• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.331-339
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• 2016

Background: Occupational risk management is known as a catalyst in generating superior returns for all stakeholders on a sustainable basis. A number of companies in Ghana implemented health and safety measures adopted from international companies to ensure the safety of their employees. However, there exist great threats to employees' safety in these companies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of compliance of Occupational Health and Safety management systems and standards set by international and local legislation in power producing companies in Ghana. Methods: The methodology is conducted by administering questionnaires and in-depth interviews as measuring instruments. A random sampling technique was applied to 60 respondents; only 50 respondents returned their responses. The questionnaire was developed from a literature review and contained questions and items relevant to the initial research problem. A factor analysis was also carried out to investigate the influence of some variables on safety in general. Results: Results showed that the significant factors that influence the safety of employees at the hydroelectric power plant stations are: lack of training and supervision, non-observance of safe work procedures, lack of management commitment, and lack of periodical check on machine operations. The study pointed out the safety loopholes and therefore helped improve the health and safety measures of employees in the selected company by providing effective recommendations. Conclusion: The implementation of the proposed recommendations in this paper, would lead to the prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses of employees as well as property damage and incidents in hydroelectric power plants. The recommendations may equally be considered as benchmark for the Safety and Health Management System with international standards.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.277-286
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• 2014

Purpose: In this study, I am going to figure out Korean workers' actual exposure to risk factors and percentage of the workers who complain of health problems by performing a comparative analysis of the characteristics of the workers and working conditions in Korea and EU. Methods: The data used in this study includes the $1^{st}$ working conditions survey conducted in 2006 in Korea, the $2^{nd}$ working conditions survey in 2010, the $4^{th}$ EU working conditions survey, and the $5^{th}$ EU working conditions survey. I have compared the changes to Korean working conditions and those to EU working conditions in the categories of demographic characteristics, quality of labor, exposure to risk factors, and health problems included in the data. Results: The analysis of the characteristics of the demographic characters of Korean workers shows that aged and female workers register increased labor force participation. The analysis of labor quality shows that Korea has a long working time but with a lower work intensity compared to the countries included in EU working conditions survey. As for risk factors, Korea registers a low level of exposure as compared to countries included in EU working conditions survey and characteristically shows a decreasing exposure to tobacco smoke. The survey shows sharply increasing complaints of muscle pain in the upper and lower limbs. Conclusion: In this study, I have identified vulnerable social groups by using quantified values in a comparison of the working conditions of Korea and those of EU.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.502-516
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• 2023

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate occupational exposure to chemical and health status of foreign workers in Korea. Methods: The data were collected from survey of general characteristics, job-related characteristics, work environment-related characteristics of 180 foreign workers who have been working at manufacturing industries in Korea in 2022. The data were analyzed using Rex. Results: Among the 180 participants, men accounted for more than women by 71.7% (129 people). Most of them are Vietnamese or Filipino and most of them graduated from high school. 116 of all participants are exposed to chemicals at work. The most prevalence rate of subject's health problems were backache (61.0%), headache (53.9%), fatigue (68.0%). Controlling for age, the number of physical health problems experienced in the last year was associated with BMI (r=0.184, p=0.049), and the number of mental health problems experienced in the past year (r=0.056, p<0.001) and all showed significant positive (+) correlations. The number of chemical products handled under age control showed a significant negative (-) correlation with working hours (r=0.207, p=0.027) and BMI (r=0.214, p=0.022) and showed a significant positive (+) correlation. Conclusions: The results of this study provided the latest update on the health status of foreign workers in Korea. It is also the first survey to attempt to assess the exposure of foreign workers to chemicals.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.302-312
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the influencing factors of job stress, self-efficacy, and organizational culture to presenteeism in clinical nurses. Methods: A descriptive correlation research design was used for the this study. The subjects were 245 nurses working at the hospital in S, A and C City, from August $1^{st}$ to October $30^{th}$ 2014. Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, $Scheff{\acute{e}}^{\prime}s$ test, stepwise multiple regression by SPSS 21.0 program. Results: Job impairment indicated a significant positive relationship to job stress (p=.009), health problem (p<.001), and indicated significant negative relationship to self-efficacy (p<.001), innovative-oriented (p<.001), affiliative-oriented (p=.002), task-oriented (p=.026) in organizational culture. Significant factors of influencing to presenteeism were self-efficacy (p<.001, ${\beta}=-.363$), culture of task-oriented (p<.001, ${\beta}=-.248$) in organizational culture, and health problem (p=.002, ${\beta}=.187$). Conclusion: Self-efficacy was defined as a variable to influence on presenteeism, and developing of strategies and program to strengthen self-efficacy and task-oriented of organizational culture in nursing is helpful to reduce the presenteeism of clinical nurses.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.249-254
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• 2021

Introduction: Workplace violence (WPV) is a major occupational and health hazard for nurses. It affects nurses' physical and psychological well-being and impacts health service delivery. We aimed to assess the prevalence and describe the consequences of WPV experienced by nurses working in an emergency department in Kenya. Methods: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among emergency nurses at one of the largest tertiary hospitals in Kenya. We collected data using a structured questionnaire adapted from the 'WPV in the Health Sector, Country Case Studies Research Instruments' questionnaire. We described the prevalence and effects of WPV using frequencies and percentages. Results: Of the 82 participating nurses, 64.6% were female, 57.3% were married and 65.8% were college-educated (65.8%). Participants' mean age was 33.8 years (standard deviation: 6.8 years, range: 23-55). The overall lifetime prevalence of WPV was 81.7% (n = 67, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 71.6%-88.8%) and the 1-year prevalence was 73.2% (n = 63, 95% CI: 66.3-84.8%). The main WPV included verbal abuse, physical violence, and sexual harassment. Most incidents were perpetrated by patients and their relatives. No action was taken in 50% of the incidents, but 57.1% of physical violence incidents were reported to the hospital security and 28.6% to supervisors. Perpetrators of physical violence were verbally warned (42.9%) and reported to the hospital security (28.6%). Conclusion: Workplace violence is a significant problem affecting emergency nurses in Kenya. Hospitals should promote workplace safety with zero-tolerance to violence. Nurses should be sensitised on WPV to mitigate violence and supported when they experience WPV.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.33-48
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• 1998

This paper illustrates the application of Fuzzy Theory and Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) for developing Occupational Stress Index(OSI). The purpose of the OSI development is for future prediction and problem solving of prevailing occupational stress. In developing OSI, the concept of fuzzy set theory was introduced to determine the existence and level of perceived occupational stress instead of actually measuring the strain parameters. The AHP is adopted to collect different weighting factors, since there exist various perceptions and responses to the occupational stress by different individuals. The validation study revealed that the OSI is a reliable predictor of work-related accident and illness and the physiological health of employees. Creating preventive measures, such as early detection of stress, proper placement and promotion of employees, and job enlargement will be possible by using this OSI effectively.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.24-40
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• 2001

This study is to observe the effectiveness of the applied model and to present the improvement plan and directions for development for the case management practical model suitable for the actual condition of Korea Labor Welfare Co. and needs of the industrial injury patients. The concrete purpose of this study is: First, observe the difference of stressor experience and experience degree between the experimental group and the comparative group. Second, observe the difference of stress of the experimental group and the comparative group. Third, find out how the stress affects the support degree and satisfaction degree. Fourth, present the improvement plan of case management model, which can promote the psychosocial rehabilitation of the industrial injury patient based on the research results. The outline of the main research results identified in this study is as follows. The stressors the industrial injury patients perceived are health problems, family matters, the problems concerning hospital recuperation (hospital staff and environmental problems), economical problems, problems of coming back to society, problems with companies, problems with Korea labour Welfare Co. and other problems. And the experience of stressor was prominently lower in experimental group than comparative group in the whole problem, health problem, problems with Korea Labour-Welfare Co. and other problems. The stressor experience degree was conspicuously lower in experimental group in the whole problem experience degree, health problem experience degree, problem with Korea Labour Co. experience degree and other problem experience degree. Besides whether or not the case management is applied is having a prominent affect on the primary factor affecting the stressor experience degree, therefore the patients applied with case management has less stressor than the patient who didn't. The difference of degree of tension experienced by the stressor in both groups, the degree of stress, was not conspicuous in statistics so it shows that the application of case management in this research has not affected the degree of tension. The field which had been the most help was emotional support in help level the experimental group perceived through applying case management about industrial accident patients and recuperation, compensation problem, medical treatment problem, family matters has been helpful in this order. The help level of the whole problem was in higher level than the middle value. The stress factor which affects the case management problem settlement is the whole body of stress. The satisfaction level of help through applying case management was highest in emotional support and family matters, recuperation problem, company problem, compensation problem, and medical treatment problem was the next highest. The satisfaction level of the whole problem was higher than the middle value. The stress factor affecting the satisfaction level of help is the whole body of stress. Therefore to reduce the stress level of industrial accident patients and for them to come back to local societies, we need to reinforce the continuance and responsibility of case management model, increase staff, reinforce the role of counsel and medical treatment, intervene in the patient's plan of leaving the hospital, develop social support system and the need to establish After Care Center.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2012

Objective : This study investigates correlations between job-stress and job-relation feture in occupational therapists in nursing home. Method : For this study, self-reported questionnaires were distributed by online and offline survey to 237 occupational therapist from May to June in 2012. Fifty two of the questionnaires were returned, acceptable 46 survey responses were analyzed, expect 6 unclearly answered. Result : The results correlations between the 6 job-stress factors(confliction of professional role, lack of professional knowledge and skills, problem of personal relationship, disagreement with predecessor(manager, chief, etc), limitation of medical system, inappropriate salary) and 4 job-relation feature(period of job, annual salary, work out of therapy, job stability). Conclusion : This study demonstrates correlations between job-stress factors and job-relation feature in occupational therapist working in nursing home. Job-stress average 3.52points of 5points contributes more affecting the stress. Further research is necessary to more sample occupational therapist in nursing home.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 1998

Health behavior constitutes the single most important factor in an individual's health maintenance program. Pender's health promotion model emphasizes the positive aspects of health-seeking behavior hut omits some negative ones. Although Pender's work does include the concept of barriers, the main focus is upon health habits rather than upon the interaction between the consumer and the health care system. Therefore, since individuals actually do face many barriers in their health-seeking behavior, the present study deals with negative concepts-the barriers to health and healthy behavior. For this reason the expression health-seeking behavior was chosen over health promotion. In conclusion, the results show that barriers to health-seeking behavior are causal factors that could explain and predict the health-seeking behavior of middle life women. Midlife women shows that they have barriers to health-seeking behavior especially in inconvenience, cost, healthcenter site-related problem, relationship, fear. These findings suggest the need to develop a nursing strategy to improve the empowerment of self-determination in middle-aged women. Consequently, a goal of nursing care for middle-aged women should be to help them pursue health care with a greater degree of self-sufficiency.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.71-83
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• 2009

Objective: This study was conducted to compare health conditions and problems, health promoting behavior, and risky environment of industrial workers. Methods: The subjects of this study were 1,075 workers in 40 factories, located in Daegu, Korea. Survey data were collected from April 17th, 2006 to April 28th, 2006. CMI (Cornell Medical Index) Health Checklist was used to assess the health problems, Health Rating Scale for health status, HPLP II for health promoting behavior, and environmental risk assessment tool for risky environment. The data were analyzed by One-way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation Coefficient using SPSS 12.0 for windows. Results: The results indicated a significant difference in health problems (F=4.70, p=.000), health conditions (F=2.47, p=.022), health promoting behavior (F=5.67, p=.000), and risky environment (F=14.75, p=.000) among these industrial workers. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that there is a need to develop customized health care programs for each company to provide differentiated health care to different types of work places. Further studies are required to assess differences in work environment among different types of work places for measures to reduce harmful factors to the environment.