• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.438-444
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• 2023

Background: To examine the influences of psychosocial work conditions on mental health risk and intention to leave the public sector among workers of public health agencies in Taiwan. Methods: We surveyed 492 public health workers in March 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information on job demands, job control, workplace justice, experiences of workplace violence and its type and origin, and mental health status (assessed by the 5-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale, BSRS-5) was obtained. Of them, 192 participated in a follow-up survey conducted in May 2023 that assessed mental health status, employment changes, and intention to leave. Results: In the initial survey, 32.93% of participants reported poor mental health status, defined by having a score of BSRS-5 ≧ 10, and 48.17% experienced some form of workplace violence over the past year. Notably, high psychosocial job demands (OR = 3.64, 95% CI = 1.93-6.87), low workplace justice (OR = 2.58, 95% CI = 1.45-4.58), and workplace violence (OR = 2.38, 95% CI = 1.51-3.77) were significantly associated with increased risk of mental disorders. Among those who participated in the followup survey, 22.40% had persistent poor mental health, and 30.73% considered leaving or have left the public sector. Longitudinal analyses indicated that job demands predicted persistent mental disorders and intention to leave the public sector, and the experience of workplace violence added additional mental health risks. Conclusion: The public health workforce is crucial for effective and resilient public health systems. Our findings that public health workers were at high mental health risk and had a high intention to leave the job warrant attention and policy interventions.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.104-109
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• 2012

Singapore, an island republic of over 5 million inhabitants, has 3.1 million workers. Most are employed in the service, finance and tourist/transport industry. Significant numbers work in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry. Following a series of construction and shipyard accidents with multiple deaths in 2004, the government announced its intention to reduce workplace fatalities from 4.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 by 2015. There was strong political will to achieve this target. The strategic approaches were to build workplace safety and health (WSH) capabilities; implement legislative changes with enforcement; promote benefits of WSH and recognize best practices, and enhance partnership with stakeholders. The anticipated outcomes were to reduce workplace fatality and injury rates; have WSH as an integral part of business; and establish a progressive and pervasive WSH culture. With these measures, the workplace fatality rate declined from 4.9/100,000 in 2004, to 2.2/100,000 in 2010. However, other confounding factors could also account for this decline, and have to be considered. The next target, announced by Singapore's Prime Minister in 2008, is to further reduce the workplace fatality rate to 1.8/100,000 by 2018, and to have "one of the best workplace safety records in the world".

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.421-426
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of shift work on occupational safety in various industrial sectors. The study analyzes the effects of shift work on the health of workers by considering factors such as the workplace environment and welfare. Methods: Focusing on the $4^{th}$ Korean Working Conditions Survey, this study used an ordinary least-square multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable was the annual frequency of injuries reported by workers. Independent variables were categorized as demographic, shift work, workplace environment, and welfare variables. The analysis was conducted on two levels: 1) Shift work and nonshift work groups were compared, and 2) Shift work was compared with fixed and rotating shifts. Results: For the entire group, age, a low level of education, work hours, and daily and dispatch work negatively impacted the frequency of injuries. Shift work was negatively affected by workplace environment and welfare factors. In the shift group, the frequency of injuries was lower than that of regular workers, and the higher the autonomy in the choice of work hours, the lower the frequency of injuries. Furthermore, shift workers in Korea have more extended work hours (49.25 h/week) than other workers (46.34 h/week). Conclusion: Overall, welfare factors such as workplace satisfaction and worke-life balance reduced the frequency of injuries. The effect of shift work was limited, but it was confirmed that shift worker autonomy could reduce the frequency of injuries.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.250-259
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• 2011

Objectives: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant global public health concern, affecting 5.3 million US individuals annually. An estimated 1 in 3 women globally are abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime, and the effects carry over into the workplace. This article examines employers' perceptions of IPV in the workplace, targeting supervisors of Latina employees. Methods: Fourteen employers and supervisors of small service-sector companies in Oregon were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Interpretive description was used to identify themes. These qualitative interviews preceded and helped to formulate a larger workplace intervention study. Results: The following themes were found and are detailed: (1) factors associated with recognizing IPV in the workplace, (2) effects of IPV on the work environment and (3) supervisors' responses to IPV-active vs. passive involvement. Also, supervisors' suggestions for addressing IPV in the workplace are summarized. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the need for more IPV-related resources in the workplace to be available to supervisors as well as survivors and their coworkers. The needs of supervisors and workplaces vary by site, demonstrating the need for tailored interventions, and culturally appropriate workplace interventions are needed for Latinas and other racially and ethnically diverse populations.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.198-209
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed to provide basic data for the improvement of the guidance services for the management of the workplace environment of the specialized health management institution, by making inquiries on the perception and extent of practice by health managers and workers in the workplace. Methods: Workplaces with officially noted environmental hazards of noise, organic compounds and/or dust-metals were selected in a South Korean metropolitan city in 2015. The workplace health managers(hereinafter referred to as 'manager') and workers at 97 workplace were interviewed. Managers are those who are in charge of health management at the corresponding workplace and the workers were subjected to in-depth interviews by sampling one worker for each of the workplace. Results: The majority of the managers acknowledged the guidance services of the specialized health management institution affirmatively. Regarding the extent of practice in accordance with the guidance on engineering improvement, only 23 managers(37.1%) responded. With respect to education, 40 managers(41.2%) responded that it was implemented along with 35 workers(36.1%) who responded that they received education, showing no significant difference between manager and worker. Regarding the actual wearing of the protective equipment, however, 83 of the manager(85.6%) insisted that workers wore the protective devices while only 44 workers(49.5%) responded that they actually wore the devices, thereby illustrating a significant difference between managers and workers. Conclusions: These results suggest the urgent necessity of improvement in the mechanism of guidance services of the specialized health management institution for the workplace environment management.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.89-99
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze safety and health managers' perceptual maps on the effective educational contents and its methods of workplace safety and health education. Self-administered survey was successfully conducted to 582 workers who were 339 in manufacturing, 68 in construction, and 175 in service & others by industry classification. Survey sites were recruited based on business size, incidence of occupational accident, and compliance of workplace safety and health education regulation. Questionnaire included personal factors, workplace factors, and needs of safety and health education at work. Male workers were 85.3% and more than 50% were in their 30s and had university education. Overall needs of educational contents and its methods were greater in manufacturing and services than construction. Two dimensional properties of effective educational contents perceived were 'knowledge structure' which divided to safety and health, and 'behavior outcomes' which divided to indirect and direct. Two dimensional properties of educational methods were 'class activity' which divided to experience-based and verbal-based and 'class participation' which divided to passive and active. Effective educational contents and its methods perceived by safety and health managers commonly included the characteristics of direct, case-based, and participation.

• 한국응용과학기술학회지
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.925-935
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• 2020

본 연구는 사업장 보건관리자의 우수한 보건관리 활동과 동기를 파악하여 추후 보건관리자의 활동에 대한 가이드를 제시하기 위한 연구이다. 본 연구는 5년 이상 동일한 사업장에 근무한 사업장 보건 관리자 21명을 대상으로 연구에 대한 동의를 얻은 후 반구조화된 설문지를 이메일로 보내 자료를 수집하였으며 응답한 내용을 질적 분석하였다. 본 연구 결과 17개의 범주와 3가지 주제가 도출되었다. 도출된 주제는 보건관리자로서의 보람과 성취감, 보건관리자로서의 어려웠던 부분, 어려움은 이렇게 해결하자 이었다. 보건관리자는 근로자가 마음을 열어주고, 생활을 변화시키기며, 감사해 하며, 새로운 분야를 개척하는 것에 보람과 성취감을 느낀다고 하였다. 반면, 예측할 수 없는 건강, 조직문화의 변화, 질병을 비밀화하는 것, 보건관리자 업무가 편하다고 생각하는 사람들에 대해 어려움을 느꼈다. 이러한 어려움을 극복하는 방법으로 근로자의 마음을 읽어주고, 스스로 알게 하며, 기존 프로그램을 활용하며, 가장 어려운 사람을 내 편으로 하며, 자신의 성과를 알리는 것이 필요하다고 하였다. 본 연구 결과를 통하여 보건관리자는 자신의 전문성을 갖추기 위하여 노력하고, 건강관리 성과를 지속적으로 알려 사업장의 정책결정자와 근로자들에게 보건관리의 중요성을 설득할 필요가 있다. 또한, 우수한 보건관리자의 성공전략을 적극적으로 벤치마킹해야 할 것이다.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.339-346
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• 2018

Background: Workplace bulling is a pervasive phenomenon with negative consequences for the health of victims and the productivity of organizations. The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence and forms of workplace bullying among employees working at the public health-care sector of Cyprus using the Greek version of Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror (LIPT) instrument. Methods: A translation process was followed from the French to the Greek version of LIPT questionnaire. Test-retest reliability expressed by Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.98 indicating excellent reproducibility. Internal consistency reliability assessed by Cronbach ${\alpha}$ coefficient was 0.87 suggesting high reliability. LIPT instrument was distributed among 403 employees working at the primary health-care setting and at the largest public hospital of Cyprus with response rate of 73.4%. Results: Women comprised the majority of participants (71.4%). Mean age was 43.3 years. Prevalence of workplace bulling according to Leymann's definition was 5.9%. Most common forms of bullying were "Being continuously interrupted" (17.2%) and "continuously being given new work assignments" (13.5%). Women were significantly more often exposed to at least one mobbing behavior than men within the previous year (49% vs. 35.7%, p = 0.038), whereas nurses were significantly exposed to at least one mobbing behavior as compared to physicians (53.3% vs. 31.4%, p = 0.004). Conclusion: This was the first study that examined the prevalence of workplace bullying in the public health-care sector by elaborating the Greek version of LIPT instrument. Results showed that workplace bullying is a common and complex phenomenon among health-care organizations.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.471-478
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• 2021

Background: Employment standards (ES) include having a regular payday, regular breaks, the right to paid sick or vacation time, and paid wages. Inadequate ES contribute to the labour market vulnerability of workers; however, they are not typically considered to be risk factors for workplace injury. In a sample of Canadian workers, we examine the risk of injury associated with inadequate ES, independent of, and combined with inadequate workplace protections from workplace hazards. Methods: Data from 2,803 adults working 15 hours or more/week in workplaces with at least five employees were analysed. We explored associations between exposure to workplace hazards with inadequate protections [termed occupational health and safety (OHS) vulnerability] and inadequate ES on workplace injury (physical or mental injury; injury requiring time off). Additive interaction models were used to examine the independent and combined effects of these exposures. Results: Occupational health and safety vulnerability and inadequate ES were independently associated with increased injury outcomes. Adjusted models showed an additive relationship for all injury outcomes between OHS vulnerability and inadequate ES. Statistically significant superadditive relationships were observed for physical injury risk with policy and procedure vulnerability plus inadequate ES [synergy index (S) 1.50, 95% CI: 1.13-2.00] and for overall OHS vulnerability plus inadequate ES (S 1.53, 95% CI: 1.16-2.02), suggesting a combined effect greater than independent effects. Conclusion: Occupational health and safety vulnerability and inadequate ES are independently associated with workplace injury. For certain injury outcomes, the combined effect of OHS vulnerability and inadequate ES is greater than the independent effects of each individual exposure.

• 한국치위생학회지
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.239-247
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• 2013

Objectives : The direction for qualitative improvement of our country's workers' by arranging data necessary for improving oral health program and system aiming to promote workers' oral health in the future is suggested in this study. Methods : The questionnaire by self-administrated method, which was selected by convenience sampling method, was carried out from October 4th to December 31th, 2011 targeting 424 workers from 6 working places in Jellabuk-do Province. Results : 1. It was indicated that workers' interest in oral health is higher than moderate and that workers are perceiving oral health as one of critical problems and thinking that the level of their oral health knowledge is low and oral health status is under moderate. 2. It was indicated that the rate of workplace oral screening is high, but the dissatisfaction ratio with workplace oral examination is high. Non-screening of medical treatment was indicated to be the highest after oral examination. 3. Factors of having influence upon the workplace oral examination included age, marital status, appearance, educational level, work-life term, and average monthly household income. Conclusions : It is judged to be likely important to make them have positive attitude toward oral health care through the accurate publicity of workplace oral examination and education on prevention of oral disease by reflecting workers' high interest in oral health.