• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.93-101
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• 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted how people work, resulting in a massive shift towards working from home or remotely. Work from home has played a critical role in reducing the transmission of COVID-19 by limiting in-person interactions and reducing the density of people in office buildings. It also enabled businesses and organizations to continue operating while keeping their employees safe and healthy. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of work from home in business and organizational sectors worldwide, and it is likely to continue as a preferred mode of work even after the pandemic is over. This shift towards working from home has not only impacted the way people work but also has significant implications for urban development, transportation, and the environment. This study intends to develop measures for addressing potential physical and mental health issues among remotely working employees. Additionally, it identifies the major influencing factors of home workers' health hazards and proposes improvement measures that can be applied to working from home, along with existing laws and prevention methods.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.111-124
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• 2008

New ways of work-shift and learning programs, which were based on the concept of 'performance improvement through people', have been introduced to healthcare organizations. I analyzed the performance of the changes and the performance differences. Data were collected through interview and survey. I discussed that modification of management practices which were developed in manufacturing organizations is important for successful implementation in healthcare organizations.

• 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.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.160-165
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• 2013

Background: Occupational accidents are unplanned events that cause damage. The socio-economic impacts and human costs of accidents are tremendous around the world. Many fatalities happen every year in workplaces such as electricity distribution companies. Some electrical injuries are electrocution, electric shock, and burns. This study was conducted in an electricity distribution company (with rotational 12-hour shift work) in Iran during an 8-year period to survey descriptive factors of injuries. Methods: Variables collected included accident time, age of injured worker, employment type, work experience, injury cause, educational background, and other information about accidents. Results: Results indicated that most of the accidents occurred in summer, and 51.3% were during shift work. Worker negligence (malpractice) was the cause of 75% of deaths. Type of employment had a significant relationship with type of injuries (p < 0.05). Most injuries were electrical burns. Conclusion: High rate of accidents in summer may be due to the warm weather or insufficient professional skills in seasonal workers. Shift workers are at risk of sleep complaints leading to a high rate of work injuries. Acquiring knowledge about safety was related to job experiences. Temporary workers have no chance to work all year like permanent workers, therefore impressive experiences may be less in them. Because the lack of protective equipment and negligence are main causes of accidents, periodical inspections in workshops are necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.456-466
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• 2010

Typical combustion instability such as DC-Shift found in the hybrid rocket motor is characterized by non-linearity. DC-Shift can occur in two different realizations. One is so-called a positive shift of measured DC voltage where the pressure increase suddenly. The other is a negative shift where the pressure drops abruptly. In the present work, specifically the negative DC-Shift was investigated to analyze the effect of oxidizer flow condition and the resonance between fundamental frequency and other ones, such as Helmholtz frequency, and acoustic frequency. Results show a peak frequency of several hundreds HZ shifts as combustion proceeds. A negative DC-shift was found as the result of phase cancellation between two dominant frequency, combustion frequency and flow related frequency. Still is it required to study further to identify the change of dominance of frequency during the combustion.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2014

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the burden experienced by nursing personnel working irregular shifts in Greece and to conduct the first test of a Greek version of the Standard Shiftwork Index (SSI). Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out. The SSI was completed by 365 nurses and nursing assistants working shifts, including nights. Results: Female nursing personnel and those suffering from a chronic disease were most affected by working rotating shifts as they had elevated scores on the majority of the SSI scales, such as sleep, chronic fatigue, digestive and cardiovascular problems, general health questionnaire, cognitive and somatic anxiety, shift time satisfaction, engagement and disengagement strategies, languidity, flexibility, and neurotisicm. Nurses with longer working experience and those with family responsibilities also scored higher on some of the SSI scales, such as the sleep, shift time satisfaction, social and domestic disruption, disengagement strategies, morningness, and languidity scales. Conclusion: Shiftwork affects female nurses, those with chronic disease, older age, and domestic responsibilities more severely. Therefore management should take these factors into account when designing work schedules to alleviate the burden caused by shiftwork.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.231-244
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze body composition, obesity according to working pattern of working women. The subjects were workers in the automobile manufacturing industry. Methods: The subjects consisted of 514 industrial women workers who had received Korean oriental medicine health examination and submitted questionires about working pattern, during 8 months from April 2005 to November 2005. The body composition was measured by X-scan(Jawon medical, Seoul, Korea). We analyzed the relationship between body composition analysis, obesity and shift pattern with $X^2-test$ using the SPSS Ver. 12.0 Results: Regarding the realationship between body composition and working pattern, shift worker group had a significantly higher level of body weight, ratio of body fat, visceral fat and abdominal fat than normal worker. Conclusion: From this study, we can know that shift work can influence on working women's body composition and obesity.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2012

Establishing a causal relationship between factors at work and disease is difficult for occupational physicians and researchers. This paper seeks to provide arguments for the judgement of evidence of causality in observational studies that relate work factors to disease. I derived criteria for the judgement of evidence of causality from the following sources: the criteria list of Hill, the approach by Rothman, the methods used by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and methods used by epidemiologists. The criteria are applied to two cases of putative occupational diseases; breast cancer caused by shift work and aerotoxic syndrome. Only three of the Hill criteria can be applied to an actual study. Rothman stresses the importance of confounding and alternative explanations than the putative cause. IARC closely follows Hill, but they also incorporate other than epidemiological evidence. Applied to shift work and breast cancer, these results have found moderate evidence for a causal relationship, but applied to the aerotoxic syndrome, there is an absence of evidence of causality. There are no ready to use algorithms for judgement of evidence of causality. Criteria from different sources lead to similar results and can make a conclusion of causality more or less likely.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.106-115
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• 2009

Purpose: Occupational stress is a determinant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and work disability. This study aims to describe occupational stress and identify its related factors among aged security guards. Methods: A random sample of 76 aged security guards were interviewed by three research assistants. The criteria of the subjects were as follows : 50 or older male with 40 or more working hours a week working with colleagues ranged from 3 to 50. The data were collected in September, 2007 and analyzed by multiple regression using SAS Version 9.1. Results: The mean score of occupational stress among aged security guards was 47.2. The mean scores of its sub-scales were 31.3(physical environment), 33.8(occupational demand), 80.8occupational control), 44.6(interpersonal conflict), 51.3 (occupational insecurity), 53.6(occupational system), 57.5(lack of reward), and 30.3(work environment). The scores of occupational control, interpersonal conflict, and occupational insecurity were higher than the scores of Korean average occupational stress sub-scales. Significant variables affecting occupational stress and its sub-scales were work place, work type, and employment type. Conclusion: In order to reduce occupational stress among security guards, sufficient occupational control and interpersonal conflict control, appropriate reward, and employment stability should be considered. Also long working hours and work shift should be improved.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.368-374
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• 2019

Objectives: To examine the associations of borg's scale with actual heart rates of workers and energy consumption during their physical work. Methods: A total of 72 workers performing physical activities in postal service, ceramic manufacturing, and metal manufacturing participated in heart rate measurement for 1 work shift using the activity meter(A360) and responded to a borg's scale questionnaire. Results: In consistent with previous findings, we presented high correlation between borg's scale and energy consumption measures among workers performing physical activities(r=0.89) while post-work average heart rate showed nearly no correlation with post-work borg's scale (r=0.09). We proposed a set of adjustments when using borg's scale to estimate physical workload for those workers engaged in physical activities during the majority of their work shift. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a caution should be paid to when using Borg's scale to estimate heart rates during physical activities as well as energy consumption as the product of heart rate measurements.