Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Research Article

An overview of compensated work-related injuries among Korean firefighters from 2010 to 2015: Hyung Doo Kim, Yon Soo An, Dong Hyun Kim, Kyung Sook Jeong, Yeon Soon Ahn; Ann Occup Environ Med 2018;30:57. Published online September 3, 2018; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40557-018-0268-2

Background

Although one in two firefighters in South Korea have experienced work-related injuries, there are few studies which show the overview description on work-related injuries and its analysis regarding such causes. Therefore, we aimed to show the overview of compensated work-related injuries in order to serve fundamental data for establishing prevention policies on work-related injuries for Korean firefighters.

Methods

We requested the all claimed work-related injury data of Korean firefighters from 2010 to 2015 to the Korean National Fire Agency (NFA). The data from NFA including 2457 claimed cases was analyzed and we confirmed, 2154 approved work-related injuries for the kinds of job activities, cause of accident and type of injuries. Among 2154 approved cases, we analyzed more variables for the sex, age, and job duration of 1344 compensated cases through served text file on summary of accident.

Results

The Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) recognized 2154 (87.7%) approved work-related injuries among 2457 claimed cases. The incidence of work-related injuries per 1000 firefighters was 9.8 persons. By region, the incidence of work-related injuries per 1000 firefighters ranged from a maximum of 14.5 to a minimum of 4.0. The most common job activity caused the accident was fire suppression (18.0%), followed by Emergency medical services (EMS) (17.5%) and training (10.7%). The most common cause of these accident was movement imbalance (30.3%), followed by falls (18.9%) and traffic accident (13.4%). In these work-related injuries, sprains and bruises were the most common type of injury (27.2%), and the most commonly injured body site was the upper and lower back (25.3%). Data from identified 1344 firefighters showed that 1264 (94.0%) were male and 80 (6.0%) were female. Age group was the highest in the 40s with 623 cases (46.4%), and job duration was the highest with 650 cases in 5–10 years (48.4%).

Conclusion

In this study, we could obtain the preliminary data necessary to establish preventive measures, including the cause of accident and region with high accident rates. However, the number of applications for compensated injuries was very small compared to the frequency of injuries found in previous studies. The lack of appropriate treatment suggested that many firefighter injuries can become chronic. In this study, we suggest that it is necessary to introduce an injury monitoring system and improve the accessibility of compensated injuries.

Trial registration

CR318031. Registered 20 June 2018.

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Research Article

Satisfaction with life and the risk of occupational injury: Sung-Min Park, Hwan-Cheol Kim, Shin-Goo Park, Hyun-Suk Jang, Go Choi, Jong-Han Leem; Ann Occup Environ Med 2018;30:49. Published online August 2, 2018; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40557-018-0260-x

Abstract PDF PubReader ePub

Background

Occupational injuries increase burden on society as well as personal health. Low satisfaction with life may not only increases the risk of occupational injuries directly, but also influences other factors that increase the risk of occupational injury. Along with previous studies on the risk of occupational injury, we sought to explore the relationship between satisfaction with life and occupational injury.

Methods

The study participants were 6234workers health screened at a university hospital in Incheon. Information on occupational injury and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) was obtained in a self-report format. Participants were allocated to one of four SWLS groups; the dissatisfied group, the slightly dissatisfied group, the slightly satisfied group, and the satisfied group. The analysis was performed using the chi-square test primarily and by logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders.

Results

In men, the un-adjusted and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of low satisfaction with life (SWLS< 20) were 1.98(CI1.55–2.53) and 1.81(CI 1.41–2.32), respectively. When the SWLS were divided into four groups, the adjusted ORs of the slightly satisfied (20–25), slightly dissatisfied(15–19), and dissatisfied(≤14) groups were 1.21, 1.72, and 2.70, respectively. That is ORs tended to increase linearly with decreasing SWLS score (p for trend < 0.001). In women, this relation was of borderline significance at best.

When subjects were dichotomized based on SWLS scores, for males, the cured and adjusted RRs of occupational injury in the low satisfaction with life group were1.91 (95% CI: 1.50–2.42) and 1.66 (95% CI: 1.30–2.13), and for females, the adjusted-RR was marginally significant (1.67; 95% CI: 0.93–2.99).

When subjects were divided into four groups by SWLS scores, adjusted RRs tended to increase linearly with decreasing SWLS score for males (slightly satisfied: 1.18, 95% CI: 0.77–1.82; slightly dissatisfied: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.08–2.52; dissatisfied: 2.22, 95% CI: 1.44–3.42; p for trend < 0.001) and for females (slightly satisfied: 1.17, 95% CI: 0.42–3.30; slightly dissatisfied: 1.56, 95% CI: 0.56–4.36; dissatisfied: 2.38, 95% CI: 0.84–6.74; p for trend = 0.040).

Conclusions

This study suggests that the risk of occupational injury was higher in workers not satisfied with life, and indicates attention to satisfaction with life may promote the health of workers.

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Research Article

Risk factors of fatal occupational accidents in Iran: Hadi Asady, Mehdi Yaseri, Mostafa Hosseini, Morvarid Zarif-Yeganeh, Mahmoud Yousefifard, Mahin Haghshenas, Parisa Hajizadeh-Moghadam; Ann Occup Environ Med 2018;30:29. Published online May 2, 2018; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40557-018-0241-0

Abstract PDF PubReader ePub

Background

Occupational accidents are of most important consequences of globalization in developing countries. Therefore, investigating the causes of occupational accidents for improving the job situation and making operational policy is necessary. So the aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting the fatal occupational accidents and also calculate the years of life lost for dead workers.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted on data related to the 6052 injured workers that was registered in the 2013 registry system of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran. Variables including sex, education, age, job tenure, injury cause, referred location of injured workers, occupation, shift work, season, accident day, damaged part of the body were chosen as independent variables. The Chi-squared and Fisher exact tests were used for univariate analysis and then exact multiple logistic regression was carried out to identify independent risk factors of fatal occupational accidents. Finally, for dead workers, years of life lost, according to the injury causes was calculated.

Results

Among the 6052 accidents reported, 33 deaths were recorded. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests showed that factors including: current job tenure (p = 0.01), damaged parts of the body (p < 0.001) and injury cause (p < 0.001) are associated with the fatal accidents. Also exact multiple logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between electric shocks as a cause of injury (OR = 7.04; 95% CI: 1.01–43.74; p = 0.02) and current job tenure more than 1 year (OR = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.05–0.70; p = 0.005) with the fatal accidents. The total amount of years of life lost based on causes of injuries was estimated 1289.12 years.

Conclusions

In Iran, fatal accident odds in workers with job tenure more than 1 year was less in comparing to the workers with job tenure less and equal to 1 year. Also odd of death for electrical shock was more than other causes of injuries. So it seems that employing of workers who have more than one-year work experience in a specific job and using of appropriate safeguards will be useful for the reducing of fatal occupational accidents.

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Review

The Status of Occupational Accidents and Injuries and the Implications: Seong Kyu Kang; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2011;23(4):351-359. Published online December 31, 2011; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2011.23.4.351

Abstract PDF

Since 1964, when the official statistics on occupational injury rates had been produced for the first time, the rates have showed a steady decline until 2000. However, the injury rate has been stagnant since 2000 although the fatal injury rate has decreased 40% in the same period. The non-fatal injury rate per 100 employees was 0.63 while the fatal injury rate per 100,000 employees was 9.74 in 2010. Traumatic injuries accounted for 86.8% of all injuries, followed by non-traumatic injuries at 8.4% and injuries by traffic accidents at 4.6%. Injuries caused by being caught in objects, hit by flying or falling objects and collisions have decreased while those caused by slip and fall on same level and fall from the height have increased. The decrease in injuries caused by being caught in objects may be the result of prevention efforts because 68.6% of them occurred in the manufacturing industry where most efforts for prevention have been invested. The increase in injuries involving slips and falls on same level may be caused by the growing number of employees in the service industry where 51% of the cases occurred. The construction industry accounted for 40.2% of all fatal injuries, and falls from the height caused 54.3% of the fatality. The non-fatal injury rate of Korea is lower than that of industrialized countries while its fatal injury rate is comparatively higher. It is probably caused by many unclaimed cases of mild non-fatal injuries whereas most fatal injuries were filed. Another problem is that the injury rate does not include injuries that occur to workers who are not eligible for the compensation scheme. This information can be obtained through a surveillance system or the national survey. Therefore, the attention of occupational physicians should focus on injuries as well as diseases occurring at work, and also on all working population whose injuries and diseases are not covered by the compensation scheme.

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Original Article

Fatigue as a Predictor of Medical Utilization, Occupational Accident and Sickness Absence: Sei Jin Chang, Sang Baek Koh, Dongmug Kang, Seong Ah Kim, Jin Joo Chung, Chul Gab Lee, Myung Geun Kang, Sook Jung Hyun, Jung Jin Cho, Bong Suk Cha, Jong Ku Park; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2005;17(4):318-332. Published online December 31, 2005; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2005.17.4.318

Abstract PDF

OBJECTIVES
This study examined the relationship of fatigue to medical utilization, occupational accident and sickness absence. Subjects and METHODS: Data were obtained from the National Study for Development and Standardization of Occupational Stress (NSDSOS Project, 2002~2004). A total of 30,146 employees categorized within the Korean Standard Industrial Classification and the Korean Standard Occupational Classification were recruited. A structured-questionnaire was used to assess the participants' sociodemographics, job-related factors, health-related behaviors, personality trait, self-perceived fatigue (MFS) and the frequency of medical utilization, occupational accident and sickness absence. Data on medical utilization and occupational accident were confirmed from company health records. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were used to elucidate the relationship of self-perceived fatigue to medical utilization, occupational accident and sickness absence.
RESULTS
In logistic regression analyses, self-perceived fatigue was associated with medical utilization (outpatient), occupational accident and sickness absence although the strength of the associations was higher in the blue collar workers except for medical utilization. For medical utilization, the white collar workers' adjusted odds ratios of outpatient utilization for workers scoring in the third quartile and the highest quartile, compared to workers scoring in the lowest quartile were 1.50 (95% CI: 1.20-1.87) and 2.16 (95% CI: 1.69-2.75), respectively. The blue collar workers' adjusted odds ratios of outpatient utilization for workers scoring in the second (OR: 1.23, 95% CI: 1.06-1.43), third (OR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.22- 1.66) and highest quartile (OR: 1.83, 95% CI: 1.55-2.17), respectively, compared to workers scoring in the lowest quartile were statistically significant. However, no associations were found between fatigue and inpatient utilization for either the white or blue collar workers. The blue collar workers' adjusted odds ratios of being injured for workers scoring in the second, third and highest quartile were 1.41 (95% CI: 1.00-2.00), 1.57 (95% CI: 1.10-2.22) and 2.41 (95% CI: 1.69-3.44), respectively, compared to those scoring in the lowest quartile, but, those of the white collar workers were not significant. There was more likely to an increased risk of sickness absence in workers scoring in the second, third and highest quartile compared to those scoring in the lowest quartile in both white and blue collar workers, but the magnitudes of risk were higher in the blue collar workers than the white collars workers.
CONCLUSION
This result suggests that fatigue is a determinant predictor of medical utilization, occupational accident and sickness absence, and that the pattern of risks for the three outcomes differs according to the occupational type. Some limitations of this study and considerations for future study were also discussed.

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