Development of Health Management for Small Business Workers / 한국직업건강간호학회지

Purpose@#This study aimed to review the status of Health Management for Small Business Workers in Korea. @*Methods@#We reviewed empirical or theoretical literature. @*Results@#98.8% of all workplaces are small businesses with less than 50 employees, and 79.8% are businesses with less than 5 employees. 65.2% of all workers work at small businesses, and 26.4% work at workplaces with less than 5 employees. Although the disaster rate of small businesses is decreasing every year, it is 7.5‰ as of 2019, which is higher than the overall disaster rate of 5.8‰.In particular, the disaster rate of businesses with fewer than five employees is 11.5‰, which is very high. Small businesses have no obligation to appoint safety managers and health managers. @*Conclusion@#Manufacturing businesses with more than 30 employees and less than 50 employees should have a safety and health agent, but businesses with less than 30 employees have not been managed. Health management strategies for workers at small businesses include strengthening the regulation system, strengthening educational public relations to strengthen the awareness of employers and workers, expanding workers' health centers and expanding financial support projects.

Analysis of Media Articles on COVID-19 and Nurses Using Text Mining and Topic Modeling

Purpose@#The purpose of this study is to understand the social perceptions of nurses in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak through analysis of media articles. @*Methods@#Among the media articles reported from January 1st to September 30th, 2020, those containing the keywords ‘[corona or Wuhan pneumonia or covid] and [nurse or nursing]’ are extracted. After the selection process, the text mining and topic modeling are performed on 454 media articles using textom version 4.5. @*Results@#Frequency Top 30 keywords include ‘Nurse’, ‘Corona’, ‘Isolation’, ‘Support’, ‘Shortage’, ‘Protective Clothing’, and so on. Keywords that ranked high in Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) values are ‘Daegu’, ‘President’, ‘Gwangju’, ‘manpower’, and so on. As a result of the topic analysis, 10 topics are derived, such as ‘Local infection’, ‘Dispatch of personnel’, ‘Message for thanks’, and ‘Delivery of one’s heart’. @*Conclusion@#Nurses are both the contributors and victims of COVID-19 prevention. The government and the nurses’ community should make efforts to improve poor working conditions and manpower shortages.

Korean Adolescents' Health Behavior and Psychological Status according to Their Mother's Nationality

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to compare adolescents’ health behaviors and psychological status according to whether or not their mother was born in Korea. METHODS: This secondary analysis used nationally representative data from the 2015 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. The self-administered questionnaire included computer measured socio-demographic variables, 15 health behaviors, and psychological status. Data from 65,426 middle school and high school students were analyzed. Multiple logistic regression, adjusting for socio-demographic variables, was used to analyze differences in health behaviors and psychological status between adolescents with a foreign-born mother and those with a Korean mother. RESULTS: Adolescents who have foreign-born mothers had a lower level of current drinking and subjective happiness, but a higher stress level. CONCLUSION: The stress levels of the adolescents with foreign-born mothers could be affected by their multicultural background. It is necessary to analyze stress-influencing factors of multicultural adolescents by comparing them to adolescents from Korean parents. Additionally, our society should pay more attention to the mental health of multicultural adolescents. Schools should also make various efforts to protect multicultural adolescents by adopting mental health management programs led by school nurses and counselors.

Factors Affecting Asthma and Atopic Dermatitis in Korean Children: A Population-based Cross-sectional Survey

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting childhood asthma and atopic dermatitis. METHODS: For this study, data for 1,170 children (1-11 years) from the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V-2, 2011) were analyzed. First correlation matrices were computed to test the normality of every data set and then to be in accordance with the real demographic composition, data were added weight before being analyzed. RESULTS: The child with asthma of a three generation family (OR=3.91, 95% CI [1.33, 11.45], p=.013) compared with a two generation family showed higher asthma development, and maternal asthma (OR=9.71, 95% CI [2.66, 35.40], p=.001) showed higher asthma development in child. The only factor affecting atopic dermatitis was parental perceptions of child health: poor (OR=3.40, 95% CI [1.29, 8.98], p=.014). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that childhood asthma and atopic dermatitis are both affected by parental perceptions of child health. Accordingly, management and support programs for children who have asthma and/or atopic dermatitis and their families should be comprehensive and also give attention to any other health problems because health perception represents quality of life.

The Effect of Emotional Labor for Job Stress in Bus Drivers / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the association between emotional labor and job stress in bus drivers, as well as to propose management strategies for job stress. METHODS: The study was conducted in February 2013 and involved 182 bus drivers working in the Gyeonggi area. RESULTS: emotional labor was 9.5+/-2.34 on average, and job stress was higher than the median of the same indicator among Korea's workers in the areas of physical environment, job autonomy, and relationship conflicts. Factors that affected job stress was lower if the subjects' Higher values for emotional labor indicated a higher level of job stress. CONCLUSION: To reduce among drivers, the following measures are necessary: increase the comfort of the driver's seat within the vehicle, provide adequate rest between bus headways, provide comfortable in-house rest facilities, and establish physical training spaces to reduce musculoskeletal disorders as well as programs for reducing back pain. In addition, relationship conflicts may be relieved by increasing job autonomy as much as possible, by granting autonomous control of working hours and bus headways, as well as by banning long work hours. Moreover, various club activities, exercise programs, and counseling programs that workers can be involved in together may be beneficial. This study is significant in that it identified the relationship of the bus drivers' emotional labor and job stress, which has previously been ignored as a research topic. Through its results, this study provides baseline data for the preparation of management strategies that can address the job stress of bus drivers.

The Effect of Emotional Labor for Job Stress in Bus Drivers / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the association between emotional labor and job stress in bus drivers, as well as to propose management strategies for job stress. METHODS: The study was conducted in February 2013 and involved 182 bus drivers working in the Gyeonggi area. RESULTS: emotional labor was 9.5+/-2.34 on average, and job stress was higher than the median of the same indicator among Korea's workers in the areas of physical environment, job autonomy, and relationship conflicts. Factors that affected job stress was lower if the subjects' Higher values for emotional labor indicated a higher level of job stress. CONCLUSION: To reduce among drivers, the following measures are necessary: increase the comfort of the driver's seat within the vehicle, provide adequate rest between bus headways, provide comfortable in-house rest facilities, and establish physical training spaces to reduce musculoskeletal disorders as well as programs for reducing back pain. In addition, relationship conflicts may be relieved by increasing job autonomy as much as possible, by granting autonomous control of working hours and bus headways, as well as by banning long work hours. Moreover, various club activities, exercise programs, and counseling programs that workers can be involved in together may be beneficial. This study is significant in that it identified the relationship of the bus drivers' emotional labor and job stress, which has previously been ignored as a research topic. Through its results, this study provides baseline data for the preparation of management strategies that can address the job stress of bus drivers.

Impact of Subsidies for Labor and Management-directed Health Promotion Activities on Industrial Accidents Prevention / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to compare the rates of industrial accidents in workplaces that adopted the 2011 Workplace Health Promotion Subsidy Scheme before and after the implementation. METHODS: The study analyzed the raw data of industrial accidents of 304 workplaces which received subsidies for health promotion activities in 2011. The raw data covered the period from February 2010 to July 2012, based on the dates of industrial accidents. RESULTS: Workplaces subsidized for health promotion activities reported fewer occurrences in staff injuries and illnesses than before the subsidization, as the total number of industrial accident victims dropped from 0.35 to 0.24. The rate of industrial accidents also dropped from 0.49 to 0.35, with the number of working days decreased from 35,433 to 23.867, about 33%. CONCLUSION: The study showed that financial support for health-promoting activities contributed to the decease in industrial accidents, which is an important indication advocating the need for corporate and government investment on workers health promotion programs. Furthermore, this study is also significant as it is the first research conducted in Korea to examine the impact of a workers health promotion project using a direct indicator, the rate of industrial accidents.

Factors that Have Effects on Public Health Center Volunteers' Satisfaction with Their Work

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and satisfaction with volunteer work in a population of health care center volunteers. Ultimately, the results from this study would help to find ways to keep volunteers continuing their work. METHODS: The participants of this study were 179 volunteers who were affiliated with three health care centers located in Gyeonggi-do. Descriptive statistics and multi-stage regression were conducted to analyze data. RESULTS: Self-esteem was significantly associated with the satisfaction with volunteer activity. In addition, the relationship with clients rather than volunteers' general characteristics was also significantly related to the satisfaction with volunteer work. CONCLUSION: Therefore, it is necessary to increase a volunteer's self-esteem so that the volunteer can keep continuing his or her volunteering activities. Also, in order to promote good relationships between the volunteers and the clients, it will be important to teach communication skills to volunteers.

Research Trend of Nurses' Job Stress: A Comparative Study / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was done to describe the research trend of nurses' job stress in Korea and abroad. METHODS: A narrative literature review of nurses'job stress related literature published from 1990 to Sept. 2011 was done. A total of 691 original articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers using analysis guidelines. Finally, 261 articles (Korean 177, international 84) were selected using exclusion criteria developed by the researchers. RESULTS: In Korea, most of the researches were in correlational survey design, using questionnaires and the tool of Kim and Gu (1984) to measure job stress. International researches were more diversified than Korean's in the research design, measurement tool, and data collection method. Especially, most of international researches focused on job related factor (number of patients, working time, etc.) and physical effects (tension, heart rate, etc.) of job stress. CONCLUSION: The results of the study may provide with information that can improve researches on nurses' job stress in Korea.

Factors Associated with Performance of Occupational Health Services in Small-sized Workplaces / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study is to identify factors associated with performance of occupational health services in small-sized workplaces in Korea. METHODS: The data were collected from a random sample of 1,158 occupational health managers working for small-sized workplaces across the nation in which occupational health services were supported by Korean Industrial Health Association. A structured questionnaire was self-administrated by occupational health managers about characteristics of workplaces, occupational health managers, and performance level of occupational health services. RESULTS: Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that factors associated with performance of occupational health services in small-sized workplaces included supervisor being designated, occupational health manager having received safety and health training, and employer's concern with activities of health management. CONCLUSION: Government should make efforts to raise the level of employer's concern to occupational health activities. And it is needed to promote health managing staff as a core personnel to self-management for occupational health system.

Factors Associated with Performance of Occupational Health Services in Small-sized Workplaces / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study is to identify factors associated with performance of occupational health services in small-sized workplaces in Korea. METHODS: The data were collected from a random sample of 1,158 occupational health managers working for small-sized workplaces across the nation in which occupational health services were supported by Korean Industrial Health Association. A structured questionnaire was self-administrated by occupational health managers about characteristics of workplaces, occupational health managers, and performance level of occupational health services. RESULTS: Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that factors associated with performance of occupational health services in small-sized workplaces included supervisor being designated, occupational health manager having received safety and health training, and employer's concern with activities of health management. CONCLUSION: Government should make efforts to raise the level of employer's concern to occupational health activities. And it is needed to promote health managing staff as a core personnel to self-management for occupational health system.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Adolescents Smoking: Difference Between Korean and Korean-Chinese

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare smoking prevalence and risk factors of smoking between Korean and Korean-Chinese middle school students. METHODS: Data was collected from seventh and eighth grade students from 12 schools in Korea and 6 schools in China. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and t test were performed. RESULTS: For data analysis 10,002 usable surveys were utilized. The smoking prevalence was higher in Korean-Chinese students than in Korean students. Risk factors, such as father smoking, friends smoking, gender, grade, academic achievement, alcohol use, and family income were associated with current smoking, and the differences in the two samples were significant. Korean-Chinese students were more likely than Korean students to have friends who smoked and a father who smoked. Smokers had a significantly higher rate of friends smoking, father smoking, and alcohol use. Korean-Chinese male students smoking prevalence was more than three times higher than Korean students. Korean students could sense a more anti-tobacco atmosphere in their environment. Korean-Chinese students were more likely than Korean students to perceive that it was easy to buy cigarettes and to smoke cigarettes in a public computer room. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the differences of smoking prevalence and risk factors between Korean-Chinese students and Korean students. The findings may help health educators and researchers to better understand adolescent smoking and risk factors cross culturally and aid in the development of more effective education programs, which could lead to preventing tobacco use among these populations.

Factors on the Suicidal Attempt by Gender of Middle and High School Student

PURPOSE: The suicide rate of adolescents in Korea is increasing annually. Therefore, this research was done to identify the suicide attempt rate of middle and high school students and to identify factors that influence suicidal attempts. METHODS: The Korea Youth Health Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2007) was used as data. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression were performed to analyze the data depending on gender to consider the gender difference in assessing the influence of each independent variable on suicidal attempts. RESULTS: Discriminant analysis according on gender showed that 13 factors correlated with suicidal attempts for boys, and 20 factors for girls. The most highly correlated factors were smoking, depression and inhalation experience. For inhalation experience, boys had 2.7 times higher possibility of suicide attempts (95% CI 1.8-3.0) and girls, a 2.4 times higher possibility (95% CI 1.7-3.5). CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate a need to classify adolescents for expectation of suicide risk and high danger for suicidal attempts through, and introduce suicide prevention programs for these adolescents. In particular, it is necessary to start intervention with students who smoke, have sexual and inhalation experiences and high levels of depression.

Accuracy of References in Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of references in articles published in Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing. METHODS: All references in articles from 2007 to 2009 were compared with PubMed for authors, years, titles, journals, volume, and page accuracy. Four hundred twenty six references were reviewed. Errors were classified either major or minor. RESULTS: Overall rate of inaccurate reference was 46.5%. 34.5% were major errors and 18.8% were minor errors. Most common major errors occurred in the authors, whereas most common minor errors occurred in the titles. CONCLUSION: It is necessary that authors, reviewers, and editorial committees make more efforts to enhance the reference accuracy.

Cardiovascular Disease Management among Workers in Small-Sized Enterprise Using Community-Based Approach / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze effects of cardiovascular disease prevention in small scale enterprise using community-based approach. METHOD: The target work site included 4,050 small scale enterprises which were under 50 in non-manufacturing workplace and total 20,986 employees were enrolled. Data collection was conducted from March to December, 2008 by 46 occupational health nurses who were registered in Korean Association of Occupational Health Nurses. RESULTS: The rate of smoking was decreased from 39.9% to 34.6%, and normal BMI group was increased from 61.6% to 64.0%. Evaluation of post-intervention blood pressure(BP) outcomes revealed that significant reductions in systolic BP and diastolic BP(3.25mmHg and 1.89mmHg, respectively) were achieved. In addition, the amount of reduction in total cholesterol level was 180.89+/-28.22mg/dL at pre-ntervention and 177.71+/-24.73mg/dL at post-intervention. CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular prevention program by community-based approach was an effective strategy for quitting smoking and improving BMI, BP, and cholesterol control.

The Influence of Social Support on Job Satisfaction of Migrant Workers / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: In Korea, the number of migrant workers is increasing. However, migrant workers have low job satisfaction due to poor working environment, and insufficient social support. This study aimed to investigate the role of social support for job satisfaction of migrant workers. METHOD: We have analyzed the survey data of 397 migrant workers collected from free clinic for migrant workers located in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheong-do. RESULT: When the migrant workers received monetary and emotional supports from supervisors and colleagues, their job satisfaction turned out to be significantly high. The factors that influence job satisfaction of migrant workers are as follows: involvement in manufacturing industry, over 9 hours of daily sleep, monetary and emotional support from supervisors. Their job satisfaction strongly influenced by these factors. CONCLUSION: Social support will increase job satisfaction of migrant workers and it will subsequently decrease job turnover rate and increase productivity as well as quality of life.

Factors Affecting the Burden on Employment of Health Care Providers in the Middle Sized Manufacturing Enterprises / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine factors affecting the burden on employment of occupational health care providers as well as to develop strategies to reduce burden on employment of them in the middle size manufacturing enterprises. METHODS: The target population of this study was 123 managers working in the middle size manufacturing enterprises. The study questionnaires were selected, as theories and literature suggested, for explaining employment burden, general characteristics of participants and occupational health providers, general characteristics of companies, evaluation of occupational health provider's role and burden score. RESULTS: The mean of employment burden score of manager was 2.2. There was a significant difference in the employment burden scores, manager's age and education, and occupational health provider's age, type of work, certification, and employment status. Also there was a negative relationship between employment burden scores and occupational health provider's role scores (need, role, satisfaction, and benefit). In the results of the standard multiple regression analysis, manager's need scores on occupational health providers were significant predictors of the employment burden scores. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to change the manager's perception to promote employment of occupational health providers.

Analysis of the Factors Affecting to Youth Smoking Based on the Stage of Change

PURPOSE: This study was to analyse the factors affecting youth smoking, especially self-efficacy and perceived social norm, based on the stage of change. METHODS: A self-reported survey was conducted during the period from the 21st of April to the 17th of May, 2008. Data were collected from 10,707 students of 12 middle schools in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon. The data were analysed with SPSS/WIN 15.0. RESULT: The smoking possibility was 2.18 times higher in the male students than in female students, and 1.76 times higher in 8th-grade students and 2.48 times higher in 9th-grade students than in 7th-grade ones. Smoking possibility increased when students had more experience in alcohol, more friends who smoke, or worse relationship with their parents. Also this study showed that high-level self-efficacy and perceived social norm were acting as inhibiting factors of smoking. CONCLUSION: To reduce the youth's smoking rate, smoking prevention programs should provide educational chances to learn knowledge and skills on how to reject smoking temptation. Also, someone significant like parents should make it clear to the youth that they do not want their children to smoke.

Analysis on Female Workers' Job Stress in Sales and Retail Industries / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to measure job stress and to explore risk factors of female workers in the retail and sales industries in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon. METHODS: A total of 321 participants responded to a self-administered questionnaire that included 24 items of the KOSS(Korean Occupational Stress Scale) and sociodemographic characteristics. The 240 questionnaires were collected from January to March 2007 and analyzed. RESULTS: The mean scores of female workers' job stress in the retail and sales industries ranged in Q50~74 compared with the average scores of female Koreans. The level of job insecurity was significantly high, and ranged in Q75~. However, the level of insufficient job control ranged in Q~24. Multiple regression analysis was used to explain the risk factors of female workers: monthly salary and insufficient sleep were of statistical significance. CONCLUSION: High level of job stress suggested that appropriate stress management programs be implemented for female workers in the retail and sales

Analysis on Female Workers' Job Stress in Sales and Retail Industries / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to measure job stress and to explore risk factors of female workers in the retail and sales industries in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon. METHODS: A total of 321 participants responded to a self-administered questionnaire that included 24 items of the KOSS(Korean Occupational Stress Scale) and sociodemographic characteristics. The 240 questionnaires were collected from January to March 2007 and analyzed. RESULTS: The mean scores of female workers' job stress in the retail and sales industries ranged in Q50~74 compared with the average scores of female Koreans. The level of job insecurity was significantly high, and ranged in Q75~. However, the level of insufficient job control ranged in Q~24. Multiple regression analysis was used to explain the risk factors of female workers: monthly salary and insufficient sleep were of statistical significance. CONCLUSION: High level of job stress suggested that appropriate stress management programs be implemented for female workers in the retail and sales