Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine最新文献

Modern Korean society is experiencing fundamental transformations in industrial structures and working environments driven by complex factors, including demographic shifts, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and digital transformation. The evolving dynamics between the manufacturing and service industries, the emergence of technology-driven sectors, and the proliferation of new occupational categories are reshaping traditional employment models. This has directed the labor market toward nonstandard employment forms, including temporary, contract-based, and platform labor. Consequently, issues such as employment instability and reduced accessibility to workplace health programs, including occupational safety training, health examinations, and workplace health management, have become increasingly prominent. Although occupational and environmental medicine has subsequently gained significance, the current occupational health and safety framework inadequately addresses the nuances of emerging labor forms. Legal gaps persist, leaving vulnerable groups such as nonregular workers, platform laborers, and older workers insufficiently protected under existing systems. Furthermore, systemic issues are evident in the inadequate follow-up care during occupational health examinations, lacking continued adherence to hazard-centric approaches, and insufficient attention to chronic diseases and mental health challenges. This study proposes strategies that occupational and environmental medicine can address these issues. First, legal and institutional reforms must encompass new labor forms, accompanied by modernized safety and health guidelines. Second, state-of-the-art technologies should be leveraged to enhance predictive disease management and personalized healthcare for workers. Third, a preventive approach integrating chronic disease management, mental healthcare, and psychosocial risk factors must be established. Fourth, fostering interdisciplinary research collaboration across medicine, engineering, and psychology is essential for developing practical solutions to emerging challenges. In conclusion, occupational and environmental medicine in Korea must adapt to effectively address the evolving labor landscape. Through systematic innovation, integrated health-management approaches, technological advancements, and interdisciplinary cooperation, the health and safety of all workers in the rapidly changing world can be ensured.

A comprehensive list of occupational diseases among farmers is crucial for both compensation and prevention efforts. In Korea, most farmers are self-employed, and some occupational diseases are compensated through farmer safety insurance. However, it is not harmonized with industrial accident compensation insurance and does not adequately reflect the true burden of occupational diseases among farmers. To address this gap, the authors compiled a list of occupational diseases tailored to Korean farmers by reviewing the International Labor Organization's list of occupational diseases, the Korean Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance List, the occupational disease lists of other countries, and relevant literature on farmers' work-related diseases.

The Korean Work, Sleep, and Health Study (KWSHS) was launched in 2022 as a longitudinal panel study to examine the interactions between work conditions, sleep health, and labour market performance among the Korean workforce. Baseline data were collected from 5,517 participants aged 19 to 70, encompassing diverse occupations. Follow-up surveys occur biannually, accommodating seasonal variations in sleep and health dynamics. To ensure stability, refreshment samples were integrated in later waves, maintaining a cohort size of 5,783 participants in wave 5. Key data include socio-demographics, employment characteristics, sleep patterns, health outcomes, and workplace performance. Early findings highlight critical associations, such as the adverse effects of occupational physical activity on productivity, the impact of emotional labour on health-related productivity loss, and the significance of sleep disruptions on mental health. The cohort's design enables detailed analyses of longitudinal and cross-sectional trends, offering insights into how changing work environments influence health and productivity. The KWSHS could serve as a vital resource for evidence-based interventions aimed at improving occupational health and productivity in Korea's evolving labour landscape. Data access is available through the study's principal investigator upon request.

Background: Humans are exposed to mercury primarily in its highly toxic form, methyl mercury, which is known to have adverse effects on various organs and systems. The negative impact of mercury exposure on the growth, development, and mental health of children, from infancy to adolescence, is well-documented. However, there are no internationally standardized safe limits for mercury exposure. This study investigated the impact of dietary habits and higher body mass index (BMI) on blood mercury levels in adolescents.

Methods: This study analyzed the data from the 4th Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) 2018-2020. The focus was on 825 middle and high school students aged 13-18 years, whose blood mercury levels were measured. A survey on dietary and lifestyle habits was also conducted. Blood mercury levels were categorized by geometric median values, and associations with overweight status and seafood consumption were examined using a generalized linear model.

Results: The geometric mean blood mercury level for the entire sample was 1.37 μg/L, with levels of 1.31 μg/L in normal-weight individuals and 1.43 μg/L in overweight individuals, showing a statistically significant difference between the two groups. After adjusting for other variables, blood mercury levels were significantly associated with overweight status (estimate: 0.084; p = 0.018; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.015-0.153), consumption of large fish and tuna more than once a week (estimate: 0.18; p = 0.001; 95% CI: 0.077-0.284), and consumption of fish once a week or more (estimate: 0.147; p = 0.004; 95% CI: 0.043-0.250).

Conclusions: In adolescents, a higher BMI and an increased consumption of large fish, tuna, and fish were associated with higher blood mercury levels. Notably, a stronger association was found between large fish consumption and blood mercury levels in the overweight group. These findings suggest the need to moderate seafood consumption and establish more proactive mercury exposure standards for adolescents.

Background: Commuting is essential for working life; however, prolonged travel times can negatively affect health, particularly musculoskeletal pain. This study aims to examine the relationship between commuting time and musculoskeletal pain (back, upper extremity, and lower extremity pain), in the context of working time.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Sixth Korean Working Conditions Survey conducted in Korea between October 2020 and April 2021. Variables such as commuting time, weekly working hours, and shift work were assessed using the survey questions. Musculoskeletal pain was determined based on self-reported pains in the previous year. The covariates included demographics, employment status, ergonomic risks, and job stress. The association between commuting time and musculoskeletal pain stratified by weekly working hours or shift work was analyzed by survey-weighted logistic regression analysis.

Results: This study found a significant association between longer commuting times and increased prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, particularly back, upper extremity, and lower extremity pain. When commuting time was ≤60, 61-120, >120 minutes, the odds ratio was 1.00, 1.33 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16-1.52), and 2.41 (95% CI: 1.77-3.29) for back pain; 1.00, 1.29 (95% CI: 1.13-1.46), and 2.27 (95% CI: 1.71-3.00) for upper extremity pain; and 1.00, 1.24 (95% CI: 1.05-1.45), and 1.53 (95% CI: 1.13-2.08) for lower extremity pain, respectively. Furthermore, except for upper extremity pain, this trend was amplified when participants were concurrently exposed to long working hours, and for lower extremity pain, this trend was aggravated among shift workers.

Conclusions: Long commuting time may be a risk factor for musculoskeletal pain, and its' effects could be aggravated when combined with long working hours or shift work. This study observed the detrimental impact of prolonged commuting on musculoskeletal health, particularly among employees with extended working hours or shift work.

Background: The purpose of this study is to describe the kinematic characteristics of manual weaving related to the biomechanical risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders.

Methods: Twelve professional female weavers participated in this study. The video recording of their workstations was performed perpendicularly in the sagittal and transverse planes in a synchronized manner, at about 2.45 m and for 5 minutes. The videos were then analyzed using the Kinove software. Statistical processing by the statistical SPSS 22 software.

Results: The results identified a succession of cycles, each with two important phases called the "interlacing" phase and the "winding/adjustment" phase. The average cycle time is 127.9 ± 11.7 seconds. The "interlacing" phase is the longest and concerns an average 80% of the cycle time or 103.5 ± 35.9 seconds. The segmental movements are mainly flexion-extension type with angular variations constantly above the acceptable limits. It is the same for the repetitiveness of the movements which solicit the upper limb and the trunk particularly.

Conclusions: These results recommend one of the actions to prevent musculoskeletal disorders including instructions on postures and frequencies of weaving movements as well as physical exercises adapted to the physical needs of practitioners.

Background: The prevalence of multiple job-holding (MJH) is expected to show an upward trend among Korean workers, yet its potential impact on workers' health remains poorly discussed. This study aimed to explore the association between MJH and experience of physical and psychological symptoms in various aspects among active Korean workers and to identify its differences depending on workers' gender.

Methods: We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study among South Korean workers aged 15-59 using data from the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey. The final study sample comprised 34,175 participants. MJH status and symptoms, such as musculoskeletal pain, headache or eyestrain, fatigue, insomnia, and anxiety, were measured by self-reported data. Logistic regression analyses were performed on the total sample and gender-stratified groups, with adjustments for the sociodemographic and occupational characteristics of the participants.

Results: One hundred thirty-five men and 103 women were defined as multiple job-holders (MJHers) among the study sample. When adjusted for sociodemographic and occupational characteristics, MJHers suffered more events of headache or eyestrain (odds ratio [OR]: 1.85, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.23-2.78) and anxiety (OR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.05-3.79). Gender-stratified analyses with adjustment showed that among women workers, MJH was associated with musculoskeletal pain (OR: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.02-3.34), headache or eyestrain (OR: 2.53, 95% CI: 1.37-4.67), fatigue (OR: 2.38, 95% CI: 1.29-4.40), insomnia (OR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.04-3.57), and anxiety (OR: 2.83, 95% CI: 1.11-7.20).

Conclusions: We found a significant association between MJH and various symptoms. Women MJHers were revealed to be a more vulnerable population than their men counterparts. Further research should account for the social context of MJH, and appropriate monitoring and intervention for maintaining the well-being of MJHers are needed.

Background: Benzophenone-3 is a type of ketone with 2 benzene rings attached to a carbonyl group (C=O) and one benzene ring attached to a hydroxyl group (-OH). As an endocrine-disrupting chemical, benzophenone-3 is known to be associated with reproductive, developmental, thyroid, and endocrine toxicities. Benzophenone-3 is commonly used in hair products, cosmetics, and ultraviolet (UV) filters because of its characteristic property to absorb UV light. This study aims to investigate the association between the use of hair products and urine benzophenone-3 using the data from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) cycle 4 (2018-2020), which represents the Korean population.

Methods: Using the KoNEHS cycle 4 survey, the data of 3,796 adults aged ≥ 19 years were analyzed. Based on the 75th percentile concentration of urine benzophenone-3, the participants were divided into the low- and high-concentration groups. Chi-square test was conducted to analyze the association of urine benzophenone-3 with distribution of general characteristics, use of personal care products, consumption of marine foods, and use of plastic products as the variable. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for the high-concentration group of urine benzophenone-3 based on the use of hair products.

Results: Women with < 6 times or ≥ 6 times of hair product usage had significantly higher adjusted ORs compared to those who did not use hair products. The calculated ORs were 1.24 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12-1.38) for women with < 6 times of usage and 1.54 (95% CI: 1.33-1.79) for women with ≥ 6 times of usage.

Conclusions: This study revealed the association between the use of hair products and the concentration of urine benzophenone-3 in the general Korean population.

Background: Accurate occupation classification is essential in various fields, including policy development and epidemiological studies. This study aims to develop an occupation classification model based on DistilKoBERT.

Methods: This study used data from the 5th and 6th Korean Working Conditions Surveys conducted in 2017 and 2020, respectively. A total of 99,665 survey participants, who were nationally representative of Korean workers, were included. We used natural language responses regarding their job responsibilities and occupational codes based on the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations (7th version, 3-digit codes). The dataset was randomly split into training and test datasets in a ratio of 7:3. The occupation classification model based on DistilKoBERT was fine-tuned using the training dataset, and the model was evaluated using the test dataset. The accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score were calculated as evaluation metrics.

Results: The final model, which classified 28,996 survey participants in the test dataset into 142 occupational codes, exhibited an accuracy of 84.44%. For the evaluation metrics, the precision, recall, and F1 score of the model, calculated by weighting based on the sample size, were 0.83, 0.84, and 0.83, respectively. The model demonstrated high precision in the classification of service and sales workers yet exhibited low precision in the classification of managers. In addition, it displayed high precision in classifying occupations prominently represented in the training dataset.

Conclusions: This study developed an occupation classification system based on DistilKoBERT, which demonstrated reasonable performance. Despite further efforts to enhance the classification accuracy, this automated occupation classification model holds promise for advancing epidemiological studies in the fields of occupational safety and health.