• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.385-396
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• 2014

Objectives: By conducting a meta-analysis of cohort studies reporting standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for workers exposed to trichloroethylene, we attempted to adjust for healthy hired effect by applying the same methods as described in a recent report from the Agricultural Health Study. Methods: Among all cohort studies that evaluated the association between all cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), kidney cancer, liver cancer and occupational exposure to trichloroethylene, a total of 10 studies reporting SMR values were selected. A random-effects model was used to estimate the summary SMRs or rSMRs and 95% confidence intervals. Relative SMR ($rSMR=SMR_x/SMR_{not\;x}$) was calculated comparing observed and expected counts for all cancer, NHL, kidney cancer, and liver cancer with an independent referent set of values consisting of the observed and expected counts for other causes. Results: The SMR values for all causes ranged from 0.68 to 1.03, suggesting moderate to weak healthy worker effect for the selected studies. When the healthy worker hire effect was taken into account, the summarized risk became statistically significant; the summary SMR of all cancer was 0.95 (0.91-1.00) and the summary rSMR of all cancer was 1.10 (1.04-1.15). The summary SMR of NHL was 1.04 (0.93-1.14) and the summary rSMR of NHL was 1.23 (1.04-1.46). The summary SMR of kidney cancer was 1.08 (0.88-1.33) and the summary rSMR of kidney cancer was 1.23 (1.02-1.49). The summary SMR of liver cancer was 0.88 (0.78-0.99), and the summary rSMR of liver cancer was 0.95 (0.84-1.07). Conclusion: The rSMR method is useful to determine summary risk adjusted for healthy worker effect through meta-analysis.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.383-393
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• 2023

We attempted to provide a way to improve job satisfaction by analyzing the relationship between the factors influencing job satisfaction directly or indirectly by the ecological system factors of long-term care worker who provide elderly care services at home benefit institutions. In this study, job satisfaction was confirmed to have a positive (+) correlation with all ecological factors except for social and cultural environmental factors by setting the causal relationship between the social and social characteristics of long-term care worker and job satisfaction as dependent variables. The factors with the highest correlation with job satisfaction were social support, followed by family support, job conditions, trust in welfare policies for the elderly, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Therefore, it can be seen that nursing care workers who recognize positive support from the surrounding social network and family surrounding nursing care workers and positively recognize job conditions are generally positive.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.28-49
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• 2007

Organizational culture has been, by and large, regarded as one of the most significant factors to manage organizations. Especially the understanding of empowerment is pivotal, leading to explain organizational cultures. For hospital workers whose services are closely related to quality and performance of their hospitals, empowerment is now called upon more than ever before. This study is intended to investigate the relationship between organizational culture types and hospital workers' empowerment levels. The data were collected from 589 hospital workers at one university hospital and two general hospitals using the self reported questionnaire from Jan.9 to Jan.20 in 2004. The findings were as follows: 1. Empowerment levels were significantly different among the four organizational culture types. Developmental culture group showed the highest empowerment score(3.74), and next were group culture(3.64), rational culture(3.62), and hierarchial culture(3.46). 2. There was a significantly positive correlation between group culture and empowerment(r=.298, p<.000), between developmental culture and empowerment(r=.295, p<.000). But there was not a significantly correlation between hierarchial culture, and between rational culture. 3. According to the multiple regression analysis, self-esteem(${\beta}$=.417, p<.001), position (${\beta}$=-.190, p<.001), self-control(${\beta}$=.185, p<.001), and age(${\beta}$=.169, p<.01) were significant among general properties for organizational empowerment. As for organizational cultures, developmental culture(${\beta}$=.165, p<.001), group culture(${\beta}$=.099, p<.01), and rational culture (${\beta}$=.063, p<.05) were significant other than hierarchial culture. In conclusion, it is necessary to promote group culture and developmental culture to enhance hospital worker's empowerment level, and this article elucidates that understanding the organizational culture embedded in each organization is important for efficient management of organization.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.26-58
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• 2003

This research first finds out the resources, activities, and effectiveness of quality management effort and the resulting customer satisfaction when the total quality management is lacking in most Korean medical agencies today. Then, it analyzes the relationship among the factors mentioned earlier. This paper utilizes actual data and presents a theoretical model which explains that the resources of quality management affect the activities and that the fruit of the quality management effort benefits the customers in the end. In addition, this study conducts a corroborative analysis through executing a survey, getting a descriptive statistical result on the subjects' characteristics and the research variables using SPSS 9.0 WIN PROGRAM, and the model is approved through analyzing its make-up using LISREL 8.12 WIN PROGRAM. The study's finding is the following: First, the management leadership affects the worker's, educational training, the quality of medical service, and the survey of customer satisfaction positively. However, it does not affect the quality of work positively. Second, the internal customer satisfaction affects the worker's participation, educational training, the quality of medical service, and the survey of customer satisfaction positively. Third, the quality of medical service and the survey of customer satisfaction affects the result of quality management positively, but the worker's participation, educational training, and the quality of work do not affect the result of quality management positively. Fourth, the management leadership does not appear to affect the result of quality management positively. Fifth, the internal quality management appears to affect the result of quality management positively. Sixth, the external customer satisfaction appears to affect the result of quality management positively. In conclusion, the findings in this study indicate that medical agencies need to utilize the active variables of quality management in order to successfully establish a total quality management.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.198-209
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed to provide basic data for the improvement of the guidance services for the management of the workplace environment of the specialized health management institution, by making inquiries on the perception and extent of practice by health managers and workers in the workplace. Methods: Workplaces with officially noted environmental hazards of noise, organic compounds and/or dust-metals were selected in a South Korean metropolitan city in 2015. The workplace health managers(hereinafter referred to as 'manager') and workers at 97 workplace were interviewed. Managers are those who are in charge of health management at the corresponding workplace and the workers were subjected to in-depth interviews by sampling one worker for each of the workplace. Results: The majority of the managers acknowledged the guidance services of the specialized health management institution affirmatively. Regarding the extent of practice in accordance with the guidance on engineering improvement, only 23 managers(37.1%) responded. With respect to education, 40 managers(41.2%) responded that it was implemented along with 35 workers(36.1%) who responded that they received education, showing no significant difference between manager and worker. Regarding the actual wearing of the protective equipment, however, 83 of the manager(85.6%) insisted that workers wore the protective devices while only 44 workers(49.5%) responded that they actually wore the devices, thereby illustrating a significant difference between managers and workers. Conclusions: These results suggest the urgent necessity of improvement in the mechanism of guidance services of the specialized health management institution for the workplace environment management.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.849-857
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• 2014

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the knowledge and attitude toward radiation safety management in dental clinic worker. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was filled out by 294 dental clinic workers in dental hospitals and clinics in Gwangju and Jeonnam from February 17 to March 30, 2014. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of radiation safety(8 questions), knowledge of radiation safety(15 questions), and attitudes of radiation safety(16 questions). The survey was done by Likert 5 scale method. Results: In completion of the radiodontia courses, 84.0% of the learners were female workers. 88.0% of the learners took the theoretical and practical courses. Those who work in the university dental hospital accounted for 87.1% and those in dental clinics accounted for 83.2%. Majority of the workers took on Leaden protective clothing in order to protect the thyroid gland. Male workers had more knowledge toward the radiation safety management than the female workers. The attitude toward the radiation safety management revealed the significant differences between age, gender, academic careers, license, clinical careers and the mean number of patients per day(p<0.05). Conclusions: The radiation safety management is very important in dental clinical workers and it is necessary to enhance the attitude toward the radiation safety through continuous education.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.2827-2848
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• 2021

Mobile Crowdsourcing (MCS) has become an emerging paradigm evolved from crowdsourcing by employing advanced features of mobile devices such as smartphones to perform more complicated, especially spatial tasks. One of the key procedures in MCS is to collect answers from mobile users (workers), which may face several security issues. First, authentication is required to ensure that answers are from authorized workers. In addition, MCS tasks are usually location-dependent, so the collected answers could disclose workers' location privacy, which may discourage workers to participate in the tasks. Finally, the overhead occurred by authentication and privacy protection should be minimized since mobile devices are resource-constrained. Considering all the above concerns, in this paper, we propose a lightweight and privacy-preserving answer collection scheme for MCS. In the proposed scheme, we achieve anonymous authentication based on traceable ring signature, which provides authentication, anonymity, as well as traceability by enabling malicious workers tracing. In order to balance user location privacy and data availability, we propose a new concept named current location privacy, which means the location of the worker cannot be disclosed to anyone until a specified time. Since the leakage of current location will seriously threaten workers' personal safety, causing such as absence or presence disclosure attacks, it is necessary to pay attention to the current location privacy of workers in MCS. We encrypt the collected answers based on timed-release encryption, ensuring the secure transmission and high availability of data, as well as preserving the current location privacy of workers. Finally, we analyze the security and performance of the proposed scheme. The experimental results show that the computation costs of a worker depend on the number of ring signature members, which indicates the flexibility for a worker to choose an appropriate size of the group under considerations of privacy and efficiency.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.629-638
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• 2023

This study introduces an innovative approach to monitor the whereabouts of workers within indoor construction settings. While traditional modalities such as GPS and NTRIP have demonstrated efficacy for outdoor localizations, their precision dwindles in indoor environments. In response, this research advocates for the adoption of Aruco markers. Leveraging computer vision technology, these markers facilitate the quantification of the distance between a worker and the marker, subsequently pinpointing the worker's instantaneous location with heightened accuracy. The methodology's efficacy was rigorously evaluated in a real-world construction scenario. Parameters including system stability, the influence of lighting conditions, the extremity of measurable distances, and the breadth of recognition angles were methodically appraised. System stability was ascertained by maneuvering the camera at a uniform velocity, gauging its marker recognition prowess. The impact of varying luminosity on marker discernibility was scrutinized by modulating the ambient lighting. Furthermore, the camera's spatial movement ascertained both the upper threshold of distance until marker recognition waned and the maximal angle at which markers remained discernible.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.13.1-13.12
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• 2023

Background: Indoor air pollution can cause and exacerbate asthma. We report a previously undescribed case of occupational asthma related to indoor air pollution in a worker at an indoor air gun shooting range and highlight the potential risk of developing occupational asthma in this environment. Case presentation: A 31-year-old man presented with dyspnea, cough, and sputum and was diagnosed with asthma complicated by pneumonia. Objective evidence of asthma was obtained by performing a methacholine bronchial provocation test. It was suspected that the patient had occupational asthma, which began one month after changing jobs to work within the indoor air gun shooting range. The highest peak expiratory flow (PEF) diurnal variability on working days was 15%, but the highest variation was 24%, with 4 days out of 4 weeks having a variation of over 20% related to workplace exposure. Conversely, the diurnal variability on the rest days was 7%, and no day showed a variation exceeding 20%. The difference in the average PEF between working and rest days was 52 L/min. PEF deterioration during working days and improvement on rest days were noted. Conclusions: The results obtained from the in-depth analysis of the PEF were adequate to diagnose the patient with occupational asthma. Exposure to indoor air pollution and lead and the patient's atopy and allergic rhinitis may have contributed to the development of occupational asthma.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.26.1-26.15
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• 2023

Background: The objective of this study is to investigate the differences in incidence rates of targeted diseases by classification of occupations among construction workers in Korea. Methods: In a subject-based cohort of the Korean Construction Worker's Cohort, we surveyed a total of 1,027 construction workers. As occupational exposure, the classification of occupations was developed using two axes: construction business and job type. To analyze disease incidence, we linked survey data with National Health Insurance Service data. Eleven target disease categories with high prevalence or estimated work-relatedness among construction workers were evaluated in our study. The average incidence rates were calculated as cases per 1,000 person-years (PY). Results: Injury, poisoning, and certain other consequences of external causes had the highest incidence rate of 344.08 per 1,000 PY, followed by disease of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue for 208.64 and diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue for 197.87 in our cohort. We especially found that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was more common in construction painters, civil engineering welders, and civil engineering frame mold carpenters, asthma in construction painters, landscape, and construction water proofers, interstitial lung diseases in construction water proofers. Conclusions: This is the first study to systematically classify complex construction occupations in order to analyze occupational diseases in Korean construction workers. There were differences in disease incidences among construction workers based on the classification of occupations. It is necessary to develop customized occupational safety and health policies for high-risk occupations for each disease in the construction industry.