• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제45권6호
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• pp.630-637
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• 2019

Objectives: This study was performed to evaluate the secular changes in indoor airborne dust or endotoxin levels in the dust from swine confinement buildings. Indoor levels were compared with the level at the exhaust outlet in order to examine the contribution potential of indoor dust to nearby ambient air dust. Methods: Comparisons were made on inhalable and respirable dust levels reported in 2002, 2012, and 2017 from 14, 10, and 36 swine fattening confinement buildings in Korea, respectively. This data was produced by the same research group. Levels of endotoxin adsorbed into inhalable or respirable dust were also compared. Samples of inhalable or respirable dust were collected indoors and at exhaust outlets from 17 swine fattening confinement buildings in 2019, and dust levels were compared between the indoor and the outlet. Results: The outlet inhalable dust level (0.111 mg/㎥) was approximately 19% of that from indoors, and the respirable dust level (0.033 mg/㎥) was approximately 74% of that from indoors. The outlet respirable dust levels were lower than the airborne fine dust levels in the towns where those farms are located. No significant difference was observed in the inhalable dust levels among the years examined, but the respirable dust level in 2017 (0.143 mg/㎥) was significantly lower than in 2002 (0.328 mg/㎥). The level of endotoxin in inhalable dust was significantly higher in 2017 (722 EU/㎥) than in both 2002 (75 EU/㎥) and 2012 (171 EU/㎥). Conclusion: Even though no apparent contribution from swine farm indoor dust to nearby ambient air dust was observed in terms of amount, a certain control strategy to reduce the production of airborne dust and endotoxin from swine farms is merited.

• 재활치료과학
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.33-39
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• 2019

목적 : 본 연구는 Selection-Optimization-Compensation(SOC)전략을 접목한 성공적 노화 중재프로그램이 노인의 SOC전략 및 성공적 노화에 미치는 영향을 확인하고자 한다. 연구방법 : 연구대상자는 강원도 W에 거주하는 65세 이상의 노인 3명을 대상으로 하였으며, SOC전략을 이용한 성공적 노화 프로그램을 6회기에 걸쳐 1주일에 2번씩 실시하였다. 프로그램의 효과를 검증하기 위해서 한국형 SOC 척도와 성공적 노화 척도를 사용하였다. 분석은 일반적 특성은 기술통계를 실시하였으며, 성공적 노화 및 SOC전략에 대해서는 Wilcoxon signed rank 검정을 사용하였다. 결과 : 3주간 총 6회의 성공적 노화 프로그램 후, 연구대상자들의 SOC전략 수준은 평균 12.7점에서 14.3점으로 향상되었다. 또한, 성공적 노화 점수는 평균점수가 11.4점 증가하였다. 결론 : 본 연구를 통해 SOC전략을 사용한 성공적 노화 프로그램은 대상자의 SOC 전략 수준과 성공적 노화 수준을 향상시킨 것을 알 수 있었다. 본 연구의 결과를 통해서 SOC전략 및 성공적인 노화를 증진시킬 수 있는 프로그램 또는 작업치료사를 위한 가이드라인 개발을 하기 위한 기초자료로 활용될 수 있을 것으로 사료된다.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.125-134
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• 2015

Objective: In this review we discuss the health effects among office workers. Background: Even if office workers are not exposed hazardous or harmful environment frequently, some problems could be happened to the office workers. Although serious occupational diseases rarely occur to the office workers, it is important to consider occupational risk factors for the office worker because the portion of the office workers is relatively high in all industries. Method: We divided possible health effects for the office workers into three categories; musculoskeletal disorders, indoor environment, and cerebro-cardiovascular diseases. We reviewed related articles, textbooks, and statistical materials non-systematically and described risk factors, related illnesses, and prevention strategies on each category. Results: Office workers have various musculoskeletal disorders to be intervened. By medical treatment, improving working environment, and ergonomic intervention, office workers can be prevented from musculoskeletal injuries. Poor indoor environment can cause many building-related illnesses or sick building syndrome. Although the etiology of some problems by poor indoor environment is not clear, it helps to maintain adequate humidity, temperature, and clarity of indoor air. Cerebro-cardiovascular diseases are a rising issue because office workers in Korea tend to work for a lot of time. To prevent the diseases, it is needed to work for adequate time, lengthen activity level, and manage other medical risk factors for the diseases. Conclusion: There is no distinct occupational disease for office workers. However, there are some aspects to consider the health effects of office workers and it is important to prevent the possible health problems. Application: A strategy against occupational diseases among office workers can be established by reviewing this article.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.87-94
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• 2013

Background: In times of continuous change and volatile markets, organizations are increasingly characterized by downsizing, work intensification, and resource rationalization. This has resulted in diversification, and the emergence of newrisks within the field of occupational health and safety, with an important impact. This paper focuses on one such type of risk in the modern workplace-psychosocial risks. The current study aimed to explore stakeholder perspectives, regarding the extent to which psychosocial risks are incorporated into strategic risk management practices, at both the business and policy level. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 professionals, representing employer, expert, policy maker, and trade union stakeholder perspectives. Results: It was found that the majority of organizations do not sufficiently, if at all, understand and incorporate psychosocial risks into strategic decision making, whereby the key barrier related to practical difficulties of not knowing how to manage psychosocial risks adequately. Conclusion: The study found that there is a need to close the gap between policy and practice on a number of levels. Future recommendations comprise a policy framework and infrastructure underpinned by educational initiatives, partnerships, and networks to drive a shift in attitudes toward recognizing the duality of the concept of risk (including both potential negative and positive outcomes) and moving beyond simple regulatory compliance.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.266-274
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• 2020

Background: From only frequency rate of industrial accidents, it is difficult to define the industry composition of accident statistics in a nation. This study aims to propose and develop a new index for measuring the degree of concentration of industrial accidents using the concept of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in the case of European countries. Methods: Using the concept of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, the concentration index of accidents in the country is developed, and the conditions of European countries are compared using indexes of frequency rate and concentration ratio. Results: The frequency rate and concentration ratio of fatal and nonfatal accidents in European countries are compared. According to the economic condition and geographical position, different patterns of accidents concentration are presented in terms of frequency rate and concentration ratio. Conclusion: We develop the concentration index of industrial and occupational accidents that identifies the industrial ratio of accident occurrence, and the differentiated strategy can be formulated such as approaches to reducing frequency and prioritizing target industries.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제85권2호
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• pp.165-174
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• 2022

Background: One goal of the End tuberculosis (TB) Strategy is to see no TB-affected households experiencing catastrophic costs. Therefore, it is crucial for TB-elimination programs to identify catastrophic costs and their main drivers in order to establish appropriate health and social measures. This study aimed to measure the percent of catastrophic costs experienced by Egyptian TB patients and to identify its determinants. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study with 151 Egyptian TB patients recruited from two chest dispensaries from the Cairo governate from May 2019 to May 2020. We used a validated World Health Organization TB patient-cost tool to collect data on patients' demographic information, household income, and direct and indirect expense of seeking TB treatment. We considered catastrophic TB costs to be total costs exceeding 20% of the household's annual income. Results: Of the patients, 33% experienced catastrophic costs. The highest proportion of the total came in the pre-treatment stage. Being the main breadwinner, experiencing job loss, selling property, and the occurrence of early coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown were independent determinants of the incidence of catastrophic costs. Borrowing money and selling property were the most-often reported coping strategies adopted. Conclusion: Despite the availability of free TB care under the Egyptian National TB Program, nearly a third of the TB patients incurred catastrophic costs. Job loss and being the main breadwinner were among the significant predictors of catastrophic costs. Social protection mechanisms, including cash assistance and insurance coverage, are necessary to achieve the goal of the End TB Strategy.

• 한국학교ㆍ지역보건교육학회지
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.73-92
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• 2021

Objectives: The purposes of this study was to describe workers' perceived values and the affecting factors (pros and cons) of the experience education for occupational safety and health and to suggest the strategies and future directions to improve the experience educational quality. Methods: A total of 8 male workers taking the safety and health education of the 7 safety experience education centers involved in this study (5 centers managed by Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA), 2 centers of large commercial companies). This study used Photovoice, a qualitative method, as the study method. We conducted the photovoice-based in-depth interview with the SHOWeD questions and strategy and used the taxonomical analysis. Results: The study participants' perceived values of experience education were strengthening self-efficacy of the safety and health practices, providing practically useful information, and enjoying refreshing experiences different from daily jobs. Positive affecting factors of the experience education (pros) were providing the educational environments and opportunities of direct experiences, teaching practical safety and health contents for the participants, and the trainer's instruction competencies. Negative affecting factors of the experience education (cons) were learner's negative or standing postures during trainer's lecturing, insufficient exercise conditions and facilities for education, and difficult and theory-oriented lecture far from the practical jobs in reality. Conclusions: Major values of exercise education were direct experiences, useful contents and interesting opportunities from the education participants' perspectives. To improve the exercise education quality, overall educational environments such as convenience facilities as well as exercise facilities should be modified altogether. This study partially and conveniently used the photovoice method as the study limitation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.151-157
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• 2024

Background: Replacement drivers represent a significant portion of platform labor in the Republic of Korea, often facing night shifts and the demands of emotional labor. Research on replacement drivers is limited due to their widespread nature. This study examined the levels of presenteeism and absenteeism among replacement drivers in comparison to those of paid male workers in the Republic of Korea. Methods: This study collected data for replacement drivers and used data from the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey for paid male workers over the age of 20 years. Propensity score matching was performed to balance the differences between paid workers and replacement drivers. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals for presenteeism and absenteeism by replacement drivers. Stratified analysis was conducted for age groups, educational levels, income levels, and working hours. The analysis was adjusted for variables including age, education, income, working hours, working days per week, and working duration. Results: Among the 1,417 participants, the prevalence of presenteeism and absenteeism among replacement drivers was 53.6% (n = 210) and 51.3% (n = 201), respectively. The association of presenteeism and absenteeism (adjusted OR [95% CI] = 8.42 [6.36-11.16] and 20.80 [95% CI = 14.60-29.62], respectively) with replacement drivers being significant, with a prominent association among the young age group, high educational, and medium income levels. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that replacement drivers were more significantly associated with presenteeism and absenteeism than paid workers. Further studies are necessary to establish a strategy to decrease the risk factors among replacement drivers.

• 한국직업건강간호학회지
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• 제7권2호
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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.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제45권2호
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• pp.37-47
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• 2022

The Act on the Punishment of Serious Accidents to Prevent Large-scale Disasters, including Ferry Sewol and Taean Thermal Power Plant, passed the National Assembly on January 8, 2021, and has been in effect since January 27, 2022. However, the law, in which the representative of the headquarters is unlimitedly responsible for each worker's accident, is somewhat unreasonable at a time when a company owns dozens to hundreds of construction sites due to the nature of the construction industry. I agree with the purpose of enacting the law to reduce chronic serious accidents at construction sites, but it is necessary to carefully reconsider the implementation of the law in that punishment alone cannot achieve industrial safety. Previous studies focused on revising the Occupational Safety and Health Act, but there are few studies on the impact on the construction industry after the implementation of the Serious Accident Act. Therefore, this study attempts to derive problems related to the application of the Serious Accident Act and present improvement measures. To this end, after analyzing previous studies, SWOT analysis was performed by applying the Delphi method to derive strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In addition, the results of two surveys of safety experts such as public institutions, academia, and companies were reflected, and its countermeasures were presented as follows. S/O strategy: establishing on-site execution capabilities of health and safety management system; W/O strategy: expanding legal and system execution checks; S/T strategy: establishing a risk response system; W/T strategy: expanding consulting by external specialized institutions