Work–Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers
Department of Public Health Science, Graduate School of Public Health, and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14(11), 1331; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111331
Received: 28 August 2017 / Revised: 19 October 2017 / Accepted: 27 October 2017 / Published: 1 November 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Work Stress and the Development of Chronic Diseases)
Employed workers often have family responsibilities such as childcare or homemaking. This dual burden may increase work-related health problems, particularly if there are conflicts between work and family responsibilities. This study assessed whether difficulty in work–life balance is associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) among Korean employees. Data from the population-based Korean Working Conditions Survey of 2011, including 28,640 male and 21,392 female workers, were used. Men and women were analyzed separately to investigate gender differences. MSD were defined as pain in the back, neck, shoulder, or extremities during the past year. Self-assessed difficulty in work–life balance was defined as a work–life conflict (WLC). Adjustments for physical factors, as well as other occupational and socio-demographic variables, were made using multiple logistic regression analysis. Interaction terms including WLCs and key covariates were also incorporated. WLC was significantly associated with increased frequency of MSD in both men (OR: 1.49) and women (OR: 1.50). There were significant interaction effects between WLC and some key covariates (job stress for men and job stress, work hours, physical demand, and frequent overtime work for women). We suggest that having the flexibility to coordinate work and family life is important to prevent MSD among employees.
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Keywords:
work–life conflict; work–family conflict; musculoskeletal disorder; gender differences; population-based study
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Kim, Y.-M.; Cho, S.-i. Work–Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 1331. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111331
AMA Style
Kim Y-M, Cho S-i. Work–Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2017; 14(11):1331. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111331
Chicago/Turabian StyleKim, Young-Mee; Cho, Sung-il. 2017. "Work–Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers" Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 14, no. 11: 1331. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111331
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