• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2014

Background: In Japan, more than 60% of employees are reported to suffer from anxiety and stress. Consequently, Japanese society has begun to address such important issues as psychogenic disability and job-related suicide. Furthermore, given the aging of society and the surge in the number of elderly people requiring care, it is necessary to adequately and proactively support employees who care for their elderly relatives. The purpose of the present study was to investigate caregiver burden in caring for elderly relatives and work-related stress factors associated with mental health among employees. Methods: We studied 722 men and women aged 18-83 years in a cross-sectional study. The K10 questionnaire was used to examine mental health status. Results: The proportion of participants with a high K10 score was 15% (n = 106). Having little conversation with their supervisor and/or coworkers significantly increased the risk of depression [odds ratio (OR) 1.8], as did high job overload (OR 2.7) and job dissatisfaction (OR 3.8), compared with employees who frequently conversed with their supervisor and/or coworkers. Caring for elderly relatives as a prominent characteristic of an employee was a significant risk factor for depression (OR 2.1). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that employees who were caring for elderly relatives were significantly associated with an increased risk of depression. To prevent depressive disorders, it may be important to focus on reducing the work-caregiving role conflict, as well as enhancing employees' job control and better rewarding their efforts in the workplace.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.465-471
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• 2010

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) have been the most common health problem covered by worker's accident compensation insurance for several years in Korea. Korean government has strengthened related regulations since 2003. People looked forward to decreasing the incidence and prevalence of WMSDs. At first, the expectation could be realized. However, we were bumped against to limit at present. The authors think it is due to the negligence of psychosocial factors for WMSDs. Many researchers reported that the various psychosocial factors were associated with WMSDs or symptoms. Job demand, social support, job satisfaction and decision latitude are the major risk factors in job stress aspect. Work pressure, lack of rest, qualified workload, workload variability and monotonous job are the significant risk factors in work context of work organization. Employment flexibility, downsizing, lean production, contingent work and pay for by the piece are also the risk factors in an organizational context. Furthermore, these risk factors are associated with each other across different dimensions of work organization. Suggestive possible pathways between these risks and WMSDs have been taken note of increasing muscle strain or ergonomic stress and of a cognitive aspect. The authors suggest these risk factors could explain the limitation of the regulation system for WMSDs. In conclusion, the strategy to manage psychosocial factors is the one of the essential approach to prevent WMSDs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2012

This study was conducted to survey of the musculoskeletal disorders of radiological technologists and prevalence rate survey tool of musculoskeletal symptoms targeting the radiological technologists working currently in hospitals or clinics. For this study, survey was conducted from July 10th, 2011 to July 31st, 2011 for about 20 days with subject of radiological technologists in private clinics, hospitals, general hospitals and University hospitals. The main results of this study are as follows : First, frequency analysis on presence of musculoskeletal symptoms in each part of body showed that neck area was 22.5 %, shoulder area was 33.1 %, arm / elbow area was 8.3 %, hand / wrist / finger area was 15.5 %, waist area was 32.4 %, leg / foot area was 16.9% (p<0.05). Second, the results from summarizing the descriptive statistics of job stress, psychosocial stress and fatigue showed that the average of job stress was 2.48 out of Likert 4 points scale, the average of psychosocial stress was 2.27 out of Likert 4 points scale. Job stress was a little bit higher than the psychosocial stress. In case of fatigue, the average was 4.57 out of Likert 7 points scale and it was a slightly higher than 'normal' (p<0.05). In conclusion, we hope this study will be helpful to systematically and efficiently manage the resources as the basic material upon deploying the preventive measures about the musculoskeletal disorders of radiological technologists in the future.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.487-522
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• 2016

The main purpose of this research is to investigate Korean adolescents' perception of stress experiences, and related social support. To this end, adolescents were asked about stress events, as well as stress symptoms, in their lives. Also, the adolescents were asked about the people that provided social support and the types of social support provided. The participants were 952 Korean adolescents (Primary 219; Middle 280; High 212; University 241). Among the four measures (stress events, stress symptoms, social supporters, and types of social support), the measure of stress symptoms yielded a reliability of Cronbach α=.88, while the remaining three measures yielded an inter-judger reliability of 89.6%, Kappa=.87. The results were as follows. First, for stress events, the most frequent responses were related to Academic Achievement, followed by Career/Job, Family Relations, Friend Relations, Lack of Capacity, and Financial Difficulties. For high-school students the most frequent responses were related to Academic Achievement, while for university students Career/Job. Second, for stress symptoms there were significant differences among the groups, in that the high-school students showed the highest level of symptoms, while primary school students the lowest. Third, for social supporters, the most frequent responses were related to Friends, followed by Myself, Parents, Teacher, Siblings, and Seniors/Juniors. As the groups aged (from primary to university), support from Friends and Seniors/ Juniors increased, while support from Parents decreased. Fourth, for the types of social support, the most frequent responses were related to Emotional Support, followed by None, Advice, Supporter Directly Solved Problem, and Talked with Me. The highest frequencies of responses were found for Emotional Support among all groups. As the groups aged (from primary to university), Advice increased while Supporter Directly Solved Problem decreased.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.52-62
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms and coping strategies on the health-related quality of life in elementary and secondary schools female teachers. Methods: 140 female teachers in C province were recruited using a correlational study design. The measurements used were the PMS symptoms scale, the PMS coping scale and the Korean version of health-related quality of life scale. Results: The higher quality of life were predicted by the lower PMS symptoms, the higher PMS coping, the better the quality of sleep, the lower the job and life stress, and the lower work disturbance due to the PMS symptoms. These variables explained 53% of the total variance. Conclusions: For better female teachers' health-related quality of life, health care programs for managing the PMS symptoms need to be developed by considering those identified variables. For health education practice, school health teachers need to distribute health educational materials for female teachers and to provide small-group health counselling services for PMS self care.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of the study >was to examine the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) and to identify the relationship between work-related psychosocial and acculturative factors and WMSDs among Korean-Chinese workers living in Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 195 Korean-Chinese workers who have worked full-time for the past 6 months. A structured questionnaire, including measures for musculoskeletal symptoms, physical demand, work-related psychosocial(job demand, job control, interpersonal conflict), acculturative (acculturation strategy and acculturative stress), and personal factors, was used. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were conducted using the SPSS WIN 17.0. Results: The prevalence of WMSDs was 64.1%. In comparison to Korean workers, job demand of this group was lower while both interpersonal conflict and lack of job control were higher among them. Integration was the most commonly used acculturation strategy and mean scores of acculturative stress were below the median. Acculturative stress was positively correlated with integration and assimilation while negatively correlated with separation and marginalization. Interpersonal conflict and integration appeared to be related to WMSDs among male and female Korean-Chinese workers, respectively. Conclusion: The WMSD interventions need to be planned in consideration of different influences of work-related psychosocial and acculturative factors on WMSDs by gender.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.5-15
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• 2009

Purpose : This study was to examine the secondary traumatic stress(STS) and related factors of emergency medical technicians. Methods : This study was conducted among 190 emergency medical technicians, over the age of 25, with the 1st or 2nd grade qualification, who serve at fire stations in U and P city of Korea. The collected data for this study was analyzed using SPSS 12.0. Result : The average character type of A-type personality technicians was 43.25 points and the average of B-type personality technicians was 37.82 points. It suggested that the former was higher than the latter. State anxiety did not show statistically significant difference between A-Type group and B-Type group with the score of 48.51 for A-Type and 47.91 for B-Type. Physical symptoms showed statistically significant difference between the two groups with the higher score of 28.45 for A-type group than that of 28.13 for B-Type group. The level of STS related to the volunteers' job characteristics was found to be low when the volunteers were satisfied with their job and didn't want to transfer to another division. Those on duty who had slept more than seven hours that day had the highest points. The number of points was highest when the frequency for the onset of trauma was between 20~30 times. Furthermore it was found that for most technicians, 71.05%, the period of symptoms lasted for a few weeks at most, and this was where the STS was the lowest, whereas on the other hand the highest STS occurred when the symptoms lasted for a period of up to six months. The findings showed significant correlations with a relation of r=.24 between STS and level of anxiety and r=.45 between STS and physical symptoms. However, no significant correlation was found between the level of anxiety and physical symptoms. Conclusion : The more emergency medical technicians are exposed to accidents, the more serious the STS are. Those with an A-type personality are especially prone to have higher STS. The higher the STS level is, the higher the level of physical states and anxiety is.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1781-1791
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• 2013

The present study was intended to measure the level of psychosocial stress and fatigue symptom according to the various characteristics such as sociodemographic, health-related, job-related, job stress factors, and psychosocial factors among nurses working at ward and operating room in university hospitals, and to reveal the relation between these factors and psychosocial stress and fatigue symptom. The self-administered questionnaires were given to 220 nurses working at ward, and 147 nurses working at operating room in 4 participating hospitals located in Daejeon City during the period from July 1st to Aug 31st, 2012. As a results, the factors related to the psychosocial stress of nurses working at ward were age, subjective health status, job career, satisfaction of work, fit to the job, job demand, job control, coworker support, self-esteem, locus of control, type A behavior pattern. In operating room, there were age, sleep hours, subjective health status, job career, physical burden of work, satisfaction of work, fit to the job, consider quitting the job, job demand, job control, type A behavior pattern. The factors related to the fatigue symptoms of nurses working at ward were age, leisure time, subjective health status, satisfaction of work, consider quitting the job, job demand, locus of control, type A behavior pattern. In operating room, there were age, subjective health status, physical burden of work, supervisor support, coworker support, locus of control. Based on the study results, we suggest that the factors related to psychosocial stress and fatigue symptom of nurses were different from working station. We need development and application of programs to keep under management psychosocial stress and fatigue symptom.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.149-167
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• 1999

This study was designed and carried out to investigate the effect of Assertiveness Training on the stress response and assertive behavior of emergency room nurses from September 22, to December 21. 1997. The subjects were 45 emergency room nurses of three general hospitals of Korea University Medical Center; 25 assigned for the experimental and 20 for the control group. The Assertive Training Program was composed of cognitive training, behavioral training and progressive muscle relaxation. The subjects of the experimental group carried out the 15-minute progressive muscle relaxation according to recorded-tape once a day for 6 weeks. The cognitive and the behavioural training were conducted by the investigator for 5-8 subjects at a time for 9 series, at an interval of 4-5 days. Post-measurement were administered to all sujects in two groups three weeks after the last session. The level of general stress (Cline, 1992), job stress (Kim & Koo, 1984), physiological response to stress (cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine), symptoms of stress (Lee, 1984) and assertive behavior (Kim, 1982) were measured before the first and after the last experiments. Data were analysed by x2, t, paired t, Wilcoxon signed rank tests Wilcoxon rank sums tests. The results are as follows : 1. The level of general stress of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group, however, no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.234) was revealed. 2. A significant reduction of job stress was revealed in the experimental group (P=0.017). 1) A significant reduction of interpersonal conflicts in the experimental group was revealed (P=0.018). 3. The physiological stress-response were analyzed as follows : 1) A decrease of Cortisol in both the experimental and the control groups was noticed, however, the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P=0.991). Pre-and post-measurement of the level of Corti sol revealed that a notable decrease in the experimental group and an increase in the control group with no significant difference in the day-day subjects (P=0.765), a significant decrease was noted on the level of Cortisol of the experimental group in the night-night nurses (P=0.036). 2) An increase of Epinephrine in both groups was noticed, however, a difference was not statistically significant between the two groups (P=0.082). Pre-and post-measurement of the level of Epinephrine revealed that a notable decrease in the experimental group and an increase in the control group with no significant difference in the day-day subjects (P=0.136). increases were noted on the level of Epinephrinel of both groups in the night-night nurses (P=0.136), 3) The level of Norepinephrine of the experimental group was significantly decreased (P=0.020). Pre-and post-measurement of the level of Norepinephrine revealed that a notable decrease in the experimental group and an increase in the control group with no significant difference in the day-day subjects (P=0.073). a significant decrease was noted on the level of Norepinephrine of the experimental group in the night-night nurses (P=0.036), 4. Symptoms of stress were reduced in both groups, with no significant differences between the groups (P=0.127). 1) The physical stress symptoms were reduced in both groups, with no significant difference (P=0.386), 2) The cognitive-behavioral stress symptoms were significantly reduced in the experimental group (P=0.037). 3) The emotional stress symptoms were reduced in both groups with no significant difference between the groups (P=0.110). 5. The assertive behavior was significantly increased in the experimental group (P=0.000). This study signified the Assertiveness Training as an effective mean of self intervention for the reduction of stress of nurses assigned to emergency rooms.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.71-79
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify the observable symptoms of musculoskeletal disease from electronic components manufacturing workers who involved in many repetitive tasks and to provide the basic data for the prevention and management. The survey was conducted on 721 people from 15 April, 2013 to 17 May, 2013 by self­recording type. The results of the study are as follows. First, symptom complaints based on different body parts are in following order, waist was 12.9%, shoulder was 10.5%, neck was 7.4%, hand/wrist/finger was 7.4%, leg/foot was 4.4%, arm/elbow was 2.8%, and 21.9% of the respondents showed symptoms in more than one body part. Sex, age, marital status, work experience, work intensity, and past accident experience were statistically significant. Second, in the job stress evaluation, all male and female workers were below the median of Korean workers in all of 8 categories. the higher the scores for lack of job autonomy, the higher the symptom complaints of musculoskeletal disease. In the case of patients complain observable symptoms of musculorskeletal disease, they should receive proper outpatient treatment, various programs such as stretching by body parts, setting up a desirable working posture, switching to cyclical work, should b developed as much as possible.