Factors Related to Subjective Well-being in Workers Who Interact with Angry Clients.

BACKGROUND: Among workers who interact with angry clients, there is limited information about the characteristics of workers who are most vulnerable to mental health problems. Thus, we determined the association of multiple demographic, socioeconomic, and modifiable work-related psychosocial factors with the subjective well-being of workers who interact with angry clients. METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, conducted in 2017. The study focused on workers who interacted with angry clients during 25% or more of their work time. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for the association of multiple factors with self-reported subjective well-being after adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic, and modifiable psychosocial factors. RESULTS: Overall, 9.6% of men and 7.4% of women who interacted with angry clients reported poor subjective well-being. Poor well-being was significantly more likely to be reported by men who worked 40 hours or more per week (aOR, 3.97-5.37) and by men who were daily workers (aOR, 2.21). Poor subjective well-being had a significantly positive association with exposure to adverse social behaviors by clients (men: aOR, 1.54, women: aOR, 1.58), and significantly negative associations with unskilled manual work (women only: aOR, 0.30), job satisfaction (men: aOR, 0.70, women: aOR, 0.52), and good social climate (men: aOR, 0.70, women: aOR, 0.44). CONCLUSION: Workers who interact with angry clients were widely distributed over non-manual labor and manual labor, but not limited to service and sales job. We identified modifiable factors that affect the subjective well-being of workers who interact with angry clients. We suggest that employers provide protection to prevent adverse social behaviors by clients, and also make an effort to establish a good social climate at the workplace.

Factors Related to Physical and Mental Health in Workers With Different Categories of Employment.

INTRODUCTION: We examined a large representative sample of workers in South Korea to compare the subjective well-being and musculoskeletal symptoms of those with standard employment and those with non-standard employment (temporary, daily, and part-time work). METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Condition Survey, conducted in 2017. RESULTS: Female part-time workers who had temporary and daily jobs were more likely to have poor subjective well-being, whereas female regular workers with part-time jobs were less likely to have poor subjective well-being than regular workers with full-time jobs. Daily workers of both sex with full-time jobs were more likely to have musculoskeletal pain than regular workers. CONCLUSION: Our characterization of workers with precarious employment indicated that several modifiable factors affected the subjective well-being and musculoskeletal symptoms of these workers.

Comparison of occupational health problems of employees and self-employed individuals who work in different fields.

We used a representative sample of the working population of Korea to compare the occupational health problems of employees and self-employed individuals who performed different types of work. The Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) of 2014 was used to compare the working conditions and occupational safety and health (OSH) issues of employees and self-employed individuals performing different types of work. Relative to paid employees, self-employed individuals were older, more likely to perceive their health as bad, and had less education, longer working hours, more exposure to workplace ergonomic hazards, more musculoskeletal problems, and poorer mental well-being. Relative to those performing "mental work" or "emotional work", individuals performing "physical work" were more vulnerable to OSH problems. In conclusion, self-employed individuals in the sample were more vulnerable to OSH problems.

The history of occupational health in South Korea.

South Korea has experienced rapid economic development over a 60-year period, since the 1960s, rising up from the ruins of the 1950-1953 Korean War. During this short period, South Korea experienced a wide range of occupational safety and health (OSH) problems, similar to that experienced in most developed countries about 100-200 years previously. In response, the South Korean government established a national OSH services system that is on par with most developed countries. In recent years, South Korea now faces a new collection of OSH challenges, such as mental health issues, microenterprise issues, precarious workers, and the promotion of work ability in a rapidly changing socioeconomic structure. This study evaluates the establishment of South Korea's OSH services system, including the socio-politico-economic contexts that have had a profound influence on the system during each historical period.

A comparison of the recognition of overwork-related cardiovascular disease in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

In Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) caused by overwork are recognized by government as work-related. These three countries are the only countries in the world that officially recognize CVDs caused by psychosocial factors (e.g., overwork) as work-related cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases (WR-CVDs), and compensate employees accordingly. The present study compared the similarities and differences among the recognition of overwork-related CVDs in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The criteria by which WR-CVDs are identified are very similar in the three countries. However, in the interval surveyed (1996-2009), Korea had a remarkably larger number of recognized WR-CVD patients than did Japan or Taiwan. Recognition of occupational diseases is influenced by various factors, including socio-cultural values, the nature of occupational health care schemes, the extent of the social security umbrella, national health insurance policy, and scientific evidence. Our results show that social factors may be very different among the three countries studied, although the recognition criteria for WR-CVDs are quite similar.

The recognition of occupational diseases attributed to heavy workloads: experiences in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: Health problems caused by long working hours and work stress have gained growing concerns in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. In all the three countries, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and mental disorders attributed to heavy workloads or stressful work events are considered compensable occupational diseases by workers' compensation systems. This study compared the trends of such cases and correlated the trends with changes in working hours during the period from 1980 to 2010. METHODS: Data on occupational diseases were obtained from official statistics of the workers' compensation systems. Information on working hours was obtained from official statistics and national surveys of employees. RESULTS: While occupational cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and mental disorders attributed to work stress were increasingly compensated in all the three countries, the averaged working hours and the percentage of employees with long working hours had been in decline discordantly. CONCLUSION: Findings of this study suggested that reducing working hours alone is unlikely to reduce the problems of work stress. There is an urgent need to monitor and regulate a wider range of psychosocial work hazards. Especially, precarious employment and its associated health risks should be targeted for effective prevention of stress-related health problems in the workplace.

A retrospective cohort study of Parkinson's disease in Korean shipbuilders.

OBJECTIVE: We performed a retrospective cohort study in South Korea to clarify the role of occupational exposure, especially to welding, in the etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: We constructed a database of subjects classified into an exposure group (blue-collar workers) and a non-exposure group (white-collar workers) in two shipbuilding companies. Jobs of blue-collar workers were categorized into the first group of welding, the second group of fitting, grinding and finishing, cutting, and the other group. To determine new cases of PD during the follow-up period (1992-2003), we used the physician billing claims database of the National Health Insurance Corporation. For the detected PD patients in the physician billing claims database, a neurologist in our research team confirmed the appropriateness of each diagnosis by reviewing medical charts. Based on the review, we confirmed the numbers of new cases of PD and calculated the relative risk (RR) and the 95% confidence intervals (CI) by Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: In a backward selection procedure, 'age' was a significant independent variable but exposure was not. Furthermore, the RR in welders (high exposure group) was also insignificant and less than that in others (very low exposure group). CONCLUSION: This longitudinal study of shipbuilding workers supports our previous case-control studies suggesting that exposure to manganese does not increase the risk of PD.