• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.371-377
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• 2017

Background: Social status might be a determinant of occupational health inequalities. This study analyzed the effects of social status on both work environments and health outcomes. Methods: The study sample consisted of 27,598 wage employees aged 15 years and older from among the Korean Working Condition Survey participants in 2011. Work environments included atypical work, physical risks, ergonomic risks, work demands, work autonomy, social supports, and job rewards. Health outcomes comprised general health, health and safety at risk because of work, the World Health Organization-5 Well-being Index, work-related musculoskeletal disease, and work-related injury. Multivariable logistic-regression models were used to identify the associations between social status and work environments and health outcomes. Results: Employees in the demographically vulnerable group had lower occupational status compared with their counterparts. Low social status was largely related to adverse work environments. Especially, precarious employment and manual labor occupation were associated with both adverse work environments and poor health outcomes. Conclusion: Precarious and manual workers should take precedence in occupational health equity policies and interventions. Their cumulative vulnerability, which is connected to demographics, occupational status, adverse work environments, or poor health outcomes, can be improved through a multilevel approach such as labor market, organizations, and individual goals.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.89-112
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• 2000

Although dental laboratory technicians are prone to be exposed to various work-related health hazardous materials such as dusts, chemicals, etc., the prevalence and nature of work-related health problems of them have not been a matter of great concern in the field of occupational health service in Korea. The purpose of the present investigation was to describe a collected profile of subjective health symptoms and their attributable factors in Korean dental laboratory technicians. A questionnaire listing five groups of health symptoms and five health symptom-related factors was mailed to randomly selected 1,900 dental laboratory technicians. Among them, 1,344 dental laboratory technicians filled out the questionnaires and returnde them. Five groups of health symptoms included musculoskeletal symptom, dermal symptoms, respiratory symptoms, eys symptoms, and ear symptoms. Five health symptom-related factors were occupational environment-related health risk factors, work history, health related habits and status, use of personal protective equipment and general characteristics. Detailed parameters of health risk factors were work posture, vibration, and chemical or physical hazards such as dust, fume, vapor, solvent, light, and noise for occupational environment-related factors; work place, area, number of employees, work hours, career, work part, and work load for work history; Broca's index, hours of sleep, eating, smoking, alcohol, exercise, health examination, and self assessed health status for health habits and status; face masks, goggles, and so on for use of personal protective equipment, and; age, sex, marital status, and education for general characteristics. Before the start of main survey, a pilot survey was carried out for validity and reliability tests of the questionnaire. All the data obtained were coded and analyzed with PC/SAS 6.12 program. The prevalence of health symptoms was the highest in musculoskelton (87.3%), and followde by eyes (78.9%), respiratory organs (64.3%), ears (57.8%), and skin (52.2%) in descending order. Statistically significant risk factors by multiple logistic regression analyses were sex, health examination, self assessed health status, and hand/finger posture in musculoskeletal symptoms; sex, self assessed health status, career, acid gas, and hand contact with resin mixture in deraml symptoms; Broka's smoking, exercise, self assessed health status, and face mask in respiratory symptoms; sex, hours of sleep, self assessed health status, work hours, work load, plaster dust, inadequate lighting, and goggle in eys symptoms, and eating, smoking, self assessed health status, and work load in ear symptoms. With the above considerations in mind, prevalence of subjective symptoms among Korean dental laboratory technicians was relatively high, and they were attributable to most of the occupational environment-related factors, work history, use of personal protective equipment, health habits and status, and general characteristics. Particularly, it is suggested that health promotion programs for promoting self- assessed health status and smoking cessation, preventive measures for protection of the female technicians’health, and reducing work load be necessary, since those factors were associated with more than one subjective symptom.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.43-60
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• 2018

The primary goal of this study is to investigate the effects of individual's subjective social status on meaning of work. We hypothesized that individual's subjective social status, defined as the respect and influence an individual has at her/his workplace, would promote meaning of work. Further, we hypothesized that individual's subjective social status would be more highly associated with meaning of work based on her/his occupation's subjective social status. Using two experimental studies, we found that individual's subjective social status increased meaning of work in American (Experiment 1) and South Korean working adults (Experiment 2). Participant's meaning of work was more influenced by individual subjective social status than occupation subjective social status (Experiment 1). Also, the results from Experiment 2 indicated that objective social status within an organization (i.e., rank) moderated the effects of individual subjective social status on meaning of work, such that the beneficial effects of individual subjective social status on meaning of work were found only for participants with low objective social status. In contrast, meaning of work in participants with high objective social status did not vary depending on subjective social status. We discussed the implications of these results, study limitations, and directions for future research.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.209-218
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between the characteristics of nurses' work schedules, health outcomes, and work-life balance. Methods: This was a secondary data analysis that included 422 nurses in Korean hospitals. Descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to identify the associated factors. Results: Multiple linear regression analysis showed that work-life balance was lower when atypical work was performed (β=-.14, p=.010). Nurses who did not work overtime showed a higher level of work-life balance than those who worked overtime infrequently (β=-.11, p=.002) or frequently (β=-.28, p<.001). The work-life balance level increased when nurses had better subjective health status (β=.16, p<.001) or higher sleep quality (β=.29, p<.001). It was verified that the work-life balance level was higher for single-person households than for households with two (β=-.18, p=.003), three to four (β=-.16, p=.022), or five or more (β=-.21, p<.001) persons. Conclusion: This study suggests that government and hospital organizations should provide high-quality care and consideration to nurses who do atypical or overtime work as well as their subjective health status and sleep quality. Further research should focus on the development of a policy that improves the work-life balance of nurses, especially for those who work during atypical hours.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.53-72
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• 2001

This study examined sex-role attitude, conjugal status level and status satisfaction of rural married women as a part of study on problem diagnosis and status enhancement of Korean rural women. The subjects were 919 married farming women. Data were analyzed by frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe multiple range test, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The major findings were as follows : 1) Rural womens sex-role attitude were conservative attitude. 66.7% of them conceived that their husband had more conservative attitude than them. Variables as age, education level, and farming work type were significant related with sex-role attitude. 2) Conjugal status level (housework sharing, domestic decision-making, agriculture decision-making, property rights) of rural women were low and not equal. It was affected by sex-role attitude, the proportion of their work to family farming work, similar/different type of sex-role attitude of couples, and their farming work type. 3) Their status satisfaction were low and affected by factors such as similar/different type of sex-role attitude of couples, conjugal status level, sex-role attitude, their farming work type, and education level.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.272-282
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• 2004

Stress is a primary health promotion issue in worksite research because psychological distress is closely related not only to workers　 health status but also to their job performance. This study identified the work environment and work condition factors affecting workers　 stress symptoms among the Korean manufacturing factory workers. A total of 7,818 factory workers employed in 1,562 manufacturing companies participated in the Korean nation-wide occupational health survey conducted by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency in 2003. Participants were selected by the stratified proportional sampling process by standardized industry classification, company size, and locations. Trained interviewers visited the target companies and interviewed the factory workers randomly selected in each company. Work environments included physical work environments (temperature, noise, hazardous organic compounds, and so on) and psychological work environments (job demands, job control, and social support at work), and work conditions included daily working hour, rest time, and so on. Men were 71.5% and the mean age was 34.0 years old. The average working period in the present company was 6.9 years. The average stress score was 26.2 under the perfect score, 50, which means the moderate level of stress. Perceived stress had significant correlations with young age, poor physical work environment, high fatigue, bad perceived health status, and high job demands in Pearson's simple correlation analysis. Perceived health status and perceived fatigue explained 21% variance of stress symptoms and the work environment factor explained 4.8% of that; however, work condition did not have the sufficient effect. In particular, psychosocial work environment variables (job demand, job control, and social support at work) had a clear effect on stress symptoms rather than the physical work environments. Poor perceived health status, severe perceived fatigue, poor physical work environment, high job demands, low social support, heavy alcohol consumption and little exercise were significantly related to high stress symptoms in the Korean manufacturing workers.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1003-1012
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• 1996

We examined the relationship among riboflavin intake, work activity, erythrocyte glutathione reductase activity coefficient(EGR AC)and urinary riboflavin excretion. We also attempted to determine factors affecting seasonal riboflavin status of rural women. All information about nutrient intake, work activity and riboflavin biochemical status was repeatly collected in three seasons ; farming season(June), harvest season(October), nonfarming season(February). EGR AC was negatively correlated with riboflavin intake(P<0.005) and positively correlated with the duration(min) of farming activity(P<0.005) and the percentage of lean body mass(LBM) (%) representing long term physical activity(P<0.05) in harvestseason. Urinary riboflavin excretion was positively correlated with the ratio of riboflavin intake to 1,000kcal of energy expenditure (P<0.05) in farming season and negatively correlated with the duration(min) of farming activity (P<0.05) and crude nitrogen balance(P<0.005) in harvest season. It appeared that EGR AC seems to increase and urinary riboflavin excretion seems to decrease as work activity increase. Therefore work activity would be expected to deteriorate riboflavin status. Multiple regression analysis of variables showed that in general EGR AC was affected by riboflavin and energy intakes, energy expenditure, energy balance, the duration(min) of farming activity, LBM (%). Urinary riboflavin excretion was affected by riboflavin and protein intakes, LBM(kg) and crude nitrogen balance. Crude nitrogen balance affected urinary riboflavin excretion in all seasons. The result indicated that work activity as well as nutrient intake seemed to affect riboflavin status, especially EGR AC was affected preferentially be work activity in all seasons.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.76-91
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• 2017

Background: Agricultural work is physically demanding and is associated with a high frequency of musculoskeletal disorders. It is challenging to comprehensively understand the present status of work-related diseases and injuries among farmers in underdeveloped countries. Objects: This study aimed to elucidate the current status of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in local farmers in Tigray, Ethiopia, and identify the agricultural factors associated work-related musculoskeletal pain (AFWMP) and healthy living and healthy behavior factors associated work-related musculoskeletal pain (HFWMP). Methods: The Institute for Poverty Alleviation and International Development at Yonsei University conducted a survey of 126 households in Tigray, Ethiopia in 2014. A total of 116 individuals (73 men, 43 women) representing each household answered the questionnaires. Results: 1) Work-related musculoskeletal pain (WMSP) most commonly occurred when performing heavy lifting and most frequently occurred in the lower back. 2) Age, self-perceived labor intensity, and months of farming work were significantly higher in the pain group than those in the non-pain group. 3) Overall work-related musculoskeletal pain intensity (WPI) showed positive and negative correlations with years of farming experience and self-perceived health status, respectively. 4) In binary logistic regression, the occurrence of WMSP showed significant associations with self-perceived labor intensity. 5) On multiple linear regression analysis, age, months of farming work, and self-perceived health status had a significant impact on overall WPI. Conclusion: The WMSP of farmers in Tigray, Ethiopia was related to the characteristics of farm working and health status. Furthermore, HFWMP and AFWMP were the chief factors affecting the occurrence of WMSP in farmers in Tigray. Therefore, both HFWMP and AFWMP should be considered for clinical health assessments of farmers with WMSP in underdeveloped African countries.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study were to investigate the health status and to identify the influencing factors on health status by gender among service workers. Method: Data were collected from the self-reported survey of 781 service workers in sales, food & lodging industry. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS Win 10.0. Result: The influencing factors of male workers' health status were job satisfaction, standing hour during work time, physical work environment, job demand and family support. The influencing factors of female workers' health status were job satisfaction, emotional labor, physical work environment, regular exercise, standing hour during work time, social support and age. Conclusion: Gender specific occupational Health program for service workers should be developed in consideration of these influencing factors.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.17-31
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• 2001

This study purposed to determine the relative impact of a number of family and household work variables on childrens household work performance and their mothers satisfactions on that. A questionnaire was administered to 239 mothers and their children respectively living in Daejeon. Data were analysed using multiple regression analysis. Results were as follows: (1) A childs household work was influenced by mothers employment status and health status, a childs sex, her expectation on the childs household work performance, and the grade. (2) Mothers satisfaction on the childs household work was most influenced by the length of household work time and their spontaneity.