• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.129-146
• /
• 2009

Background and Objectives: The purpose of the study was to explore the attitude of workers toward a system of collaborative hospital practice between western and traditional Korean medicine, to identify factors influencing this attitude, and discuss the reasons socioeconomic groups' differences. Method: The data were collected with a questionnaire for this study from 14 April 2009 to 1 May 2009. Data were analyzed mainly via non-parametric statistics and logistic regressions utilising SPSS 17.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to determine the workers' attitude about the hospital system and to predict factors contributing to positive attitudes. Results: A total of 1,260 workers working for large factories in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Findings confirmed that more than 40% of the workers show interest in the system and about 44% of the workers also express positive attitudes. Factors found to influence the workers' response included marital status, income level, health status, experience in complementary medicine services, the number of health care facilities' visit. Conclusions: The prospects to establish the system of collaborative hospital practice as reflected by the workers' view about the Korean health care service delivery system. Their attitudes toward the system differed among socioeconomic groups. Government and health care providers should identify the socioeconomic subgroups' demands and opinions in order to find and develop measures of integrating western and traditional Korean medicine in health care facilities.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.10-30
• /
• 2001

Oriental medicine needs to be armed with theories on health-improvement concept under it and basic data matching its views, in order to participate in the health-improvement service in industrial work places. The Orient medicine health-improvement program defines factors that determine individuals' lifestyle, and provides information and technologies for workers to practice in life. To that end, this research compares and analyzes health-improvement concept and health care, defines relations between individuals' health state and their lifestyle as the basic data needed to perform health-improvement business for workers. 1. The subjects employed for this research is categorized into; by gender, males 52.1% and females 47.9% with no big difference between them; and by age, 20s, 6.1%, 30s. 33.9%, 40s, 34.1%, and 50s, 24.8% with 30-50 accounting for most of it. By marriage status, unmarried represents 7.1%, and married 79.1% with most of them married; by revenue, under one million won represents 3.0%, 1-2 million won 26.4%, 2-2.49 million won 11.2%, above 2.5 million won 11.2%, and 1-2.5 million won a majority. By living location, owned houses represents 65.4%, rented houses 14.7%, monthly-rented 9.5%; and by education, elementary and middle school represent 16.9%, high school and its dropouts 22.6%, and junior college and higher 51.6%, with high school and higher occupying most of the group. 2. By job, office workers and managerial workers represent 12.3%, part-timers 21.0%, manual workers 11.4%, jobless 0.6%, professionals 35.6%, service 0.6%, housewives 8.4%, and equipment/machinery operation/assemblers 10.1%. Of this, jobless and part-timers, totaling three, are dropped from this research. By years worked, 0-3.9 years represents 9.7%, 4-7.9 years 6.7%, 8-14.9 years 18.4%, above 15 years 28.7%, and no respondents 36.5%. 3. The degree of the subjects practicing life-improvement lifestyle, on a scale of 1 to 4, is an average of 2.69, personal relations 3.04, self-realization 2.92, stress management 2.76, nutritional state 2.73, responsibility for health 2.47, and athletic activities 2.18, with personal relations earning the highest points and athletic activities the lowest. As for factors influencing health-improvement lifestyle, there is no significant difference between gender, age, and marriage status. Meanwhile, there is significant difference between revenue, dwelling pattern, education level, etc. That is, higher income-bracket, owned houses, rented houses, monthly-rented houses, and higher-educated, in this order, show higher average in health-enhancement lifestyle. By job, housewives, manual workers, office workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, and part-timers, in this order show higher points, while there is no difference with significance by years worked. 4. Factors that affect health-improvement lifestyle are shown below. Self-realization is influenced by age, marriage status, type of dwellings, and level of education; responsibility for health by type of dwellings; athletic activities by gender and age; nutrition by age, marriage status and type of dwellings; personal relations by marriage status; and stress management by type of dwellings. 5. Areas with high points by job show this: in self-realization, office workers, manual workers, housewives, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, in this order, show difference with significance; in the area of responsibility for health, manual workers, housewives, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, professionals, office workers and part-timers, in this order, do. In athletic activities, manual workers, housewives, office workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, and part-timers, in this order, show difference with significance; in nutrition, housewives, office workers, manual workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, and part-timers, in this order do; and in stress, housewives, office workers, manual workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, part-timers, in this order do. By years worked, more years showed higher points in the area of responsibility for health and nutrition; in the area of athletic activities, above 15 years, 4-8 years, below 4 years and 8-14 years, in this order, show higher points; and no difference shows in realization, personal relation, and stress area. 6. To look at correlation between overall and divisional health-improvement practice degree, this researcher has analyzed it using Person's correlation coefficient. Self-realization, responsibility for health, athletic activities, nutrition, support for personal relations, and stress management show significant correlation with the sub-divisions, while all health-improvement lifestyle shows significant correlation with the six sub-divisions.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.504-511
• /
• 2019

Objectives: We evaluated the physical and mental health problems of waged workers in Korea who had different classes of occupation. Methods: We used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2017) to examine 22,788 workers who were waged employees and categorized these workers into 5 occupational classes. Results: "Unskilled manual workers" were more likely to be older, less educated, have lower monthly income, and work fewer hours per week. Among men and relative to "managers and professionals" (reference group), "skilled manual workers" were more likely to have physician-diagnosed osteoarthritis, "clerks" were less likely to report suicidal ideation, and "unskilled manual workers" were more likely to report suicidal ideation. Among women and relative to "managers and professionals" (reference group), "service and sales workers" and "unskilled manual workers" were more likely to report physician-diagnosed osteoarthritis, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation. However, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases did not differ among the occupational classes for men and women. Conclusion: We identified differences between men and women and among those in different occupational classes regarding employment status, physical health, and mental health. "Unskilled manual workers" of both genders were more likely to be older, less educated, have less monthly income, work fewer hours per week, and have suicidal ideation. Female "service and sales workers" were more likely to have osteoarthritis, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.41-54
• /
• 2001

This study was designed to assess the relationship between occupational stress and health status in a study group of 197 workers employed in four newspaper publishing companies, using a self-adminstrative questionnaire. The types of occupation of them were reporters(79), clerical workers(54), and engineers (64). The studies on workers' health have been focused mainly on the physical, chemical, and biological diseases in our country. Therefore, the study of mental health, especially of occupational stress, is to be carried out. I consider stress as a factor having an effect on the health status of the newspaper employees, who have been well known to have high stress due to time pressures. I expect that this research will be helpful not only for understanding of health status by occupation, but also for making clear the issues that have been raised continuously from the previous researches. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The mean values of stress by occupation were statistically significant; the reporters had the highest stress symptom scores, and the engineers had the lowest levels of stress. The mean values of stress symptoms were higher in the workers who had long working hours. 2. The health status by occupation showed significant differences in gastrointestinal systems and in depression. The clerical workers were healthier than the engineers in gastrointestinal systems, and the reporters were more depressed than the engineers in depression. 3. The health status by the general characteristics, there was a statistical significance as for a gender, marital status, and absenteeism in the gastrointestinal systems. The men, the married, and the workers who had not been absent were more healthy. Only absenteeism had an effect on the problems in optical-dermal systems and in oro-fecal systems. Gender, marital status, absenteeism, and working hours were related with health status : the men. the married, the workers who had not been absent, and the workers who had longer working hours were more healthy. In mental stability, gender had a significant effect : the men were more healthy than the women. In general condition, the men, the older, the married, and the workers who had not been absent were more healthy. 4. Stress level had an effect on the health status in the respiratory systems, optical-dermal systems, oro-fecal system, depression, mental stability, general condition, and health condition. The workers who perceived more stress had more problems in their health status. 5. In the results of the multiple regression analyses, age in the respiratory systems, absenteeism in the optical-dermal systems, occupation and absenteeism in the gastrointestinal systems and in the oro-fecal systems, gender in depression and in mental stability, gender, age, absenteeism, and working hours in the general condition, absenteeism in the health condition had an effect on the health status of the workers.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.277-289
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the cross-sectional association of company size and self-rated health using representative data on Korean workers. Methods: We used the data from 2,884 wage workers collected by Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (17th). The association between company size and self-rated health was analyzed using logistic regression with covariates including demographic characteristics, work environment, job satisfaction, and health-related behaviors. Resulst: Odds ratio (OR) for better health status among workers in large-sized company was 1.351 (CI. 1.054~1.731), compared to workers in small-sized company. We performed three separate models stratified by firm size (small, medium, and large companies). Occupation variables showed different effect on health depending on firm sizes. OR for better health of white-color job (referred to blue-color job) was 1.693 in medium-sized company model but it was 0.615 in large company model. OR for better health of the workers working shift work showed 0.606 in large company model but it was not significant in small and medium company models. Conclusion: We found that small-sized company workers have significantly poor self-rated health compared to large-sized firm workers. This study revealed that there exist differences among health related factors depending on firm sizes.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.101-108
• /
• 2018

Background: Work and work environment have a critical influence on adolescent workers' health. They are subjected to more risks than adults. The aim of this study is to examine psychological health outcomes in adolescent workers in the areas of depression, somatization, anxiety, hostility, and negative self-concept, and to investigate any related factors. Methods: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. Research samples were collected from adolescent workers between 15 and 18 years old attending a 1-day mandatory education course at vocational training centers, working 5 days per week in small enterprises. Data were collected using the following instruments: Brief Symptom Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Descriptive Characteristics of Children's Assessment Form. Results: The investigation covers 837 young workers, of whom 675 were males and 162 were females. The majority of the families had low incomes (68.1%). Overall, 33.5% of the adolescents had been hospitalized because of health problems. Their average weekly working hours were $78.1{\pm}10.7$. Almost 50% of adolescent workers scored above the mean average in the Brief Symptom Inventory, indicating serious pschological health symptoms. Those who scored high for hostility, depression, negative self-concept, anxiety, and somatization were between 45.4% and 48.9% of the sample. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the underlying factors: a perception of "feeling very bad" health conditions was 2.07-fold whereas the rate of "no annual leave" was 0.73-fold, and both were found to be effective on psychological problems. Conclusion: In this study, it seems likely that psychological health problems are the result of multiple adverse factors including working conditions, annual leave, and health considerations.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.622-635
• /
• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the level of job stress and health status and find out factors affecting the health status among circulation enterprise workers. Method: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The subjects were 128 workers whose mean age was 33.2 years. Korean occupational stress questionnaire Short Form was used to measure job stress. Todai Heath Index that was made by Aoki in 1977 and translated by Kim(1997) was used to measure the health status. Results: The total job stress scores of men and woman fell in the lower 50% of Korean workers. Job autonomy and interpersonal conflicts as a subcategories fell in upper level 50% in both men and women and job insecurity fell in the upper level 50% in women. The mean score of health status was 51.47, indicating slightly higher frequency of complains of health symptoms. There was no significant correlation between total job stress and total health status. Finally, factors influencing the health status were organizational system and age. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop comprehensive stress management programs including interventions of personal and organizational levels for promoting workers' health.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.22 no.3 s.27
• /
• pp.355-367
• /
• 1989

This study examined the physical and mental health factors affecting the industrial accidents of 142 injured and 1,212 uninjured workers in the shipbuilding industry from 1986 to 1988. The results acquired from the Todai Health Index (THI) and from analysis of the health examination were as follows: 1. Among the personal characteristics of the workers, the educational level of injured workers was significantly lower than that of the uninjured workers. 2. Among the physical characteristics, vision and $R\ddot{o}hrer$ Index of the injured workers were lower than those of the uninjured workers, and the difference was statistically significant. On the other hand, the differences in height, weight, hearing function, hematocrit, blood pressure, urine test, and X-ray findings were not statistically significant between the injured and uninjured workers. 3. The score of the THI questionnaire on the physical and mental health of the injured workers was higher than that of the uninjured workers, and the difference was statistically significant. 4. Form the THI score, the industrial workers had complained more about mental health than physical health and there was a statistically singinficant relation with the industrial accidents. 5. The relative risk expressed in terms of the odds ratio was 2.9 for poorer vision, 2.7 for a lower educational level, 2.2 for a higher THI score and 1.6 for overdrinking. 6 Educational level, vision, and the THI score were selected as significant factors influencing industrial accidents based on a log-linear model. According to the results of this model by logistic analysis, the odds ratio of industrial accidents was 1.8 for a lower educational level, 1.7 for poorer vision, and 1.6 for a higher THI score. 7 By event history analysis with the dependent variable as the duration of work at the time of the industrial accident, educational level, age, $R\ddot{o}hrer$ Index and THI score were the statistically significant variables selected, and the hazard rate of industrial accident occurrence was 0.24 for a lower educational level, 0.92 for age, 0.99 for a lower $R\ddot{o}hrer$ Index and 2.72 for a higher THI score. As we have seen, educational level and THI score were the most significant factors affecting the hazard rate of industrial accidents. Vision, $R\ddot{o}hrer$ Index, age, and drinking behavior were also statistically significant variables influencing industrial accidents. Therefore, in order to prevent industrial accidents, it is necessary to establish a health management plan for industry which can objectively evaluate not only the physical but also the mental health of the workers. If we use this type of study as a prospective study design, we can determine the relative risk of physical and mental health factors on industrial accidents. Furthermore, it is expected that this type of study will provide workers at high risk with more precise basic data for a health managment plan for industrial accident prevention.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.112-116
• /
• 2022

Background/Aims: The Gachon Regional Occupational Cohort Study (GROCS) is a large-scale longitudinal study of occupational safety and health data (covering Work Environment Monitoring, Workers' Health Surveillance, and Occupational Health Service) conducted by the Gachon University Gil Medical Center (GUGMC) in Incheon, Republic of Korea. We conducted GROCS to identify the health effects of workers' occupational risks, behavior, socioeconomic status, and life style. Methods: The GROCS includes data from Work Environment Monitoring, Workers' Health Surveillance, and Occupational Health Service. The baseline year for all data collection was 2018. Work Environment Monitoring was conducted in 240 companies located in Incheon. General Health Examination and Special Health Examination were performed on 32,725 and 9,504 workers, respectively. Occupational Health Services were provided to 16,883 workers in 171 companies. These data have been collected and operated at an external data management institution and were provided as a retrospective cohort after removing personal identification information. Results: In 2018, the total number of companies was 2,854, among which which 488 special Health Examination, 171 Work Environment Monitoring, and 240 Occupational Health Service. The proportion of companies undergoing Special Health Examination was 17.1%, the proportion of companies undergoing Work Environment Monitoring was 8.4%, and the proportion of Companies undergoing Occupational Health Service was 6.0%. Conclusion: GROCS expects researchers to utilize its useful and reliable resource for occupational health and surveillance with for academic or political purposes to lead to improved workers' health and working environment.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.235-244
• /
• 2016

Objectives : Using several waves of the Panel Study of Worker's Compensation Insurance(PSWCI), this study analyzed the effect of female workers on the health and lifestyles of korean workers in the sample year of 2014 (The first survey was completed in August-October 2013;, the second survey was completed in August-October 2014.) Methods : The research subjects were 24,672 women among workers who responded to the 2014 PSWCI panel report. Statistical analyses were performed with SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Results : According to the results of the analysis, women showed differences in female temporary workers, working conditions, classification of occupation, working period, and health conditions based on work-time conditions. The results show that female workers with disabilities have a direct positive effect on life satisfaction as we anticipated in the hypothesis. Conclusions : Female workers should focus on factors identified in this study when developing employment interventions to improve a health promoting lifestyle for their work environment.