• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.79-95
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• 1997

The purposes of this study were to develop a job stress measurement tool and to identify the job stress according to the characteristics of worker and work condition at the small and medium-sized plants. Data were collected through face-to-face survey for April-May, 1997. Subjects were 180 workers at 36 small and medium-sized plants located near Seoul. Data were analyzed by item analysis, factor analysis, and ANOVA. The results were as follow : 1, Number of items of job stress measurement were 33 and Cronbach's $\alpha$ was .9262 except 13 items with low values of Cronbach's coefficient. Factor analysis was done in order for construct validity and 8 factors were extracted and cumulative percent of variance was 65.6%. 2. The job stress scores of male, the younger, 2-shift workers, and over-time workers were significantly higher than those of female, the older, 1-shift workers, and 48 hour workers per week. 3. There were no significant difference between job stress scores and the groups by number of worker, and the types of manufacturing. The stress measurement tool is valid and very reliable to measure worker's stress. Furthermore, the job stress managent program for health promotion of the workers at the vulnerable work condition is needed more and more.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.482-486
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• 2022

Background: This study aimed to estimate the annual prevalence and incidence of urolithiasis stratified by work status based on a large nationwide sample. Methods: This study used data from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort from 2002 to 2015. The prevalence and incidence of urolithiasis were estimated based on work status and gender stratification. The risk of urolithiasis among workers was calculated using age-standardized incidence ratio with stratification of work type. Results: The prevalence of urolithiasis was significantly higher in workers than in non-workers, especially men, during the follow-up period. The total estimated number of urolithiasis cases was 41,086 and the overall incidence of urolithiasis was 0.3%. The age-standardized incidence ratio of urolithiasis was significantly higher among the total workers (1.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.13-1.16), self-employed workers (1.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.11), and paid workers (1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.21) than among the non-working population. Conclusions: Workers, especially paid workers and men, were vulnerable to urolithiasis. Further studies are required to investigate the effects of working conditions on urolithiasis.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.181-191
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• 2015

Change in labor time is affecting occupational safety and health. Recently reduction in labor time brought innovational operation method, investment in plant and equipment, and flexible labor time in some companies, thereby affecting working conditions for labourers. However, working conditions for some vulnerable social groups have deteriorated. As a result, they are becoming more exposed to risk factors such as injury and emotional stress. In this study we use 2014 KWCS data in order to find the social and demographic characteristics in Korean working conditions. To this end, we use exploratory data analysis approach to find the relationship between some of the important variables in the KWCS data. We also use Press-State-Response model to find which group of people are vulnerable to Press and State. We find that women, people over age 50 and business owners are more vulnerable to Press and State than men, people below age 50 and wage workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.261-262
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• 2022

Globally, it is estimated that the number of people living outside of their country of origin reached 281 million in 2020. The primary drive of those migrants when migrating voluntarily is work to increase their income and provide for their families left behind in their home countries. Those who migrate immediately seek means of income to sustain themselves through a perilous process as currently evidenced in the war in Ukraine and not too long ago in Syria and Venezuela. Unfortunately, migrant workers are globally known to predominantly be working in "4-D jobs"- dirty, dangerous, and difficult and discriminatory; the fourth D was recently added to acknowledge the discriminatory aspect and other social determinants of health migrant workers face in their host country while exposed to precarious work. Consequently, migrant workers are at considerable risk of work-related illnesses and injury but their health needs are critically overlooked in research and policy. Recognizing the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment", we cannot consider any human life - thus, the life of migrant workers - as dispensable through a structural discriminatory process that undervalues their occupational safety and health, livelihood and the contribution these workers bring to their host countries. This was seen during the preparation for the upcoming world cup in Qatar where migrant workers were exposed to a multiplicity of serious hazards including deadly heat hazards.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.251-253
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• 2019

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.29.1-29.10
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• 2023

Background: Lone workers are generally defined as individuals who work alone without supervision, including self-employed people. While lone workers are considered a vulnerable group in some countries, there is a lack of research on their health status in domestic studies. Globally, the number of lone workers has been increasing, and this trend has been further accelerated since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with the rise of remote work. Methods: The study analyzed data from 44,281 participants, excluding unpaid family workers, soldiers, and those with missing data. Lone workers were defined as individuals who reported having no colleagues with the same job at their current workplace. Self-rated health status was categorized as "good" or "poor." Results: This study found a statistically significant higher number of lone workers among women compare to men. The largest occupational category for lone workers was service and sales workers, followed by agriculture and fisheries workers. A majority of non-lone workers reported working 40 hours or less per week, while the majority of lone workers reported working 53 hours or more per week. In addition, lone workers had significantly poorer health status evaluations compared to non-lone workers (odds ratio: 1.297; 95% confidence interval: 1.165-1.444). Conclusions: Further research is needed to investigate the causal relationship between lone work and health, using data collected after the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.181-193
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• 2017

Purpose: This is a qualitative descriptive study with the purpose of identifyng the health problems and related factors of socially vulnerable school-age children in Seoul, South Korea. Methods: Two focus group interviews and two individual interviews were conducted with eleven participants. They were two class teachers, three school nurses and two daycare teachers working at elementary schools and three social workers and a welfare worker working at community childcare centers. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The identified psychosocial problems were 'distracting and excessive behavior', 'depression and helplessness,' 'aggression and violent behaviors', and 'internet overdependence'. The revealed physical health problems were 'poor hygiene', 'obesity', and 'gastrointestinal problems'. In addition, the fact that physical and psychosocial problems are closely inter-linked was reaffirmed through practical examples. Meanwhile, socioeconomic, family environmental, social experiential and individual factors were found to affect children's health. Relationships within a family or a peer group and healthy lifestyle were considered critical issues to deal with in order to improve the childrens' health status. Conclusion: It was proved that socially vulnerable school-age children have various physical and mental health problems due to multiple factors. Therefore, it is required to design nursing approaches that help them achieve optimal health status.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.96-101
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• 2024

Background: Silicosis among workers who fabricate engineered stone products in micro or small-sized enterprises (MSEs) was reported from several countries. Workplace exposure data of these workers at high risk of exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust are limited. Methods: We surveyed workers performing cutting, shaping and polishing tasks at 6 engineered stone fabricating MSEs in Sydney, Australia prior to regulatory intervention. Personal exposure to airborne RCS dust in 34 workers was measured, work practices were observed using a checklist and worker demography recorded. Results: Personal respirable dust measurements showed exposures above the Australian workplace exposure standard (WES) of 0.1 mg/m³ TWA-8 hours for RCS in 85% of workers who performed dry tasks and amongst 71% using water-fed tools. Dust exposure controls were inadequate with ineffective ventilation and inappropriate respiratory protection. All 34 workers sampled were identified as overseas-born migrants, mostly from three linguistic groups. Conclusions: Workplace exposure data from this survey showed that workers in engineered stone fabricating MSEs were exposed to RCS dust levels which may be associated with a high risk of developing silicosis. The survey findings were useful to inform a comprehensive regulatory intervention program involving diverse hazard communication tools and enforcing improved exposure controls. We conclude that modest occupational hygiene surveys in MSEs, with attention to workers' demographic factors can influence the effectiveness of intervention programs. Occupational health practitioners should address these potential determinants of hazardous exposures in their workplace surveys to prevent illness such as silicosis in vulnerable workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.111-118
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• 2009

As the construction project gets bigger in scale, the actual construction itself is becoming more complex. The construction accidents occupy 26.18 percent of total death disaster according to the accidents report in 2007. It is the highest figure among the entire industry, and it shows how serious the construction accident is. In order to reduce accidents occurred in the construction industry, we should find the accident characteristics of construction workers by age. In this study, we investigated 589 cases of fatal accidents, and classified them by trades, type of works, the things that caused the accident, how they occurred, and size. We then identified accident characteristics for each group by analysing them in accordance with workers age. The result of analysis showed that in carpenter and common laborer, the number of death accidents increased as the workers age increased. Another characteristics were that the number of death accidents increased as the age increased in finishing work and reinforced concrete construction and in a smaller-scale businesses, respectively. Common labor was the trade with the highest number of death accidents and the laborers of 50 age or higher in age in finishing working type were the most vulnerable to death accidents.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2024

Background: E-waste workers in Hong Kong are handling an unprecedented amount of e-waste, which contains various neurotoxic chemicals. However, no study has been conducted to evaluate the neurological health status of e-waste workers in Hong Kong. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of neurobehavioral alterations and to identify the vulnerable groups among Hong Kong e-waste workers. Methods: We recruited 109 Hong Kong e-waste workers from June 2021 to September 2022. Participants completed standard questionnaires and wore a GENEActiv accelerometer for seven days. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Questionnaire 16/18 (Q16/18) were used to assess subjective neurobehavioral alterations. The GENEActiv data generated objective sleep and circadian rhythm variables. Workers were grouped based on job designation and entity type according to the presumed hazardous level. Unconditional logistic regression models measured the associations of occupational characteristics with neurobehavioral alterations after adjusting for confounders. Results: While dismantlers/repairers and the workers in entities not funded by the government were more likely to suffer from neurotoxic symptoms in Q18 (adjusted odds ratio: 3.18 [1.18-9.39] and 2.77 [1.10-7.46], respectively), the workers from self-sustained recycling facilities also have poor performances in circadian rhythm. Results also showed that the dismantlers/repairers working in entities not funded by the government had the highest risk of neurotoxic symptoms compared to the lowest-risk group (i.e., workers in government-funded companies with other job designations). Conclusion: This timely and valuable study emphasizes the importance of improving the working conditions for high-risk e-waste workers, especially the dismantlers or repairers working in facilities not funded by the government.