• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.69-74
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• 2010

It is the law that injured workers must be paid compensation through occupational health and safety insurance. But sometimes, construction companies cover the compensation for an accident by themselves in order to conceal the fact of an accident. The reason for this concealment is that they wish to get a high mark in PQ. From the point of view of a subcontractor, another reason is to avoid any negative consequences in bids. According to interviewees, some workers, knowing the vulnerability of their employers in this area, demand unreasonable levels of compensation. This study examined the circumstances, influences and participants' perception of accidents on construction sites.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.621-626
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• 2015

Background: Smokefree laws aim to protect employees and the public from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Waterpipe premises have significantly increased in number in the last decade, with anecdotal reports of poor compliance with the smokefree law. The literature is bereft of information pertaining to waterpipe premise employees. This study aimed to opportunistically gather knowledge about the occupational health hazards associated with working in waterpipe premises in London, England. Materials and Methods: Employees from seven convenience-sampled, smokefree-compliant waterpipe premises in London were observed for occupational activities. Opportunistic carbon monoxide (CO) measurements were made among those with whom a rapport had developed. Observations were thematically coded and analysed. Results: Occupational hazards mainly included environmental smoke exposure. Waterpipe-serving employees were required to draw several puffs soon after igniting the coals, thereby providing quality assurance of the product. Median CO levels were 27.5ppm (range 21-55ppm) among these employees. Self-reported employee health was poor, with some suggestion that working patterns and smoke exposure was a contributory factor. Conclusions: The smokefree law in England does not appear to protect waterpipe premise employees from high levels of CO. Continued concerns surrounding chronic smoke exposure may contribute to poor self-reported physical and mental wellbeing.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.237-248
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the extent of income-related inequity in health care utilization and expenditures to compare the extent in 2005 and 2010 in Korea. Methods: We employed the concentration indices and the horizontal inequity index proposed by Wagstaff and van Doorslaer based on one- and two-part models. This study was conducted using data from the 2005 and 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We examined health care utilization and expenditures for different types of health care providers, including health centers, physician clinics, hospitals, general hospitals, dental care, and licensed traditional medical practitioners. Results: The results show the equitable distribution of overall health care utilization with pro-poor tendencies and modest pro-rich inequity in the amount of medical expenditures in 2010. For the decomposition analysis, non-need variables such as income, education, private insurance, and occupational status have contributed considerably to pro-rich inequality in health care over the period between 2005 and 2010. Conclusions: We found that health care utilization in Korea in 2010 was fairly equitable, but the poor still have some barriers to accessing primary care and continuing to receive medical care.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.219-227
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• 2014

Background: Current trends in Korea population aging with advances in public health and clinical medicine foretell rises in the prevalence of not only chronic diseases but also patients with multimorbidity. One important aspect in analyzing multimorbidity is to define the list of chronic diseases included when calculating multimorbidity index. The objective of this study is to describing the effect of multimorbidity on healthcare cost in Korea using US Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH) list. Methods: We analyzed the Korea Health Panel Data representing non-institutionalized Korean adult populations aged 20 and more. We calculated multimorbidity index based on OASH list and estimated the prevalence and healthcare cost for each OASH chronic disease. Results: In 2011, 15.2 million (39.6%) Koreans aged 20 and more were living with chronic condition. The health care cost due to chronic diseases, accounted for 80.2% of the overall healthcare costs and the prevalence of chronic conditions, the prevalence of multimorbidity and healthcare cost increased with ages. In the analysis using OASH list, 40% of the adult population over the age of 20 and 66.7% of the population over the age of 65 was affected with multimorbidity. In most of diseases in OASH list, prevalence of mulitmorbidity was high and healthcare cost increased with multimorbidity. Conclusion: OASH chronic disease list that accounts for 72.4% of prevalence and 86.7% of healthcare cost of persons with chronic conditions in Korea. OASH chronic disease list would be a useful and representative indicator for studying multimorbidity.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.259-265
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• 2018

This study investigates convergent factors associated with occupational stress among General Hospital Administrative Staff(GHAS). The survey was administered to 221 staffs from 11 general hospitals located in J city from November 1st, 2016 to January 31st, 2017, using structured self-administered questionaries without respondents' personal information. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis shows the following results. The occupational stress of respondents turned out to be significantly higher in following groups: a group in which organizational justice-distributive is lower, a group in which self-esteem is lower, a group in which self-efficacy is lower. The results show explanatory power of 39.5%. The results of the study indicate that the efforts, to increase organizational justice-distributive, to increase self-esteem, to increase self- efficacy, are required to decrease the occupational stress among GHAS. These results are expected to be utilized for organizational and personnel management to reduce occupational stress in GHAS. In the following study, the research of additional factors and the analysis of structural equation model about the occupational stress among GHAS will be needed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.265-271
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• 2008

Objectives: This study was conducted to estimate the cumulative incidence rate (CIR) of unintentional injuries in Korean daily life and to describe the pattern of unintentional injuries. Methods: The study population was the people who used the National Health Insurance because of injuries (ICD code: S00$\sim$T98) during 2006. The stratified sample according to gender, age and the severity of injury (NISS, New Injury Severity Score) was randomly selected. The questions on the questionnaire were developed as a reference for an international classification tool (ICECI, International Classification of External Causes of Injury). The questions included the locations of injury, the mechanisms of injury and the results of injury. Moreover, we used age, gender, region and income variables for analysis. Results: The CIR of unintentional injuries that occurred in daily life for 1 year per 100,000 persons was 17,606, and the CIR of severe injuries was 286. Many injuries were occurred at home (29.6%), public places (19.0%), school (13.7%) and near home (12.0%). The major mechanisms of injuries were slipping (48.8%), contact (14.0%), physical over-exertion (13.8%), and fall (6.6%). Infants and old aged people were vulnerable to injuries, and those who lived rural area and who were in a low income level were vulnerable too. Conclusions: We signified the risk groups and risk settings of unintentional injuries in Korean daily life. These results could contribute to establishing strategies for injury prevention and implementing these strategies.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.27-37
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• 2015

Objectives: As the increasing of the length of the lifespan, more recent policy interest are concerned with how many years of life are lived without functional disability or activity limitation. We investigated the relationship between deprivation and activity limitation at the 251 local authority level. Methods: The data were derived from the 2010 Census 10% sample data. Crude and age-standardized activity limitation rates by gender at the ages of 50 or over and deprivation index were calculated. Mapping and multiple linear regression analysis were applied to explore relationship between area activity limitation and area deprivation. Results: There were considerable differences in activity limitation rate across the 251 local authorities. Age-standardized activity limitation rate in both male and female were strongly associated with the level of area deprivation. Especially, low social class, male unemployment, or non-apartment residents at the local level were strong positive association with local authorities' age-standardized activity limitation. Conclusion: More policy attention is needed for tackling regional inequality in activity limitation among older adults.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.57-66
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify correlations among emotional labor, servant leadership, and communication competence in hospital nurses. Methods: A self-administrated survey was conducted with a convenient sample of 210 nurses, using a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using SPSS/WIN 20.0 program. Results: The mean emotional labor score was $3.4{\pm}0.60$. There was very strong and negative correlation between emotional labor and servant leadership (r=-.896, p<.001). Communication competence was positively correlated with servant leadership (r=.298, p<.001) and moderately and negatively correlated with both frequency of emotional labor (r=-.166, p=.016) and the degree of attention to emotional expression (r=-.143, p=.039). Conclusion: As a strategy to reduce emotional labor of hospital nurses, the findings suggest training programs for nurses to enhance servant leadership and communication competence.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.417-424
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• 2015

The research of occupational injury for safety and health is a comparatively recent occurrence. As labor activities took place regarding to employee concerns in industrial uprising, human resources health was tried to enhanced as a labor safety subject. Noticing that traditional statistics approach has limitations in learning future forecasting and major factors causing occupational injuries in each industry, Korean Government initiated a quantitative systematic simulation model project to analyze how the annual injury rate has been dropped and stays in a level for recent years. From this motivation and the project, system dynamics models have been developed to explain the mechanisms for reducing annual injury rate, and the mechanisms quantitatively. The main cause effects for the reduction of annual injury rate were due to the government driven investment on safety facilities. In overall viewpoint the gain achievable from these efforts has been reached a saturated level. However, it could reduce the annual injury rate if you chose the industry and size carefully. The model for forecasting, major injury factors, safety budget and allocation are introduced and analyzed, and Analyzing occupational injury related factors can also reduce employee injury and disease related costs, including medical care, quit, and disability assistance costs.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2017

Purpose: This study identified the prevalence of depressive symptoms and explored correlates of depressive symptoms among Korean women care-workers caring older adults living in community. Methods: A total of 465 participants were recruited for the study. Depressive symptoms was measured by the CES-D10 and distress was assessed using a single question given 5 Likert scale. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms and distress among care-workers were 32.5% and 32.0% respectively. Work environment safety, violence exposure experience, work-family conflict, weekly care work time, and poor health status were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Only violence exposure experience and poor health status were associated with distress. Conclusion: Our findings suggest more attention on mental health of care-workers and their risky work condition such as violence.