• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the related factors to dental care utilization, oral health behaviors, and oral health status in immigrant workers in Korea. Methods: The subjects were 504 foreign immigrant male workers over 20 years old who visited Daegu labor consultation center for oral health survey and oral examination. The questionnaire included 5 questions of socioeconomic characteristics, 8 questions of oral health practice behavior, 6 questions of dental clinic visit, 8 questions of social relations and Korean language proficiency. The question for health behavior was measure by body mass index(BMI). Social relations and Korean language proficiency instrument was modified by Seol from "Family welfare survey in Korean international marriage" and scored by Liker 5 scale. Results: The oral health examination of the immigrant workers was as follows: decayed teeth - 76.6%, filling teeth - 27.4%, missing teeth - 69.8%, dental caries experience above five or more - 60.2%, periodontal pocket tissues - 58.9%. Simplified Oral Hygiene Index was very poor and accounted for 49.0%. Dental care utilization experience was closely associated with social relation indexes including attendance in family events, household stuff help, financial help and counseling for hard work(p<0.01). Dental care utilization experience proportionally increased with proficiency in Korean literacy including speaking, listening, and writing abilities of Korean language(p<0.01). Conclusions: In order to improve the oral health condition of the immigrant workers, it is important to provide social network, Korean language proficiency support, and health insurance coverage through economic burden reduction by the Korean government.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.445-451
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• 2021

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the self-administered questionnaire for Korean radiation workers. Methods: From May 24, 2016, to June 30, 2017, 20,608 participants completed the questionnaire, providing information on sociodemographics, lifestyle, work history and practices, medical radiation exposure, and medical history, which was linked to the National Dose Registry and the National Cancer Registry. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the responses of 20,608 workers, and reliability was evaluated using the responses of 3043 workers who responded to the survey twice. Results: Responses concerning demographic characteristics and lifestyle showed reliability with a moderate-to-high agreement (kappa: 0.43-0.99), whereas responses concerning occupation and medical radiation exposure had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.05-0.95), possibly owing to temporal variability during employment. Regarding validity, responses to the question about the first year of employment had an excellent agreement with the national registry (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.9); however, responses on cancer history had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.22-0.85). Conclusion: Although the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were not distinguished by demographic characteristics, they tended to be low among participants whose occupational radiation exposure was minimal. Overall, the information collected can be reliable for epidemiological studies; however, caution must be exercised when using information such as medical exposure and work practices, which are prone to temporal variability.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.218-228
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• 2011

Objectives: The objective of this study was to test the feasibility and acceptability of a new workers' health surveillance (WHS) for fire fighters in a Dutch pilot-implementation project. Methods: In three fire departments, between November 2007 and February 2009, feasibility was tested with respect to i) worker intent to change health and behavior; ii) the quality of instructions for testing teams; iii) the planned procedure in the field; and iv) future WHS organisation. Acceptability involved i) satisfaction with WHS and ii) verification of the job-specificity of the content of two physical tests of WHS. Fire fighters were surveyed after completing WHS, three testing teams were interviewed, and the content of the two tests was studied by experts. Results: Feasibility: nearly all of the 275 fire fighters intended to improve their health when recommended by the occupational physician. The testing teams found the instructions to be clear, and they were mostly positive about the organisation of WHS. Acceptability: the fire fighters rated WHS at eight points (out of a maximum of ten). The experts also reached a consensus about the optimal job-specific content of the future functional physical tests. Conclusion: Overall, it is feasible and acceptable to implement WHS in a definitive form in the Dutch fire-fighting sector.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.34-48
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to analyse the factors associated with regular exercise in office workers based on the health belief model such as health belief, self efficacy and barrier among office workers. For the study, we surveyed 253 office workers and analysed using SAS package program. That results obtained were as follows; 1. There were significant differences in sex, age, marriage status. 2. Exercise showed a significant association according to 5-6 days/week exercise, used to fitness center in company, exercise before the attendances. 3. The health belief showed a significant association according to 20-29 years old, unmarried and non exerciser. 4. The self efficacy showed a significant association according to female, nondrinker, nonsmoker, regular exerciser, motivation of exercise is maintain health and weak exerciser. 5. The barrier of exercise was high in non exerciser. 6. A negative correlation was observed between the health belief, the self efficacy and the barrier of exercise. In conclusion, this study suggests that the effective exercise program to reinforce the factors based on health belief and self efficacy, have to be developed.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand care workers' fall-related knowledge and caring behaviors for fall prevention in nursing home. Methods: This study was a descriptive survey study. Data have been collected from 125 care workers in 5 nursing homes. Data were analyzed using frequency, t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: 1) The average percentage of correct answers for care workers' fall-related knowledge was 72.2%. There were significant differences in fall-related knowledge by age, experiences of re-education about care for fall injuries, and experiences to transfer fall patients to another hospital. 2) The average level of care workers' caring behaviors for fall prevention was 3.81 points out of 4. There were significant differences by experiences of education about care for fall injuries in nursing home and concern of fall injury prevention. 3) There was a significant correlation between fall-related knowledge and caring behaviors for fall prevention (r=.320, p<.001). Conclusion: The level of fall-related knowledge is positively correlated to the level of caring behaviors for fall prevention. Therefore, nurses should prepare education programs to increase care workers' fall-related knowledge and caring behaviors for fall prevention.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.47-59
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and organizational personality types (OPT) perceived by public health center workers and to analyze differences in perceptions according to organizational characteristics. Methods: The subjects of this study were workers at 12 of the 22 public health centers in Chonnam Province, South Korea. To measure organizational characteristics, we employed the OPT Index and OCBs Index. Data were collected for one month, from 15 September to 14 October 2009. Data for 422 workers were used in the final analysis. Descriptive statistics and t?tests were performed as appropriate, utilizing SPSS/WIN 14. Results: Among 16 types of OPT, ESTJ, ISTJ and ESTP were the most prevalent for the 12 public health centers. The average weight of OCBs was 4.77, and courtesy and civic virtue held the first and the second ranks among OCBs, respectively. Statistically significant differences between types of OPT were detected, in that T type was gender (p=.007) while J type was age (p=.010), education (p=.043) and career (p=.000). Statistically significant differences between OCBs were found in age, education and career. Conclusion: Public health centers should have programs to innovate OPT and to improve OCB. The development of such programs should consider characteristics of public health center workers such as age, gender, education and career.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 1993

The objective of this study was to analyze the status of health examination, and the health care management of industries in Seoul. This will provide effective industrial health care services. 46 industries were selected as a sample, and were given self administered questionnaire developed by the academic affairs of community health nursing. The results of this study are as follows: (1) The general characteristics of industries: The greater part of the industries were manu facturing companies, 300-900 workers, in a one shift system. (2) The general characteristics of health man ager: 96% of the companies had industrial nurses and the larger industries had comprehensive health managers. 90% of the industrial nurses were full-time employees and 77% of the industrial physician were part time employees. 80% of the industrial physician were age 50 or older, while 59% of the industrial nurses were 25-29 years of age. (3) Health examination and follow up care: The proportions of the workers who took general health examination was 94%. Of those, 12% took secondary examinations. In secondary examinations, 36% were evaluated at the C-grade, 20% were evaluated at the D-grade. The proportion of the workers who were required to take special examination were 29% and of that, the proportion of the workers who actually took the examination was 88%. 85% of the workers who were recommended for follow up cares were given follow up care while working. The physical agents among the special examination were done the most frequently to detect the examination effects. (4) Health care services: Industrial nurses performed health examination most frequently and health education was done the least. There were significant differences in health care services according to the size of the industries. Companies with 300 workers or less had higher health care services than other groups. The three primary reasons of health care management and examinations of workers are: First, industrial nurses are requires to accumulate professional knowledge and experience through continuos' activities. Second, systematic and concert examination for industrial workers should be performed periodically. Third, it needs developing health education strategies that are important workers for health promotion in industries.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.445-450
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• 2023

Background: The impact of COVID-19 infection on workers' work function persists even after the acute phase of the infection. We studied this phenomenon in Japanese workers. Methods: We conducted a one-year prospective cohort study online, starting with a baseline survey in December 2020. We tracked workers without baseline work functioning impairment and incorporated data from 14,421 eligible individuals into the analysis. We estimated the incidence rate ratio for new onset of work functioning impairment due to COVID-19 infection during follow-up, using mixed-effects Poisson regression analysis with robust variance. Results: Participants reporting infection between January and December 2021 showed a significantly higher incidence of new work functioning impairment (adjusted incidence rate ratio: 2.18, 95% confidence interval: 1.75-2.71, p < 0.001). The formality of the recuperation environment correlated with a higher risk of work functioning deterioration in infected individuals (p for trend <0.001). Conclusion: COVID-19-infected workers may continue to experience work difficulties due to persistent, post-acute infection symptoms. Companies and society must urgently provide rehabilitation and social support for people with persistent symptoms, recognizing that COVID-19 is not just a transient acute infection.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.97-103
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• 2006

Severities of musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs) have been recognized at the regular work such as manufacturing but incidence of MSDs are increasing also at the atypical work. The examples of those are health medical workers, office workers and service workers etc. Nurses among health medical workers are accomplishing to manage and recover the patients' health in the first place. Therefore, they are exposed to very stressful work conditions during caring the patients. This study was performed to analyze the musculoskeletal burdened work among nurses at a university hospital, in order to grasp the realities of the MSDs, analyze and prevent MSDs. We surveyed risk factors for ward, intensive care unit, delivery room, newborn room, operation room, function test room and central supply room at a university hospital in Seoul. It was executed for 2 months as the field study that was composed of simulation, real measurement, work motion assessment and subjective assessment. And the results were analyzed into ergonomics techniques. Works according to the criteria of musculoskeletal burdened work by the Ministry of Labor were scrub in operation room and heart ultrasonic function test. And a lot of works that need attention and management were also detected. So it should be required the education and systematic managements of MSDs for nurses.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2020

Background: This study investigated the status of oral health promotion activities for adult workers in public health centers and industrial dental offices and provided basic data for the model development of oral health promotion program for adult workers in Korea. Methods: A questionnaire was developed separately according to the person who in charge of the oral health promotion activities in public health centers nationwide and dental hygienists working in 20 industrial dental offices. This survey was conducted through postal survey and consisted of 29 items and 35 items respectively, including 19 common items for general information, oral health promotion program status and opinion. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS ver. 23.0. Results: We analyzed the data of 147 public health centers (57.9%) and 9 industrial dental offices (45.0%). A workforce with a lack of practice was the biggest barrier to oral health promotion activities for adult workers. However, both groups showed high intention for the practice of adult worker's oral health promotion activities. Also, they showed willingness to work together in an organic partnership to perform their roles (94.4% and 77.8%, respectively). Regarding the scope of cooperation in the implementation of the industrial oral health promotion activity linked to the public health center, dental hygienists of industrial dental offices responded that they could coordinate necessary matters and schedule management. Conclusion: The development of an oral health promotion program aided by the relationship between public health centers and industrial dental offices is essential for the oral health promotion of adult workers. The possibility of cooperation between the abovementioned centers was confirmed through this study. In a long-term perspective, it would be necessary to identify a method to institutionalize industrial dental hygienists for the provision of continuous oral health care in workplaces.