• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.233-239
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• 2015

Background: The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), which is based on the Demand-Control-Support model, is designed to measure the psychosocial characteristics of the respondent's work, and has been identified to predict health and psychological outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of this instrument and the subsequent adaptation of its scales to the population of Greek health workers. Methods: The Greek version of the JCQ was developed by using forward- and back-translation in accordance with the JCQ policy. The reliability and validity of the measure were investigated in a sample of health workers working in a hospital in Athens, Greece. The internal consistency of the scales was examined based on Cronbach ${\alpha}$ coefficients, and the validity was evaluated subjecting the items of the three main scales of the JCQ (decision latitude, psychological job demands, and social support) to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The reliability of the scales was found to be acceptable for all the scales, except for the skill discretion subscale. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a slightly modified version of the original construct including several items to more than one factor. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the Greek JCQ is reliable and valid for investigating psychosocial job characteristics among Greek health workers.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-29
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• 2005

This study examined the antecedents of psychological empowerment at hospital organizations, and also examined their differential effects among occupational groups within hospitals: doctors, nurses, engineers, and administrative workers. Various variables for multi-level factors were examined as antecedents: tenure, income, work centrality, and career goal as personal factors, job variety, job clarity, job significance, and job fitness as job factors, and security, reward justice, and organizational support as organizational factors. Data were collected from 8 national university hospitals, and 1,289 data were used for final analysis. For the whole groups, all antecedents except reward justice had significant effects on, and explained large amount of variance of empowerment. Results from the analysis for each occupational group showed that income, career goal, and job significance had significant effects on empowerment at all occupational groups, while reward justice had not at any groups. The effects of other variables depended on occupational groups. 1bis study found some important antecedents of empowerment which have been less considered in previous research: career goal, work centrality, security, and organizational support. The finding that differential effects of antecedents on empowerment by occupational groups suggests that group characteristics should be considered for studying empowerment. In this study, for example, personal factors rather than both job factors and organizational factors were more effective for empowerment in the engineering group whose job is relatively simple and clear, while job factors were most effective in other groups. The differential effects of antecedents on empowerment by occupational groups also have practical implications for improvement of empowerment at hospitals. For empowerment, personnel management efforts would be more required for administrative workers than other occupational groups, because they perceived least job clarity, job significance, job fitness among the groups, all of which were found to be important determinants of empowerment for them.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.156-167
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• 1997

In Korea, based on the Revised Law of Occupational Safety and Health a new entity of institution was set up in 1990 to provide occupational health services to SSE in which three sorts of personnel as a team have to be involved. These institutions, in charge of scores to hundreds of workplace area-wide, have been providing occupational health services without payment from employers or employees, and government reimburses through the Occupational Injury Prevention Insurance since 1993. As a service provider, a team is composed of doctors, nurses and industrial hygienists. Undergraduate and postgraduate educations for the SSE occupational health are not specified and the question on the performance of the personnel has been raised. This study was designed to analyze the facilitating factors of and barriers to the performance and its improvement of these personnel. In 1997, the survey was conducted with all 58 institutions. Structured questionnaires were mailed to 200 personnel who were providing the occupational health service for SSE. The response rate was 51.7% for doctors, 58.6% for nurses, and 60.3% for industrial hygienist, respectively. Results are as follows : 1) There is a guideline for occupational service mandated by the government. Under the guideline, the minimum frequency of visiting workplace is assured with six times of doctors, 17 times for nurse and industrial hygienist in a year. There are one doctor for every 200 factories, one nurse and one hygienist for every 100 factories. 2) All respondents have basic qualification for occupational health service. About 16.7%. of doctors are certified in industrial medicine or preventive medicine, and 64.7% of industrial hygienists had first grade certification. Totally 66.7% of personnel have been involved in occupational health for more than one year. 3) As a support system for the performance improvement, 66.3% respond that they have been provided with educational materials, advice related to industrial environment and guidance of MSDS from Korea Industrial Safety Corporation. Most respondents indicate the lack of concern of employers and employees as a main barrier to the improvement of the service. Also they are in the need of the training opportunity more focused on SSE. The Governments policy for SSE is a principal facilitating factor. Training program focused on SSE situation, manpower, technical support, etc. are areas to be improved to have a better occupational health service for SSE in Korea.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.471-478
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• 2021

Background: Employment standards (ES) include having a regular payday, regular breaks, the right to paid sick or vacation time, and paid wages. Inadequate ES contribute to the labour market vulnerability of workers; however, they are not typically considered to be risk factors for workplace injury. In a sample of Canadian workers, we examine the risk of injury associated with inadequate ES, independent of, and combined with inadequate workplace protections from workplace hazards. Methods: Data from 2,803 adults working 15 hours or more/week in workplaces with at least five employees were analysed. We explored associations between exposure to workplace hazards with inadequate protections [termed occupational health and safety (OHS) vulnerability] and inadequate ES on workplace injury (physical or mental injury; injury requiring time off). Additive interaction models were used to examine the independent and combined effects of these exposures. Results: Occupational health and safety vulnerability and inadequate ES were independently associated with increased injury outcomes. Adjusted models showed an additive relationship for all injury outcomes between OHS vulnerability and inadequate ES. Statistically significant superadditive relationships were observed for physical injury risk with policy and procedure vulnerability plus inadequate ES [synergy index (S) 1.50, 95% CI: 1.13-2.00] and for overall OHS vulnerability plus inadequate ES (S 1.53, 95% CI: 1.16-2.02), suggesting a combined effect greater than independent effects. Conclusion: Occupational health and safety vulnerability and inadequate ES are independently associated with workplace injury. For certain injury outcomes, the combined effect of OHS vulnerability and inadequate ES is greater than the independent effects of each individual exposure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 2020

Objectives: The most important occupational health activity is work environment measurement(WEM) along with the health examination. The preventive function of the WEM system could be achieved on the assumption that all subjected workplaces are performing correctly the WEM. To achieve properly the original purpose of WEM, we suggested a policy for subjected workplaces that they should register whether subjected or not. Methods: We made registration draft through reviewing laws, reports and thesis for WEM. And we conducted Focus Group Interview for industrial health experts using structured questionnaire about the registration. Results: There were 412 occupational deaths from 2013 to 2017. And it was found that only 130(31.6%) workplaces which involved in these occupational deaths had conducted the WEM. In order to operate the WEM system with effect, the subjected workplaces should register the subject status. Such registration must be completed at the stage of industrial accident insurance enrollment. Conclusions: Conducting WEM is the first step to prevent intoxication accident in workpalces. To operate properly WEM we should correctly understand subjected workplaces. So it is needed for all subjected workplaces to register whether they are subjected or not.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.53-85
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• 2020

We examine how certain occupational physical requirements affect labor transitions of disabled workers by exploiting a unique feature of South Korean Disability Insurance (DI), where award rules are based solely on an applicant's medical condition, independent of his previous occupations. We estimate the labor market response to a health shock by constructing a physical intensity measure from O^⁎NET and applying it to longitudinal South Korean household panel data. Our results suggest that health shocks initially lead to a 14 to 20 percent drop in employment and that this effect is greater for workers who previously held physically demanding occupations. Those who remain part of the labor market exhibit higher occupational mobility toward less physically demanding jobs. These findings imply that the magnitudes of income risks associated with health shocks vary depending on occupational and skill characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.78-82
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• 2005

Fishermen have higher risk of occupational injuries and disease due to frequent machine usage and direct contact to live biological materials. Moreover, growing elderly workers makes the susceptibility to occupational injuries and disease higher. This study was performed to investigate the occupational safety and health status among fishermen. The interview was carried out at Jumunjin and Geojin ports which were representative port at North East side of Korea. The structured questionnaire were used to interview the fishermen from AM 6:00 to PM 11:00 and total respondent were 97 workers. The results were followed; 7 fishermen of all respondents experienced occupational injuries during their work, 5 fishermen were needed to admission longer than 4 days. The injury types were contusion(4 persons), fracture(1 persons) and amputation(2 persons). The cause of injury might be the lack of caution and the unstability of working condition. These results suggested the ergonomical evaluation of working condition and proper management. But there was limited concern and studies on the policy on occupational safety and health on fishermen. So, further study was required to establish the sound policy of fishermen's occupational safety and health.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.204-213
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• 2015

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between working conditions and smoking among Korean employees using nationally representative data. Methods: We analyzed data from the Third Korean Working Conditions Survey to identify associations between various working conditions and smoking. We calculated the smoking prevalence depending on individual characteristics and working conditions. Also, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between working conditions and smoking. Results: Company size, occupation type, employment type, working hours, working-time flexibility, and smoking-area policy were related to smoking among male employees, while company size, occupation type, employment type, and smoking-area policy were associated with smoking prevalence among females. Conclusion: Our results indicate that working conditions influence smoking prevalence, and the implementation of smoke-free policies is needed to target specific working conditions, including a strict no-smoking-area policy.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2019

Objectives: The Korean Working Conditions Survey(KWCS), which has been conducted five times over the past 13 years, presents a diverse picture of Korean workers across occupations, genders, and age groups. This study summarized the use of KWCS and explored how to make the most of the KWCS by reviewing published peer-reviewed journal articles employing the KWCS data. Methods: Articles were selected in accordance with PRISMA protocol for a systematic literature review. A total of 155 articles were included in this review. Results: The number of articles utilizing KWCS data has been increasing by year. The articles were published in 40 Korean journals and 16 international journals. The journals were mainly in the field of occupational safety and health and sociology. Keywords of mental health, working conditions survey, workforce, health, exposure to risk factor, and working time were mainly highlighted. The articles were grouped by the goals of the KWCS as stated in the survey. The majority of published articles(129 articles, 83%) aimed to 'analyze relationships between different aspects of working conditions'. Fifteen articles(10%) were intended to 'identify groups at risk and issues of concern.' The number of articles to 'monitor trends' were limited. Conclusions: The findings underline the limited utilization of the KWCS. Attention to the range and scope of utilization of KWCS should be developed to address current challenges in occupational health and safety management and policy issues.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2011

Purpose: This study investigates nurses' organizational commitment, internal marketing, and occupational satisfaction depending on their age, martial status, clinical experience and income. Methods: The subjects of this study were 350 nurses from six hospitals in Jeolla-do. The t-tests were used to analyze the differences in internal marketing, occupational satisfaction, and organizational commitment depending on their age, marital status, career, and income. The relationships among internal marketing, occupational satisfaction, and organizational commitment were analyzed by the path analysis. Results: The results of this study showed that organizational commitment was correlated with age, clinical experiences, and income, but not significantly associated with martial status. Education and training policy, benefit system, and fairness of the internal marketing were influencing factors on occupational satisfaction. These factors were correlated with organizational commitment through occupational satisfaction. Conclusion: This study addressed the relationships among nurses' internal marketing, occupational satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Based on the results, it is suggested that hospital organizations introduce more diverse incentive policies to enhance nurses' occupational satisfaction and organizational commitment.