• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2008

The purpose of this survey was to identify ergonomic risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and understand the current MSD risk status in the wholesale/retail industry. The field survey was conducted at 120 wholesale/retail establishments, and the cause of MSD occurred from the national industrial accident statistics by the Ministry of Labor in 2006 was analyzed in terms of company size, a term of work, job title, and cause of occurrence. The numbers of disasters on MSD were 602 which were included 432 disasters who met with low back pain by incident. A checklist was developed by KOSHA to use for the field survey. A total of 419 tasks were identified at the 120 establishments surveyed. The highest frequency was Task 2(45%) which was mostly observed in repetitive work (e.g. displaying, scanning, cutting or wrapping of goods). The second and third were Task 9(34%) and Task 8(14%) which were identified in manual materials handling (e.g. lifting, lowering, carrying or stocking of goods). The results suggest that the three Tasks should be first considered for the control in wholesale/retail industry and that exposure to MSD risk factors in those Tasks should be primarily addressed in order to reduce MSD risk in that industry.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.57-67
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• 2009

The psychosocial stress and musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) have been one of major health problems for hospital workers. This study tried to understand the relationship between symptoms associated with MSDs and risk factors such as working posture, job stress, psychosocial stress and fatigue. A total number of 655 hospital workers participated in this study. Specifically, REBA was applied for evaluating working posture and a checklist prepared by KOSHA(Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency) was used for symptom survey. A questionnaire from KOSHA was also used for collecting data associated with job stress, psychosocial stress and fatigue. All these data were formulated and modeled by path analysis which was one of major statistical tools in this study. Specifically, path analysis for the data we collected came up with several major findings. As a result, as for body part(neck), (waist) and (arms) the degree of risk of work posture measured with the use of job stress(KOSS), psycho-social stress(PWI-SF) and REBA is significantly more affected by fatigue than muscular skeletal disease related consciousness symptom. However, regarding bod(wrist), the degree of risk of work posture measured with the use of job stress(KOSS) and REBA is directly affected by muscular skeletal disease related consciousness symptom. This study is meaningful in that the study clarified the causal relations of the degree of risk of work posture, degree of fatigue, and muscular skeletal disease related consciousness symptoms by each body part measured with the use of work stress(KOSS), psycho-social stress(PWI-SF) and REBA.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2016

Background: Posture balance control is the ability to maintain the body's center of gravity in the minimal postural sway state on a supportive surface. This ability is obtained through a complicated process of sensing the movements of the human body through sensory organs and then integrating the information into the central nervous system and reacting to the musculoskeletal system and the support action of the musculoskeletal system. Motor function, including coordination, motor, and vision, vestibular sense, and sensory function, including proprioception, should act in an integrated way. However, more than half of stroke patients have motor, sensory, cognitive, and emotional disorders for a long time. Motor and sensory disorders cause the greatest difficulty in postural control among stroke patients. Objects: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of visual and somatosensory information on postural sway in stroke patients and carrying out a kinematic analysis using a tri-axial accelerometer and a quantitative assessment. Methods: Thirty-four subjects posed four stance condition was accepted various sensory information for counterbalance. This experiment referred to the computerized dynamic posturography assessments and was redesigned four condition blocking visual and somatosensory information. To measure the postural sway of the subjects' trunk, a wireless tri-axial accelerometer was used by signal vector magnitude value. Ony-way measure analysis of variance was performed among four condition. Results: There were significant differences when somatosensory information input blocked (p<.05). Conclusion: The sensory significantly affecting the balance ability of stroke patients is somatosensory, and the amount of actual movement of the trunk could be objectively compared and analyzed through quantitative figures using a tri-axial accelerometer for balance ability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.264-275
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• 2006

MSDs(Musculoskeletal Disorders) and Job Stress have been recognized as one of major problems in industry these days according to the results of most industrial health/safety studies. Specifically, MSDs have been growing problems in Korea as well as in US and European countries with higher incidence rate every year. This study tries to understand characteristics of job stress and association between MSDs and job stress for the workers at automobile manufacturing industry. This study also tries to understand the differences in terms of job stress between white collar and blue collar workers. The results showed that there was definite association between symptoms of MSDs and some of major job stress factors. However, there were big differences in terms of associations between two groups(white collar and blue collar workers). The first group(white collar workers) showed more associations between symptoms of MSDs and some of major job stress factors than that of the second group(blue collar workers) although symptom rate of the second group was higher than that of the first group. It could be concluded that symptoms of the first group had more effects from job stress while symptoms of the second group had more effects from typical job risk factors based on the results of the study.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 2006

The objectives of this study were to ergonomically evaluate varying tasks performed in a general hospital and to propose their improving measures based on the evaluation results. The tasks found in the hospital were largely classified into two groups of manual materials handling and awkward posture related tasks. Ergonomic tools of NLE, 3-D SSPP and RULA were used for evaluating workload of the tasks. The major findings are: 1) L5/S1 compressive force of patient transferring by one person exceeded the maximum permissible limit(6,400N) by NIOSH. The L5/S1 compressive forces for most of the patient transferring tasks by 2-4 persons were larger than the action limit (3,400N), and the tasks by five persons were analyzed to be safe in the view of L5/S1 compressive force; 2) patient repositioning tasks by 2-3 persons were hazardous on the basis of L5/S1 compressive force, while most of the tasks by 4-5 persons were safe; 3) many tasks performed in wards were found to be stressful, most of which resulted from improper heights of their working tables or working points. Of varying tasks in general hospitals, patient transferring was the most stressful. Based on the results of this study and high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders from other studies, it is recommended that the ergonomics program be introduced and enforced for doing improving activities systematically

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.427-435
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• 2011

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate a work of building cleaners using the ergonomic methods. Background: Previous studies about cleaning worker describe typical physical demands of this work. They found that the most significant risk factors associated with the physical work of cleaners are static loads and repetitive movements and high output of force. Method: A head of ergonomics estimation was work analysis(define of combined task, work tool, work time and frequency of combined task) and posture analysis of worker. Results: The results showed that combined task of building cleaners was classification sweeping, mopping(wet), mopping(oil), moving barrels/carts, dumping trash bags, scrubbing, arrangement of cleaning tool, arrangement of circumferential, moving of cleaning tool, and waiting. The work time of combined task such as mopping(wet) and scrubbing indicated high ratio. The posture analysis of building cleaners indicated high value in bending of the head, lower arm, and hands. Conclusion: The findings appear to indicate that building cleaner were related to high risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. So, building cleaner would be required an interventional strategy, improvement of cleaning tools and working environment. Application: If ergonomics rule can be integrated into existing cleaning tools and work environments, the risk of occupational injuries will be reduced.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.321-331
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is to review the literatures on the regulation, standard and guideline for the human vibration in Korea and other countries. Background: This review can be used to prevent various diseases caused by the human vibration as a basis for the development of the policy. Results: In Korea, the general employers' duties related to human vibration are set forth the Health Measures(Article 24) in the Occupational Safety and Health Act. And then an employer shall take measures to protect the health of the workers concerned by improving other working conditions relating to working hours for the vibration prevention measures referred to in Article 24 of the Act. The European Union adopted a Directive in 2002 on minimum requirements for the health and safety of workers exposed to vibration. New Regulations on Vibration at Work will be introduced in Great Britain on 2005 to implement the Directive. In the U.S., both ANSI and ACGIH adopted the ISO standard for measurement and suggested exposure action and limit values. In Japan, the Ministry of Labor decided that the vibration syndrome among operators of rock drills and riveters etc. could be included in an occupational disease(1947). In addition, ISO standard was based on proposals and draft documents of many countries such as U.K, Japan and European, etc. Conclusion: In Korea, Occupational Safety and Health Act prevent vibration to health, but do not include exposure limits. It is therefore important to consider the new duties regarding to vibration risks added to the general duties.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2022

Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are at high risk for adverse mental health outcomes during disease outbreaks. To support the development of evidence-informed mitigation strategies, we conducted a scoping review to identify the extent of research pertaining to EMS personnel's mental health during disease outbreaks and summarized key factors associated with mental health outcomes. We systematically searched three databases for articles containing keywords within three concepts: EMS personnel, disease outbreaks, and mental health. We screened and retained original peer-reviewed articles that discussed, in English, EMS personnel's mental health during disease outbreaks. Where inferential statistics were reported, the associations between individual and work-related factors and mental health outcomes were synthesized. Twenty-five articles were eligible for data extraction. Our findings suggest that many of the contributing factors for adverse mental health outcomes are related to inadequacies in fulfilling EMS personnel's basic safety and informational needs. In preparation for future disease outbreaks, resources should be prioritized toward ensuring adequate provisions of personal protective equipment and infection prevention and control training. This scoping review serves as a launching pad for further research and intervention development.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2004

This study was conducted to evaluated musculoskeletal subjective symptoms and the degree of stress of industrial workers to present fundamental materials of preventive oriental medicine for improving their health and quality of life. During the medical examination with oriental medicine method, presence of subjective symptoms of musculoskeletal pain, Psychosocial Well-being Index(PWI) and life style were checked by using questionnaire method in 474 industrial workers. The collected data were analyzed with crosstabs, ANOVA and T-test. The results were as follows; 1. In general differences according to musculoskeletal subjective symptoms, education level of high school graduation had significantly higher distribution than that of below middle school or above university graduation in the pain present group. 2. In the musculoskeletal subjective symptoms and the degree of stress, all of Factor1, Factor2. Factor3, Factor4. and PWI had higher score in pain present group than in pain free group and the difference was statistically significant. 3. According to degree of stress and general character of subjects, single and education level of high school graduation had high score in Factor2, Factor3 and PWI. Factor1 and Factor3 was high in income group of low 1.49 million won. Factor2, Factor4, and PWI was high significantly in income group of 1.50 - 2.99 million won. In job type, manufacturing worker group had significantly high score in Factor3. 4. In degree of stress and life style difference, there was significant difference in PWI score in the field of alcohol chinking, smoking, exercise, obesity except sleeping hours. In the present study. as a result, it is found out that musculoskeletal subjective symptoms present group had higher score in psychosocial stress across the fields than symptom-free group and it is recommended that continuous studies on the relationship of job-related musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial stress should be performed for improvement and prevention of mental and physical health of industrial worke

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.476-481
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• 2019

Background: Mystery shopping is a method in which a company monitors quality of service and employee conduct and compliance with regulations using an evaluator posing as a customer. It is a typical tool of customer-centered bureaucratic control insofar as it provides overall and standardized evaluation of intangible elements of customer service as well as physical elements of service environments. The purpose of this study is to examine how mystery shopping is related to the health status of service workers in South Korea. Methods: Data from semistructured interviews with 15 workers were collected from January to April 2019 to obtain information on service worker experiences with mystery shopping. Data were analyzed using the constant comparison method. Results: Mystery shopping limits worker autonomy and stiffens the workplace environment by standardizing and monitoring labor processes for service workers. In addition, mystery shopping heightens work stress through increased labor intensity. Five mechanisms by which mystery shopping affects service worker health are identified and comprise (1) multifaceted and multilayered surveillance, (2) evaluator subjectivity and irrational requirements, (3) standardized rules combined with high pressure to achieve sales, (4) self-esteem degradation because of evaluator results, and (5) musculoskeletal disorders because of strict adherence to labor processes based on evaluator results. Conclusion: Mystery shopping as an evaluation method should be reconsidered not only in terms of health problems but also in terms of organizational efficiency and issues of human rights.