• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.114-123
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• 2005

We analyzed the demographic and job features of 197 shipyard workers with work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) compensated by the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, and the features of the disorders, the causes of operation and the induced behaviors. The three shipbuilding companies surveyed were located in Busan Metropolitan city and Gyungsangnam-do. The results were as follows. 1. The ages of WMSDs patients in shipyard were $43.6{\pm}8.6$ and the job tenure was $14.3{\pm}5.6$. The 40's of them was 40.1%, and the 30's was 29.4%. Patients less than 5 year-work duration were 85.3%, and ones more than 16 year-work duration 6.6%. In occupations, welders were 32.5%, pre-welders 17.3%, and setting engineers 6.6%. 2. The causes of WMSDs in shipyard were works(95.4%) and outer crash or accident shock (3.6%). Based on the standard of the NIOSH induced behaviors, the causes were awkward posture (62.9%), excessive movement(19.3%) and repetitive movement(13.7%). 3. The compensated WMSDs by body part was the highest, 36%, in the spines, 32.0% in both the upper limbs and the spines, and 14% in the upper limbs. The number of cases of WMSDs in body were 96 in the cervical, 79 in the lumbar and 72 in the shoulders. 4. As a result of chi-square test(${\chi}^2$) between diagnosis and operation in body, welding and spot welding had the most diagnoses in all parts of the body among other occupations. Chi-square test(${\chi}^2$) between diagnosis and induced behavior in body showed that awkward postures recorded the highest rate and repetitive movements was the second. 5. The most hazardous occupation was the welding(incidence rate=9.7) and the most hazardous behavior was the awkward posture.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2008

The main purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between WRMD (Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders) symptoms and dangerous factors in medical technologistes who work in Gwang-ju city and Jeollanam-do province. Experimental group was 74 medical technologistes at hospital centers, hospitals, general hospitals, university hospitals. From the this survey, we found that significant statistical difference in WRMD symptoms by general characteristics (sex, exercise) and working environmental characteristics (examination numbers, time of margin, repetition, intensity of work, time of using PC). In the general factors, Odds ration in male vs female, do exercise vs do not exercise were 4.557 (95% CI=1.003-20.713), 2.747 (95% CI=0.59-12.783). In working environment factors, Odds ration in little of examination numbers vs a lot of examination numbers, little of time margin vs a lot of time margin, non repetitive vs repetitive, non intensity of work vs intensity of work, little of pc using time vs a lot of pc using time were 1.901 (95% CI=0.828-4.363), 1.15 (95% CI=0.335-3.944), 3.952 (95% CI=1.095-14.262), 1.411 (95% CI=0252-7.891), 2.606 (95% CI=1.055-6.437) respectively. For prevention of WRMD symptoms, Most of hospitals should improve medical technologists of working circumstances, especially control a intensive of work, working speed and guarantee enough break time. Therefore, This study suggests that increasing workers and examination of automation, streching during working be needed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2006

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) were a major source of disability and lost work time after 'Foreign Currency Crisis(1998-2000)' in Korea. There is considerable evidence documenting the association between psychosocial risk factors and work disability due to WMSDs. But, there is not much in Korea. The present study aimed to explore the predictive association between the changed working conditions and WMSDs after 'Foreign Currency Crisis' in Korea. A study sample of 8,670 automobile assembly workers were recruited for this study. A structured-questionnaire was used to assess general characteristics, working conditions, and information concerning medical treatment of WMSDs. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, increased overtime work(OR=1.22), daily work time(OR=1.20), work speed (OR=1.32), number of workers(OR=0.83), supervisory control(OR=1.39), physical load(OR=1.39), and mental load (OR=1.25) were all founded to be significantly associated with WMSDs. This study has shown the importance of changed working conditions in the occurrence of WMSDs. Therefore, it will be necessary to reduce WMSDs with controlling both physical and psychosocial factors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.33-40
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• 2012

Dentists are known to be highly exposed to the musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The present study investigated the prevalence of MSD among Korean dentists and association between their MSD and physical workload. In addition, detailed causes related to the physical workloads were identified in dental operation, and needs for improvement of dental instrument and environment were collected from Korean dentists. The standardized Nordic questionnaire was used to survey body troubles and three types of questionnaires were made to investigate the physical workloads, causes of the physical workloads and improvement priority of dental equipments, respectively. A total of 104 Korean dentists were participated in the survey. Neck trouble (82%) was the most prevalent in Korean dentists, and shoulder (68%) and low back trouble (56%) followed, while low back trouble was reported to be most frequent in previous studies. The body troubles were related to the physical workload of the corresponding body parts, although they were not associated with personal characteristics. Most Korean dentists selected 'to keep direct view inside patient's mouth' and 'no support of the hand with dental instruments' as the causes of awkward and strenuous work postures. They wanted design improvement for some equipment in their operating room such as operating light and arrangement of workplace.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.535-540
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this paper is to survey the gender differences Work-related musculoskeletal disorders among agriculture workers. Background: The number of occupational injuries has been decreasing trend in Korea, but it has been increasing in agriculture. The ratio of women worker shows steady increasing trend among the agricultural worker in Korea. Method: This study investigated through the questionnaire to 358 agricultural workers who are working for agriculture located in Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk and Jeju. Results: The task types occurring frequently and the weight of a heavy object handled according to the sex were showed statistically significant difference. The estimation of WMSDs patients by sex appeared statistically very significant difference. Conclusion: The prevalence rate of WMSDs in female was about 21 percent higher than the prevalence rate of WMSDs in male. Application: The result of this study will help improvement of work environment and prevention of WMSDs in agricultural work.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.79-88
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of personal, job, and health care characteristics of firefighters on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and job stress. This survey was participated 591 firefighters in jeonnam and Busan city. The survey consisted of 1) personal, job, and health care characteristics measurement, 2) job stress measurement (KOSS, Korean Occupational Stress Scale), 3) musculoskeletal disorders symptoms mesurement. The analysis of the data was using SAS 9.1 Ver. The statistics analysis was performed the frequency, percentage, average, and standard deviation for each survey item. The Chi square analysis was performed to analyzed the effects of personal, job, and health care characteristics on MSDs and job stress. According to the results of the study on musculoskeletal disorders symptoms, 49.6% of the subjects perceived pain related to musculoskeletal diseases. The total score for job stress was 51.6 (SD 12.9), which was the highest 50% when compared to the Korean job stress standard (male). Age, department, work experience, working type, position, and sleeping time were found to affect musculoskeletal disorders and job stress.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.465-471
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• 2010

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) have been the most common health problem covered by worker's accident compensation insurance for several years in Korea. Korean government has strengthened related regulations since 2003. People looked forward to decreasing the incidence and prevalence of WMSDs. At first, the expectation could be realized. However, we were bumped against to limit at present. The authors think it is due to the negligence of psychosocial factors for WMSDs. Many researchers reported that the various psychosocial factors were associated with WMSDs or symptoms. Job demand, social support, job satisfaction and decision latitude are the major risk factors in job stress aspect. Work pressure, lack of rest, qualified workload, workload variability and monotonous job are the significant risk factors in work context of work organization. Employment flexibility, downsizing, lean production, contingent work and pay for by the piece are also the risk factors in an organizational context. Furthermore, these risk factors are associated with each other across different dimensions of work organization. Suggestive possible pathways between these risks and WMSDs have been taken note of increasing muscle strain or ergonomic stress and of a cognitive aspect. The authors suggest these risk factors could explain the limitation of the regulation system for WMSDs. In conclusion, the strategy to manage psychosocial factors is the one of the essential approach to prevent WMSDs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.136-142
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• 2000

One of the major requirements in preventing Work-related MusculoSkeletal Disorders(WMSDs) is to know definitely what vigorous exertion requirements are contained in a job. This requires improved job analysis tools which can accurately evaluate potentially harmful stresses to the musculoskeletal system. But to simply evaluate the level of stress at a joint, or in a muscle is not enough to motivate job changes. Therefore, the development of ergonomic evaluation tools for the jobs are important to ergonomics. The main objective is compared of the results that made by the ergonomic evaluation tools (e.g., BRIEF and RULA) in actually shoes manufacturing. These were developed in the foreign. So, it is priory needed to research of the ergonomics about Korean characteristic work by physiology and biomechanics.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.73-83
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• 2005

The goal of this study is to propose the improved scheme that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders at a fishcake manufacturing company, A questionnaire and an ergonomic assessment method were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an analysis of working postures and a quantitative assessment on various processes were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace. Based on the result of the evaluation, to enhance the working environment, improvement of worktable, working space, tools, and outfit was suggested, and induction of mechanical system was also suggested. Suggested improvement plan was applied to the workplace step by step and it is confirmed that improvement plan can removes the injurious factors of musculoskeletal diseases effectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.171-181
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• 2009

This study was carried out to evaluate a musculoskeletal symptom and the work posture of the nurses in an operating room who have worked in the present department for more than one year. The job analysis of operating room nurses for ergonomic work posture analysis is divided into 14 tasks. On the basis of that, a survey research and ergonomic work posture analysis are also carried out. Among 41 operating room nurses of a cancer center in Kyonggi province who responded to the self-administered questionnaire, 20 nurses were observed and videorecorded to apply Rapid Entire Body Assessment(REBA) to ergonomic work posture analysis from April 16, 2007 to May 18, 2007. The results of analysis are as follows. The prevalence rate of musculoskeletal symptoms was 75.6% and its prevalence rates by part of the body are these followings; lower back and leg/foot 43.9%, shoulder 36.6%, neck 34.1%, hand/wrist/ finger 22.0%, arm/elbow 14.6%. In accordance with the results of ergonomic work posture analysis, 4 tasks that have a REBA score of 8 have high-risk levels and require an immediate management. It shows there is a significant correlation with overall musculoskeletal symptoms and objective workloads that are estimated by REBA. In conclusion, the work conditions of operating room nurses should be improved. It is also necessary that inappropriate work postures and ergonomic work conditions are improved to prevent musculoskeletal disorders of operating room nurses.