• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.188-195
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was conducted to examine the association between health condition and leaving the labor market among middle-aged and older adults in South Korea. Methods: Data was obtained from individuals aged 45 years and older participating in the 2006 and 2008 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We used various health measures including chronic diseases, comorbidities, traffic accident injuries, disabilit of instrumental activities of daily living, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health. The odds ratios of job loss, and retirement, versus employment were calculated using multinomial logistic regression by each health measure. Results: In our cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, health problems related to physical disabilities had the greatest effect on leaving the worksite. A shift in health condition from good to poor in a short period was a predictor of increased risk of unemployment but a persistent pattern of health problems was not associated with unemployment. Women with health problems showed a high probability of retirement, whereas among men, health problems instantly the possibility of both job loss and retirement. Conclusions: Health problems of middle aged and older workers were crucial risk factors for retirement and involuntarily job loss. Especially functional defect and recent health problems strongly and instanty affected employment status.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.459-468
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• 2008

A web-based Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) supporting system is connected with a Product Data Management (PDM) system for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) suffering from the lack of building hardware, software and related experts. An analysis of current business models and worksite requirements provides an improved process model and data to be shared between the PDM system and the CAE supporting system. Since all engineering tasks such as geometric modeling, mesh generation, static stress and modal analysis, and fatigue durability analysis are automated in the CAE supporting system, the user in charge of the CAE have only to configure the concerned values of design variables and result data through the web page. The existing Change Management module of the PDM system is modified for seamless data exchange, i.e. sending the Engineering Change Order (ECO) data to the CAE supporting system and receiving the CAE result data bark. The hi-directional data transfers between the PDM system and the CAE supporting system is made possible by adaptors bused on the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The current approach will be very helpful for SMEs that only have the PDM system and have no adequate infrastructure for CAE.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the validity of the 'Enterprise Health Promotion Index', a tool for assessing health promotion activities of worksite developed by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. Methods: This is designed a methodological study that evaluates the validity of the Enterprise Health Promotion Index. For this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted for the workplace health professional and safety professional, and a total of 297 data were extracted as final data. We developed the informal health promotion needs and activity measurement tools. The correlation coefficient between the score of the enterprise health promotion index and the score of the informal health promotion tool was analyzed for the criterion validity evaluation. Results: The criterion validity of the Enterprise Health Promotion Index and activity index were supported by finding moderate (r=.597) and high (r=.783) correlation coefficient. However, the requirement index has low levels of criterion validity (r=.364). Conclusion: Based on these results, we suggest to improve the utility of the corporate health promotion index by developing user manual, active public relations, and providing briefing sessions.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.68-72
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• 2006

Purpose: To demonstrate arthroscopically the presence of bilateral shoulder "mirror lesions" due to overhead work. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in a historical cohort of 10 male tire plant workers who underwent MRI studies of both shoulders. Bilateral intraarticular shoulder pathology was diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed by arthroscopy. "Mirror lesions" were defined as similar pathology between an individual patient's two shoulders. Results: We report on ten patients who had bilateral "mirror lesions." The most common mirror lesions were tears of the rotator cuff. Most patients (7 of 10) had more than one mirror lesion in their shoulders. There were two bilateral full thickness tears involving the supraspinatus and infraspinatus, four bilateral partial thickness supraspinatus tears, six bilateral partial or upper corner lesion complete subscapularis tears, and one bilateral complete supraspinatus tear. Conclusion: Occupational overhead work with simultaneous use of both arms is associated with bilateral shoulder lesions verified by arthroscopy. By demonstrating the work-related bilateral shoulder involvement, this study suggests an etiopathogenesis for these lesions and provides rational for developing worksite prevention strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.1 s.69
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• pp.133-136
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• 2005

The accidents attributed to the forklift have increased as the number of the forklift increases. It is significant that most of the accidents were fatal. This study investigated slip distance of forklift depending upon the floor materials and their conditions in industrial site. For doing this, an experiment was conducted, in which the floor materials and their conditions were adopted as independent variables and the slip distance as dependent variable. Six floor materials included asphalt concrete, two color hardener mortar, epoxy paint and deluxe tile. Two types of floor conditions, wet and dry, were used in the experiment. The results showed that the slip distance was shorter on the asphalt and concrete floors than on other floors, and that the distance on the wet floor was six times longer than that on the dry condition. Based on this result, it is recommended that as in the advanced countries, the regulation or standard on the floor conditions such as friction coefficient be established for reducing forklift relevant accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.103-118
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• 1986

A survey of ecological aspects of food, focused on breakfast of 1,526 adults with various professional occupations such as professors, teachers, employees of government, bank and company, and 1,928 students of various levels in the urban areas, was conducted from March, 1984 to February, 1985. The results were shown as follows: Significancy was found between appetite at breakfast, and bed time, status of sleep, eating outside the home on the previous evening, meal or snack of the previous late evening, and exercise before breakfast. The study showed that only 15.2% of the subjects had a good appetite at breakfast; 28.1% had a poor appetite; others had indifferences. About 45% of the subjects had their evening meal between 7pm. and 8pm.; bank employees had breakfast further later than 9pm.. Surprisingly, 31.3% of the subjects had snacks later than 10pm..Nearly one-fourth of subjects, in general, and 34.4% of the subjects in Seoul, had breakfast by themselves due to different schedules of family members. Breakfast patterns of the subjects during a period of 7 days were distributed as follows: 5.5 times for rice-oriented Korean meal; 0.6 times for bread type meal; 0.9 times for the omission of meal. The study described that the subjects who had bread type breakfast consumed only 3.7 items of food, whereas the subjects who had Korean breakfast consumed 7.1 items, on the average. Better breakfast eating habits for an adequate daily diet should be emphasized through nutrition education for adolescents and at the worksite.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.243-256
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• 2012

This article schematically reviews the clinical features, diagnostic approaches to, and toxicological implications of toxic encephalopathy. The review will focus on the most significant occupational causes of toxic encephalopathy. Chronic toxic encephalopathy, cerebellar syndrome, parkinsonism, and vascular encephalopathy are commonly encountered clinical syndromes of toxic encephalopathy. Few neurotoxins cause patients to present with pathognomonic neurological syndromes. The symptoms and signs of toxic encephalopathy may be mimicked by many psychiatric, metabolic, inflammatory, neoplastic, and degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Thus, the importance of good history-taking that considers exposure and a comprehensive neurological examination cannot be overemphasized in the diagnosis of toxic encephalopathy. Neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging typically play ancillary roles. The recognition of toxic encephalopathy is important because the correct diagnosis of occupational disease can prevent others (e.g., workers at the same worksite) from further harm by reducing their exposure to the toxin, and also often provides some indication of prognosis. Physicians must therefore be aware of the typical signs and symptoms of toxic encephalopathy, and close collaborations between neurologists and occupational physicians are needed to determine whether neurological disorders are related to occupational neurotoxin exposure.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2013

Background: Stochastic resonance whole-body vibration training (SR-WBV) was tested to reduce work-related musculoskeletal complaints. Methods: Participants were 54 white-collar employees of a Swiss organization. The controlled crossover design comprised two groups each given 4 weeks of exercise and no training during a second 4-week period. Outcome was daily musculoskeletal well-being, musculoskeletal pain, and surefootedness. In addition, participants performed a behavioral test on body balance prior to when SR-WBV started and after 4 weeks of SR-WBV. Results: Across the 4-week training period, musculoskeletal well-being and surefootedness were significantly increased (p < 0.05), whereas musculoskeletal pain was significantly reduced only in those who reported low back pain during the last 4 weeks prior to the study (p < 0.05). Body balance was significantly increased by SR-WBV (p < 0.05). Conclusion: SR-WBV seems to be an efficient option in primary prevention of musculoskeletal complaints and falls at work.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.402-406
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• 2017

Transit workers constitute a blue-collar occupational group that have elevated smoking rates relative to other sectors of employed adults in the United States. This study analyzed cross-sectional tobacco survey data from 935 workers (60% African American; 37% female) employed at an urban public transit agency in California. Prevalence of current and former smoking was 20.3% and 20.6%, respectively. Younger workers were less likely than older workers to be current or former smokers. Having a complete home smoking ban was associated with decreased likelihood of being a smoker [odds ratio (OR) = 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.01-0.17], as were neutral views about whether it is easy for a smoker to take a smoking break during their shift (OR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.28-0.88). Current smoking among the sample is > 50% higher than the adult statewide prevalence. Potential points of intervention identified in this study include perceived ease of worksite smoking breaks and establishing home smoking bans. Tailored cessation efforts focusing on older transit workers more likely to smoke are needed to reduce tobacco-related disparities in this workforce.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.458-464
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• 2022

Hazard recognition is considered as one of the pre-requisites for effective hazard management and injury prevention. However, in complex and changing environments, construction workers are often unable to identify all possible hazards that can occur in the jobsite. Therefore, identification of factors that impact hazard recognition in the work environment is necessary to reduce safety incidents as well as to develop strategies that can improve worker's hazard recognition performance. This study identified factors/problems that impact worker's hazard recognition abilities and suggested some potential technologies that can mitigate such problems. Literature reviews of journal articles and published reports related to hazard recognition studies were conducted to identify the factors. The study found out that the major factor responsible for affecting worker's hazard recognition abilities were human-related. Industry factors, Organizational factors and Physical factors of the site were the other factors identified from the study that impact worker's hazard recognition performances. The findings from the study can help site personnel recognize areas where effective measures can be directed towards worksite safety of workers while working in complex construction environments.