The purpose of this study was to provide the basic data for the effective health management of the industrial workers, by classifying factors influencing their perceived symptoms to examine their health status and identifying the inter - relationship of their perceived symptom with their working department, the environment of working area and their general characteristics.
The study was undertaken from October 1 to November 30, 1989. The subjects were 999 workers who had worked in Industrial Corps located in Chungbuk Province.
The results of this study were as follows:
I. Worker´s perceived symptoms were classified according to the following eight factors,
1) musculo - skeletal symptoms of shoulder, neck, back and arm
2) optical symptoms
3) symptoms in head(such as headache and dull)
4) musculo - skeletal symptoms of leg and lower back
5) gastro - intestinal symptoms
6) mental symptoms
7) neural symptoms
8) lung and heart symptoms
II. The degrees of workers´ perception of perceived symptoms;
Mean score of perceived symptoms:7.0
The rank of degree of perceived symptoms:
The highest: musculo - skeletal symptoms of shoulder, neck, beck, and arm
The second: optical symptoms
The third: musculo - skeletal symptoms of leg and lower back
The fourth: mental symptoms
the fifth: gastro-intestinal symptoms
III. Analysis of the inter relationship of perceived symptoms with working department, environment of working area and general characteristics;
1) sexuality
The difference of degrees of perceived symptoms was significant;femanle was higher than mate(P<0.000)
2) Level of education
The difference of degrees of perceived symptoms according to the level of education was significant;
The higher the level of education, the higher the degree.
3) working department
The working department played a significant part in the degrees of perceived symptoms of workers;
Workers of assembling department: musculo-skeletal symptoms both of shoulder, neck, back and arm and of leg and lower back(P<0.000). Workers of inspection department: optical symptoms(P<0.05). Office workers: mental symptoms(P<0.05).
4) kinds of job
The difference of the degrees of perceived symptoms according to kinds of job was significant.
Workers dealing with chemical materials and workers dealing with job with high tension: gastro intestinal symptoms and symptoms in head.
Workers dealing with weighty things or working a long time with the same posture: musculo-skelatal symptoms both of shoulder, neck, back and arm and of lower back(P<0.000).
5) working posture
The difference of the degrees of perceived symptoms related with working posture was significant;
Sitting: optical symptoms(P<0.0000) and symptoms in head(P<0.005) Standing: musculo-skeletal symptoms of leg and lower back(P<0.0000).
6) satisfaction with their own duty
The more dissatifien they were, the higher became the degrees of their perceived symptoms(P<0.0001)
7) satisfaction with their working condition
The more dissatisfied with their working condition they were, the higher became the degrees of their perceived symptoms(P<0.001).
8) environment of working area
The environment of working area played a significant part in the degrees of perceived symptoms of workers;
Workers exposed to most of the factors of the environment of working area were higher than those not exposed in the degrees of musculoskeletal symptoms.
Workers in the noisy environment: optical symptoms(P<0.000), symptoms in head(P<0.005).
Workers in the damp environment: optical symptoms(P<0.005) and lung and heart symptoms(P<0.01).
Workers with illumination problem: optical symptoms(P<0.000), mental symptoms(P<0.005) and neural symptoms(P<0.01).
Workers with ventilation problem: optical symptoms and lung and heart symptoms(P<0.001).
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