• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 2012

Importance of the work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) has been increasing in the hospital industry such as health care industry and financial industry. This study investigated in order to identify the factors like general, occupational and ergonomically characteristics of the subjects related to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of physical therapists (PTs). Ergonomic tools of rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) were used for evaluation workload of the tasks. Prevalence of MSDs were 13 PTs (26.0%) for neck, 31 PTs (62.0%) for shoulder, 9 PTs (18.0%) for arm/elbow, 27 PTs (54.0%) for hand/wrist, 28 PTs (56.0%) for back, 14 PTs (28.0%) for leg/foot. The analysis of the rate of the pain intensity showed that 53.5% subjects experience moderate pain and 14.0% subjects experience severe pain. Factors which were general characteristics, for example, height, ergonomically characteristics such as 'Posture Score A' were related musculoskeletal subjective symptoms in logistic analysis (p<.05). Among physical therapists, action level of RULA were action level 2 (6.0%), action level 3 (52.0%), action level 4 (42.0%). Physical therapists were estimated one of the highest risk factor in this study. This study suggested that the need of preventive education and program for PTs (physical therapists). Comprehensive and systematic management plans should be established to include both ergonomic and sociopsychological aspects.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.136-147
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate work-related risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in various departments and tasks at an oriental medicine hospital. Methods: 269 hospital workers were selected for the study. The questionnaire survey included general characteristics, work-related characteristics and MSDs. Cross-tabulation analysis, multiple logistic regression, adjusted for age, work time, job demand and workload, were used to evaluate the effects of work-related factors on MSDs. Results: There were differences in MSDs depending on gender, age, occupation, and work-related factors. Prevalence rates of MSDs were 23.79% shoulder, 14.13% back, 10.41% neck. Risk factors for MSDs was packaging of drugs, transfer, and exercise therapy of physical therapist. Shoulder pain was significantly influenced by using power tools, over-reaching, and job demand while back pain was significantly influenced by weight-lifting operations and keyboard typing. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that consideration of MSDs characteristics of workers in oriental medicine hospital is necessary to change unsuitable work environments and educate on preventing MSDs.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 1997

For the purpose of investigating the subjective symptom of industrial fatigue, a questionnaire survey was carried out on 282 labor workers and 189 managerial workers who were employed at the manufacture of electronic products in two small scale industries. Checklist of industrial fatigue was composed of physical symptoms(10 items), mental symptoms(10 items), and sensory neurotic symptoms(10 items). The results were as follows : 1. Complain rate of fatigue was the highest in "eye strain" of physical symptom, "feel anxious about things" of mental symptom, and "feel stiffness in the neck or the shoulders" of sensory neurotic symptom in labor workers and managerial workers. 2. Managerial workers demonstrated II dominant type (mental or night work type), while labor workers demonstrated I dominant type of fatigue (general type). 3. Mean weighted score of fatigue complaints in labor workers (23.16) was significantly higher than that in managerial workers (20.34). 4. Mean weighted scores of fatigue complaints in male, 5~9 years of work duration, married, 4~5 hours of sleeping time, graduation of high school and college, and large of workload were significantly higher in labor workers than in managerial workers. 5. In poor work condition with temperature, ventilation, illumination and noise, the average weighted score was significantly higher in labor workers than in managerial workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.187-192
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• 2020

Background: This study investigated the relationship between verbal aggression against school teachers and upper extremity (neck, shoulder, upper limb, and/or upper back) musculoskeletal pain. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 525 elementary school teachers from Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Northeast Brazil. Results: The prevalence of upper extremity musculoskeletal pain among teachers who reported verbal aggression in the past six months (67.7%) was higher than that among those who did not report verbal aggression (51.7%): (prevalence ratio = 1.21; 95% confidence interval = 1.04-1.40). The prevalence of upper extremity musculoskeletal pain was associated with verbal aggression, sex, and common mental disorders, controlled by skin color, age, monthly income, teachers' education, years working as a teacher, workload, and obesity. Furthermore, the measure of the association between verbal aggression and upper extremity musculoskeletal pain was modified by sex and common mental disorders, considered altogether. Teachers who suffered verbal aggression, of the feminine sex, and also having common mental disorders reported high prevalence (85.4%) of upper extremity musculoskeletal pain. Conclusion: The association between verbal violence in the school and complaints of upper extremity musculoskeletal pain was strong and modified by teachers' sex and common mental disorders.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2022

Brain computed tomography (CT) is useful for brain lesion diagnosis, such as brain hemorrhage, due to non-invasive methodology, 3-dimensional image provision, low radiation dose. However, there has been numerous misdiagnosis owing to a lack of radiologist and heavy workload. Recently, object detection technologies based on artificial intelligence have been developed in order to overcome the limitations of traditional diagnosis. In this study, the applicability of a deep learning-based YOLOv5s model was evaluated for brain hemorrhage detection using brain CT images. Also, the effect of hyperparameters in the trained YOLOv5s model was analyzed. The YOLOv5s model consisted of backbone, neck and output modules. The trained model was able to detect a region of brain hemorrhage and provide the information of the region. The YOLOv5s model was trained with various activation functions, optimizer functions, loss functions and epochs, and the performance of the trained model was evaluated in terms of brain hemorrhage detection accuracy and training time. The results showed that the trained YOLOv5s model is able to provide a bounding box for a region of brain hemorrhage and the accuracy of the corresponding box. The performance of the YOLOv5s model was improved by using the mish activation function, the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) optimizer function and the completed intersection over union (CIoU) loss function. Also, the accuracy and training time of the YOLOv5s model increased with the number of epochs. Therefore, the YOLOv5s model is suitable for brain hemorrhage detection using brain CT images, and the performance of the model can be maximized by using appropriate hyperparameters.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.216-223
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• 2018

Background: Many studies have reported negative psychological or physical effects of emotional labor. Relationship between work-related musculoskeletal disorder and psychosocial factors has been reported. To manage organizational and psychosocial factors of musculoskeletal disorder with work place intervention among emotional laborers, the factors contributing to musculoskeletal pain must be identified and clarified. Methods: Data from the fourth Korean Working Conditions Survey was analyzed. Based on the questionnaire, we selected emotional laborers and included 3,979 participants, excluding participants whose variables were of interest to the researcher. Weight variable was applied. The association with musculoskeletal pain and psychosocial factors, such as workload, monotonous work, job control, social support, and job satisfaction, was investigated. Results: Univariate analysis demonstrated that there was a statistically significant relationship between social support, job satisfaction, and musculoskeletal pain. In multivariate analysis, job satisfaction showed a strong correlation with musculoskeletal pain at all sites. Social support was significantly associated with backache. Monotonous work seemed to reduce the pain in the neck and/or upper limbs. Job control and work intensity were not significantly associated with musculoskeletal pain. Conclusion: In this study, job satisfaction was significantly associated with musculoskeletal pain, and social support among the social psychological stressors could reduce musculoskeletal pain. However, unlike previously known, the presence of monotonous work resulted in reduced musculoskeletal pain. The results of this study will help to establish the direction of improvement of atmosphere in the workplace to prevent the musculoskeletal pain of emotional laborers.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.571-576
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate work related diseases in Korean firefighters and to prepare the preventive measure for health management for the firefighters. Structured self-reported questionnaire was distributed to the firefighters. The result revealed that 37.7% of fire fighters had chronic diseases and 12.3% had chronic low back pains. The affected parts included lumbar region(41.5%), shoulder(33.0%), and neck(23.6%). The affected parts caused physical pain and work discomfort for more than a month. A total of 54.1% firefighters visited to the hospital within a year. This results suggest that it is necessary to develop the health promotion program for the prevention of musculoskeletal disease and regular health checkup for the acute disorders caused by workload.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.225-229
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• 2021

Background: The socioeconomic burden of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is significant, and kitchen work is a high-risk occupation for MSDs due to the intensive manual workload and repetitive movements that are involved. However, there are very few studies on MSDs and rest breaks as a workplace intervention among kitchen workers. This study examined the relationship between insufficient rest breaks and increased MSD risk among Korean kitchen workers. Methods: Sociodemographic and occupational factors of 1,909 kitchen workers were collected from the 3rd-4th Korean Working Conditions Survey data. Five items on rest breaks at work were categorized into two groups, "sufficient" and "insufficient." The number of MSDs and work-related MSDs (WMSDs), an outcome variable, was obtained from the sum of MSDs/WMSDs in three anatomical sites (back, neck, and upper limb, lower limb). The association between rest breaks and MSDs was estimated using zeroinflated negative binomial analyses, with adjustments for age, education level, and weekly working hours, and the analyses were stratified by sex. Results: After adjustment, significant associations were found between insufficient rest breaks and an increased risk of MSDs (odds ratio [OR] 1.68 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-2.54) and WMSDs (OR 1.40 95% CI 1.01-1.96) among female kitchen workers. Insufficient rest breaks were significantly associated with MSDs in female kitchen workers in all three anatomical sites. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for rest breaks as a workplace intervention for preventing MSDs in kitchen workers. Further studies to reveal the causality of this relationship are required.