• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.67-79
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• 1993

This study was designed to identify the general health conditions and high risk factors of the male & female environmental workers. Thereby. the results of this study were to provide useful data as a contribution to knowledge for health protection and promotion. The data used for this study were environmental workers' physical examination cards; the male environmental workers were 52 persons. and the female environmental workers 52 persons. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson correlation, and distinction analysis, using the SPSS program. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; 1. Thers was a significant statistical difference between the two groups as to height. eyesight. serum GPT, hematocrit. The variables having little difference between two groups were weight. systolic blood pressure. total cholesterol. creatinine. 2. The rate of revealed in significant health examination was extra-health discrimination rate $28.8\%$, significant result of illness rate $12.5\%$. injury-inflicting rate $7\%$. second-time urine test $5.7\%$. antigen positive 3.8%. hearing impairment $2.8\%$, urine protein positive $1.9\%$. and urine sugar positive $1.9%$. 3. The workers diagnosed as extra-health discrimination were 30 persons or $28.8\%$. There was a difference between two groups on the prevalence. In the male environmental workers. ten times live problems and six times pulmonary tuberculosis and three times circulatory problems were revealed the higher than thoes of the female environmental workers. 4. In the male environmental workers, the relationship between age and systolic blood pressure revealed a significant correlation (r=0.22. p<0.05). In the female environmental workers. there was a negative correlation between age and weight (r= 0.25, p<0.05). the relationship between age and total cholesterol correlated positively (r=0.30, p<'0.05). 5. In the male environmental workers, there was a negative correlation between working career and creatinine(r=-0. 22, p<0.05) In the female environmental workers, there was a positive correlation between working career and total cholesterol (r= 0.58, p<0.01). 6. There were significant differences on working career and creatinine accdording to the male and female environmental workers who had any problems through x-ray inspection. 7. There were significant differences on height. eyesight. serum GPT according to the male and female environmental workers who were diagnosed as extra-health discrimination. 8. The female environmental workers who were diagnosed as 'care' were positively correlated with weight (r= 0.26. p<0.05)' and systolic blood pressure (r= 0.30. p<0. 05). on the other hand. the left and right eyesight correlated nagatively(r=-0.15. r=-0.33. p<0.01). 9. The most influential variables on the male and female environmental workers' health condition were working career, height. and weight. And these three variables could help determine the two groups at the level of 81. 8 percentage.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.267-271
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• 2023

Background: The objective of this study is to identify the working conditions and health status of Vietnamese male migrant workers in Republic of Korea, in comparison to the Korean general population. Methods: We conducted our survey through the Migrant People Center, and we received completed questionnaires from 87 male Vietnamese migrant workers. The questionnaire employed was identical to those used in the Korean Working Conditions Survey and the 2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The collected data from the Vietnamese migrant workers was then compared with the Korean reference population using indirect age-standardization. Results: Vietnamese male workers demonstrated a higher prevalence of health problems including hearing problems (age-standardized prevalence ratio (aSPR) 13.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.07-20.4), skin problems (aSPR 13.49, 95% CI: 8.07-20.4), and low back pain (aSPR 8.40, 95% CI: 6.50-10.69). Elevated exposure to workplace hazards such as chemicals (aSPR 2.36, 95% CI: 1.51-3.51), organic solvents (aSPR 2.22, 95% CI: 1.44-3.28), handling of heavy objects (aSPR 1.67, 95% CI: 1.24-2.21), and high temperatures (aSPR 1.96, 95% CI: 1.46-2.57) was observed among them. Additionally, they faced a higher risk of no personal protective equipment (aSPR 2.53, 95% CI: 1.26-4.52) and a greater prevalence of unmet medical needs (aSPR 7.14, 95% CI: 4.74-10.32). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the elevated workplace hazards, health problems, and unmet medical needs among Vietnamese male workers compared to the Korean reference population. These findings underscores the urgency for enhanced scrutiny over working conditions and protective equipment provision, coupled with efforts to improve healthcare accessibility and worker education.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.210-220
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to prepare fundamental data and prevention measures on health promotion and occupational disease, and to assess the effects of the working environment on subjective health status and absenteeism among workers using data from the third working environment survey in Korea. Methods: This study's subjects were composed of 29,711 wage workers from the 3rd working environment survey data. The dependent variables were several diseases, subjective health status and absences, and the independent variable was the working environment. The collected data were analyzed by One-Way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple analysis using the IBM SPSS(ver. 20.0) statistical package program. Results: The effecting factors for cardiovascular disease were age, working shift and emotional state. The effecting factors for anxiety and depression were years of education, working condition, duties, and emotional state. The effecting factors of insomnia were duty and emotional state. The positive effecting factors for absent days were work standing, working shift, number of night shifts, autonomy, and duties. The positive effecting factors of subjective health status were age, work standing, working years, working shift, appropriateness of working hours, leadership of superiors, duties and emotional state. Conclusions: Based on the above results, the author considers that it is necessary to improve the working environment to reduce absent days, such as by reducing of number of night shifts and giving autonomy regarding duties, and to improve the working environment for subjective health status such as by controlling the appropriateness of working hours and stability of the emotional state. In addition, this study provides fundamental data on health promotion and occupational disease among workers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.3 s.35
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• pp.279-286
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• 1991

Much of the working population in developing countries are engaged in shift work now and the number of shift workers is not expected to decrease in the future mostly because the need for continuity of production is increasing. Therefore, the possible effects of shift work on health are of particular interest, and in fact, there have been many epidemiological studies on shift work since the first world war. However, no studies on health effects of shift work have been reported in Korea, and the existing studies in western world have arrived at quite different conclusions mainly because the conditions of work other than shift work, such as age and selection of workers, work environment, and labor conditions also influence the health of workers. This study was firstly carried out in Korea to investigate the health risks related to shift work with 2,093 female workers randomly selected from three major manufacturing industries in proportion to total number of female workers in those industries. Differences of work conditions other than shift work in this study were adjusted by multivariate analysis. Ma findings obtained from this study are as follows : 1. There were significant differences between shift and day workers in the distribution of age, type of industry, condition of noise and dust, regularity of mealtime, working position, and working duration. Shift workers tended to be younger, to have shorter working duration, to have more irregular mealtime, to work in standing position, and to work under more noisy and dusty environment than day workers. 2. Univariate analysis showed that shift work increased the Todai Health Index (THI) scores of digestive tract, respiratory tract, and mental instability symptom categories. Shift work also increased days of sickness absence and number of industrial accident per 100 workers per month. 3. Multivariate analysis that adjusted the differences of demographic, occupational and non-occupational health-related working conditions showed that digestive tract symptom and mental instability symptom scores were significantly higher in shift workers than those in day workers. Based on these study results, it is concluded that the shift work has significant effects on some psychophysiological conditions of the workers and the effects are also influenced by several other personal and working conditions.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.16-32
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• 1994

Health Education is very important not only in school or community fields but also in industrial fields. And health education is most fundamental and enthusiastic area in industrial health. The purpose of this study was to analyze the workers' health education needs and the factors which could affect them. The subjects for this study was 855 workers selected from 57 factories in Inchon. The results were as follows: 1. For demographic variables, sex, age, educational level, and income of the workers were investigated. Most of the workers were males (80.2%). Of the respondents, 30∼39 years old were 41.3%. Approximately 62% of the workers were high school graduates. In additions, those who reported they earned 500,000∼800,000 won monthly were 41.9%. 2. Behavioral characteristics of the workers investigated in this study included smoking, drinking and physical activities. Of the respondents, 55.9% were smoking cigarettes, and 26.8% of the workers reported they drank alcohol once or twice a week. The workers who were taking any form of exercise regularly were 31.6%. 3. Occupational characteristics of the workers included working period working hours a day, medical examination, and so on. About 37.6% of the workers had worked 1∼5 years and 53.6% of the respondents were working less than 8 hours a day. More than half of the workers in this study were taking special medical examination(59.3%) and 59.6% of the respondents were working at the production line in the factories. And most of the respondents (69.0%) were mere members of the staffs. 4. For perceived health status of the respondents, 41.1% answered they were healthy. And for the level of health status, health grade 20.4% of the workers were unhealthy. 5. Health education areas the workers in this study wanted to learn were as follows: 1) Mental health 2) Worksite environment 3) Safety control 4) Disease contol. 6. Those who reported having ever received health education in the factories were 20.9%. 7. Women had more health education needs in personal health care, disease control and family health areas than men. Each age group had different health education needs in all health areas and the differences were significant statistically. 8. The workers who had received special medical examination had more health education needs in worksite environment, safety control, and disease control areas than those who had received general medical examination. The lower the satisfaction of the work and the working environment was, the higher the health education needs of worksite environment area were. 9. For the levels of health status healthy workers were more likely than unhealthy workers to have health education needs in all health areas.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.1 s.52
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• pp.113-131
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• 1996

This study was carried out to evaluate the relations among workers' general characteristics, work-related behaviors and health related behaviors in a steel industry with 1,134 workers in Pohang. The results were as follows; 1. The mean age of workers was 50 years old and working duration was 15 years and over. Most of them were married(94.5%) and had studied beyond high school (53.0%). They performed three shift work and most of them(63.0%) had experienced industial accidents. The frequency of noise and dust exposure was defined by a minimum of 6 hours per day, and workers complained about noise exposure(62.9%) and dust(55.6%). There were current smokers(67.7%), current drinkers(74.3%) and current exercising workers(32.3%) in the industry. The number of cigarette consumption in current drinkers was significantly high $(13.6{\pm}8.4\;pieces/day)$ and the alcohol consumption in current smokers was significantly high$(104.5{\pm}113.5\;g/wk)$. And the number of cigarette consumption of exercisers was significantly low and the alcohol consumption of exercisers was higher than non-exercisers. 3. The ratio of current smokers on frequent noise in exposed workers versus non-exposed workers was not significantly high but the current drinkers in frequent noise and dust exposed workers was significantly higher than non-exposed. 4. The normal levels of SGOT workers in non-smokers were significantly higher than in current smokers, and the normal levels of LFT (SGOT, SGPT, $\gamma-GTP$ workers in nondrinkers were significantly high. The normal levels of SBP and DBP workers in current smokers were not significantly high but were significantly high in non-drinkers. 5. The ratio of current smokers in voters unsatisfied with their job and working condition was higher than non-smokers, but the ratio of current drinkers in workers satisfied with their job and working condition were higher. 6. The significant factors for SGOT and $\gamma-GTP$ were age, the drinking amount and BMI. But the only significant factor for r-GTP was BMI. The significant factors for DBP were age, the alcohol consumption and BMI. And the significant factors for SBP were age, BMI.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2015

Purpose: This study is performed to help manage the metabolic syndrome in work place by identifying the effect on metabolic syndrome with subjects of Korean adult workers. Methods: Using part of data of "The Fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination survey 2nd year (2008)" which center for disease control is investigating. The general characteristics include age, educational level, occupation and marital status as factors affecting the metabolic syndrome of workers in this study. Results: Work-related factors are the working environment in which they are working while they are pressed for time due to work status and overload. If the work status of worker is unpaid family member, the risk is increased by more than twice compared to paid workers. The risk for metabolic syndrome in work environment to work while fighting the clock is decreased compared to the work environment without time pressure. Conclusion: In order to manage the metabolic syndrome of workers, health promotion program to change management of both working condition and working environment can contribute to prevent the metabolic syndrome and ultimately prevent the cerebrocardiovascular diseases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.21 no.48
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• pp.253-262
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to suggest prevention methods for the health of VDT workers by an ergonomic survey and analysis of body discomfort. Totally 150 VDT workers(male; 78, female; 72) were investigated with questionnaire. From the results of survey, average of the subjects age was 28.5 years(male; 29.7, female; 27.2), average working period was 5.4 years(male; 5.2, female; 5.6), average VDT working hours was 6.3 hours(male; 6.2, female; 6.4) and workers who answered that they use VDT for more than 5 hours a day were over 79%. Among the questionnaires 10.7% and 7.3% of VDT workers complained the discomfort of their neck and lower back, respectively. VDT workers responded that the height of chair, keyboard and computer monitor were the main reasons for feeling discomfort. The results suggest that the VDT syndrome prevention program should be developed for safety and health of the VDT workers.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.773-781
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to investigate the nutritional and health status of women industrial workers by working fields. One hundred forty eight (105 lead and 43 office) workers were recruited from March 2005 to October 2005. Information on age, education, smoking and drinking status were collected using questionnaire and nutrient intake and diet quality of workers were assessed by average of two-day 24 hr recall method. Biochemical indexes including blood lead level (PbB), indexes for iron status, serum calcium (Ca) and serum lipid profiles were analyzed from fasting venous blood or serum. Results showed that education level of lead workers was lower than that of office workers (p<0.05), but nutrient intake levels were not significantly different by working fields. Overall nutritional status of the subject were good except for calcium, vitamin $B_2$, C and folic acid intakes. PbB of lead workers were significantly higher than that of office workers while mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and serum Ca levels were significantly lower in lead workers. MCHC was positively correlated with zinc intake (r=0.166) and serum Ca was positively correlated with vitamin C intake (r=0.179). This study confirms that lead workers need extra care to keep their health and nutritional management especially for the nutrients known to interact with lead. Tailored nutrition education for workers at specific working fields needs to be more focused for the improvement of health status of industrial workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.111-118
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• 2009

As the construction project gets bigger in scale, the actual construction itself is becoming more complex. The construction accidents occupy 26.18 percent of total death disaster according to the accidents report in 2007. It is the highest figure among the entire industry, and it shows how serious the construction accident is. In order to reduce accidents occurred in the construction industry, we should find the accident characteristics of construction workers by age. In this study, we investigated 589 cases of fatal accidents, and classified them by trades, type of works, the things that caused the accident, how they occurred, and size. We then identified accident characteristics for each group by analysing them in accordance with workers age. The result of analysis showed that in carpenter and common laborer, the number of death accidents increased as the workers age increased. Another characteristics were that the number of death accidents increased as the age increased in finishing work and reinforced concrete construction and in a smaller-scale businesses, respectively. Common labor was the trade with the highest number of death accidents and the laborers of 50 age or higher in age in finishing working type were the most vulnerable to death accidents.