• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.293-300
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• 2016

Objectives: This study is designed to survey the current status of trade secrets in GHS MSDS circulated in workplaces and indicate problems in the chemical information system. According to the survey results, we suggest management plans including political improvement of the trade secret system for MSDS and technical support to workplaces following enhanced chemical communication. Methods: To review this subject, we selected 153 manufacturers and six importers working in such fields as organic chemical production. We then investigated the retention status of GHS MSDS, application of trade secrets, and the content of trade secret components in MSDSs for mixtures. Results and Conclusions: Within the results, the content of trade secret ingredients was 67.4% (single: 9.0%, mixture: 75.6%). This is an increase compared with the previous results of 45.5% in 2011. Among 59,393 GHS MSDSs, 74.5% had ingredients less than 10% trade secret components, 19.1% had 10-30%, 1.8% had 30-50%, and 4.6% had more than 50%. To settle this issue, we recommend registration or evaluation of trade secrets as implemented in advanced countries. Also, business should be required to undergo regular evaluations of application status for trade secrets in workplace GHS MSDS.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.1 s.33
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• pp.45-56
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• 1991

The history of occupational health in Korea s covered the era of the Republic of Korea after the Liberation from the Japanese colonialism. But the number of Korean workers exceeded about 2 millions at the times of liberation in 1945, so that it is expected that many occupational health problems inflicted Korean workers under the Japanese colonialism. The authors reviewed medical literatures, administrative documents, and other available data which were published under the colonial state, and collected things which had reference to the health status of Korean workers. The results were as follows : 1. Nutritional status of Korean workers was supposed to be inferior to that of general population, some students, and poor inhabitants in a remote mountain villages. 2. It was supposed that the constitution of Korean workers was near lower limit of average build of contemporary Koreans. 3. The accidents rate in mines was significantly high but decreasing year after year, and the most important cause of accidents was the fall of roof in the mine. The medical facilities and equipments for miners were supposed to be not sufficient in the mines and workshops. 4. Some occupational disease including silicosis, noise-induced hearing impairment, and decompression disease were known. But, overall incidence or prevalence of these diseases could not be identified. 5. On the whole, the fatalities of acute infectious diseases of Korean workers were higher than those of Japanese inhabitants in Korea and Korean inhabitants. The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis of Korean workers was increasing with every passing year. 6. The medical personnels and facilities were so deficient that most Korean workers were out of adequate medical use. We discussed only a part of the health status of Korean workers under the Japanese colonialism, so it would be necessary to have a better grasp of details of occupational health policy and health status in the era of afflicting.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.205-218
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to learn the affective factors of case managers' occupational stress. Method: A total of 986 participants responded to a self-administered questionnaire that included 24 items of Korean Occupational Stress Questionnaire Short Form (KOSQSF), job satisfaction index, health behaviors, general characteristics, and variables related to work. The data collection of research was done from 17th to 21th of September, 2007. The data were analysed by t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression with SPSS 11.1 package program. Result: The results of this study were as follows: The overall job satisfaction rate of men and women was highly than that of the Korean worker's standard. There were statistically significant differences in occupational stress in work place, work department, work position, smoking, treatment in out-patient clinic, subjective & relative health-status, work load, supervisor's review on work-ability, and job satisfaction. According to the multi-variate analysis, occupational stress(47.6%) was related to job satisfaction, workload, individual work-ability, supervisor's review on work-ability, health status and gender. Conclusion: Occupational stress varied depending on the ten variables and was influenced by job satisfaction(35.7%) and 5 other variables. The results suggest that further follow-up study on case managers is necessary to relieve their occupational stress.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 2013

Objective : The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between sociodemographic characteristics and attitude of job for occupational therapist. Method : Among 125 occupational therapists who voluntarily responded on structured survey final subject of study is total 123 persons except two occupational therapists who did not respond completely. Result : Attitude of Job was significantly different according to employment status and hospital types, and job stress was significantly different according to employment status and job directivity was significantly different according to hosipital types. Also, for correlation of job attitude, job satisfaction was high as higher job stability, lower job stress, and higher job directivity. Conclusion : To improve attitude of job, employment status should be regularized and the education and improvement of labor conditions are necessary to improve attitude of job and job directivity.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2024

Background: The present study aimed to analyze several aspects of the working conditions and health status of platform workers in the Republic of Korea, such as ergonomic and emotional hazards. We also compared the health status of the platform workers with that of the general population. Methods: A total of 1,000 platform workers participated in this survey from August 7 to August 17, 2022. The participants included 400 designated drivers, 400 food-delivery drivers, and 200 housekeeping managers. A face-to-face survey with a structured questionnaire was conducted by researchers who had received specific instructions. The focus of the survey extended to the work environment, encompassing factors such as workplace violence, as well as physical, chemical, and ergonomic hazards. Health-related data for the previous year were also collected, covering a range of issues such as hearing problems, skin problems, musculoskeletal symptoms, headaches, injuries, mental health issues, and digestive problems. Subsequently, we compared the health symptom data of the responders with those of the general population in the Republic of Korea. Results: Platform workers, including designated drivers, food-delivery drivers, and housekeeping managers, existed in the blind spot of social insurance, facing frequent exposure to physical and chemical hazards, ergonomic risk factors, and direct or indirect violence. The prevalence of health problems, including musculoskeletal symptoms, general fatigue, and depressive symptoms, in each occupational group was statistically higher than that in the general population after standardization for age and gender. Conclusion: The results revealed unfavorable working environment and inferior occupational health of platform workers compared with those of the general population.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2001

This study was designed to assess the relationship between occupational stress and health status in a study group of 197 workers employed in four newspaper publishing companies, using a self-adminstrative questionnaire. The types of occupation of them were reporters(79), clerical workers(54), and engineers (64). The studies on workers' health have been focused mainly on the physical, chemical, and biological diseases in our country. Therefore, the study of mental health, especially of occupational stress, is to be carried out. I consider stress as a factor having an effect on the health status of the newspaper employees, who have been well known to have high stress due to time pressures. I expect that this research will be helpful not only for understanding of health status by occupation, but also for making clear the issues that have been raised continuously from the previous researches. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The mean values of stress by occupation were statistically significant; the reporters had the highest stress symptom scores, and the engineers had the lowest levels of stress. The mean values of stress symptoms were higher in the workers who had long working hours. 2. The health status by occupation showed significant differences in gastrointestinal systems and in depression. The clerical workers were healthier than the engineers in gastrointestinal systems, and the reporters were more depressed than the engineers in depression. 3. The health status by the general characteristics, there was a statistical significance as for a gender, marital status, and absenteeism in the gastrointestinal systems. The men, the married, and the workers who had not been absent were more healthy. Only absenteeism had an effect on the problems in optical-dermal systems and in oro-fecal systems. Gender, marital status, absenteeism, and working hours were related with health status : the men. the married, the workers who had not been absent, and the workers who had longer working hours were more healthy. In mental stability, gender had a significant effect : the men were more healthy than the women. In general condition, the men, the older, the married, and the workers who had not been absent were more healthy. 4. Stress level had an effect on the health status in the respiratory systems, optical-dermal systems, oro-fecal system, depression, mental stability, general condition, and health condition. The workers who perceived more stress had more problems in their health status. 5. In the results of the multiple regression analyses, age in the respiratory systems, absenteeism in the optical-dermal systems, occupation and absenteeism in the gastrointestinal systems and in the oro-fecal systems, gender in depression and in mental stability, gender, age, absenteeism, and working hours in the general condition, absenteeism in the health condition had an effect on the health status of the workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2022

Introduction: Previous studies on occupational health focussed predominately on the occurrence of occupational diseases. Relatively few studies have measured how employment is associated with the use of healthcare services. This study investigates the association between employment and the extent and range of healthcare use, such as medical expenditures, of women in South Korea. Methods: We analyze data of the Korean Health Panel, an ongoing longitudinal national representative survey, from 2008 to 2017, to identify the status of economic activity of women by year and age group. We estimate the association between female employment status and medical expenditures by using random effect panel Tobit models. Furthermore, we investigate the association between employment status and the range of healthcare services in biomedicine and traditional Korean medicine (KM) by conducting conditional fixed-effects logistic regression analyses. Results: For women aged between 25 and 65 in 2017, the majority of them were employed or self-employed. (The proportion of employment of self-employment equals 64.80%). In addition, working women spent 11.6% less on healthcare than nonworking women, and self-employment lowered the healthcare expenditure by 13.1%. Neither work nor the type of work is related to the types and range of healthcare service use. Being employed or self-employed is negatively associated with women's expenditure on healthcare. Conclusions: The findings show that employment is associated with less spending on healthcare. They imply that employment has a positive impact on women's health.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2003

Increasing occupational cerebrovascular & cardiovascular disease, it becomes the most serious problem in the occupational health management. Hypertension is the most important risk factor of cerebrovascular & cardiovascular disease. Although treatment for hypertension has the priority, hypertension has not been managed systematically at the worksite. The objectives of this study were to investigate the actual situation of its treatment, figure out what factors can affect compliance for hypertension treatment and analyze the relations between compliance and employment status. Subjects were 28 workers who have been diagnosed as hypertension at periodic health examination, 20 workers who have been managed for hypertension at dispensary and 22 workers who were diagnosed during the study periods. The results of the study were as follows; 1. More women have been hired as part time workers and had lower education background and income than the full time workers. 2. Among the factors that have been known to affect the treatment compliance, part time workers had less supports from the company than full time workers. 3. We got the comparison of difference between compliance and variables that the factor grade of cure promotion and average ages are high in high compliance. In conclusion there were not the difference of compliance by employment status. But it was hard to rule out the selection vias because the sample size was so small. So it seems difficult to generalized the conclusion that employment status doesn't affect the treatment compliance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.155-161
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• 1998

This study reviewed on the occupational health status of female workers in China, where the half of female population are workers in occupational settings and realizes the importance of occupational health among them, to establish the occupational health management system in Korea as Korean female workers have been increasing for the last few decades. Results of the study were as follows. 1. The proportion of female workers in total workers have increased from 7.5% in 1949 up to 37.6% in 1990. As for the distribution of female workers by industry, manufacturing part has the highest proportion of female workers in total and out of total female workers, the rank was health social welfare (53.2%), community personal service(45.4%) and agriculture forestry fishing(44.1%). 2. The system of occupational health management for female workers was related to superior organization well by administrative district & work place and professionals were distributed to one per ten thousand persons or more, depending on each region's conditions. 3. The regulations of occupational health management for female workers are defined in a variety of fields. Considering the physiological characteristics of female workers, government has tried to minimize the loss due to menstruation, pregnancy, delivery and lactation and has let them have vacations, guaranteeing the health facilities at the same time. Also government has defined the scope of prohibited work to protect legal right of them.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2016

Purpose: This study examined association of job stress with health-promoting behaviors and objective health status in 129 clinical nurses working at a university hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional and descriptive design was used. Job stress and health behaviors were measured with Korean Occupational Stress Scale and Heath Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II, respectively. Health status measured with afternoon plasma cortisol, C-peptide, and lipid profiles. Results: The level of job stress among clinical nurses was moderate with 51.41 on average. The mean for health-promoting behavior in the low stress group was significantly higher than that in the high or moderate stress groups (p<.001). The proportions of nurses with high C-peptide and cortisol levels, or low high-density lipoprotein levels, ranged from 14.0% to 35.7%. In particular, the percentage of nurses with high C-peptide levels was significantly higher in moderate and high stress groups than in the low stress group (24.1% versus 11.6%, p<.05). Conclusion: The study findings affirmed the associations of job stress with health-promoting behaviors as well as selected health status indicators such as C-peptide in clinical nurses. Job stress management intervention can help clinical nurses to improve their health-promoting behaviors and health status.