• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.24.1-24.13
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• 2022

Background: In modern society, depression is serious issue that causes socioeconomic and family burden. To decrease the incidence of depression, risk factors should be identified and managed. Among many risk factors for depression, this study examined socioeconomic risk factors for depression. Methods: We utilized first (2006), second (2008), and third (2010)-wave data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA). Depressive symptom was measured with the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Short Form (CES-D-10) in the survey in 2008 and 2010. Three risk factors including job security, employment type and monthly income were measured in the survey in 2006. The association between risk factors and depressive symptom was analyzed by Cox proportional-hazard model. Results: We analyzed data from 1,105 workers and hazard ratios (HRs) for 3 risk factors were significant entirely. In addition, regular worker with high income group is the most vulnerable group of poor job insecurity on depression among male workers (HR: 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-2.81). Finally, HRs for 7 groups who had at least 1 risk factor had higher HRs compared to groups who had no risk factors after stratifying 3 risk factors. In the analysis, significantly vulnerable groups were total 5 groups and the group who had highest HR was temporary/daily workers with poor job security (HR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.36-4.64). The results concerning women, regardless of job type, were non-significant. Conclusions: This study presented one or more risk factors among poor job security, low income, temporary/daily employment type increase hazard for depressive symptom in 2 or 4 years after the exposure. These results inform policy to screen for and protect against the risk of depression in vulnerable groups.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2020

Enclosed pig house are creating an environment with high concentrations of gas and dust. Poor conditions in pig farms reduce pig weight and increase disease and accidents for livestock workers. In the pig house, the high concentration of harmful gas may cause asphyxiation accidents to workers and chronic respiratory disease by long-term exposure. As pig farm workers have been aging and feminized, the damage to the health of the harsh environment is getting serious, and real-time monitoring is needed to prevent the damage. However, most of the measuring devices related to humidity, harmful gas, and fine dust except temperature sensors are exposed to high concentrations of gas and dust inside pig house and are difficult to withstand for a long time. The purpose of this study is to develop an wearable based device to monitor the hazardous environment exposed to workers working in pig farms. Based on the field monitoring and previous researches, the measurement range and basic specifications of the equipment were selected, and wearable based device was designed in terms of utilization, economic efficiency, size and communication performance. Selected H₂S and NH₃ sensors showed the average error of 5.3% comparing to standard gas concentrations. The measured data can be used to manage the working environment according to the worker's location and to obtain basic data for work safety warning.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.499-505
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• 2020

Compared to other manufacturing industries, the food manufacturing industry has a relatively large number of women casualties compared to men, and the number is steadily increasing. The age of casualties is also increasing as the society enters into an aging society. This is also evident in the food manufacturing sector. Therefore, this study conducted a survey on the safety and health awareness of workers by age and gender at small workplaces in the food manufacturing industry. Among them, we would like to focus on elderly women workers and analyze their accident characteristics to suggest ways to reduce the accident rate.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2023

With the restriction of foreigners' entry into Korea due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fishery industry faced significant challenges in supplying migrant workers. In response to this, there is growing interest in methods that could facilitate the stable employment of migrant workers. This paper investigates whether the current system used for the employment of migrant workers in the fishery industry, which is highly dependent on them, adequately performs its function of providing a stable and skilled workforce amid the intensified labor shortage resulting from decreasing numbers of households with employment in the fishery and the aging Korean fishermen. To this end, past studies and government documents pertaining to the current system were analyzed, and a survey targeting the owners of offshore fishing boats that employ migrant workers was conducted. A total of 147 owners of fishing boats responded to the survey, and the data of 499 migrant workers employed by them were used for the analysis. The analysis indicated that the migrant fishermen had difficulty in acquiring minimum scores for the change of visa status according to the criteria for the Skilled Worker Points System. Furthermore, distinct differences were found between the characteristics and working conditions of migrant workers employed through the Employment Permit System (EPS) and the Foreign Seamen System. Based on this result, this paper suggests the reorganization of the skilled migrant worker system in the fishery industry and the expansion of the regional specialized visa pilot project.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2012

In Korea, there are increasing concerns on nuclear manpower demand and supply due to construction of domestic nuclear power plants and exporting nuclear power plant. In addition, aging of nuclear manpower is another important concern for stable nuclear manpower demand and supply. A shortage of skilled high-quality human resources resulted in massive retirements of senior workers may seriously undermine Korean nuclear competitiveness. This paper analyzed current state of aging of nuclear manpower based on statistical analysis on Korean nuclear organizations. The data used in this paper is manpower statistics of domestic nuclear organizations surveyed in 2001 and 2010. This paper analyzed trends of manpower change for 10 years and based on these analyses, has reviewed the level of the aging nuclear manpower by surveyed organization and integrated. Finally, this paper suggested to direction of manpower recruitment to cope with aging nuclear manpower and alternatives to find a solution to problems of nuclear manpower demand and supply.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.171-176
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• 2012

Objective: The goal of this study was to assess work ability of Korean workers in the shipbuilding industry. Background: Old age is associated with inevitable time-dependent losses in physical capabilities. However the maintenance of physical capabilities is essential for continuing independence in old age. The work ability index(WAI) was constructed to reveal how well a worker is able to perform his or her work. Method: The WAI is a kind of survey methods developed to estimate the work capacity of aged workers by the Finish Institute of Occupational Health(FIOH) in 1998. The difference of the WAI between groups in each category was tested using the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the relationship between the WAI and the workers' ages was tested by the Correlation test. Results: This study surveyed 2,709 persons working in the shipbuilding industry in Korea. The average WAI score for all workers was 40.0 denoting a Good Level. Also, workers in the shipbuilding industry had lower work ability, as compared to the results of other industries. The WAI was analyzed for different age groups(${\leq}29$; 30~34; 35~39; 40~44; 45~49; 50~54; ${\geq}55$). The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed that significant difference was identified on the effect of aging(p<0.05). Conclusion: Advanced countries like the Finland showed decreasing tendency in good and excellent levels as aged, but there was no decreasing tendency in Korean population. The results may be attributable to the general characteristics of Korean society, such as poor social security and burden caused by role of the patriarch. It may bring forth higher work ability in aged population even their physical condition is getting worse. Application: This finding could be used for developing more accurate assessment tool of work ability for working environment.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.11-15
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• 2010

Infrastructures in Japan constructed mostly in high economic growth period become elder & elder, and the troubles & accidents caused by the aging increase. Though investment for the renewal is necessary, the shortage of public fund delays the action. Besides, we expect the decrease of the population that means the decrease of the engineers who take care of social infrastructures. Thus, it is necessary for us to develop Advanced Management system of social Infrastructures (AMI) to realize the efficient and economical operation. Our concept of AMI consists of using ICT, PI (Public Involvement) and establishment of O&M diagnosis system. We expect AMI will support to realize the appropriate repairing, preventive maintenance based on the actual performance, accidents & dangerous experience and education & training of the workers. In this paper, development of AMI for the waste disposal facility as a first example of infrastructures will be shown.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.75-97
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• 2008

Recently Korea is expected with the decrease of population in working ages and also population structure, especially age structure, has changed as aging goes faster. This study focuses on the relationship between age structure and wage structure to analyzes the cohort size effect on the change of age-earnings profile. Our empirical analysis based on Wright(1991)'s model takes weighted OLS regression using the male worker's data of Ministry of Labor 'Wage Structure Survey'($1990{\sim}2006$). In pooled data, we take the conclusion that the cohort size effect was found in high school and college graduate workers, but the effect is different between them. The labor market entry effect of high school graduate workers is negative(-) and his persistent effect is positive(+). On the other hand, the cohort size effect of college graduate workers have appeared the opposite directions in contrary with the existing results of Welch(1979) and Wright(1991). This results are seen as the possibility that college graduate worker has the benefit of wage level by his relative cohort size in spite of high unemployment of young graduate. It will be the sign of need that we should interest in the change of age structure with balancing the labor supply side approach and the demand side study which the previous studies was mainly tended to focus on.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.103-108
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• 2004

In order for concrete as a basic material constituting reinforced concrete structure to meet the required performance, it is necessary to satisfy various requirements in concrete construction. Among them, form work has significant effects not only on the process of molding fresh concrete but also on the quality and performance of hardened concrete. Recently, the decrease and aging of form workers is becoming a great problem in the construction industry and, as a result, it is required to rationalize form works and reduce labor costs for employing form workers. Because form construction methods decide the type of form according to required performance, it is necessary to develop various form construction methods and examine their performance. Thus the present study purposed to expand the scope of application of form construction methods and, for this purpose, investigated the basic characteristics of rib- lath form and presented a system form construction method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.85-89
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• 2008

Work ability and job stress have become the important issues in Korean workplace recently. This study researched work ability and job stress and also analyzed correlation with work ability and job stress using the Work Ability Index and the Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire against 742 subway workers. As the results, Work ability in subway workers was good in general. The relation between job stress and job type showed statistical significance (p<0.05). The relation between job stress and diseases showed statistical significance in musculoskeletal disorders(p<0.05), heart disease, and gastrointestinal disease. The correlations between work ability and job stress showed statistical significance in job demand and social support(p<0.05). The result of this study could be useful to manage the work ability of aging worker and the job stress in industry.