Fixed night workers and failed smoking cessation.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between employee work schedule and failure in smoking cessation. METHODS: Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between work schedule and failed smoking cessation rate among 4927 male workers who had attempted smoking cessation. The data was obtained from the annual Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2015 (excluding data from 2013). An adjusted model, including demographic and occupational variables, was constructed after stratifying the data into two subgroups by age (the 19- to 40-year-old group and the 41- to 60-year-old group). RESULTS: The percentage of smoking-cessation failure varied according to work schedule and age. The failure rate in the 19- to 40-year-old group was generally higher for all work schedule categories than in the 41- to 60-year-old group. In particular, the highest percentage (90.9%) of smoking-cessation failure was in the fixed overnight work group. After adjusting for demographic characteristics and work organization variables, the odds ratio for failed smoking cessation across all ages was 3.30 (95%CI 2.23-4.86) among the fixed overnight workers compared to the daytime workers. Both of the age-stratified subgroups maintained this relationship, with a notably higher OR in the 19- to 40-year-old group (OR 3.74, 95% CI 1.80-7.77). CONCLUSIONS: Fixed overnight work is likely to negatively affect smoking cessation compared to other work schedules. Tailored anti-smoking intervention programs are required based on work schedule.

The Impact of Depression on Ill-Health Retirement and Its Moderating Factors: Analysis From the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (2006 to 2014).

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of depressive symptoms on ill-health retirement (IHR). METHODS: Data were collected from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing which conducted biennially from 2006 to 2014. IHR were defined as those who retired due to their health problems. The short-form Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale served as outcome measure for definition of depressive symptoms. Hazard ratios of IHR were estimated by Cox regression. RESULTS: We observed that depressive symptoms significantly increased risk of IHR during 8-year follow-up period. Compared with those without depressive symptoms, depressed worker had 1.27-fold elevated risk for IHR. Subgroup analysis showed that the association between depressive symptoms and IHR is greater in the elders, women, and lower income group than the others. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms independently predicted IHR. Moreover, age, sex, and socioeconomic status modified these effects.

Service and sales workers, are they vulnerable to smoking cessation?

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between failed smoking cessation and occupation by age stratification among Korean males and provide quantitative evidence of factors associated with failed smoking cessation. The study comprised 3,127 male workers who had attempted smoking cessation during their life time. Data were obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2010 to 2012. Participants were stratified by age into two subgroups comprising a younger group (19-40 yr) and an older group (41-60 yr). Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for failed smoking cessation. In the younger group, failed smoking cessation was related to the occupational fields "service and sales" and "manual work" compared to "office work" (OR: 2.10, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.34-3.29; and OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.02-2.12, respectively). In the older group, the ORs of failed smoking cessation occupational categories "service and sales" and "manual work" [ref: office workers] were 0.58 (0.40-0.85) and 0.90 (0.66-1.24), respectively. Failed smoking cessation is associated with occupational categories and age stratification. Policy makers need to create tailored anti-smoking policy considering the occupation and the age of the subjects.