• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.59-70
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to develop a program that allows older women to provide voluntary services for child nursing facilities, making those women have more social participation, effectively their spare time and ultimately improve the quality of their life. Results of the study can be described as follows. First, social requests about the use of older women as volunteers for child nursing services were analyzed to show that most people working at child nursing facilities perceived lack in the number of child nursing teachers. Those people recognized the need of using older women as service volunteers for the facilities. They were very positive about such use. Second, it is recommendable that volunteers of child nursing service should be not too much older women, or below 65. Voluntary activities that those women participate include taking care of younger children, reading interesting stories for children, helping works of child homes, teaching manners and living attitudes, instructing dietary etiquettes and cooking. Voluntary service activities should be made 1 to 3 times a week, 1 to 2 hours a time, considering psychological and physical states of older people. Third, such older volunteers should be educated about 6 areas, 'the operation and management of child homes, 'practices', 'child health and safety', 'the quality of child nursing', 'child development and counseling' and 'voluntary service training'. Out of these six areas, 'child health and safety' and 'voluntary service training' are more required to be instructed. such training needs to focus on activities in which older women can actually engage as volunteers. Fourth, it is advisable that the recruitment and management of such volunteers are led by the city and that the development of training programs for voluntary service activities and education of the volunteers are referred to universities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.3 s.47
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• pp.465-473
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• 1994

This study was carried out to evaluate the relations between sociodemographic, work-related factors and health related behaviors in a group of 1,042 workers in Taejeon and Chungnam area. The results were as followings: The older workers took more irregularly meals, more cigarette and more alcohol than the younger. Men had more appropriate sleeping time, more regular exercise than women, but more frequent alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. The married had more regular sleeping habit than the unmarried. The group of married were smoking more and obese. In view of monthly income which represent the socioeconomic state of workers, the group of more than 1 million won had more frequent alcohol ingestion, more heavier body weight than another group of less than 1 million won. Workers having their work hours exceed 9 hours had inappropriate sleep duration, and shift workers took more irregularly meals. The group having poor self-rated health status showed more regular diet, exercise and overweight. Workers recently experienced chronic illness were more overweight and lesser smokers. Above results showed that the health related behaviors were related to the sociodemographic characteristics and occupation-related characteristics. The study for relationship between variant factors affecting health behavior and disease or mortality is need and it should be emphasized that the publicity and education of health related behavior for industrial workers is necessary.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.8.1-8.12
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• 2023

Background: Prolonged use of visual display terminal (VDT) can cause eyestrain, dry eyes, blurred vision, double vision, headache and musculoskeletal symptoms (neck, shoulder, and wrist pain). VDT working hours among workers have greatly increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between VDT working hours and headache/eyestrain in wage workers using data from the sixth Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) (2020-2021) conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We analyzed the sixth KWCS data of 28,442 wage workers aged 15 years or older. The headache/eyestrain that occurred in the last year was assessed. The VDT work group included workers who use VDT always, almost always, and three-fourth of the working hours, while the non-VDT work group included workers who use VDT half of the working hours, one-fourth of the working hours, almost never, and never. To analyze the relationship between VDT working hours and headache/eyestrain, the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using logistic regression analysis. Results: Among the non-VDT work group, 14.4% workers experienced headache/eyestrain, whereas 27.5% workers of the VDT work group experienced these symptoms. For headache/eyestrain, the VDT work group showed adjusted OR of 1.94 (95% CI: 1.80-2.09), compared with the non-VDT work group, and the group that always used VDT showed adjusted OR of 2.54 (95% CI: 2.26-2.86), compared with the group that never used VDT. Conclusions: This study suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, as VDT working hours increased, the risk of headache/eyestrain increased for Korean wage workers.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.133-146
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• 2008

Purpose: This research aims to investigate into company workers' awareness of scaling and related factors and provide basic materials for setting up appropriate policies to improve the hygiene of the mouth of industrial workers and developing training programs for the worker's hygiene of their mouth, as part of researches to establish schemes for improving the workers's hygiene of their mouth. Method: Questionnaire was conducted by convenience sampling for 220 office workers belonging to H Group located in Seoul Metropolitan city over about 5 weeks between December 17, 2007 and January 20, 2008. The questionnaire for this study was constructed in consideration of general characteristics of the subjects, behaviors of the dental management. and scaling. The collected questionnaires were electronically processed using SPSS 12.0. Result: The followings are the findings of this research. First, in general, scaling is experienced by male unmarried worker in their 40s. whose monthly average income is 1.00-1.99 million won and have little interest in the hygiene of their mouth and, consequently. whose hygiene of the mouth is not good. Second, scaling is experienced once every six months by the worker in their 50s or older, who are college graduates and have much interest in the hygiene of their mouth and, consequently. whose hygiene of the mouth is good. Third. scaling is not periodically conducted because of high costs of it in terms of almost every parameter of general characteristics. Fourth, they have correct knowledge of scaling since they regard it as 'removing of plaque and tartar' in terms of every parameter of general characteristics. Fifth, the workers' sex (pE0.05), hygienic condition of the mouth (pE0.05) and knowledge of scaling (pE0.001) have a significant effect on their scaling experience. Conclusion: It is considered that dental health management should be continued by training of the importance of prevention through scaling as measure for dental health promotion of workers.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.231-245
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• 2006

Purpose : To investigate and compare the characteristics of menstruation in the shift workers and the day workers, and present guidelines for health promotion of the shift-working women. Methods : Questionnaires including general health condition and QSCC II were distributed to shift-working women and day-working women in one university hospital in Gyeonggi-do and 36 questionnaires of shift-working women and 33 of day-working women were analyzed. Results : Day workers were about 5 years older than shift workers on average. There was more irregularity of menstrual cycle and period in day-working group but it is thought to incorrect because of the age problem. There were more women who have dysmenorrhea in day-working group, but the proportion of dysmenorrhea which continues more than 72 hours -which is very suggestive of secondary dysmenorrhea- was higher in shift-working group. Average VAS of dysmenorrhea was nearly the same in two groups. The life of shift-working group was lesser satisfactory than that of day-working group. There were more sleep disturbances in the shift-working group. Sasang constitution was analyzed in both group using QSCC II, and Taeumin were more in shift-working group. Conclusion : As the number of shift-working women increases, needs for oriental medical treatments would increase because it is more natural and lesser invasive managements which women are very interested in. So it is thought to be necessary to understand health problems of shift-working women, and prepare guidelines for managements and treatments to promote the health of shift-working women.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.291-300
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• 2020

Background: The study aimed to determine the association of individual cognitive ability in late midlife with labor market participation among older workers. Methods: This prospective cohort study estimates the risk of long-term sickness absence, disability pension, early retirement, and unemployment from scores on the Intelligenz-Struktur-Test 2000R by combining data from 5076 workers from the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank with a register on social transfer payments. Analyses were stepwise adjusted for age, gender, physical and psychosocial work environment, health behaviors, occupational social class, education, and chronic diseases. Results: In the fully adjusted model, low cognitive ability (≥1 standard deviation below the mean for each gender) and high cognitive ability (≥1 standard deviation above the mean for each gender) were not associated with risk of any of the four labor market outcomes. Conclusion: Individual cognitive ability in late midlife was not associated with risk of long-term sickness absence, disability pension, early retirement, and unemployment in the fully adjusted model. Thus, no direct effect of individual cognitive ability in late midlife was observed on the risk of permanently or temporarily leaving the labor market.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to identify and compare the risk factors of depression among middle-class Korean workers. Methods: A cross sectional study was designed for secondary data analysis. From the 8th Korean Medical Panel Survey (2008~2013), a total of 3,056 data was drawn and analyzed. With SPSS version 24, a developmental stage comparison, with the stage being young adults (20~39), middle-aged adults (40~64), and older adults (65+) were conducted. Frequency, percentage, 𝑥² test and logistic regression analysis were statistical tools used to analyze the data. Results: In all developmental groups, experience of frustration was found to be a common risk factor of depression. Stress from excessive task, peer-compared subjective health status, and self-perceived social class were risk factors of depression in the young adults and the middle-aged adults. Anxiety for the future significantly influenced depression in the middle-aged adults and older adults. Conclusion: Experience of frustration was a major risk factor of depression among Korean middle-class workers. Interventions to reduce depression need to be developed focusing on the specific risk factors by developmental stages such as experience of frustration, stress from task burden, poor peer-compared subjective health status and anxiety for the future.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.123-138
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• 2018

In this paper, we use panel dataset from Korean linked worker-firm to analyse the effects of the workforce age structure on the productivity or labor costs. We measure 'labor productivity' as added value per capita, 'cost of labor' as labor cost per capita and estimate a dynamic panel model to study the effects of the workforce age structure on the productivity or labor costs. Empirical analysis results show that the workforce age structure is positively related to productivity and labor costs, but only up to the aged of 35-39. That is, we find that an increase in the proportion of younger workers or elder workers rather than the aged 35-39 has a negative effect on productivity and labor cost. In particular, the difference between the estimation coefficient of productivity and labor cost when the share of workers aged 50 or older is increased instead of the aged 35-39 is higher than the difference between the estimation coefficient of productivity and labor cost when the share of workers aged 30 or younger is increased instead of the aged 35-39. Our results exhibit that it is reasonable for firms to worry about declining productivity of elderly workers, whereas firms already used older workers efficiently, such as by adjusting their labor costs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.204-211
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• 2012

In this study, appropriate preventive measures are suggested as follows by analyzing industrial accident cases occurred for five years of company J and workers' survey. First, personnel management including meticulous shift work and rotation task for older workers should be made strictly in terms of safety and health management. Second, Industrial disasters occurred more in spring than in other seasons, so safety management will have to be enhanced in spring. That is, to reduce industrial disaster various occupational safety and health activities to prevent spring fatigue are needed. Third, to improve safety consciousness of workers, penalties for those who have not received safety training and for people without protective equipment are required. Also, hazard prediction training such as Tool Box Meeting shall be proceeded. Fourth, building of proactive safety culture that the workers themselves handle risk factors is urgent. Fifth, the company-wide safety and health programs including safety awards and cases presentation are needed to be planned.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.125-138
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze factors associated with depression among workers in South Korea by socio-economic factors, health behaviors, and working conditions. Methods: Study subjects include 4,251 adults (19 and older) who are currently working using the data from 2009 National Health and Nutrition Survey. Data were analyzed using frequency test, $X^2$ test, and multiple logistic regression. Results: Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that gender (OR=1.91, p<.001), age (OR=1.53, p=.030), marital status (31-39: OR=1.88, p=.029) were significantly related to depressing among socio-economic factors. Next, among health behaviors factors, perceived health status (Poor: OR=1.76, p=.049; Very poor: OR=3.46, p=.002) was statistically significant. Among characteristics of work environment, trust and respect (OR=1.34, p=.049) and working with hidden emotion (OR=1.88, p<.001) were significantly related to depression. Conclusions: In order to manage and reduce depression among workers, it is important to develop appropriate mental health promotion programs both in work places and in regulations.