Association between Insufficient Physical Activity and Hearing Loss in Korean Adults

Background@#Insufficient physical activity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and some studies report relationship between physical activityand hearing. We aimed to analyze association between hearing loss and physical activity level in Korean adults. @*Methods@#We used data from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Insufficient physical activity was defined as a combinedphysical activity of less than 150 minutes per week.. Hearing loss was identified when the audible threshold decreased more than 40 dB. Weperformed multiple logistic regression analysis of major covariates and stratified the participants by age (≥60 versus <60). @*Results@#We analyzed 3,237 participants for whom no values were missing. In the final multivariate logistic analysis, the odds ratio of hearing loss was1.227 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.008–1.494) in the all frequency group and 1.361 (95% CI, 1.073–1.727) in the low frequency group. The resultfor the high frequency group was not statistically significant. In the group aged ≥60 years, the odds ratio of hearing loss in the all, low, and highfrequency groups were 1.277 (95% CI, 1.011–1.613), 1.405 (95% CI, 1.074–1.839), and 1.298 (95% CI, 1.013–1.662), respectively. @*Conclusion@#In this study, insufficient physical activity was associated with hearing loss in Korean adults. This result was more significant in the groupaged ≥60 years. Further studies should aim to validate these results and determine the causal relationship between physical inactivity and hearingloss.

The association between quality of direct supervisor's behavior and depressive mood in Korean wage workers: the 4th Korean Working Conditions Survey

BACKGROUND: Workers spend most of their social lives at work and have relationships of varying nature with people in the workplace. Direct supervisors, in particular, have a direct and lasting impact on workers, which may influence workers' mental health. Depression is very prevalent worldwide, and social concern about the disease is on the rise. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of direct supervisors' behavior on the depressive mood of Korean wage workers. METHODS: We used data from the 4th Korean Working Conditions Survey held in 2014; 22,212 participants were included in the analysis. The quality of a direct supervisor's behavior was categorized from 0 (= lowest) to 5 (= highest) points. The degree of depressive mood was measured on a scale from “normal mood” to “likely depression” based on the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the association between the quality of the direct supervisor's behavior and the depressive mood of wage workers. RESULTS: After multivariable adjustment, significantly increased odds ratio (OR) for likely depression was found in the 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 points of the quality of the direct supervisor's behavior compared to 5 points. After stratification for the level of satisfaction with working conditions, the OR of the unsatisfied groups was higher than that of the satisfied groups. CONCLUSIONS: Likely depression was found to be significantly associated with a low quality of direct supervisor's behavior. This association was stronger in workers who were not satisfied with their working conditions. This study suggests that proper management of the direct supervisor's behavior is needed to reduce the risk of depression among Korean wage workers.

Mental disorders among workers in the healthcare industry: 2014 national health insurance data

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have shown that healthcare professionals are exposed to psychological distress. However, since most of these studies assessed psychological distress using self-reporting questionnaires, the magnitude of the problem is largely unknown. We evaluated the risks of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, and any psychiatric disorders in workers in healthcare industry using Korea National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data from 2014, which are based on actual diagnoses instead of self-evaluation. METHODS: We used Korea 2014 NHI claims data and classified employees as workers in the healthcare industry, based on companies in the NHI database that were registered with hospitals, clinics, public healthcare, and other medical services. To estimate the standardized prevalence of the selected mental health disorders, we calculated the prevalence of diseases in each age group and sex using the age distribution of the Korea population. To compare the risk of selected mental disorders among workers in the healthcare industry with those in other industries, we considered age, sex, and income quartile characteristics and conducted propensity scored matching. RESULTS: In the matching study, workers in healthcare industry had higher odds ratios for mood disorders (1.13, 95% CI: 1.11–1.15), anxiety disorders (1.15, 95% CI: 1.13–1.17), sleep disorders (2.21, 95% CI: 2.18–2.24), and any psychiatric disorders (1.44, 95% CI: 1.43–1.46) than the reference group did. Among workers in healthcare industry, females had higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders than males, but the odds ratios for psychiatric disorders, compared to the reference group, were higher in male workers in healthcare industry than in females. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, and all psychiatric disorders for workers in the healthcare industry was higher than that of other Korean workers. The strikingly high prevalence of sleep disorders could be related to the frequent night-shifts in these professions. The high prevalence of mental health problems among workers in healthcare industry is alarming and requires prompt action to protect the health of the “protectors.”

Cardiovascular disease risk differences between bus company employees and general workers according to the Korean National Health Insurance Data

BACKGROUND: Bus drivers are known to be highly at risk of cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we assessed the cardiovascular disease prevalence of bus company employees in Seoul, South Korea, and compared the results to those of general workers. METHODS: We analyzed the 2014 Korean National Health Insurance (NHI) data and defined hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease based on the KCD-6 medical diagnoses. We used bus company employees as surrogate participants of bus drivers due to the characteristics of Korean NHI data. We identified bus company employees in Seoul based on one’s workplace which the insurance is registered. The prevalence of five diseases was compared between the bus company employees and general workers. We also calculated the odds ratios (OR) of five diseases between the bus company employees and general workers. To compensate the vast demographical differences between the two groups, we performed propensity score matching. RESULTS: Bus company employees have higher OR for having hypertension (OR 1.33, 95% CI: 1.28–1.39), diabetes mellitus (1.14, 95% CI: 1.08–1.22), and dyslipidemia (1.23, 95% CI: 1.17–1.29) than the general workers or propensity score matched controls. However, the OR of having ischemic heart disease were not significant. The OR of cerebrovascular disease were lower in bus company employees than in the general workers after adjusting the covariates, but similar in the propensity score matched model. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the ORs of cardiovascular disease risk factors are high in bus company employees when compared to the general working population. Further studies with the longitudinal design should be conducted to confirm the causal association.