INTRODUCTION: Workplace safety and health are interrelated - a worker who is not healthy may cause safety lapses at the workplace; conversely, safety lapses could affect the health of the workers. This study was part of a larger Total Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) programme run by the Workplace Safety and Health Council, Singapore. The objectives were to obtain a baseline health profile of workers across four major industries and identify important health risks for targeted workplace interventions. METHODS: Five service providers (SPs) were appointed to run the Total WSH programme. As part of the programme, SPs conducted an anonymous basic health survey among workers of participating companies. RESULTS: The responses of 6,373 respondents from the cleaning, construction, manufacturing, and transport and storage industries were studied. The overall response rate was 62%. Key health issues identified were high rates of obesity (22%) and smoking (24%) and low prevalence of regular exercise and healthy dietary habits. Chronic disease rates were similar to population self-reported rates (hypertension 15%, high lipid 12% and diabetes mellitus 6%). The workers reported high work stress (13%). CONCLUSION Health issues are prevalent in the workforce and may affect work and employee safety. It is increasingly important for employees' health to be considered in risk assessments and prioritised in workplace safety and health management systems and strategies. Health promotion interventions should be targeted, and multilevel and multicomponent initiatives should be integrated with pre-existing occupational safety programmes.
Humans ; Singapore/epidemiology* ; Occupational Health ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Industry ; Workplace ; Health Surveys ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoking/epidemiology* ; Obesity/epidemiology* ; Health Status ; Occupational Stress/epidemiology* ; Young Adult

Introduction: Smoking is prevalent among Filipinos, but little is known about whether this is associated with the rapid decline of the renal function among patients with existing chronic kidney disease (CKD). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not there is a direct relationship of smoking to the progression of CKD requiring patient to be on dialysis/renal replacement therapy.

Methods: A cross-sectional, retrospective study design was used. All CKD 5D patients of the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center (ARMMC) Hemodialysis (HD) Unit in the month of July to August, 2019 were included, if they are > 18yo, regardless of their co-morbidities. Excluded are those with acute kidney injury (AKI), and iatrogenic, surgical or trauma complications that cause renal dysfunction. Charts were reviewed and 55 patients qualified. Smoking status were grouped according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) smoking definitions, either never, former and current smoker. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) Creatinine were computed using the CKD-Epi formula 3-yr, 2-yr, 1-yr and 0-yr prior to HD. The main outcome measure was whether and what among the smoking status hastens the progression of CKD. Descriptive statistical analyses were done along with one-way variance, two-way variance, and chi-square.

Results: Most of the smokers were males (p < 0.001). Most of the participants had diabetes as the primary illness. All of the participants had same endpoint of having eGFR < 15 at the time of dialysis initiation. There was a significant progressive decrease from eGFR3 to eGFR0 in all smoking status. Current smokers have the highest significant reduction in eGFR (p <0.001).

Conclusion: Smoking hastens the progression of CKD among Filipinos. With that, we support the smoking cessation campaign of the ARMMC and the DOH. In addition, further work up is suggested to determine the primary mechanistic pathway of smoking that affects the renal cells.

PURPOSE: Traffic accidents are one of the major health problems in the world, being the first cause of burden of illness and the second leading cause of death in Iran. The Sistan-Baluchestan province is one of the most accidental provinces of Iran with the highest rate of accidents-caused deaths. This study was conducted to determine the risk factors associated with traffic accidents in Zahedan through 2013 to 2016. METHODS: This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out on 223 drivers from Zahedan who were traumatized by traffic accident and sent to Zahedan hospitals. The data were obtained through interviews taken by the trained interviewers via refereeing to the medical records and collected in the researcher-made checklist. Census was obtained from the study subjects. For data analysis, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Chi-square and logistic regression were used with the Stata software version 11.0. RESULTS: In this study, 223 male subjects with the mean age of (32.54 ± 12.95) years, 39.8% single and 60.2% married, entered for investigation. Most accidents (38.8%) occurred between 12:00 to 17:59. While driving, 47.1% of the study subjects were using cell phones, 89.1% had manual use of mobile phones, 21.9% had a habit of sending short message service (SMS) and 23.4% had sent SMS within 10 min before the accident. The one way analysis of variance showed that the mean age of individuals with marital status, driving experience, education and accident with motorcycle were significantly different (p < 0.05). Also, the multivariate logistic regression test indicated a significant relationship of smoking, ethnicity, insurance and SMS typing while driving with motorcycle accident (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION In this study, SMS and smoking while driving had the highest risk among the variables studied in the motorcycle accidents. Therefore, effective education attempting to enhance people's awareness about the consequences of using cell phone and smoking during driving to reduce traffic accidents seems necessary.
Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data* ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Automobile Driving ; Cause of Death ; Cell Phone Use/adverse effects* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Health Education ; Humans ; Iran/epidemiology* ; Male ; Marital Status ; Middle Aged ; Risk ; Smoking/adverse effects* ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: This study analyzed the relationship between health behaviors and marital adjustment in multicultural couples to evaluate their health status. METHODS: Married couples (70 Korean men and their immigrant wives) completed a structured interview on health behaviors and sociodemographic factors, the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS), and the Marital Intimacy Scale. Based on the cutoff value of the RDAS, respondents were classified into two groups: high or low dyadic adaptation groups. The collected data were compared with health behavior regarding smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, and weight. RESULTS: The odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) by logistic regression with adjustment for age, educational level, career, occupation, length of residence in Korea, nationality, religion, age difference between couple, number of children, monthly income, and proficiency in Korean was 1.279 (1.113–1.492) for unhealthy exercise and 1.732 (1.604–1.887) for unhealthy body weight in female immigrants with low marital adjustment. In Korean husbands with low marital adjustment, the OR (95% CI) was 1.625 (1.232–2.142) for smoking and 1.327 (1.174–1.585) for unhealthy exercise. No significant relationship was found between marital intimacy and health behaviors in female immigrants or Korean husbands. CONCLUSION: More desirable health behaviors were observed in highly adapted couples. Therefore, family physicians should be concerned with marital adjustment and other associative factors to evaluate and improve multicultural couples' health status.
Alcohol Drinking ; Body Weight ; Child ; Cultural Diversity ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Ethnic Groups ; Family Characteristics ; Female* ; Health Behavior* ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Marital Status ; Occupations ; Odds Ratio ; Physicians, Family ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Spouses ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Many studies have reported the negative effects of long working hours on various health problems. However, whether hair loss is associated with working hours has been rarely investigated so far. The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between long working hours and the development of alopecia among Korean male workers. METHODS: A total of 13,391 male workers not to take alopecia medicine in 2013 were followed up to see if they have alopecia medicine after 4 years, and that was used to confirm the alopecia development. Weekly working hours were categorized into three groups: reference working hours (RWH; < 40 hours/week), long working hours (LWH, 40–52 hours/week), and much longer working hours (MLWH; > 52 hours/week). Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between long working hours and the development of alopecia after adjusting age, marital status, education, monthly household income, smoking, and work schedule within strata of the covariates. RESULTS: Long working hours was significantly related to the development of alopecia. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for the development of alopecia were 1.57 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.21–2.05) for LWH group and 1.74 (95% CI: 1.23–2.47) for MLWH group relative to RWH group. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that unintentional development of alopecia is another potential health consequence of long working hours among Korean male workers. Preventive interventions to promote appropriate and reasonable working hours are required in our society.
Alopecia ; Appointments and Schedules ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hair ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Marital Status ; Occupational Health ; Odds Ratio ; Smoke ; Smoking

BACKGROUND: This study assessed the association between shift work and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) level, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), in female workers in electronics manufacturing services (EMS). METHODS: Female EMS workers who received special medical examinations for workers in Gyeongnam, Korea between January 2017 and December 2017 were enrolled in this study. Their age, marital status, education level, alcohol consumption, smoking habit, regular exercise, quality of sleep, work stress, and depression were investigated, and blood tests were conducted. The t- and χ2 tests were conducted to compare the general and biochemical characteristics between daytime and shift worker groups. Age-adjusted partial correlation analysis was performed to examine the linear relationship between hs-CRP level and other risk factors for CVDs. In addition, the difference in hs-CRP levels according to work schedule was analyzed by ANCOVA after adjusting for variables that could affect the hs-CRP level. RESULTS: Although the average hs-CRP levels did not differ significantly between daytime and shift workers (0.92 ± 1.87 and 1.07 ± 2.20 mg/dL, respectively), shift workers tended to show a higher hs-CRP level (p = 0.067). After adjusting for variables that can affect the hs-CRP level, the estimated average hs-CRP level was significantly higher in shift workers (1.325 ± 0.156 mg/dL) than that in daytime workers (0.652 ± 0.350 mg/dL) (p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study identified a relationship between shift work and hs-CRP level increase in women. Because multiple studies have reported associations between increased hs-CRP and CVD, follow-up of hs-CRP may help early detection of CVD in shift workers.
Alcohol Drinking ; Appointments and Schedules ; C-Reactive Protein ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Depression ; Education ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hematologic Tests ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Marital Status ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have shown that marital status is associated with household composition and living arrangements, which partially explain observed differences in health status according to marital status. However, due to the rapid socioeconomic and demographic transformations of the last few decades, the distribution of marital status among middle-aged adults has become more diverse. Therefore, this study aimed to obtain up-to-date information on the associations between marital status and health and to investigate the implications of these findings for conventional explanations of the health effects of marriage. METHODS: The data for this study were obtained from the 2015 Korean Community Health Study. We compared 4 modifiable lifestyle behaviors—smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and self-rated health status—as outcome variables in association with marital status in Korean middle-aged men (age 40-44) living in Seoul and other regions. RESULTS: Married men showed the lowest cigarette smoking prevalence and the highest subjective health status both before and after adjusting for education and income. The odds of engaging in vigorous physical activity did not show a major difference before and after adjustment for income and education. CONCLUSIONS: In married men, the prevalence of cigarette smoking was lowest and subjective health status was highest, similar to previous studies. However, the prevalence of engaging in physical activity was highest in divorced/widowed/separated men. The health behaviors and health status of Korean middle-aged adults should be more closely followed, since they are representative of demographic changes in the Korean population.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking ; Diagnostic Self Evaluation ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Male ; Marital Status ; Marriage ; Motor Activity ; Prevalence ; Residence Characteristics ; Seoul ; Smoking

BACKGROUND: The extent of coverage rate of the public health insurance is still insufficient to meet healthcare needs. Private health insurance (PHI) plays a role to supplement coverage level of national health insurance in Korea. It is expected that reduce unmet need healthcare. This study was aimed to identify relationship between PHI type and the unmet healthcare need and its associated factors. METHODS: Data were obtained from the 2014 Korea Health Panel Survey using nationally representative sample was analyzed. Respondents were 8,667 who were adults over 20 years covered by PHI but have not changed their contract. According to the enrollment form, PHI was classified into three types: fixed-benefit, indemnity, and mixed-type. To identify factors associated with unmet needs, multiple logistic regression conducted using the Andersen model factors, which are predisposing factors, enabling factors, and need factors. RESULTS: Our analysis found that subjects who had PHI with mixed-type were less likely to experience unmet health care needs compared than those who did not have it (odds ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.66–0.98). As a result of analyzing what affected their unmet healthcare needs, the significant factors associated with unmet medical need were gender, marital status, residence in a metropolitan area, low household income, economic activity participation, self-employed insured, physically disabled, low subjective health status, and health-risk factors such as current smoking and drinking. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that having PHI may reduce experience of unmet healthcare needs. Findings unmet healthcare needs factors according to various subjects may be useful in consideration of setting policies for improving accessibility to healthcare in Korea.
Adult ; Causality ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnostic Self Evaluation ; Disabled Persons ; Drinking ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Insurance ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Marital Status ; National Health Programs ; Public Health ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Cerebrovascular disease is included in four major diseases and is a disease that has high rates of prevalence and mortality around the world. Moreover, it is a disease that requires a high cost for long-term hospitalization and treatment. This study aims to figure out the correlation between grip strength, which was presented as a simple, cost-effective, and relevant predictor of cerebrovascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease based on the results of a prior study. And furthermore, our study compared model suitability of the model to measuring grip strength and relative grip strength as a predictor of cerebrovascular disease to improve the quality of cerebrovascular disease's predictor. METHODS: This study conducted an analysis based on the generalized linear mixed model using the data from the Korea Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2006 to 2016. The research subjects consisted of 9,132 middle old age people aged 45 years or older at baseline with no missing information of education level, gender, marital status, residential region, type of national health insurance, self-related health, smoking status, alcohol use, and economic activity. The grip strength was calculated the average which measured 4 times (both hands twice), and the relative grip force was divided by the body mass index as a variable considering the anthropometric figure that affects the cerebrovascular disease and the grip strength. Cerebrovascular diseases, a dependent variable, were investigated based on experiences diagnosed by doctors. RESULTS: An analysis of the association between grip strength and found that about 0.972 (odds ratio [OR], 0.972; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.963–0.981) was the incidence of cerebral vascular disease as grip strength increased by one unit increase and the association between relative grip strength and cerebrovascular disease found that about 0.418 (OR, 0.418; 95% CI, 0.342–0.511) was the incidence of cerebral vascular disease as relative grip strength increased by unit. In addition, the model suitability of the model for each grip strength and relative grip strength was 11,193 and 11,156, which means relative grip strength is the better application to the predictor of cerebrovascular diseases, irrespective of other variables. CONCLUSION: The results of this study need to be carefully examined and validated in applying relative grip strength to improve the quality of predictors of cerebrovascular diseases affecting high mortality and prevalence.
Body Mass Index ; Cerebrovascular Disorders ; Education ; Hand ; Hand Strength ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Longitudinal Studies ; Marital Status ; Mortality ; National Health Programs ; Prevalence ; Research Subjects ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stroke ; Vascular Diseases

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the association between dental implants and cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. METHODS: Data were collected from the baseline survey (2016–2017) of the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study. The study sample comprised 1115 community-dwelling people aged 70 years to 84 years who had 0-19 natural teeth. Dental implants and natural teeth were identified by panoramic radiography, while the cognitive function was assessed by the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-KC). The association between dental implants and cognitive function was analyzed by multiple linear regression. Sensitivity analysis was performed to test for potential bias. RESULTS: The mean number of natural teeth in the study population was 9.50 (standard deviation [SD], 6.42), and the mean MMSE-KC score was 24.93 (SD, 3.55). In the simple univariate analysis, tooth replacement, age, sex, smoking status, alcohol consumption, body mass index, osteoporosis, number of natural teeth, periodontitis, chewing discomfort, tooth-brushing frequency, education level, monthly household income, participation in economic activity, living alone, and marital status had a significant impact on the association. After adjusting for confounders, the association between dental implants and cognitive function remained significant (B, 0.85; standard error, 0.40; p<0.05). Age, body mass index, periodontitis, tooth-brushing frequency, and education level were also significantly associated with cognitive function. The results of the sensitivity analyses were consistent with those of the primary analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Dental implants were associated with cognitive function in older adults living in the community. Dental implants as tooth replacements may play a role in preserving cognitive function.
Adult ; Aging ; Alcohol Drinking ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Body Mass Index ; Cognition ; Cognitive Reserve ; Cohort Studies ; Dental Implants ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Korea ; Linear Models ; Marital Status ; Mastication ; Osteoporosis ; Periodontitis ; Prostheses and Implants ; Radiography, Panoramic ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tooth