- Correlates of Self-rated Fatigue in Korean Employees.
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Sei Jin Chang, Sang Baek Koh, Myung Gun Kang, Sook Jung Hyun, Bong Suk Cha, Jong Ku Park, Jun Ho Park, Seong Ah Kim, Dong Mug Kang, Seong Sil Chang, Kyung Jae Lee, Eun Hee Ha, Mina Ha, Jong Min Woo, Jung Jin Cho, Hyeong Su Kim, Jung Sun Park
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J Prev Med Public Health. 2005;38(1):71-81.
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To elucidate the correlates of self-rated fatigue in Korean employees. METHODS: The data for 10, 176 (men, 7, 984; women, 2, 192; mean age, 34.2; SD: 8.8) employees recruited from a nationwide sample were examined. A structured questionnaire was used to measure the participants' fatigue, sociodemographics (sex, age, education, and marital status), job-related characteristics (work duration, grade at work, work hours, shiftwork, employment type, and magnitude of workplace), and health-related habits (smoking, drinking, coffee intake, and exercise). Two types of measurement for fatigue were used to evaluate the magnitude of fatigue: self-rated question and a standardized measurement tool (Multidimensional Fatigue Scale: MFS). RESULTS: According to the self-rated fatigue, 32% of employees reported that they felt fatigue for the past two weeks, and 9.6% of males and 8.7% of females had experienced excessive fatigue (6 months or more). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that fatigue measured by MFS was more common in women, younger, college or more graduated, single, and employees who do not regularly exercise. Fatigue was also associated with long work hours, and the size of the workplace (< 1, 000 employees). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that fatigue has been considered as a common complaint, and that it is affected by job-related factors like work hours and the workplace size as well as sociodemographics or health-related behaviors. Further research is needed to clarify the effects of fatigue on adverse health outcomes, work performance, work disability, sick absence and medical utilization, and to examine the relationship of job characteristics (e.g.: work demand, decision latitude) to fatigue.
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- Epidemiology of Psychosocial Distress in Korean Employees.
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Sei Jin Chang, Sang Baek Koh, Myung Gun Kang, Bong Suk Cha, Jong Ku Park, Sook Jung Hyun, Jun Ho Park, Seong Ah Kim, Dong Mug Kang, Seong Sil Chang, Kyung Jae Lee, Eun Hee Ha, Mina Ha, Jong Min Woo, Jung Jin Cho, Hyeong Su Kim, Jung Sun Park
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J Prev Med Public Health. 2005;38(1):25-37.
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To estimate the magnitude of psychosocial distress and examine eligible factors associated with the development of psychosocial distress in Korean employees, using a nationwide sample. METHODS: A total of 6, 977 workers were recruited from 245 companies. A structured questionnaire was used to assess sociodemographics, health-related behaviors, job characteristics, social support at work, personality traits (locus of control, type A behavior pattern), self-esteem, and psychosocial distress. RESULTS: The results showed that 23 % of workers were categorized as high stress, 73% as moderate, and 5% as normal. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that psychosocial distress was more common in younger workers, both male and female. Regular exercise was negatively associated with increase of psychosocial distress. In job characteristics, as expected, low decision latitude, high job insecurity, and low social support at work were related to high psychosocial distress. Personality traits such as locus of control and type A behavior pattern, and self-esteem were more powerful predictors of psychosocial distress than general characteristics, health-related behavior, and job characteristics. There were some gender differences. While men who are less educated and single (unmarried, divorced, and separated) experienced higher levels of psychosocial distress than those who are educated and married, women who feel high job demand experienced higher levels of psychosocial distress than those who feel low job demand. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of the high stress group was higher than expected, and psychosocial factors like social support and personality characteristics (e. g. locus of control, type A behavior pattern and self-esteem) were more significant factors for psychosocial distress than other variables. This finding suggests that some psychosocial factors, especially inadequate social support, low self-esteem and lack of internal locus of control for the development of psychosocial distress, will also operate as an intervention strategy in the worksite stress reduction program. It is strongly required that worksite stress reduction programs should be established in at both occupational and level as well as in individual levels.
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- Concentration of Urinary Cotinine and Frequency of Sister Chromatid Exchange in Lymphocytes among Male Adolescents.
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Dong Ki Paek, Seong Sil Chang, Tae Yong Lee, Young Man Roh, Yeonkyeng Lee, Young Chae Cho, Dong Bae Lee
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Korean J Prev Med. 2001;34(3):269-276.
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To evaluate the internal burden and hazardous effects associated with smoking in middle and high school students. METHODS: We analysed urinary cotinine (U-cotinine) concentrations and the frequency of Sister Chromatid Exchanges (SCE). A comparison was done of U-cotinine concentrations and the frequency of SCE in peripheral lymphocytes across school levels (middle vs. high) and smoking types (direct: daily & occasional smoking, indirect: usual indirect & non-smoking), in 122 males. RESULTS: The middle school student group comprised 6.8% daily smokers, 15.9% occasional smokers, 40.9% daily indirect smokers, and 35.4% nonsmokers, while the high school student group comprised 18.0%, 20.5%,39.7%, and 21.8%, respectively. The U-cotinine concentration and the frequency of SCE among the middle school students were 79.11 microgram/literand 2.0 per cell, respectively, which were significantly lower than the 146.85 microgram/liter (p=0.078) and 2.6 per cell (p=0.005) of the high school students. Among the 40 direct smokers, these two biomarkers were 235.66 microgram/literand 2.59 per cell, significantly higher than the 67.33 microgram/liter (p=0.0001) and2.1 per cell (p=0.003) among indirect smoking groups. The variation in individual U-cotinine concentration ranged widely in both the indirect and direct smoking groups. CONCLUSION: Urinary cotinine concentrations and the frequency of Sister Chromatid Exchange seem to objectively and effectively evaluate student exposure whether it was direct or indirect smoking. Consequently, these biomarkers may be useful in monitoring the objective efficacy of anti-smoking programs in adolescent populations.
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- The Assessment of Stress between White and Blue Collar Workers by using Psychosocial Well-being Index.
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Seong Ouk Hur, Seong Sil Chang, Jung Wan Koo, Chung Yill Park
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Korean J Prev Med. 1996;29(3):609-616.
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- This study was conducted to evaluate the degree of stress state and the risk factors related to in 967 white collar workers and 275 blue collar workers buy using Psycosocial Well-being Index. The results obtained were as follows: 1. In the white collar workers and blue collar workers, young age, low education and low income groups had high scores of stress, while in white collar workers, female had high scores of stress but in blue collar workers male had high scores of stress. 2. According to psychosocial well-being index, mild stress state were 73.9% and 53.1%, high risk stress state were 8.9% and 44.4%, and healthy state were 17.2 and 2.6% in white collar and blue collar workers respectively. 3. The total stress score was highly associated with the factors of depression, social performance and self-confidence, general well-being and vitality, and sleeping disturbance and anxiety in order. 4. In reliability test of stress factors, Cronbach's coefficients of depression, social performance and self-confidence, general well-being and vitality, and sleeping disturbance and anxiety were 0.89, 0.81, 0.79, and 0.74 respectively. In conclusion, it suggested that age, sex, marital status, income, education, sleeping time, smoking and exercise habit were associated with stress score, all of above factors should considered to occupational health.
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- Performance Ranges of the Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery among Female Workers Occupationally Not Exposed to Neurotoxic Agents in Manufacturing Industries.
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Kyung Jae Lee, Se Hoon Lee, Hyoung Ah Kim, Won Chul Lee, Seong Sil Chang, Chung Yill Park, Chee Kyung Chung
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Korean J Prev Med. 1995;28(4):911-923.
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- With increased use of neurotoxic agents in manufacturing industries, hazardous effects of neurotoxic agents pose significant problems in protecting health of workers who work in these industries. A normal range of neurobehavioral performance is required 10 study hazardous effects of neurotoxic agents among workers. However, such reference for Korean population is not available yet. The objective of this study is to estimate a normal range of neurobehuvioral test performance of female workers in Korea. Data for neurobehavioral test performance developed by the world Health organization were obtained from 165 female workers. Study Subjects, 140 production workers and 25 clerks, who voluntarily participated in this study were not occupationally exposed to neurotoxic agents. The mean age and the mean education years of them were 32 years and 10.9 years, respectively. Santa Ana dexterity, pursuit aiming, digit symbol, simple reaction time, and Benton visual retention tests among the Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery(NCTB) were included in the evaluation. Subjects were interviewed by a trained interviewer for their detailed occupational history. Mean(+/-SD) performance of the participants were: 45.7+/-7.1 and 41.9+/-6.4 in the Santa Ana dexterity test of the preferred and non-preferred hands; 191.9+/-38.6 in correct dot of the pursuit aiming test; 57.7+/-16.0 in the digit symbol test; 274.8+/-44.6 msec in the mean simple reaction time and 70.5+/-69.0 msec in the mean standard deviation of it; and 7.8+/-1.7 in the Benton visual retention test. Most neurobehavioral performance scores were correlated significantly with age and educational level. Educational level was found to be a significant independent variable which was associated with all test scores. Age was significantly associated with scores of pursuit aiming and digit symbol tests.
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- Knowledge and AttitudeA;of the Workers and the Health Personnel on the Health Management in Kyung-In Area.
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Seong Sil Chang, Se Hoon Lee
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Korean J Prev Med. 1994;27(1):145-158.
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- This study was performed to investigate the knowledge and attitude of workers in small scale industries on health management, and to provide the basic data for more effective service by the group occupational health service system. The knowledge and attitude of 247 workers and 46 health personnel in the industries scattered around Incheon were investigated from December 1992 to February 1993. The results were summarized as follows; 1. There were significant differences between the workers and the health personnel by age, sex, marriage status, job-position and education level. 2. The recognition level of the workers to contract work related disease was significantly higher than that of health personnel, and recognition level of the workers on environmental hazards and on the utility of measuring hazards were lower than that of health personnel. 3. The recognition level on the content of the group occupational health service system was significantly different between workers and health personnel, 72.6% of the responses from the workers answered that they did not know what the group occupational health service system was, but 82.2% of the responses from the health personnel answered that they knew well what it was. And 79.0% of all respondents thought it was necessary for worker's health. 4. seventy three percent of the respondents from the workers indicated that they had never taken health education. However, 93.0% of all respondents answered positively for the need of health education to promote their health. 5. current health service system was judged to be insufficient for the demand of workers for better health. Most of the respondents prefered a formal but flexible health service system and they wanted the periodic health examination to be followed up. It was revealed that despite of poor knowledge, the demand of workers for health service was higher than the current supply. Therefore, this study suggests that educating both health personnel and workers to obtain correct knowledge on the hazards to work environment and health management is needed for effective occupational health service.
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