• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.229-235
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• 2015

Objectives: We checked hepatitis A virus antibody(anti-HAV IgG) and hepatitis B virus antibody(HBsAb) in three large companies. The result could be a guideline to establish proper health policy for Hepatitis A and B virus preventive plan in company. Methods: We investigated the seroprevalence of anti-HAV IgG and HBsAb, and demographic characteristics of employee volunteer in three companies in southern area of Korea. Company was divided three according to health policy for hepatitis A and B. Results: The seroprevalence rate of anti-HAV IgG in company A, B, and C was 53.6%, 25.8%, and 17.7%(P<0.001), respectively. The seroprevalence rate of HBsAb in workplace A, B, and C was 79.7%, 82.4%, and 70.9%(P<0.001), respectively. Anti-HAV IgG showed more considerable difference among the companies. Conclusions: The results confirmed that low rate of IgG anti-HAV and HBsAb, particularly in the company that had low level of hepatitis education and vaccination program. This study was important for establishing hepatitis education policies, to prevent and control outbreaks in companies.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.209-215
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• 2012

Objectives: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers related to occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens were assessed in a tertiary-care hospital in Middle East. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken using a self-administered questionnaire based on 3 paired (infectivity known vs. not known-suspected) case studies. Only 17 out of 230 respondents had an exposure in the 12 months prior to the survey and of these, only 2 had complied fully with the hospital's exposure reporting policy. Results: In the paired case studies, the theoretical responses of participating health professionals showed a greater preference for initiating self-directed treatment with antivirals or immunisation rather than complying with the hospital protocol, when the patient was known to be infected. The differences in practice when exposed to a patient with suspected blood pathogens compared to patient known to be infected was statistically significant (p < 0.001) in all 3 paired cases. Failure to test an infected patient's blood meant that an adequate risk assessment and appropriate secondary prevention could not be performed, and reflected the unwillingness to report the occupational exposure. Conclusion: Therefore, the study demonstrated that healthcare providers opted to treat themselves when exposed to patient with infectious disease, rather than comply with the hospital reporting and assessment protocol.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.476-482
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• 2023

Introduction: There is a growing global interest in the issue of precarious employment. We aimed to analyze the characteristics and socio-demographic distribution of precarious employment using a summative score approach. Methods: To operationalize precarious employment, we utilized data from the Korean Working Conditions Survey and focused on three distinct dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and a lack of rights and protections. By constructing a summative scale ranging from -16 to 2, with lower scores indicating higher precariousness, we measured employment precariousness among Korean wage workers. To compare employment precariousness according to survey participant characteristics, we employed the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test. Results: We analyzed a weighted number of 38,432 workers. The overall sample showed a median (Q1, Q3) summative scale score of -3 (-6, -1). The median summative score was lower for women compared to men (men: -2; women: -5; p < 0.001), as well as for young or older workers compared to middle-aged workers (young: -4; middle-aged: -2; older: -5; p < 0.001). Similarly, workers with lower educational levels (middle school or below: -8; high school: -5; college or above: -2; p < 0.001) and non-white collar workers (blue collar: -5; service/sales worker: -6; white collar: -2; p < 0.001) experienced higher levels of employment precariousness. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that certain vulnerable groups, such as women, young or older adults, workers with low educational attainment, and caregiving or low-skilled elementary workers, are disproportionately exposed to high employment precariousness. Active policy interventions are needed to improve the employment quality of vulnerable groups.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 2015

Background: While attention has been paid to physical risks in the work environment and the promotion of individual employee health, mental health protection and promotion have received much less focus. Psychosocial risk management has not yet been fully incorporated in such efforts. This paper presents good practices in promoting mental health in the workplace in line with World Health Organization (WHO) guidance by identifying barriers, opportunities, and the way forward in this area. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 experts who were selected on the basis of their knowledge and expertise in relation to good practice identified tools. Interviewees were asked to evaluate the approaches on the basis of the WHO model for healthy workplaces. Results: The examples of good practice for Workplace Mental Health Promotion (WMHP) are in line with the principles and the five keys of the WHO model. They support the third objective of the WHO comprehensive mental health action plan 2013-2020 for multisectoral implementation of WMHP strategies. Examples of good practice include the engagement of all stakeholders and representatives, science-driven practice, dissemination of good practice, continual improvement, and evaluation. Actions to inform policies/legislation, promote education on psychosocial risks, and provide better evidence were suggested for higher WMHP success. Conclusion: The study identified commonalities in good practice approaches in different countries and stressed the importance of a strong policy and enforcement framework as well as organizational responsibility for WMHP. For progress to be achieved in this area, a holistic and multidisciplinary approach was unanimously suggested as a way to successful implementation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2022

Background: Despite a growing number of investigations exploring the health problems in precarious workers, there is still a paucity of studies investigating workplace violence in workers with multi-party employment arrangements (WMPEAs). This study was aimed at comparing the prevalence of workplace violence between non-WMPEA and WMPEA. Methods: The 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey data were used. The study subjects were employees aged 20-74, with 26,239 non-WMPEA and 1,556 WMPEA. WMPEA included temporary agency workers and workers providing outsourced services. Workplace violence including verbal abuse, unwanted sexual attention, threats, and humiliating behaviors were used as outcome variables. The odds ratios of risk of workplace violence were calculated using multiple logistic regression. Results: The age-standardized prevalence of workplace violence was significantly higher among WMPEA. After adjusting for all covariates, the risk of workplace violence among WMPEA was still significant (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.5-2.2) compared with non-WMPEA. The odds ratio of workplace violence among female WMPEA was 1.99 (95% CI 1.53-2.59), which is higher than that of male WMPEA (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.18-1.96). Conclusion: We found that WMPEA were exposed to higher risk of workplace violence. Discrimination against WMPEA in the working environment and management policy need to be corrected. It is also necessary to identify the risk factors of workplace violence in WMPEA and to make efforts to prevent violence.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-21
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• 1998

The industrial health education is the most fundamental and active area in the industrial health. It has become increasingly recognized as an important component of preventive occupational health programs and is an essential service for improvement of productivity and employee's health. Evaluating the worker's health status is a part of the occupational health promotion policy and is very important to know the efficiency of the occupational health service. In this point, the purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of the industrial health education on worker's health status. This study included a survey of 625 workers at 28 factories in Puchon area form August Z7 to September 30, 1996. The research was carried out through the analysis of the self-administered questionnaires and health examination records. The results were as follows: 1. For demographic characteristics, 66.5% of the respondents were male. The most prevalent age group was 30 - 39years group(30.4%). Those who graduated from high school were 43.5%. The workers whose monthly income ranged from 600,000 to 100,000 won were 40.3%. As for the marital status, 69.4% of the respondents were married. 2. For occupational characteristics, 37.9% of the workers had worked 2 to 5 years in the factories, 69.4% of the respondents worked at the assembly line and the staffs were 27.0%. T26.4% of the respondents worked at hazardous workplace and 71.8% of the workers worked 9 to 10 hours a day. Those who worked during the night were 56.0%. Those who felt much for them workload were 29.9% and were dissatisfied with their working environment and job were 33.6%, 19.1%. 3. The 39.4% of the respondents received the industrial health education and most of them received on the safety and only few on family health. 70.7% out of those who had industrial health education reported it helped their health management.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.7-16
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• 2013

As workplace incidents has been being declining in Korea, there is criticism of the effectiveness of occupational safety policy implementation. It is unknown that which policy target group needs to be targeted to yield effective injuries prevention. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and reveal the policy intervention group with a high priority in terms of industrial incident prevention and the related investment cost. A Policy Priority Model(PPM) is composed of 6 indicators regarding influences of both the incident reduction and the cost reduction. Z-score analyses are used to confirm the high policy priority area or policy target group. Overall, workplace with worker below 50 persons, construction site with the sales of more than a hundred million won, workplace with relatively small percentage of female employees and relatively higher percentage of older worker should be prioritized to reduce workplace injuries. This paper provides an analytic way that can be used to decide the policy priority workplace in order not only to reduce work-related injuries&illnesses and the related investment cost but to further lessen the related societal costs.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.108-120
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• 2002

This study analyzed the managerial efficiency of 11 organizations, the branch centers of a occupational health service organization in Korea, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The DEA is a good method for evaluating health services since it can handle multiple inputs and outputs simultaneously, and also identify the sources and amount of inefficiency. The author approached this study using two efficient models: the monetary value model and the real value model. The DEA method based on the monetary value model included cost factors, while the real value model excluded cost factors. The input variables used were manpower of physicians, medical technicians, nurses, industrial hygienists and administrators; labor, maintenance, and material expenses. The output variables used were the number of medical examinations, workplace evaluations, group health management services and income from each service. The major results were as follows: First, in the monetary value model, 6 out of 11 organizations (54.6%) showed an efficiency score of 1.0, which means that they have been operating in very efficient ways. However, 5 organizations (46.4%) showed themselves to be relatively inefficient. Second, in the real value model, 7 out of 11 organizations (63.4%) showed an efficiency score of 1.0, which means they have been operating efficiently, while 4 organizations (46.4%) showed themselves to be relatively inefficient. Third, the reliability of DEA method were analyzed by comparing the results of the monetary value model and real value model. The results of 8 out of 11 organizations were same in terms of being efficient or not. Thus, the DEA could be a valid application method for occupational health service organizations. Fourth, the organizations that displayed common inefficiency in both the monetary value model and in the real value model 3, 9, and 10, were also considered to be managed inefficiency from expertise opinion. In summary, this study evaluated the efficiency of occupational health service organizations applying the DEA method with different variables, and found that the results of analysis could be valid in terms of both modeling and expert sense. In the future, the DEA method will be used as a useful tool to identify and evaluate the efficiency of occupational health service organizations through more applications and refinements.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.21-26
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• 2017

According to the data of Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, electric shock accidents during recent 11 years exceeded more than 60% in architecture/other and construction work, the countermeasures for safety are required in the harsh environment of a construction site where moving electric machines and equipments are widely used. The establishment of countermeasure for insulation degradation and defect is required, in consideration of increasing trend for accidents caused by defective insulation among low voltage electrical installation each year. The aim of this study is to propose the policy about portable electrical tool standards and/or worker's safety standards for preventing electric shock accidents on safety workings, and is to develop the technology and the safety device to prevent electric shock for accident prevention reduction through experiments. It obtained the followings through this study; statistical data analysis of late about 10 years of electric shock-related industrial accidents analysis and portable electric tools; safety device development of 'device for testing continuous grounding and power shut-down' to prevent electric shock from portable electric tools. Furthermore, developed results and proposal in this study will help to prevent the electric shock accidents from portable electric tools and will be expected the utilization of policy formulation, educational data and field supplement of the safety device, and etc.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Health Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.126-132
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• 2014

Purpose. Because traditional statistics approach had limitations in learning future forecasting and major factors causing occupational injuries in each industry, this paper develops a model forecasting and evaluating occupational injury rate by using a system dynamics model through the analysis of the industry injury statistics and the project for industry injury prevention. Method. The model of this paper consists of 12 total models such as a model of employees, of industrial disaster victims, of injury rate, etc.; In the analysis of firm size, it is classified and developed according to 12 groups on the basis of the number of employees, and in the analysis of industrial classification, it is done according to 10 total business fields such as manufacturing business, construction one, etc. Results. This paper suggests the methodology which forecasts industry injury rate by business field and size on the basis of developed model, and evaluates an industry injury prevention project from various angles. Conclusions. This paper deduced problem through the analysis of an industry injury by business fields and a comparative analysis of foreign cases, and analyzed to affect industry injury prevention by industry. And it also analyzed actual condition of industry injury, and did a difference in the level of safety consciousness according to the general characteristics of workers and occupational safety and health education related characteristics. In result, this paper suggests that analyzing occupational injury related factors, a safety budgetary allocation, and industry injury related factors can reduce illness costs such as employees' injury and medical care, and also assist cost for a disability.