A series of breast cancer cases were recently reported in a tertiary university hospital in South Korea. Nurses are generally exposed to risk factors for breast cancer such as night shift work, antineoplastic agents, and job strain. However, the epidemiological evidence of excess incidence among nurses remains lacking. This study aims to investigate the excess incidence of breast cancer among nurses in a tertiary university hospital and provide epidemiological evidence of occupational risk factors.
A retrospective cohort was developed using personnel records of female workers in the nursing department who worked from January 2011 to June 2021 in a tertiary university hospital in South Korea. Sick leave records were used to identify cases of breast cancer. The standardized incidence ratio of breast cancer among nurses was compared to the general population.
A total of 5,509 nurses were followed up for 30,404 person-years, and 26 breast cancer cases were identified. This study revealed a significantly increased breast cancer incidence among all included nurses, with a standardized incidence ratio of 1.65 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08–2.41), compared to the general population. Workers, who handle antineoplastic agents in their representative department and current and/or former department, had significantly elevated breast cancer standardized incidence ratios of 2.73 (95% CI: 1.008–5.94) and 3.39 (95% CI: 1.46–6.68), respectively.
This study provides significant evidence of increased breast cancer risk among nursing staff in a hospital setting, particularly those who handle antineoplastic drugs. Measures that reduce exposure to risk factors should be implemented, especially anticancer drugs, to protect healthcare professionals. Further research at a national level that focuses on healthcare workers is necessary to validate breast cancer incidence and its contributing factors.
Numerous 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.
We 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.
In 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.
The 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.”
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Obstetrics Healthcare Providers’ Mental Health and Quality of Life During COVID-19 Pandemic: Multicenter Study from Eight Cities in Iran
With the development of technology, extensive use of computers in the workplace is prevalent and increases efficiency. However, computer users are facing new harmful working conditions with high workloads and longer hours. This study aimed to investigate the association between computer use at work and self-reported depressive and anxiety disorder (DAD) in a nationally representative sample of South Korean workers.
This cross-sectional study was based on the third Korean Working Conditions Survey (2011), and 48,850 workers were analyzed. Information about computer use and DAD was obtained from a self-administered questionnaire. We investigated the relation between computer use at work and DAD using logistic regression.
The 12-month prevalence of DAD in computer-using workers was 1.46 %. After adjustment for socio-demographic factors, the odds ratio for DAD was higher in workers using computers more than 75 % of their workday (OR 1.69, 95 % CI 1.30−2.20) than in workers using computers less than 50 % of their shift. After stratifying by working hours, computer use for over 75 % of the work time was significantly associated with increased odds of DAD in 20–39, 41–50, 51–60, and over 60 working hours per week. After stratifying by occupation, education, and job status, computer use for more than 75 % of the work time was related with higher odds of DAD in sales and service workers, those with high school and college education, and those who were self-employed and employers.
A high proportion of computer use at work may be associated with depressive and anxiety disorder. This finding suggests the necessity of a work guideline to help the workers suffering from high computer use at work.
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40557-016-0146-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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According to US-EPA report, the use of pyrethrins and pyrethroids has increased during the past decade, and their area of use included not only in agricultural settings, but in commerce, and individual household. It is known that urinary 3-PBA, major metabolite of pyrethroid, have some associations with health effect in nervous and endocrine system, however, there’s no known evidence that urinary 3-PBA have associations with obesity.
We used data of 3671 participants aged above 19 from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey in 2009–2011. In our analysis, multivariate piece-wise regression and logistic regression analysis were used to investigate the association between urinary 3-PBA (3-Phenoxybenzoic Acid) and BMI.
Log-transformed level of urinary 3-PBA had significantly positive association with BMI at the low-level range of exposure (
Our analysis suggested that low-level of pyrethroid exposure has positive association with BMI, however, there is an inverse relationship above the urinary 3-PBA level at 4 ug/g creatinine.
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40557-015-0079-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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