• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.267-271
• /
• 2023

Background: The objective of this study is to identify the working conditions and health status of Vietnamese male migrant workers in Republic of Korea, in comparison to the Korean general population. Methods: We conducted our survey through the Migrant People Center, and we received completed questionnaires from 87 male Vietnamese migrant workers. The questionnaire employed was identical to those used in the Korean Working Conditions Survey and the 2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The collected data from the Vietnamese migrant workers was then compared with the Korean reference population using indirect age-standardization. Results: Vietnamese male workers demonstrated a higher prevalence of health problems including hearing problems (age-standardized prevalence ratio (aSPR) 13.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.07-20.4), skin problems (aSPR 13.49, 95% CI: 8.07-20.4), and low back pain (aSPR 8.40, 95% CI: 6.50-10.69). Elevated exposure to workplace hazards such as chemicals (aSPR 2.36, 95% CI: 1.51-3.51), organic solvents (aSPR 2.22, 95% CI: 1.44-3.28), handling of heavy objects (aSPR 1.67, 95% CI: 1.24-2.21), and high temperatures (aSPR 1.96, 95% CI: 1.46-2.57) was observed among them. Additionally, they faced a higher risk of no personal protective equipment (aSPR 2.53, 95% CI: 1.26-4.52) and a greater prevalence of unmet medical needs (aSPR 7.14, 95% CI: 4.74-10.32). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the elevated workplace hazards, health problems, and unmet medical needs among Vietnamese male workers compared to the Korean reference population. These findings underscores the urgency for enhanced scrutiny over working conditions and protective equipment provision, coupled with efforts to improve healthcare accessibility and worker education.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.142-151
• /
• 2015

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to investigate the degree of presenteeism, which lowers productivity when call center workers come to work with illness, and analyze the factors influencing it. Methods: A survey was conducted for three months from July to September, 2013 to collect data. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,500 workers at 30 call centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, of which were 1,274 returned and analyzed for the study. Results: The findings show that the call center workers scored 15.4 points out of the maximum 30 on presenteeism based on SPS-6. The study examined factors that affect the presenteeism of call center workers and identified inner emotional labor, depression, subjective health condition, age and turnover intention as those factors. Their presenteeism was low when they engaged in more inner emotional labor, and when they had a good subjective health condition. The presenteeism was high when they had a higher degree of depression, were young, and had a higher turnover intention. Conclusion: The findings call for a need to implement a mental health promotion program to resolve call center workers' depression at work, help them manage their emotional labor to lower their turnover intention, improve their subjective health conditions, and run a health management program to consider the uniqueness of the young age group in order to prevent their increasing presenteeism.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.351-360
• /
• 2008

The principal objective of this study was to determine the importance of obesity management nutrition programs for obese male workers after performing a 10-week nutrition program and to compare changes in the obesity index, health behavior, meal intake, and blood constituents. The study subjects included 44 individuals, all without chronic disease. After the program, the weight, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, and waist-hip ratio (WHR) of the subjects dropped. Dietary life behavior scores increased. In particular, more than 30% increases were detected in self-control of surfeit, control of eating speed, temperance, and regular exercise items. Total caloric intake and average drinking intake dropped. Though insignificant, systolic pressure, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and sGPT all dropped as compared to the levels measured prior to the program. Fasting blood sucrose, triglyceride, $\gamma$-GTP, and atherogenic index dropped significantly. HDL-cholesterol, though insignificant, increased. As the result of examining correlations between the subjects' health life behavior, caloric intake, and improvement in obesity, we noted a significant correlation between self-control of surfeit and temperance in the health life behavior item, along with significant correlations among total calorie intake, surfeit percentage, and daily average drinking intake. These results demonstrated that nutrition program for obese workers performed at the Community Health Center had the effect of reducing obesity, improving health behavior, and improving clinical levels. Thus, it is advisable that obesity management programs be achieved, linking the center of local societies' health promotion projects, community health centers, and workplaces, and various programs should be developed to maintain and continue changes in workers' behaviors, such that the positive effects of improvement in obesity could be maintained, even after the program.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.45-54
• /
• 2008

Purpose: This study was conducted to compare and estimate sleep patterns and health status of the shift and non-shift factory workers. Methods: The subjects of this study were 290 male workers in 13 companies, which manufacture automobile parts in Daegu, Korea. Survey data were collected from March 5th, 2007 to April 5th, 2007. PSQI was scored to check the quality of sleep, ESS for excessive daytime sleep disorder, ISI for insomnia, and SF-36 for health status. The data were analyzed by $X^2$ and t-test using SPSS 12.0 for windows. Results: There was a difference in quality of sleep patterns between shift and non-shift workers (p=.033). A difference in the pattern of excessive daytime sleep (P=.005) and in the degree of insomnia (p=.030) were observed between the two groups. However, there were no significant difference in health status between the two groups. Conclusion: Based on these results, shift workers are in need of careful and continuous monitoring regarding sleep disorders and we need to develop health promotion programs including sleep hygiene for shift workers.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.1-24
• /
• 1993

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the health information system on the productivity and behavioral aspects of health workers as well as quality of services to the visitors using the Vaccination room at the Kwon Sun Ku health center located in Suwon city as a study subject. Three survery were conducted to measure the changes in productivity and adoptation process(knowledge, attitude, activity, and satisfaction) of health workers over time during the period of 20 months. In addition, the effects of the information system on the quality of services to the visitors were also masured 7 months after the 3rd survey by comparing the quality of services between the study health center and the similar health center as a control group. The following results were obtained. First, productivity of health workers has improved over time as they became familiar with the system. Second, knowlege and activity did not significantly changed, but attitude score unexpectly decreased in the second survey. This may be due to an effect of intensive training prior to the first survery. Third, quality of services for the study center was better than other health center. While the health information system had positive effects on the productivity as well as the adoptation process, there are several limitations to establish a causal effect relationship between the two variables. For example, the system has kept modified since its development to meet the changing needs of the workers, and this may affect the productivity more than the adoptation process. Furthermore, since the study subject was only one health oenter, it lacks representativeness to generalize the study findings. Therefore, more health centers should be included in the study to solve such problems in the future.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.28 no.1 s.49
• /
• pp.43-57
• /
• 1995

In order to study the effect of welding fume exposure upon the pulmonary function test, we examined 131 shielded arc welding workers, and 152 $CO_2$ arc welding workers as cases and 177 control workers for their general characteristics, and forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second $(FEV_{1.0})$, forced expiratory volume in one second as a percent of FVC $(FEV_{1.0}%)$, and maximal mid-expiratory flow (MMF) were obtained from the spirogram. In shielded arc welding group and $CO_2$ arc welding group, FVC, $FEV_{1.0},\;FEV_{1.0}%$, and MMF were significantly decreased than control group, especially marked in the MMF finding. The distribution of workers below normal range was as follows. in the shielded arc welding group, 2 workers(1.5%) for FVC, 17 workers(13.0%) for $FEV_{1.0}$, 5 workers(3.8%) for $FEV_{1.0}%$, 28 workers(21.4%) for MMF, and in the $CO_2$ arc welding group, 3 workers(2.0%) for FVC, 25 workers(16.4%) for $FEV_{1.0}$, 8 workers(5.3%) for $FEV_{1.0}%$, and 37 workers(24.3%) for MMF, and significant increase by exposure duration was found in MMF. The distribution of workers who had ventilation impairment was as follows: 5 workers(3.8%) for obstructive type, 2 workers(1.5%) for restrictive type in the shielded arc welding group, and 7 workers(4.6%) for obstructive type, 2 workers(1.3%) for restrictive type, and 1 worker(0.6%) was combined type of the $CO_2$ arc welding group. In the respect of these results, the significant pulmonary function and ventilatory impairment were observed in welding fume exposed workers who had not abnormal finding in chest X-ray, and MMF considered as the most sensitive pulmonary function index by welding fume exposure. Therefore even if it is hard to doing pulmonary function test in the first health examination of workers according to the Industrial Safety Health Act in the welding fume exposure workers, it is desirable to consider doing PFT. Also evaluating the ventilation impairment, it is necessary, to observe the change of MMF that marker of effort-independent portion.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.281-291
• /
• 1996

458 female workers working in the small and medium scaled industries in Inchon area were surveyed to study their general characteristics, health behavior, working and environmental conditions, awareness of exposure at hazardous materials, current health status, and degree of working satisfaction. Self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the female workers with the explanation by trained interviewer on the purpose of survey and the method how to answer. The results were as follows : (1) 75.5% of the respondents are living with their families and others are living in domitary or rent house for herself. Age distribution ranges from teenagers to warren in their forties. In marital status 69.0% of workers are single and 31.0% of them have ever married. 69.4% of workers are high school graduate. The size of factory is 48.3% with less than 300 workers, 42.1% with 300~500 workers. (2) Most of the workers(86.7%) are full time workers, 52% of the respondents have working experiences in other factories. More than 65% have fewer than 5 years working experience. (3) The awareness of exposure at noise was 33% of respondents, it was significantly different by skilled status. The awareness of exposure at dust, other hazardous material was each 13.3%, 12.4% of respondents. (4) 26% of them are unsatisfied with their working cognitions and 43.7% of them are unsatisfied with their welfare in occupational system unsatisfactory rate of promotion is higher in the unmarried workers(45.6%), skilled workers(47.2%), full time workers(47.4%), long term workers(50%), and awareness group of exposure hazardous material(51.3%), compared to married women workers, unskilled workers, part-time workers, short term workers and unawareness group of exposure at hazardous materials. (5) The index of working satisfaction is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with the higher point indicating higher satisfaction. Among the selected variables, marital status, working status, the awareness of exposure at hazardous materials, were statistically significant with the index of working satisfaction. (6) By multiple regression analysis showed that the determinant factors of index of working condition were health index, the awareness of exposure at dust, the awareness of exposure other hazardous materials, marital status and working period. In conclusion, there is a significant relationship between the awareness of exposure at hazardous material the index of working satisfaction. Therefore if the workers are less exposed to the hazardous material and are educated properly they will be more satisfied with their work thus improving their health and productivity. Finally, with the result of this study, there is a great need for the development of a health promotion program and a welfare policy for small-scale factories.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.402-406
• /
• 2017

Transit workers constitute a blue-collar occupational group that have elevated smoking rates relative to other sectors of employed adults in the United States. This study analyzed cross-sectional tobacco survey data from 935 workers (60% African American; 37% female) employed at an urban public transit agency in California. Prevalence of current and former smoking was 20.3% and 20.6%, respectively. Younger workers were less likely than older workers to be current or former smokers. Having a complete home smoking ban was associated with decreased likelihood of being a smoker [odds ratio (OR) = 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.01-0.17], as were neutral views about whether it is easy for a smoker to take a smoking break during their shift (OR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.28-0.88). Current smoking among the sample is > 50% higher than the adult statewide prevalence. Potential points of intervention identified in this study include perceived ease of worksite smoking breaks and establishing home smoking bans. Tailored cessation efforts focusing on older transit workers more likely to smoke are needed to reduce tobacco-related disparities in this workforce.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.90-96
• /
• 2015

Background: The physical work demands of construction work can be reduced using ergonomic measures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of ergonomic measures related to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among construction workers. Methods: A questionnaire was sent at baseline and 2 years later to 1,130 construction workers. We established (1) the proportion of workers reporting an increase in their use of ergonomic measures, (2) the proportion of workers reporting a decrease in MSDs, (3) the relative risk for an increase in the use of ergonomic measures and a decrease in MSDs, and (4) workers' knowledge and opinions about the use of ergonomic measures. Results: At follow-up, response rate was 63% (713/1,130). The proportion of workers using ergonomic measures for vertical transport increased (34%, 144/419, p < 0.01); for measures regarding horizontal transport and the positioning of materials, no change was reported. The proportion of workers reporting shoulder complaints decreased (28%, 176/638, p = 0.02). A relationship between the use of ergonomic measures and MSDs was not found; 83% (581/704) of the workers indicated having sufficient knowledge about ergonomic measures. Lightening the physical load was reported to be the main reason for using them. Conclusion: Only the use of ergonomic measures for vertical transport increased over a 2-year period. No relationship between the use of ergonomic measures and MSDs was found. Strategies aimed at improving the availability of ergonomic equipment complemented with individualized advice and training in using them might be the required next steps to increase the use of ergonomic measures.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.361-374
• /
• 2001

This study was done to identify a status of home visiting project as a community health nursing system, that was the organization. personal who have age, educational background, marital status, position, experience of the home visiting in the public sectors in part of Seoul. Kyonggi, Kang-won area, It was done to provide basis data for the development of effective visiting nurses project in the health sectors, where was Health Centers in urban and rural. Branch of Health Center in rural and Health posts. The question airs were distributed 352 public health workers who working place was 118 health workers in 12 health centers in Seoul. 56 public health workers among 39 health center and other public health sectors in Kyonggi and 178 public health workers among health center and health care sectors. Data collected from October to December. 2000. The analysis by SAS system with F test, percentage and frequency. The major result were as follows. The general characteristics of the respondent show that most of them were graduates from community college and RN-BS with broadcast that they had not completed CPHN course but only two health workers have trained for the visiting nurses project. As for their grade in the position, the most of health workers have seventh level and the other CHP were above sixth level in the health care post that in the government structure. This indicates that workers do not have great authority in decision making, the most period of works in the position was one and two years indicating that they change jobs frequently. On an average their clinical experience was 4.11 years which is ideal for the total service. As for preparation of staff for home visiting workers education on visiting nurses program have to receive short term or longer term training course for strong emphasis. The analysis showed that public health visiting workers responds about active job performance that based on an area, approach of acting by districts, education and position are shown statistically significant difference between acceptance of the visiting nursing job show the same as well as visiting nurses project. Special concerns for visiting Nursing care spread came to burden, many of activity carry out main solution is covered the health problem connective support system needs of quality and quantity which out health problem. As 71.1% of visiting health service held on the poor population was under the guardianship of the law, but people who health insurance wide application under law shown a tendency to increase gradually. The general characteristics of the patients showed 56.2% of female on average of age was 66.1 years old, they have health problem was the most of 47.6% of high blood pressure and stroke, the other and as a problem that economics, which is complex welfare with out health problem. Community health care service should be combined health and social work program. The form of delivery of visiting health care given the most guide and education with counselling and support. (33.6%) Among the six category of visiting care service shown statistically significant difference and next is fundamental care, remedy care with priority.