• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.405-422
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• 2010

Occupational musculoskeletal disorders currently account for the largest proportion of the occupational illnesses in Korea. In this research, status of musculoskeletal disorders among the occupational illnesses was examined through workers' compensation claims data. Types and characteristics of musculoskeletal disorders were looked at other data set as well. The data sets included epidemiological investigation data reported by Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, and data collected from occupational disease surveillance reports and Korean occupational health-related scientific journals. Number of cases, incidence rate and insurance benefits for occupational musculoskeletal disorders in Korea are increasing every year. In addition, musculoskeletal disorders occurrence is shifted from large enterprises group to small-and-medium group, from manufacturing to service sector, and from production workers to office and professional workers. Although low back pain is still most common, its occurrence characteristics is gradually shifted from traumatic to cumulative while musculoskeletal disorders are somewhat seemingly moved from lumbar to upper limb body part. Musculoskeletal disorders were observed to be more diverse and prevalent in epidemiological investigations or surveillance data rather in workers' compensation claims data. Musculoskeletal disorders occurrence is related to demographic factors, occupational psychosocial factors, and ergonomic risk factors at workplace for which appropriate preventive measures needed to be made accordingly.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.39-49
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• 2016

Objective : The aim of this study was to investigate the status of infection for infectious diseases and infection control in occupational therapy. Methods : This study was implemented through the survey composed of the status of infection for infectious disease and the infection control and awareness of the infection control. The duration of survey was a month, June, 2016. 111 occupational therapists in 23 room of occupational therapy completed a survey. Results : 34.8% of occupational therapy room experienced the infectious diseases. This study showed the occupational therapists have high performance in almost items of infection control. But the occupational therapist showed the low performance in the items including 'Washing hands over than 15 seconds', 'Washing hands before and after wearing gloves', 'Wearing mask during treatment', 'Throwing away mask after using' and 'Washing your uniform separate from other cloths'. Almost occupational therapists think infection control is important and the education for infection control is needed in occupational therapy. But most of the education is implemented in only medical institution. Conclusion : To improve performance in infection control, individual effort of occupational therapists and institutional strategies are needed. This study will use as basic data for the education about infection control aimed at the occupational therapists.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was conducted to compare and estimate sleep patterns and health status of the shift and non-shift factory workers. Methods: The subjects of this study were 290 male workers in 13 companies, which manufacture automobile parts in Daegu, Korea. Survey data were collected from March 5th, 2007 to April 5th, 2007. PSQI was scored to check the quality of sleep, ESS for excessive daytime sleep disorder, ISI for insomnia, and SF-36 for health status. The data were analyzed by $X^2$ and t-test using SPSS 12.0 for windows. Results: There was a difference in quality of sleep patterns between shift and non-shift workers (p=.033). A difference in the pattern of excessive daytime sleep (P=.005) and in the degree of insomnia (p=.030) were observed between the two groups. However, there were no significant difference in health status between the two groups. Conclusion: Based on these results, shift workers are in need of careful and continuous monitoring regarding sleep disorders and we need to develop health promotion programs including sleep hygiene for shift workers.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.60-71
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify occupational stress and to determine level of depression of school nurses and to identify factors that influence depression. Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. Participants included 146 school nurses from D city. Data collection was conducted on January 17-21, 2011, using self-administered questionnaires. The SPSS/WIN 11.5 was used in performance of data analysis. Results: Significant differences in occupational stress were observed according to age, occupation and perceived mental health status, and in depression according to marital status, perceived mental health status and physical disease. Depression showed significant positive correlation with occupational stress (r=.35, p<.001). In regression analysis, occupational stress and physical health state were found to be the cause of depression in 17% of subject. Conclusion: Findings of this study allow for a comprehensive understanding of occupational stress and level of depression of school nurses in Korea. Further study using a larger random sample and various variables is needed.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.3-8
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• 2022

Background: This study aims to allow the development of efficient measures to improve occupational health of shift-working nurses focusing on job stress, health promotion behavior, resilience, and sleep disturbance. Methods: It was conducted on a subject panel of 137 nurses who were aware of the purpose of the study and agreed to participate. They worked three shifts at a tertiary hospital or a general hospital located in metropolitan city B. The collected data were analyzed by the independent t test and one-way analysis of variance and post-tested by Scheffe's test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 25.0. Results: The significant influencing factors on sleep disturbance were of those whose subjective health status was 'normal' (b = 0.29, p < .001), 'not healthy' (β = .40, p < .001), who have job stress (β = .22, p = .003), and who have health promotion behavior (β = -0.17, p = .023). The overall explanatory power was 31.1% (F = 16.31, p < .001). Conclusion: Through this study, nurses' subjective health status and job stress of working shifts were found to be important factors influencing the sleep disturbance level, and the most influencing factor was identified as the subjective health status.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.73-86
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• 1999

This study was performed to find out factors affecting degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment. The study subjects were 165 workers who were working at painting process of twelve furniture manufacturing factories in Incheon area. We used self-administered questionnaire containing general characteristics, working conditions, the degree of satisfaction with working environment, and the degree of satisfaction with working condition. In addition, we measured the exposure levels of occupational hazardous agents. The results were as follows; 1. Correlations between the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment and the measured of occupational hazardous agents did not affect the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment. 2. Factors affecting the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment were not the exposure levels of occupational hazardous agents, but the degree of satisfaction with working condition, size of industry, health status, and types of ventilation system. As the degree of satisfaction with working condition was increased, the degree of satisfaction with working environment was increased. Also, for the workers who had good health status, the degree of satisfaction with work environment was appeared to be high. To increase the degree of satisfaction, with workers' working environment, firstly, effective work management and production control are required. Also, the worker's effort to negotiate continuously with top manager on improving working conditions is required. Secondly, developing heath promotion program to be appropriate for the characteristics of worksite is required. Moreover, leading worker's participation in health promotion program is very important to increase the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.55-65
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to find out the status of occupational health management and the degree of recognition about the occupational health management of employees 248 small-scale enterprises which have been managed by the small-scale enterprises health care management support institution in 1999, were selected for study, in Kwang-Ju City. 98 employees were selected in 116 industries of them to grasp recognition of employees about the occupational health management. ► The Status of Occupational Health Management 1. Of the sample industries, 62.1 percent employed eleven to twenty-nine workers. Of the sample workers, 72.1 percent occupied workers who were engaged in the production line. 2. Environment evaluation was made on 82.7 percent of the sample industries and general exam made on 66.5 percent and specific health exam done on 73.4 percent. 3. The harmful factors in the sample industries were found to lie noise, dust, solvent, heavy metal, etc. 4. In general health exam 1,774 workers were participated and 148 workers got the result of above grade C and were diagnosed as having the problems with digestive system (63.6%), circulatory system(20.6%). etc. ► The Degree of Recognition about The Occupational Health Management of Employees. 1. Respondents were mainly in the twenties (42.9%), males(69.1%), duration of working period of five to ten years(24.0%), office workers(51.0%), monthly income under one million(55.7%). 2. Recognition of employees about the occupational health management consists of workplace environmental evaluation, health education, health exam and protector management. Their recognition on health education showed high score (mean 3.1), but generally the score was low(mean 2.9).

• 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.