean Working Conditions Survey, in which a total of 19 294 wage workers participated. To identify relationships between presenteeism and activities outside work, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used after adjusting for general and occupational characteristics. Results: Self-development and leisure/sports activities significantly increased the odds ratio (OR) of presenteeism (OR, 1.166; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.061 to 1.282 and OR, 1.276; 95% CI, 1.181 to 1.379, respectively). Conclusions: Certain activities outside work, such as self-development or leisure/sports, were related to presenteeism among Korean wage workers. Although many previous studies have emphasized the positive effects of those activities on health, this study documented negative effects of these activities outside work on health.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.64-74
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether chemical exposure among workers has relevance to dyspnea using data from the $3^{rd}$ Korea Working Conditions Survey. Methods: The research subjects were 29,711 wage workers. Chemical exposures consist of four factors, (1) breathing in vapors, fumes, dust and dirt, (2) breathing in organic solvent vapors, (3) handling or touching chemicals, and (4) secondhand smoke. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between chemical exposure and dyspnea in the last 12months using proc surveylogistic in SAS 9.3 statistical software excluding people who had received a diagnosis of hypertension or obesity that can affect the respiratory distress symptoms(n=27,842). Results: Chemical exposure among workers was associated with dyspnea after adjustment for demographics and job characteristics. Prevalence of dyspnea was 4.9 per 1,000 among men and 5.8 per 1,000. Compared to a total score of 0 points of chemical exposure among workers, a total score of 1, 2-3, and 4 points tended to have increased risk of dyspnea in a dose-response manner for both men (OR=1.43, 1.93, and 4.26; P-for trend=0.002) and women(OR=1.10, 2.81, and 7.70; P-for trend=0.002). Stratified analysis by duration of current job showed that the association between chemical exposure and dyspnea tended to get stronger until 15 years and then disappeared afterwards, which reflects healthy worker survivor effect. Conclusions: We observed significant association between chemical exposure and dyspnea using the data of the $3^{rd}$ Korea Working Conditions Survey. Our results warrants providing knowledge related to chemical exposure, performing prevention activities, and creating various health policies to protect workers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.550-561
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for the improvement of the working environment for health prevention and related countermeasures for shift workers. This study was conducted based on the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS), which analyzed the health effects of shift work forces and compared them with preceding studies. Methods: By analyzing secondary rates using raw data from the 5th KWCS, 4,870 (9.7%) of the 50,184 total study subjects were divided into shift work and 45,314 (90.3%) non-shift work groups based on the response to shift status. Variables that could affect work health issues were identified and corrected. A cross-analysis was conducted to examine demographic characteristics (gender, age, and education level) of the workers and occupation characteristics (monthly net earnings, employment type, occupation, working period up to now, workplace scale, type of work system, and weekly working hours). In order to find the work health issue ratio between the shift and non-shift work groups, logistic regression was analyzed and the association with health problems according to shift type by gender was looked at through cross-analysis. Results: According to the surveys conducted from the 1st KWCS (2006) to the 5th KWCS (2017), the proportion of shift workers continued to increase. Also, muscular pains in the lower limbs (hips, legs, knees, feet, etc.) (OR=1.135, 95%CI 1.031-1.251), headaches, eyestrain (OR=1.580, 95% CI 1.428-1.748), anxiety (OR=1.715, 95% CI 1.402-2.099), difficulty falling asleep (OR=1.391), and other problems (OR=7.392) were reported. In addition, back pain, muscular pains in shoulders, neck and/or upper limbs, muscular pains in lower limbs (hips, legs, knees, feet, etc.), headaches, eyestrain, depression, anxiety, overall fatigue resulted in significant results for both male and female shift workers. Depression and anxiety were higher in female shift/circulation compared to males. Conclusions: The social nets for the health and safety of shift workers should be explored in a variety of ways, including management and supervision of shift sites, attempts to reorganize and improve the shift system, development of workers' health recovery programs, promotion, systematic treatment, and compensation systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2023

The labor environment in Korea has changed and problems related to employment types are treated as important issues. Especially, the ratio of irregular workers has not only increased relatively, but the labor conditions in Korea also have worsened in the current years. Studies have reported an association between temporary workers and the prevalence of diseases. However, there is insufficient research on chronic disease and employment types. Methods: The current study examines the prevalence rate of diseases and health behavior by categorizing employment types among Korean adults. Data were obtained from the 2016-2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Totally, the data of 2,366 workers (1,239 regular and 1,127 irregular) were analyzed in the study. The types of employment were classified by a questionnaire querying about working conditions. The results showed that irregular workers earned less than regular workers and had a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. We propose that if discrimination related to working conditions were relieved, irregular workers would be able to invest more time to exercise and doing check-ups regularly. In addition, individual nutrition consultations considering the knowledge and personal environmental factors of each individual are necessary for the improved health of all workers.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.267-278
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• 2018

Purpose: This study is to investigate working conditions including job stress among visiting nurses in public health centers in Korea. Methods: An social network based mobile survey was conducted in May 2017 (N=936, response rate: 47.0%). Results: The visiting nurses in this study had their average total career as a nurse is 13.7 years. The 68.3% of them were employed in an indefinite term, 17.0% were hired in a fixed term, and 11.0% came from outsourcing. They responded as high job-stress level including inadequate compensation (71.22/100) and job demands (71.91/100). They experienced down-talk (63.4%), swearwords (32.9%), being made a dirty face (39.9%), sexual jokes (30.8%), or being likened or evaluated with their appearance sexually (14.3%). Among the causes of job related conflicts and discrimination, deprived salary level was the most frequent reason (83.4%). The conflicts and discrimination were incurred by government officers (52.4%). There were no significant differences in overall job stress, emotional labor, organizational commitment, violence, and discrimination experience based on their employment types. Conclusion: The differences in working conditions among the non-regular nurses were trivial, and their overall working conditions were poor. It is necessary to improve non-regular nurses' working conditions in order to make up the limitations of the Korean healthcare system which is centered on hospitals.