• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.96-101
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• 2021

Background: Many studies have reported noticeable increases in the proportion of employees working either relatively short or relatively long hours. Such trends have been accompanied by an increasing concern regarding work hour mismatches defined as a discrepancy between actual and preferred work hours. The aim of this study was to investigate association between work hour mismatch and depression. Methods: Data regarding work hour mismatches for 47,551 adults were extracted from the 2017 Korean Working Conditions Survey. The World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index was used to measure depression. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between work hour mismatch and depression. Results: Men and women workers with work hour mismatch were more likely to have depression [underemployed males: odds ratio (OR) = 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.14-1.49, overemployed males: OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.18-1.40; underemployed females: OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.20-1.56, overemployed females: OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.02-1.23]. Underemployed workers, workers who worked more than 52 hours per week, and workers with a high income level, all had higher ORs for depression. The greater the discrepancy between actual and preferred work hours, the higher OR for depression among both underemployed and overemployed workers. Conclusions: A difference between actual and preferred work hours was associated with depression. Underemployed workers had a higher risk of depression than that of overemployed workers. As a work hour mismatch negatively affected workers' mental health, it is important to reduce work hours mismatches as well as shorten the absolute number of work hours.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 2019

Objectives: Although the number of laboratory workers is constantly increasing every year, few studies have been conducted on the health and nutritional status of these research workers. This study determined the health status of laboratory workers by analyzing their anthropometric indices, dietary life, vitamin D status and blood clinical indices. Methods: The subjects consisted of 100 female laboratory workers. This study investigated their diet, anthropometric indices, vitamin D status and blood clinical indices. The subjects were divided into two groups according to their duration of working in a laboratory (<1 year, $${\geq}_-1year$$). Results: The average age and body mass index (BMI) of subjects were 23.18 years and $21.51kg/m^2$, respectively Those subjects with over 1 year employment ($${\geq}_-1year$$) had a significantly higher waist-hip ratio than that of the subjects with the less than 1 year employment (<1 year). The mean serum vitamin D level of all the subjects was 10.04 ng/mL, which is close to a level of vitamin D deficiency. There was a significantly higher average intake of calories in the over 1 year employment group as compared to that of the less than 1 year employment group. The frequency of eating sweet snacks was significantly higher for the over 1 year employment group. The correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between the serum 25-(OH)-vitamin D level and the time of exposure to sunlight, while dietary intake of vitamin D did not show correlation with the serum 25-(OH)-vitamin D level. However, the serum 25-(OH)-vitamin D level was also negatively correlated with both the percentage of body fat and visceral fat. Conclusions: Laboratory workers are a very high risk group in terms of their nutritional status of vitamin D. Therefore, they need greater time of exposure to sunlight as well as increasing their dietary consumption of vitamin D. In addition, it is important for laboratory worker to practice regular and balanced dietary habits in order to maintain a healthy life.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.535-540
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this paper is to survey the gender differences Work-related musculoskeletal disorders among agriculture workers. Background: The number of occupational injuries has been decreasing trend in Korea, but it has been increasing in agriculture. The ratio of women worker shows steady increasing trend among the agricultural worker in Korea. Method: This study investigated through the questionnaire to 358 agricultural workers who are working for agriculture located in Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk and Jeju. Results: The task types occurring frequently and the weight of a heavy object handled according to the sex were showed statistically significant difference. The estimation of WMSDs patients by sex appeared statistically very significant difference. Conclusion: The prevalence rate of WMSDs in female was about 21 percent higher than the prevalence rate of WMSDs in male. Application: The result of this study will help improvement of work environment and prevention of WMSDs in agricultural work.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.43-60
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to examine characteristics of unpaid family workers in family-owned businesses and to determine factors associated with their job satisfaction. Analyses of unpaid family workers from whom Korea Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIP) gathered data in 2000 were used to accomplish this. According to these analyses, the important factors in predicting job satisfaction are the age of unpaid family worker, household income, hours of work in a week size of family-owned business, and job classification.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.372-381
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• 2000

This study was carried out to compare influential life-style factors between Korean and Japanese women. with a view to providing basic data needed in the community nursing activities for the health promotion of women, The questionnaire survey was conducted between Jan 1 and April 15. 2000 on 64 Korean and 63 Japanese women who committed the care of their child to a day-care center because they had to go to work. The obtained results are as follows. 1. On the whole. there was little difference in the score of life-style factors between Korea and Japan. The areas in which Japanese women got a higher score were personal relationship and nutrition, and Korean women got a higher score in the area of self-realization. 2. Both in Korea and Japan. the degree of satisfaction with family life proved to be the most influential factor on the life-styles for the health promotion of women. This implies that the level of their practicing life styles for the health promotion becomes higher in proportion to the degree of satisfaction with their family life. In conclusion. considering the fact that the proportion of women workers has been on the increase in Korea. heath promotion services for women need to be treated more importantly, with the focus on the interpersonal relationship not only in family but also in work sites.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.227-246
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• 1993

Gender differences in the seperation of emplo-yment from home and commuting patterns of the Seoul Area are examined in this paper. Throughout the analysis, it is found that there exist a substantial gender variation in comm-uting rates. Even though the regional variation of commuting rates of male workers is very small, the female workers' regional variation of commuting rates is substantial. Especially, the area around the traditional central place of Kangbuk, the area near the Youngdungpo and Kuro where manufacturing and retailing activities are concentrated, and the area where low-income families are concentrated show high rate of female commuting. In contrast, the traditional residential area, especially the high-income area of Kangnam, shows lower rate of female commuting. Generally, female workers tend to work closer to home than male workers. Accordingly, the job search range of female workers is smaller than that of mle workers. But the areal unit of job search range of female workers is wider at least than Dong. The fact that female workers' job search area is smaller than male workers' implies that the job opportunity around the home location could have more impacts on female workers' job search process than male workers' job search process. There is a substantial difference in commuting behavior between male and female workers. In general, male workers commute longer, use more expensive transportation mode, and pay higher transportation cost in comparision with female workers. These gender differences in commuting behavior could be resulted not only form the gender difference in the seperation of employment form work, but also form the gender difference in the social status in both work place and home.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.799-802
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• 2012

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a very common sexually transmitted disease affecting both men and women and is responsible for different ano-genital cancers in either sex. Co-existing sexually transmitted infections (STI) including HIV have been considered as important co-factors for carcinogenesis induced by HPV. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of any HPV, HPV 16 and HPV 18 and also concomitant STIs among female sex workers (FSW), men having sex with men (MSM) and injectable drug users (IDU). Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 45 FSWs, 26 MSMs and 58 IDUs who attended the STI or de-addiction clinics. Genital scrape samples collected from glans penis and coronal sulcus in males and cervical squamo-columnar junction in females were tested for HPV DNA by PCR using HPV L1 consensus primer. Type specific PCR to detect HPV 16 and 18 was done on the samples positive on consensus PCR. All participants were tested for associated STIs including HIV and hepatitis B and cervical cytology was done on all females. Results: Among the FSWs, HPV was detected in 73.3% and HPV 16 and 18 was detected in 25.7%. Though the HPV prevalence was similarly high among MSMs (69.2%) and IDUs (72.4%), the prevalence of HPV 16 and 18 was much lower in these groups compared to the FSWs. Prevalence of cervico-vaginal infection with Trichomonas vaginalis and syphilis was significantly higher in the HPV positive women compared to the HPV negative women. There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of other STIs among HPV positive and negative women and men. Conclusion: HPV infection is highly prevalent among FSW, MSM and IDUs. Trichomonas vaginalis infection is more frequent in HPV positive women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1193-1196
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• 2012

Breast and cervical cancer are the most common causes of cancer mortality among women worldwide, but they are largely preventable. There are limited data on knowledge and practices on screening methods of breast and cervical cancers among female health care workers in Sri Lanka, in spite of having an organized screening programme islandwide. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 219 female health care workers including public health midwives (68.9%) selected from 6 districts in Sri Lanka using convenient sampling methods. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a pre-test in a capacity building training programme to collect the data. The mean (SD) duration of work experience of the respondents was 12 years and 52.5% were aged over 35 years. Most (76.7%) were married, and afamily history of cancer was reported by 24.2%. Over 98% knew about self breast examination. Even though 84.1% practiced it, only 47.9% practiced it on a monthly basis. Clinical breast examination and mammography were known by 94.1% and 64.3% respectively. Only 19.2% had undergone a clinical braest examination within one year and 3.6% had ever undergone a mamography. Only 76.3% knew that a Pap smear detects precancerous stage of cervical cancer. Among 169 married workers, 73.4% had never had a Pap smear and only 17.2% had got it done within the preceding 5 years. Among the reasons for not doing a pap smear within 5 years, 47.0% belived it as not nescessary, 17.3% due to fear/dislike, 23.2% as not having symptoms, 3% had not known about it and 3% not known about availability of services. The study findings suggest that the knowledge and practices on breast and cervical cancer screening methods among female health care workers need to be improved. Considering the role that health care workers play in communicating health behaviors to the general public, strengthening health education interventions for this group of females is essential.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.16-25
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• 2009

Objectives: This study was designed to analyze the results of body composition test by Oriental medical examination. The subjects were workers in the automobile manufacturing industry. Methods: The subjects consisted of 24,077 industrial workers who had received Oriental medical examination and completed questionnaires about drinking history and smoking history, during 9 months from March to November. They were categorized by sex, age, job class, drinking history and smoking history. The percentage of body fat(%BF) and abdominal obesity(AO) were measured by using bioelectrical impedance analysis (Jawon Medical, Seoul, Korea). We analyzed the relationship between sex, age, job class, drinking history, smoking history and %BF and AO using x$^2$-test of the SPSS Ver. 14.0. Results: Regarding the relationship between sex and %BF, AO, there was statistically significant difference as men had a significant higher level of %BF and AO than women. There was a positive correlation between age and both %BF and AO. Workers in their 40s especially showed a high level of AO. In job class, office workers and sales personnel were apt to have a higher level of %BF and AO than factory workers. %BF and AO of the drinker group showed a higher level than the non-drinker group. On the other hand, %BF and AO of the non-smoker group were higher than those of the smoker group. Conclusions: Companies should manage obesity closely and educate the workers to quit smoking for their health promotion. Furthermore, continuous health checkups need to be done systematically.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.99-124
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• 2016

This study analyzed the effects of labor unions on the wages of Korean female workers using 'Korean Labor and Income Panel Study.' In the estimation we considered the self-selection bias due to the women's labor force participation decision and a plausible non-response bias from not answering the question about the company size in terms of number of employees. By fixed effect estimation we found that labor unions in Korea do not increase the wages of both the female union workers and non-union workers who work at a company in which a union is organized comparing to female workers who work at company without a union. This results indicates that female workers who work in the company with labor union tend to have unobserved characteristics that are positively correlated with both wages and the probability to enter the company with labor union. We also came to the conclusion that there is no free-rider effects of non-union workers.