BACKGROUND: Regional disparities in the working conditions of medical doctors have not been fully assessed in Japan. We aimed to clarify these differences in hospital characteristics: doctors' workload, wages, and popularity among medical students by city population sizes. METHODS: We targeted 423 teaching hospitals certified by the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine and assessed the working conditions of physicians specializing in internal medicine. We calculated their workload (the annual number of discharged patients per physician) and retrieved data on junior residents' monthly wages from the Resinavi Book which is popular among medical students in Japan to know the teaching hospital's information and each hospital's website. Furthermore, we explored the interim matching rate of each hospital as its popularity among medical students. Next, we classified cities in which all hospitals were located into eight groups based on their population size and compared the characteristics of these hospitals using a one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: The average workload was 110.3, while the average workload in hospitals located in most populated cities (≥ 2,000,000) was 88.4 (p < 0.05). The average monthly wage was 351,199 Japanese yen, while that in most populated cities was 305,635.1 Japanese yen. The average popularity (matching rate) was 101.9%, and the rate in most populated areas was 142.7%, which was significantly higher than in other areas. CONCLUSIONS Hospitals in most populated areas had significantly lower workloads and wages; however, they were more popular among medical students than those in other areas. This study was the first to quantify the regional disparities in physicians' working conditions in Japan, and such disparities need to be corrected.
Cities/statistics & numerical data* ; Geography ; Hospitals, Teaching/statistics & numerical data* ; Japan ; Physicians/statistics & numerical data* ; Population Density ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits/statistics & numerical data* ; Students, Medical/psychology* ; Workload/statistics & numerical data*

Accidental Falls ; Employment ; Fatigue ; Logistic Models ; Risk Factors ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Vibration

PURPOSE: Scholarly works have reported about the nurses' salary and its impact on job satisfaction, nurse turnover, retention, work condition, and provision of nursing care. However, studies are either focused on the nurses in government hospitals or nurses working outside the country. Thus, the study aims to explore and describe the lived experience of nurses employed in private hospitals in Albay province, the Philippines, and explicate the need for better pay. DESIGN: The study used a qualitative design, specifically a descriptive phenomenology approach. METHODS: Purposive sampling and in-depth interviews were conducted among seventeen (17) nurse informants. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed following the seven-stage process as described by Colaizzi (1978) for data coding and identifying themes. The same process of analysis performed among the responses or data gathered through electronic communication platforms. FINDINGS: Four themes and nine sub-themes were identified. The first theme is 'Over but under,' which includes three sub-themes: (1) Over-worked, underpaid working conditions, (2) Finding an additional source of income as a result of low-wages, (3) More nurses are produced, but less are staying in the country, (4) Required by law in the country but not permitted by low salary. The second theme is 'Same but different,' which includes three sub-themes: (1) The Nursing profession is akin to others, yet uncompensated, (2) Work demands are comparable to government hospitals. The third theme is 'Caring but uncared-for,' which includes two sub-themes: (1) Psychologically upsetting, (2) Stimulates nurses transition. The fourth theme is 'Selfless foresight,' which include only one sub-theme (1) Increasing the salary attracts nurses to stay in the country. CONCLLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The study results showed that nurses in private hospitals need better remuneration as they experience poor work conditions. Also, it described a low salary that impacts the nurses' workload, their physical and mental health, their socio-economic being, their ability to avail professional development, the retention or turnover, and the provision of nursing care. The study findings suggest data triangulation of the study in some other private hospitals outside the region and explore strategies for increasing nurses' retention and satisfaction. Nonetheless, these efforts will robust the empirical data about the need for better pay among nurses in the private sector.
Job Satisfaction ; Personnel Turnover ; Hospitals, Private ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

BACKGROUND: Discrimination is a representative social determinant of health. Presenteeism is defined as presenting to work despite of illness and is an indicator of group health. We investigated the association of discrimination and presenteeism with cardiovascular disease using Korean data. METHODS: This study used the fourth Korea Working Conditions Survey (2014) data of 27,662 wage workers (employees). Presenteeism and discrimination related to age, sex, education, birth region, and employment type were ascertained. Self-reported cardiovascular disease was also assessed using the survey questionnaire. General and occupational characteristics found to be significant in univariate analyses were entered into a multivariate logistic regression analysis of the association of discrimination and presenteeism with cardiovascular disease. We also calculated the odds ratios of multiple discriminations and/or presenteeism for cardiovascular disease. RESULTS: In the univariate analyses, sex, age, education, monthly income, employment type, occupation, hours worked per week, workplace scale, and shift work were significantly associated with cardiovascular disease. A multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for general and occupational characteristics showed that discrimination and presenteeism were significantly associated with cardiovascular disease. Finally, the association with cardiovascular disease was strongest when both multiple discriminations and presenteeism were present. CONCLUSIONS: Discrimination and presenteeism are associated with cardiovascular disease, and this association was stronger in the presence of multiple types of discrimination and presenteeism.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Employment ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Occupations ; Odds Ratio ; Parturition ; Presenteeism ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

BACKGROUND: Workers spend most of their social lives at work and have relationships of varying nature with people in the workplace. Direct supervisors, in particular, have a direct and lasting impact on workers, which may influence workers' mental health. Depression is very prevalent worldwide, and social concern about the disease is on the rise. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of direct supervisors' behavior on the depressive mood of Korean wage workers. METHODS: We used data from the 4th Korean Working Conditions Survey held in 2014; 22,212 participants were included in the analysis. The quality of a direct supervisor's behavior was categorized from 0 (= lowest) to 5 (= highest) points. The degree of depressive mood was measured on a scale from “normal mood” to “likely depression” based on the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the association between the quality of the direct supervisor's behavior and the depressive mood of wage workers. RESULTS: After multivariable adjustment, significantly increased odds ratio (OR) for likely depression was found in the 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 points of the quality of the direct supervisor's behavior compared to 5 points. After stratification for the level of satisfaction with working conditions, the OR of the unsatisfied groups was higher than that of the satisfied groups. CONCLUSIONS: Likely depression was found to be significantly associated with a low quality of direct supervisor's behavior. This association was stronger in workers who were not satisfied with their working conditions. This study suggests that proper management of the direct supervisor's behavior is needed to reduce the risk of depression among Korean wage workers.
Depression ; Logistic Models ; Mental Health ; Odds Ratio ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; World Health Organization

OBJECTIVES: This study conducted to investigate work-related factors in relation to smoking among women working in call centers in Gwangju, South Korea. METHODS: From 56 call centers (7320 employees), we selected 10 and conducted a survey using a structured questionnaire by randomly selecting 10% of workers from each center. A total of 387 subjects participated in this survey We analyzed for 375 respondents, after excluding men and those with missing responses. We analyzed the relationships of work-related factors such as emotional labor, workplace violence, employment type, annual salary, working hours, employment period with smoking, using multiple logistic regression analysis. Emotional labor and workplace violence were measured using the Korean Emotional Labor Scale (K-ELS) and Korean Workplace Violence Scale (K-WVS). RESULTS: The prevalence of current smoking among call center female workers was 13.6%. Univariate analysis showed that “Emotional disharmony and hurt”, “Experience of psychological and sexual violence from supervisors and co-workers” among items of K-ELS and K-WVS, working hours, annual salary correlated with smoking. After adjusting for emotional labor, workplace violence, employment type, annual salary, working hours, employment period, and age, only working hours show a significant association with smoking. Women who worked 40–49 h had 3.50 times (95% CI = 1.04–11.80) and worked more than 50 h had 8.68 times (95% CI = 1.89–39.78) greater odds of smoking as compared with women who worked less than 40 h. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking was associated with working hours among female workers in call center. However, emotional labor and workplace violence did not show significant relationships with smoking.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Employment ; Female ; Gwangju ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Prevalence ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Sex Offenses ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Workplace Violence

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to provide basic data to establish a foundation for efficient operation of the organization by assessing the effects of self-efficacy and job stress (measured by self-efficacy, job demand, and job autonomy) on organizational commitment among clinical dental hygienists. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey study that used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data. After institutional review board approval, a survey was conducted from January to May 2017, targeting dental hygienists working in dental clinics and hospitals. The final 199 questionnaires were analyzed with PASW 18.0 for Windows (IBM Corp.). The data were analyzed using mean and/or standard deviation t-test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The means for self-efficacy, job demand, job autonomy, and organizational commitment were 55.94±9.65, 26.55±2.29, 20.24±3.88, and 49.49±8.39, respectively. Along with self-efficacy, the other factors of organizational commitment among dental hygienists that were statistically significant included job autonomy, mean salary (2,500~2,990 thousand Korean won [KRW] and ≥3,000 thousand KRW), and employee welfare (good), which are sub-areas of the surface acting. In other words, it was found that the higher the mean salary, the better the employee welfare, the higher self-efficacy, and the higher the organizational commitment, and the explanatory power of the model was approximately 42.1%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the higher the self-efficacy, job autonomy, mean salary, and employee welfare, the higher the organizational commitment. In order to improve job demand among dental hygienists, it is necessary to establish an effective plan to improve job welfare, self-efficacy, and job autonomy.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Humans ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the physical and mental health problems of waged workers in Korea who had different classes of occupation.METHODS: We used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007–2017) to examine 22,788 workers who were waged employees and categorized these workers into 5 occupational classes.RESULTS: “Unskilled manual workers” were more likely to be older, less educated, have lower monthly income, and work fewer hours per week. Among men and relative to “managers and professionals” (reference group), “skilled manual workers” were more likely to have physician-diagnosed osteoarthritis, “clerks” were less likely to report suicidal ideation, and “unskilled manual workers” were more likely to report suicidal ideation. Among women and relative to “managers and professionals” (reference group), “service and sales workers” and “unskilled manual workers” were more likely to report physician-diagnosed osteoarthritis, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation. However, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases did not differ among the occupational classes for men and women.CONCLUSION: We identified differences between men and women and among those in different occupational classes regarding employment status, physical health, and mental health. “Unskilled manual workers” of both genders were more likely to be older, less educated, have less monthly income, work fewer hours per week, and have suicidal ideation. Female “service and sales workers” were more likely to have osteoarthritis, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Commerce ; Depression ; Employment ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Male ; Mental Health ; Nutrition Surveys ; Occupations ; Osteoarthritis ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Suicidal Ideation ; Suicide

OBJECTIVES: Presenteeism is currently recognized as a significant global health issue that can potentially cause productivity losses. Hence, many studies have analyzed the relationships between workplace factors and presenteeism. However, few studies have considered non-occupational factors. This study examined the associations between presenteeism and activities outside work, including volunteering, self-development, leisure/sports, and gardening and house repair activities, in Korean wage workers. METHODS: This study analyzed the fourth Korean Working Conditions Survey, in which a total of 19 294 wage workers participated. To identify relationships between presenteeism and activities outside work, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used after adjusting for general and occupational characteristics. RESULTS: Self-development and leisure/sports activities significantly increased the odds ratio (OR) of presenteeism (OR, 1.166; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.061 to 1.282 and OR, 1.276; 95% CI, 1.181 to 1.379, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Certain activities outside work, such as self-development or leisure/sports, were related to presenteeism among Korean wage workers. Although many previous studies have emphasized the positive effects of those activities on health, this study documented negative effects of these activities outside work on health.
Agriculture ; Efficiency ; Gardening ; Global Health ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Odds Ratio ; Presenteeism ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the job satisfaction level of the dental staff working at oral health centers for people with disabilities. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted with 73 dentists and dental hygienists working at seven regional oral health centers for people with special needs and dental hospitals for people with disabilities in Seoul. The questionnaire consisted of seven questions across two subscales: general satisfaction (4 questions) and satisfaction with wage and welfare (3 questions). The internal consistency of the questionnaire items was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (0.80). The responses were analyzed using a t-test with SPSS (version 23.0). RESULTS: Of the 73 dental staff members, 50% were dentists, 64% were women, and participants' average age was 30 years. In total, 58% of the participants had up to five years of experience working with people with disabilities, 42% of them worked full-time, and each participant treated an average of 200 patients with disabilities per month. The participants reported that their salary was relatively low. Dental hygienists had higher satisfaction level than dentists in the institution's welfare work. The more full-time workers answered, the more suitable they are for their work. CONCLUSIONS: The job satisfaction level of most professionals working in oral health centers for people with disabilities was not very high but they felt rewarded by their welfare work. It was inferred that it is necessary to examine and improve institutional support aspects such as human resource support. Increasing the number of centers in the central region is also needed.
Dental Hygienists ; Dental Staff ; Dentists ; Disabled Persons ; Female ; Humans ; Job Satisfaction ; Oral Health ; Reward ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Seoul