• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.165-178
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• 2021

Purpose: To analyze nurses' shift work according to the government guidelines for night work and their perceptions of their work schedules. Methods: The study sample included 487 nurses who provided information on their schedules, including the normal working hours of each shift, and overtime per shift during September 2020. Nurses' perceptions were measured in terms of satisfaction, appropriateness for work-life balance, and fairness to their work schedule. Results: One-third of the respondents worked more than 40 hours per week. The average overtime hour was 1.14 hours per shift. Unsocial hours (8 pm to 6 am on weekdays, midnight to midnight on weekends and public holidays) accounted for 56.4% of all working hours. During their last night shift, on average, nurses worked 9.62 hours and had a break of 39 minutes, although 20.5% reported no break. Sixty-eight percent of nurses had at least one between-shift break shorter than 48 hours after a consecutive night shifts. Fifty-seven percent were satisfied with their schedule. One-third perceived their schedule as appropriate for work-life balance, and two-thirds perceived that days off on weekends and nights were fairly distributed within the unit. Working and overtime hours had an inverse relationship with all three aspects of nurses' perceptions. A higher proportion of unsocial hours and having no breaks during the night shift were associated with lower perceptions of fairness. Conclusion: Reducing working hours, ensuring breaks during night shifts, and increasing rewards for unsocial hours are required to improve nurses' perceptions and reduce turnover due to shift work.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.206-214
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• 2023

Objectives: To determine the effect of the various type and number of shift work on sociopsychological stress in the university hospital nurses in Seoul, South Korea. Methods: Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire that included general characteristics, the type and number of shift work in the past 4 weeks and the an sociopsychological stress based on PWI-SF. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the effect of shift work by types on sociopsychological stress of university hospital nurses using SAS 9.4 and it adjusted general characteristics by the additional models. Results: When the number of night shift work 3 or 4 compared to 0, sociopsychological stress was significantly high(OR=2.16, 95% CI=1.29-3.65). When 5 or more, it was higher(OR=2.39, 95% CI=1.55-3.72). Two continuous night shift work compared to 0 increased sociopsychological stress(OR=2.37, 95% CI=1.49-3.81) and 3 or more even more(OR=2.70, 95% CI=1.72-4.27). If the shift work type changes 14 or 15 times compare to below 11, sociopsychological stress is increased and even higher when 15 or more times but it's not significant after adjusting for covariates. Conclusions: It suggests that workplace with nurse expose to shift work should be on lookout for more than three night shift work, more than two continuous night shift work and more than 14 shift work change which can lead to burnout, absenteeism, depression and decreased productivity.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.576-583
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to assess the daily steps, physical activities and activity coefficient of policemen (average age: 31.5 ${\pm}$ 5.1 years) who do shift work. Body weight, height and daily steps were measured and one-day activity diary was collected by interviewing with policemen. Average height, body weight, BMI, body fat (%) and muscles (%) of subjects were 173.1 ${\pm}$ 5.2 cm, 73.7 ${\pm}$ 9.7 kg, 24,6 $kg/m^{2}$, 15.5 ${\pm}$ 1.9% and 37.3 ${\pm}$ 5.8%, respectively. The average daily numbers of steps were found to be 9,812 steps/day on day shift duty and 10,888 steps/day on night shift duty and 6,551 steps/day on holiday duty. Hourly step rates on day shift, night shift and holiday came to 1946 steps/hr, 2,130 steps/hr and 1,318 steps/hr, respectively. Activity coefficient (1.75) in night shift of the subjects was the highest and activity coefficient (1.52) in day shift was significantly higher than that (1.31) in holiday (p < 0.05). The rate of expending time for very light activity in holiday (91.5%) was significantly higher than that (70.0%) in night shift. The muscle mass (kg, %) had significantly positive relationship with daily steps in day shift (r = 0.592, r = 0.632) and night shift (r = 0.550, r = 0.503). Triceps skinfold thickness was negatively correlated with daily steps in day shift (r = -0.366, p < 0.05). There were remarkable differences in physical activities and sleeping hours depending on shift works of policemen. In the case of night shift work, sleeping hours was the lowest and activity coefficient was the highest among day shift, night shift and holiday. These results suggest that energy requirements of policemen should be differentiated according to shift work duty.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.244-247
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• 2020

The occurrence of the shift work disorder (SWD) in health-care workers (HCWs) employed in 24/7 hospital wards is a major concern through the world. In accordance with literature, SWD is the most frequent work-related disturb in HCWs working on shift schedules including night shift. In agreement with the Luxembourg Declaration on workplace health promotion (WHP) in the European Union, a WHP program has been developed in a large Hospital, involving both individual-oriented and organizational-oriented measures, with the aim to prevent the occurrence of SWD in nurses working on shifts including night shift. The objective assessment of rotating shift work risk and the excessive sleepiness were detected before and after the implementation of the WHP program, by using the Rotating Shiftwork-questionnaire and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The findings of this study showed the effectiveness of the implemented WHP program in minimizing the impact of shift work on workers' health and in preventing the misalignment between sleep-wake rhythm and shift working.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.331-345
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• 2018

Objective: Shift work including night work is known to be harmful to the health of nurses. This study was conducted in order to systematically review the academic literature on the health effects of working time patterns, including shift work or night work, among Korean nurses and propose a research direction for the future. Methods: We searched online academic databases to find relevant papers in domestic and international journals using the keyword terms 'shift work', 'night work', 'night shift', 'work shift', 'nurse', and 'Korea', and reviewed a total of 36 articles. Results: As a result of this literature review, more than half of the articles were found to investigate the health effects between shiftwork and non-shiftwork nurses. A few studies considered the shift type(n=6), frequency of night shift(n=4), and shiftwork duration(n=3) as working time patterns. These studies focused mainly on mental health(n=18) or sleep(n=15). Conclusions: Based on the review results obtained from this study, it is necessary to assess working time patterns of Korean nurses using a variety of variables including night-work-related factors, and various health outcomes should be examined considering the confounder.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.77-97
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• 1994

The circadian system represents a temporal order which is mediated by the mutual coupling of oscillators and by the synchronizing effects of zeitgebers. It is known that well-being of man depends partly on the maintenance of this order, and that repeated or long lasting disturbances to it such as shift work will Cause harmful effects. This study was a quasi-experimental study to test the effect of shift directions for the clinical nurses on the circadian rhythm. Fourteen nurses working at the general units of Y hospital were selected according to the established criteria. Fourteen subjects were assigned to a weekly shift but the directions of shift work were phase delay first and then phase advance or vice versa. Oral temperature, total sleeping time, frequency of sleep-wake cycle, fatigue, mental performance, and physical symptom were measured during these days except holidays. The data collection period was from April 26, 1993 to July 3, 1993. MANOVA and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used for statistical analysis. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Having worked on evening and night shifts in either phase delay or phase advance schedules, temperature rhythms of shift workers were gradually adapted to the new sleep-wake cycles. A complete adaptation to work on the night shift was achieved the sixth day of the night shift in the phase delay schedule compared to the partial adaptation to the work on the night shift in the phase advance schedule. Accordingly, by putting evening shift between day and night shifts, it will be possible for circadian rhythm to adapt easily to the night shift. 2. There were differences in the total sleeping time, frequency of steep-wake cycle, fatigue, and physical symptom except for mental performance between night shift and day, evening shift. This indicates further that shift workers working on the night shift have a hard time adapting to the shift work compared to the other shifts. 3. Evaluating all the acrophases of temperature rhythm either in phase delay or phase ad-vance schedules, it was shown that night to evening shift in the phase ad-vance schedule revealed the smallest phase move. Also phase advance schedule showed poorer adaptation to shift work than phase delay schedule in connection with total sleeping time, frequency of sleep-wake cycle, fatigue, mental performance, and physical symptom. It is suggested, taken together, these findings reflect that phase delay schedule facilitated the degree of adjustment to the shift work compared to the phase advance schedule.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2015

Working the night-shift and long working hours may be linked to insomnia. The purpose of this study is to determine the association between night-shift work and long working-hours with regard to subjective insomnia in Korean workers. This study was based on the Third Korean Working Condition Survey (KWCS) conducted on workers in 2011. The total number of individuals included in the analysis was 34,708 workers. Adjusted odd ratios showed statistically effective associations to insomnia. For night-shift work, the results were 2.71 (1.53 - 4.82) for night shift work by experts and managers, 2.95 (2.11 - 4.11) for night-shift work by officers, and 3.90 (2.05 - 7.42) for night-shift work by engineers compared with day duty. For long working hours, the scores were 2.43 (1.68-3.51) for >52 working hours by officers, 1.72 (1.15 - 2.58) for those in sales and service compared to ${\leq}40$ working hours. We suggest the need for Korean workers to target specific groups when creating policies related to reasonable environmental conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.426-435
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• 2016

Objectives: The major objective of this study was to analyze stress response after a change to consecutive day shifts from day and night shifts in a motor assembly factory. Methods: Using a survey conducted by a labor union, we collected data on stress response index(SRI), lifestyle factors, work-family conflict and job stress before and after a shift system change. We analyzed the transition on the SRI among 222 workers. The cut-off point for the SRI was a T-score over 60. Results: The high risk stress response group was 20.3% of the population before the shift system change. After the shift system change it decreased to 11.3%. After the shift system change, social support improved, leisure time became more sufficient, work-family conflict declined, and sleep quality in the night shift week improved. In multivariable linear regression, among workers under 40 years old sleep quality on night shift, leisure time sufficiency, social support and work-family conflict contributed to the improvement of stress response. Among workers over 40, work-family conflict contributed to the improvement of stress response. Conclusions: The change to consecutive day shifts improved stress response and mediated with improved nighttime sleep, decreased work-family conflict, increased leisure time and improved work-family conflict.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2000

To determine the optimal rotational shift system, the effect of the direction of the rotational work shifting on the nocturnal rhythm of plasma melatonin were investigated in nursing students. Two groups of nine volunteers participated as experimental subjects, and two nursing students participated as a control group. The directions of the rotational work shift were as follows: CW(clockwise)-shift were rotated in the direction of day shift(3 days), evening shift(3 days), off duty(1 day) and night shift(5 days), and CCW(conuterclockwise)-shift were done in the reverse direction. Plasma melatonin concentrations was measured by radioimmunoassay. The results were as follows : The plasma melatonin levels were kept low at night and in the following morning in the CW night shift workers, whereas the level started to increase at 05 : 00 hr in two workers of four CCW shift workers. These result suggests that the shift rotation in the CW direction is more acceptable in terms of the adaptation of hormonal rhythms. These results indicate that the CCW rotation of shift work is somewhat better than CCW rotation for the adaptation to shift work on hormonal aspects in nurses.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.344-348
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• 2004

This study regarded irregular life styles such as nigh-shifts as contrary to the norm advised in the rules of Yang-saeng to analyze the problems brought about in relation to the concept of 'Yin-deficiency syndrome'. Yin-deficiency survey was given to sales workers on a big shopping mall in Seoul to compare the measurements of daytime workers to those of nigh-shift workers. The measurement of complaining symptoms related to Yin-deficiency of daytime workers and night-shift workers were compared, In comparison of the daytime workers and the night-shift workers, night-shift workers showed higher measurements than the daytime workers in the item of irritable fever on the five Hearts, flushing of the zygomatic region in the afternoon, tidal fever, dizziness, insomnia, yellow and scanty urination, and constipation. Especially tidal fever, insomnia, and constipation showed statistically significant difference. The total of ten items consisting of Yin-deficiency-related symptoms showed statistically significant high score in night-shift workers than the daytime workers. 'Factors for deficiency-type Heat' consisting of irritable fever on the five Hearts, flushing of the zygomatic region in the afternoon, tidal fever, and dried mouth and throat showed statistically significant high score in night-shift workers than the daytime workers. 'Accompanying factors' consisting of night sweats, emaciation, dizziness, insomnia, yellowish and scanty urination, and constipation also showed statistically and significantly high score in night-shift workers than the daytime workers. From the above results that night-shift workers show high degree of Yin-deficiency than daytime workers, and those overworking irregularly also show high degree of Yin-deficiency than those who work for adequate amount of time regularly implies that sitting up at night for work and sleeping at daytime, excessive work, and irregular life styles all function as high-risk factor for Yin-deficiency.