Open AccessWorkers' Perception of the Changes of Work Environment and its Relation to the Occurrence of Work‐Related Musculoskeletal Disorders
Author(s) -
Lee YunKeun,
Park HeeSok
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of occupational health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 59
ISSN - 1348-9585
DOI - 10.1539/joh.49.152
Subject(s) - work (physics) , relation (database) , library science , citation , perception , science park , medicine , psychology , engineering , computer science , political science , mechanical engineering , law , neuroscience , database
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) refer to a collection of painful disorders of muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage, or spinal discs that are caused or made worse by work conditions. The physical risk factors of WMSDs include: repetitive, forceful, or prolonged exertions; frequent or heavy lifting; pushing, pulling, or carrying of heavy objects; prolonged awkward postures; and vibration. Jobs or working conditions that combine risk factors may increase the risk of WMSDs. Although the physical risk factors are important ones, there are also plausible factors that may provoke a disorder or indirectly influence other risk factors, such as organizational and psychosocial factors. Individual factors may also influence the degree of risk from specific exposures. In many industrialized countries, WMSDs have become a major problem of occupational health, and are the leading causes of lost-time. In Korea, the number of WMSDs compensations has drastically increased from 128 in 1995 to 4,112 in 2004, the latter number representing 44.8% of total occupational disease compensations. In Korea, the societal attention to WMSDs has grown much since the national economic crisis of 1998. At the end of 1997, the Korean economy fell into a crisis triggered by a shortage of foreign exchange, and Korea had to receive IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) relief aid in 1998. After that, Korea has been struggling not only to reform its monetary system, but also to promote drastic reforms in its economic structure with the aim of improving the productivity of Korean industry. However, it is widely perceived in Korea that the economic crisis caused changes in the work environment due to downsizing of work forces and increased work load. The objective of this survey was to study how Korean workers’ perceived the changes in their work environment during the post-IMF period of 2001–2003, and to investigate if there is any relation between the perception of changed working conditions and the occurrence of WMSDs. Workers at a major automotive company in Korea were studied for this purpose.