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Objectives: To investigate incidence and distribution of major adverse reproductive health problems related to various kinds of industries in Korea and to compare risks for major reproductive outcomes to assess maternal health in working and non-working women. Methods: We requested claim data from the Korean National Health Insurance. We defined reference groups as (1) non-working women and (2) workers in the education field. Women working in each industry were compared with reference groups regarding rates of miscarriage, threatened abortion, preterm labor, and intrauterine growth restriction. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis, and age and income adjustment was performed. Results: The percentages of all adverse obstetric outcomes were higher in working women than in non-working women. Working women had higher and statistically significant adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for miscarriage in 18 of the 21 industries. The age and income-adjusted OR for miscarriage for all working women was 1.26 (95% confidence interval, 1.23–1.28). Business facilities management and business support services, manufacturing, human health and social work activities, wholesale and retail trade, and professional, scientific, and technical activities were major industries with higher adjusted ORs for adverse obstetric outcomes. Conclusions: We confirmed that compared to non-working women, working women have a higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Thus, adverse pregnancy outcomes such as threatened abortion, preterm labor, and intrauterine growth restriction may be associated with working status. This exploratory study identified several industries where in-depth studies are required in future to improve occupational safety in women of reproductive age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Nonstandard workers might have a relatively higher risk of unmet medical needs than standard workers. This study subdivided nonstandard workers to investigate the effects of nonstandard employment on unmet medical needs., Methods: We used the Korea Health Panel 2011-2018 data. The independent variable, employment contract, was defined using the nonstandard form described by the ILO: Temporary workers, Part-time workers, and Temporary agent workers. The analytical method used in this study was a panel logit model that accounted for repeated measured participants. By controlling for time-invariant individual-fixed effects, we investigate the relationship between subdivided nonstandard work and the risk of unmet medical needs with reference to standard work., Results: The results of the analysis clearly showed that compared with standard workers, temporary agency workers had a significantly higher risk of unmet medical needs (Odds ratio = 1.182, 95% CI = 1.016-1.374). The main cause of this phenomenon was economic reasons in this group., Conclusions: This study found that temporary agency workers in the general Korean population have a significantly higher risk of unmet healthcare needs. The result of this study implies that financial hardship might be a fundamental health hazard among workers with nonstandard employment., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Occupational Health published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The Japan Society for Occupational Health.)

Introduction: It has been suggested that long working hours are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although studies on health inequality caused by income inequality have been performed, income levels of workers have been considered only as an adjusting factor in the relationship between long working hours and CVD. In the present study, we investigated the modifying effects of household income level in the relationship between working hours and estimated risk of CVD., Materials and Methods: We analysed a total of 11,602 Koreans who were randomly enrolled in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2016) with complete data. Nonparametric associations between weekly working hours and estimated risk of CVD were explored according to quartiles of equalised household income by gender, and the size of linear associations among weekly working hours and estimated CVD risk after stratifying for equalised household income by gender was considered., Results: A 4.1% increased risk of CVD was associated with 10 hours or longer per day weekly working hours among males with the highest household income after adjusting for age, equalised household income, occupation, and shift work, but such was not associated among lower income groups. Negative associations between equalised household income and estimated CVD risk were observed only among low household income males., Conclusion: Long working hours and household income level can have differential effects on the risk of CVD by socioeconomic status. This study shows that positive income effect may dominate the potential negative effect of long working hours with respect to the risk of CVD in the low-income group., (© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Occupational Health published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The Japan Society for Occupational Health.)