Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine最新文献

{"title":"Problems and suggested improvement plans for occupational health service in Korea.","authors":"Dongmug Kang","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e10","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea’s occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%–40%, to 70%–80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e10"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/76/f7/aoem-35-e10.PMC10277204.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10046988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationship between shellfish consumption and urinary phthalate metabolites: Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) cycle 3 (2015-2017).","authors":"Jisoo Kang,&nbsp;Seong-Yong Cho,&nbsp;Jinseok Kim,&nbsp;Seongyong Yoon,&nbsp;Jong-Min An,&nbsp;Gayoung Kim,&nbsp;Si Young Kim","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals that are widely used in the production of items of daily life such as in polyvinylchloride plastics, insecticides, and medical devices. This study aimed to determine the association between phthalate exposure and shellfish consumption using data from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) cycle 3 (2015-2017), which is a nationally representative survey.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we analyzed the KoNEHS cycle 3 data of 3,333 (1,526 men and 1,807 women) adults aged more than 19 years. Data related to the variables of sociodemographic factors, health-related behaviors, dietary factors, seafood consumption frequency, and urinary phthalate metabolites concentrations were collected. The concentrations of urinary phthalate metabolites of all the participants were divided into quartiles to define high and low concentration groups based on the 75th percentile concentration. A χ² test was conducted to analyze the distribution of independent variables. To analyze the relationship between shellfish consumption and phthalate exposure, the odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using logistic regression analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Total adults with shellfish consumption frequency of over once a week showed the following adjusted ORs for high concentrations of the following metabolites compared with the group that consumed shellfish once a week or less: 1.43 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-2.06) for mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP), 1.43 (95% CI: 1.01-2.03) for mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (MECPP), 1.57 (95% CI: 1.10-2.24) for ∑di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (∑DEHP), 2.01 (95% CI: 1.46-2.77) for mono-carboxyoctyl phthalate (MCOP), 1.56 (95% CI: 1.11-2.18) for mono-carboxy-isononly phthalate (MCNP), and 2.57 (95% CI: 1.85-3.56) for mono (3-carboxypropyl) phthalate (MCPP).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The concentrations of urinary phthalate metabolites (MEOHP, MECPP, ∑DEHP, MCOP, MCNP, and MCPP) were higher in adults with a higher frequency of shellfish consumption.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e2"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/f0/47/aoem-35-e2.PMC10011409.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9131743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Risk assessment of heavy metals in tuna from Japanese restaurants in the Republic of Korea.","authors":"Seong-Jin Bae,&nbsp;Kyu-Sik Shin,&nbsp;Chulyong Park,&nbsp;Kiook Baek,&nbsp;So-Young Son,&nbsp;Joon Sakong","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Studies on the risk of mercury (Hg) in Korean fishery products focus primarily on total Hg levels as opposed to methylmercury (MeHg) levels. None of the few studies on MeHg in tuna investigated tuna from Japanese restaurants. Few have evaluated lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) in tuna. Thus, this study aimed to conduct a risk assessment by evaluating heavy metal concentrations in tuna from Japanese restaurants.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Thirty-one tuna samples were collected from Japanese restaurants in the Republic of Korea. They were classified according to region and species. The concentration of heavy metals in the samples was analyzed using the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Food Code method. The rate of exceedance of maximum residue levels (MRLs) and the risk compared to the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) set by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (%PTWI) were evaluated for risk assessment.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mean of MeHg, Pb, Cd and As concentrations were 0.56 ± 1.47 mg/kg, 33.95 ± 3.74 μg/kg, 14.25 ± 2.19 μg/kg and 1.46 ± 1.89 mg/kg, respectively. No sample exceeded the MRLs of Pb and Cd, but 9.7% of the samples exceeded the MRL of MeHg. The %PTWIs of MeHg, Pb, Cd and As were 4.2037, 0.0162, 0.0244 and 1.1627, respectively. The %PTWI of MeHg by age group and sex was highest among men aged 19-29 years (10.6494), followed by men aged 30-49 years (7.2458) and women aged 19-29 years (4.8307).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We found that 3 out of 31 samples exceeded the MRL of MeHg. The %PTWI of MeHg showed significant differences based on age and sex, and the value was likely to exceed a safe level depending on individuals' eating behaviors. Therefore, improved risk management for MeHg is required.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e3"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/33/19/aoem-35-e3.PMC10011450.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9137665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing a short standard questionnaire for assessing work organization hazards: the Healthy Work Survey (HWS).","authors":"BongKyoo Choi,&nbsp;Youngju Seo","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>At present, no short standard questionnaire exists for assessing and comparing major work organization hazards in the workplaces of the United States.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a series of psychometric tests (content validity, factor analysis, differential-item functioning analysis, reliability, and concurrent validity) to validate and identify core items and scales for major work organization hazards using the data from the 2002-2014 General Social Surveys (GSSs), including the Quality of Worklife (QWL) questionnaire. In addition, an extensive literature review was undertaken to find other major work organization hazards which were not addressed in the GSS.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Although the overall validity of the GSS-QWL questionnaire was satisfactory in the psychometric tests, some GSS-QWL items of work-family conflict, psychological job demands, job insecurity, use of skills on the job, and safety climate scales appeared to be weak. In the end, 33 questions (31 GSS-QWL and 2 GSS) were chosen as the least, but best validated core questions and included in a new short standard questionnaire (called the Healthy Work Survey [HWS]). And their national norms were established for comparisons. Furthermore, based on the literature review, fifteen more questions for assessing other significant work organization hazards (e.g., lack of scheduling control, emotional demands, electronic surveillance, wage theft) were included in the new questionnaire. Thus, the HWS includes 48 questions in total for assessing traditional and emerging work organization hazards, which covers seven theoretical domains: work schedule/arrangement, control, support, reward, demands, safety, and justice.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The HWS is a short standard questionnaire for assessing work organization hazards which can be used as a first step toward the risk management of major work organization hazards in the workplaces of the US.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e7"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/c5/f7/aoem-35-e7.PMC10172462.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9470918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The relationship between visual display terminal usage at work and symptoms related to computer vision syndrome.","authors":"Soonsu Shin,&nbsp;Eun Hye Yang,&nbsp;Hyo Choon Lee,&nbsp;Seong Ho Moon,&nbsp;Jae-Hong Ryoo","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Although it is well known that the usage of visual display terminal (VDT) at the workplace causes computer vision syndrome (CVS), previous studies mainly focused on computer use and the health of white-collar workers. In this study, we explored the relationship between the usage of VDT including various devices, and symptoms related to CVS in a large population including pink-collar workers and blue-collar workers.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>21,304 wage workers over the age of 20 years were analyzed from the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey. To investigate the association between VDT use at work and symptoms related to CVS among wage workers, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by multivariate logistic regression models.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In the group with the highest VDT usage at work, the OR of headache/eyestrain was 2.16 (95% CI: 1.86-2.52). The OR of suspected CVS patients was significantly increased in the highest group of usage of VDT at work (OR: 1.69; 95% CI, 1.39-2.06). Compare with the reference group, the OR for headache/eyestrain in the highest group of VDT usage was 2.81 (95% CI: 2.13-3.70) in white-collar workers, 1.78 (95% CI: 1.32-2.40) in pink-collar workers, and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.18-2.15) in blue-collar workers.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We observed a relationship in which the use of VDT in the workplace increases the risk of headache/eyestrain regardless of occupational classification. Our findings emphasize the importance of paying attention to the health of VDT workers and making plans to improve their working conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e1"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/b9/44/aoem-35-e1.PMC9936056.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10757710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Particulate matter concentration effects on attention to environmental issues: a cross-sectional study among residents in Korea's Pohang Industrial Complex.","authors":"Hye-Seung Ryu,&nbsp;Jea Chul Ha,&nbsp;Insung Chung,&nbsp;Seonhee Yang,&nbsp;Hyunjoo Kim,&nbsp;Sung-Deuk Choi","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e31","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>With modernization, air pollution has become increasingly serious, and its effects on health have been revealed. As a result, public interest in environmental pollution has become critical for regulating air pollution. In our study, we aim to evaluate the impact of air pollution levels on public attention to environmental issues and examine whether awareness of the residential environment's impact on health acts as a mediator in this relationship.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted an analysis on 400 individuals surveyed in the preliminary feasibility study on adverse health effects in the Pohang Industrial Complex, to examine the relationship between particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and attention to environmental issues. Logistic regression analysis was performed, and mediation analysis was used to determine whether awareness of the residential environment's impact on health mediated the relationship.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The logistic regression analysis results showed that PM2.5 levels were associated with attention to environmental issues (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3-3.5; <i>p</i> = 0.003) and awareness of health impacts (AOR: 3.4; 95% CI: 1.6-7.1; <i>p</i> = 0.001). The PM2.5 levels showed 9.9% (95% CI: 5.4-14.0) increase in the prevalence of high attention to environmental issues, of which, only 1.0% (95% CI: 0.2-2.3) were mediated by health impact awareness. In the overall analysis, 10% of the total effect of PM2.5 on attention to environmental issues was mediated by health impact awareness.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>According to this study's results, there was a correlation between air pollution levels and attention to environmental issues. Awareness of the health impacts of air pollution partially mediated the effect of air pollution levels on attention to environmental issues. In future studies, it is recommended to identify other mediators to further understand this structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e31"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/ef/1e/aoem-35-e31.PMC10493376.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10241099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The relationship between skeletal muscle mass and the KOSHA cardiovascular risk in obese male workers","authors":"Hyo Won Chong, JunSeok Son, Changho Chae, Changho Jae","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e40","url":null,"abstract":"Background Efforts for the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in workers have been actively pursued. Obesity is one of the important risk factors related to CVDs. Obesity has various metabolic characteristics, and some individuals can be metabolically healthy. Body composition including skeletal muscle mass is known to have protective effect in obesity. The study aims to investigate the association between skeletal muscle mass and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) CVD risk among obese male manufacturing workers in Korea and to identify appropriate indicators of skeletal muscle mass for predicting risk of CVDs. Methods The study was conducted on 2,007 obese male workers at a manufacturing industry aged more than 19 years. Skeletal muscle mass, skeletal muscle index (SMI), skeletal muscle mass percent (SMM%) and skeletal muscle to body fat ratio (MFR) were used to evaluate body composition and these indicators were divided into quartiles. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the KOSHA CVD risk groups according to quartiles of skeletal muscle mass indicators were estimated using ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results The OR for the KOSHA CVD risk groups in the highest quartile of SMI was 1.67 (95% CI: 1.42–1.92), while the ORs for the KOSHA CVD risk groups in the highest quartiles of SMM%, SMM/body mass index (BMI), and MFR were 0.47 (95% CI: 0.22–0.72), 0.51 (95% CI: 0.05–0.76), and 0.48 (95% CI: 0.23–0.74), respectively. Conclusions We found that high SMI increase the likelihood of high risk of CVDs, while high SMM%, SMM/BMI, and MFR lower the likelihood of high risk of CVDs. Accurate evaluation of skeletal muscle mass can help assess the cardiovascular risk in obese male workers.","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134889433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Increased breast cancer incidence among nurses in a tertiary university hospital in South Korea","authors":"Juho Choi, Dong-Wook Lee, Baek-Yong Choi, Seung-Woo Ryoo, Taeshik Kim, Yun-Chul Hong","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e44","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135506528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combined effect of work from home and work during nonwork time on sleep disturbance.","authors":"Jiyoung Lim,&nbsp;Hyundong Lee,&nbsp;Jae Bum Park,&nbsp;Kyung-Jong Lee,&nbsp;Inchul Jeong,&nbsp;Jaehyuk Jung","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e28","url":null,"abstract":"Background Owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, being exposed to work from home and work during nonwork time simultaneously can lead to sleep disturbance; however, their combined effect is unclear. We aimed to investigate the combined effect of work from home and work during nonwork time on sleep disturbance. Methods This study used data from the Sixth Korean Working Condition Survey and included 27,473 paid workers. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between work from home, work during nonwork time, and sleep disturbance according to sex. We re-classified participants into 4 groups based on their working from home (No/Yes) and working during nonwork time (No/Yes). The relative excess risk due to interaction was calculated to examine the effect of exposure to both telecommuting and non-regular work hours on sleep disturbance. Results Workers exposed to work from home and work during nonwork time had significantly higher risks of sleep disturbance for all, men, and women workers (OR [95% CI]: 1.71 [1.46–2.02], 1.79 [1.43–2.23], and 1.64 [1.29–2.08] for work from home and 3.04 [2.70–3.42], 3.61 [3.09–4.22], and 2.41 [2.01–2.90] for work during nonwork time, respectively). Compared to those who were not exposed to both factors, when workers had both job factors, the ORs (95% CI) of sleep disturbance for all, men, and women were 3.93 (2.80–5.53), 5.08 (3.21–8.03), and 2.91 (1.74–4.87), respectively. The relative excess risk due to interaction of work from home and work during nonwork time was not significant for sleep disturbance. Conclusions Work from home and work during nonwork time were each associated with sleep disturbance, but the interaction between the two factors on sleep disturbance was not observed in both men and women.","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e28"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/65/11/aoem-35-e28.PMC10493373.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10232598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of algorithm for work intensity evaluation using excess overwork index of construction workers with real-time heart rate measurement device.","authors":"Jae-Young Park,&nbsp;Jung Hwan Lee,&nbsp;Mo-Yeol Kang,&nbsp;Tae-Won Jang,&nbsp;Hyoung-Ryoul Kim,&nbsp;Se-Yeong Kim,&nbsp;Jongin Lee","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2023.35.e24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The construction workers are vulnerable to fatigue due to high physical workload. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between overwork and heart rate in construction workers and propose a scheme to prevent overwork in advance.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We measured the heart rates of construction workers at a construction site of a residential and commercial complex in Seoul from August to October 2021 and develop an index that monitors overwork in real-time. A total of 66 Korean workers participated in the study, wearing real-time heart rate monitoring equipment. The relative heart rate (RHR) was calculated using the minimum and maximum heart rates, and the maximum acceptable working time (MAWT) was estimated using RHR to calculate the workload. The overwork index (OI) was defined as the cumulative workload evaluated with the MAWT. An appropriate scenario line (PSL) was set as an index that can be compared to the OI to evaluate the degree of overwork in real-time. The excess overwork index (EOI) was evaluated in real-time during work performance using the difference between the OI and the PSL. The EOI value was used to perform receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to find the optimal cut-off value for classification of overwork state.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 60 participants analyzed, 28 (46.7%) were classified as the overwork group based on their RHR. ROC curve analysis showed that the EOI was a good predictor of overwork, with an area under the curve of 0.824. The optimal cut-off values ranged from 21.8% to 24.0% depending on the method used to determine the cut-off point.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The EOI showed promising results as a predictive tool to assess overwork in real-time using heart rate monitoring and calculation through MAWT. Further research is needed to assess physical workload accurately and determine cut-off values across industries.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"35 ","pages":"e24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/de/ce/aoem-35-e24.PMC10493380.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10241091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}