Taeshik Kim

Long working hours may increase risk of coronary heart disease

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) estimated by Framingham risk score (FRS) in Korean adults. METHODS This study evaluated adult participants in Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey IV (2007-2009). After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, the final sample size for this study model was 8,350. Subjects were asked about working hours and health status. Participants also completed physical examinations and biochemical measurement necessary for estimation of FRS. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to investigate the association between working hours and 10-year risk for CHD estimated by FRS. RESULTS Compared to those who work 31-40 hr, significantly higher 10-year risk was estimated among subjects working longer hours. As working hours increased, odds ratio (OR) for upper 10 percent of estimated 10-year risk for CHD was increased up to 1.94. CONCLUSIONS Long working hours are significantly related to risk of coronary heart disease.

Mental disorders among workers in the healthcare industry: 2014 national health insurance data

BackgroundNumerous studies have shown that healthcare professionals are exposed to psychological distress. However, since most of these studies assessed psychological distress using self-reporting questionnaires, the magnitude of the problem is largely unknown. We evaluated the risks of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, and any psychiatric disorders in workers in healthcare industry using Korea National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data from 2014, which are based on actual diagnoses instead of self-evaluation.MethodsWe used Korea 2014 NHI claims data and classified employees as workers in the healthcare industry, based on companies in the NHI database that were registered with hospitals, clinics, public healthcare, and other medical services. To estimate the standardized prevalence of the selected mental health disorders, we calculated the prevalence of diseases in each age group and sex using the age distribution of the Korea population. To compare the risk of selected mental disorders among workers in the healthcare industry with those in other industries, we considered age, sex, and income quartile characteristics and conducted propensity scored matching.ResultsIn the matching study, workers in healthcare industry had higher odds ratios for mood disorders (1.13, 95% CI: 1.11–1.15), anxiety disorders (1.15, 95% CI: 1.13–1.17), sleep disorders (2.21, 95% CI: 2.18–2.24), and any psychiatric disorders (1.44, 95% CI: 1.43–1.46) than the reference group did. Among workers in healthcare industry, females had higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders than males, but the odds ratios for psychiatric disorders, compared to the reference group, were higher in male workers in healthcare industry than in females.ConclusionsThe prevalence of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, and all psychiatric disorders for workers in the healthcare industry was higher than that of other Korean workers. The strikingly high prevalence of sleep disorders could be related to the frequent night-shifts in these professions. The high prevalence of mental health problems among workers in healthcare industry is alarming and requires prompt action to protect the health of the “protectors.”

P345 Age and occupational differentials in female smoking rate assessed by urine cotinine levels

Background Female smoking rate in South Korea did not decrease in recent 5 years and had been underreported while males smoking rate had decreasing trends. Some reports demonstrated that young women and specific female workers had high smoking rate. Objectives This study aimed to investigate the age and occupational differentials in female smoking rate assessed by urine cotinine levels in South Korean using a nationally representative survey. Methods We analysed that 8186 women from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2008–2011 from nationally representative sample. Smokers were defined with 50 or more urine cotinine levels. The association between age and occupations and smoking was investigated by using weighted multiple logistic regression after adjusting for socioeconomic status. Results Estimated female smoking rate was 12.9% (95% CI: 11.8–13.9). Three high rate occupations were service, office, and craft workers. (19.6%, 19.4%, and 18.0%) 25–34 years old, high school graduate, divorce and bereavement had higher OR for smoking after adjusting for age, education, income and marital status. Service, sales, office, craft and simple labour workers had 1.7 ∼ 2.5 OR for smoking rate compared to professional workers. Smoking rates of 25–34 years old workers in service and sales occupation were 43% (95% CI: 24.6–61.5) and 36% (95% CI: 23.6–49.6) Conclusions Smoking rate was high in service, sales, office, craft and simple labour workers, especially in young age. Therefore, smoking cessation educations and interventions are need to be established for specific age and occupational groups.