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KMID : 1138720050310010055
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Korean Public Health Research
2005 Volume.31 No. 1 p.55 ~ p.64
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Changes of Perceived Health Status, Health Behaviors, and Work Environments in Manufacturing Factory Population: Analyzing the National Worksite Health Status Surveys in 1998 and 2003
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Lee Myung-Sun
Moon In-Ok
Park Kyoung-Ok
Oh Young-A
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Abstract
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Well-being is a growing primary issue among the adult population in Korean society. Well-being is largely affected by personal life style and its environments and the two primary components of well-being are closely related to each other. That is, health status, health behavior, and the environments are comprehensively associated with each other; furthermore, that association is more clear among the middle-aged or elderly population. For this reason, this study identified the changes of the health status, health behaviors, and perceived work environments among manufacturing factory workers between 1998 and 2003 with the nation-wide survey data. A total of 8,323 factory workers in 1998 and 7,818 factory workers in 2003 from about 1,500 manufacturing companies participated in the nation-wide organizational surveys for manufacturing workers’ health conducted by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency. Participants were selected through the stratified proportional sampling process based on the industry classification code (23 codes), region (8 metropolitan and 8 rural), and company size. Trained interviewers visited the randomly selected organizations and interviewed average 5 workers per company. The questionnaire asked health status (hospital visit, perceived health status, and perceived fatigue), health behavior (smoking, drinking, sleeping, and exercise), working conditions (daily working hour, rest time, and so on), perceived work environment (15 physical factors and 3 psychological factors) and demographics. Data were analyzed in SPSS 11.0 using Chi-square analysis and t-test. Perceived health status and fatigue symptoms were worse in 2003 than in 1998 although the percentage of the people who were sick for the last week decreased from 1998 to 2003. Psychological stress scores were higher in 2003 than in 1998 and the sources of stress became complicated. Health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and exercise behaviors were significantly better in 2003 than in 1998. About work conditions, weekly working hours were significantly improved from 1998 to 2003. The workers who worked within the maximum legal working hours (56 hours or less) were 67% in 1998 and were 72% in 2003. More workers in 2003 answered that their workload was moderate not heavy or light than in 1998. Concerning work environmenf all 15 physical environment factors surveyed improved from 1998 to 2003. However, psychosocial work environments changed in different ways; job control increased but social support at work decreased from 1998 to 2003. In summary, objective health status improved; however, perceived health status became worse in 2003 than in 1998. Smoking, drinking, and exercise behaviors positively changed from 1998 to 2003. Perceived working conditions and physical work environments improved; however, social support at work of psychological work environments became worse.
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KEYWORD
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health status, health behavior, work environment, manufacturing company, factory worker
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