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Background@#Occupational injuries and diseases are life events that significantly impact an individuals’ identity. In this study, we examined the trajectories of self-esteem among victims of occupational injury and disease and their relation to health. @*Methods@#The Panel Study of Workers’ Compensation Insurance conducted annual followups on workers who had experienced occupational injury or disease. A total of 2,000 participants, who had completed medical care, were followed from 2013 to 2017. Growth mixture modeling was utilized to identify latent classes in the self-esteem trajectory.Additionally, logistic regressions were conducted to explore the association between trajectory membership, baseline predictors, and outcomes. @*Results@#Three distinct trajectory classes were identified. Total 65.8% of the samples (n = 1,316) followed an increasing self-esteem trajectory, while 31.1% (n = 623) exhibited a constant trajectory, and 3.1% (n = 61) showed a decreasing trajectory. Individuals with an increasing trajectory were more likely to have a higher educational attainment (odds ratio [OR], 1.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20–2.88), an absence of a moderate-to-severe disability rating (OR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.25–0.96), no difficulty in daily living activities (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75–0.88), and were economically active (re-employed: OR, 2.46; 95% CI, 1.52–3.98; returned to original work: OR, 4.46; 9% CI, 2.65–7.50). Those with a decreasing self-esteem trajectory exhibited an increased risk of poor subjective health (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 0.85–4.85 in 2013 to OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.04–13.81 in 2017), whereas individuals with an increasing trajectory showed a decreased risk (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.43–0.68 in 2013 to OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.33–0.57 in 2017). @*Conclusion@#Our findings emphasize the diversity of psychological responses to occupational injury or disease. Policymakers should implement interventions to enhance the self-esteem of victims.
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Methods@#To operationalize precarious employment, we utilized data from the Korean Working Conditions Survey and focused on three distinct dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and a lack of rights and protections. By constructing a summative scale ranging from -16 to 2, with lower scores indicating higher precariousness, we measured employment precariousness among Korean wage workers. To compare employment precariousness according to survey participant characteristics, we employed the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test. @*Results@#We analyzed a weighted number of 38,432 workers. The overall sample showed a median (Q1, Q3) summative scale score of -3 (-6, -1). The median summative score was lower for women compared to men (men: -2; women: -5; p < 0.001), as well as for young or older workers compared to middle-aged workers (young: -4; middle-aged: -2; older: -5; p < 0.001). Similarly, workers with lower educational levels (middle school or below: -8; high school: -5; college or above: -2; p < 0.001) and non-white collar workers (blue collar: -5; service/sales worker: -6; white collar: -2; p < 0.001) experienced higher levels of employment precariousness. @*Conclusion@#Our findings indicate that certain vulnerable groups, such as women, young or older adults, workers with low educational attainment, and caregiving or low-skilled elementary workers, are disproportionately exposed to high employment precariousness. Active policy interventions are needed to improve the employment quality of vulnerable groups.