Abstract
Background
Working environment such as psychosocial factors impacts the health of workers. However, few studies have assessed the association of work-related factors with the prevalence of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) in large population based study.
Methods
After exclusion of military personnel, 16,099 wage workers (20 ≤ age ≤ 65 years) from the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2008–2011) were included in this study. Job status was defined as the place of employment of longest duration. To evaluate the working environment, we used a comprehensive work-stressor measure. Univariate and multivariable regression analyses were performed to assess the effect of occupation type on the prevalence of PUD.
Results
Among the subjects, 5540, 3398, and 7161 were white-, pink-, and blue-collar workers, respectively. The prevalence of PUD was highest among blue-collar workers (n = 336, 7.1%), followed by pink-collar (n = 116, 5.1%) and white-collar (n = 180, 4.9%) workers. In the multivariable analysis, work type and uncomfortable gestures were independently associated with the risk of PUD. Compared with office workers, operators in industrial plants and machine operators had a significantly higher prevalence of PUD (odds ratio, 1.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–3.3) after adjusting for age, socioeconomic factors, sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, daily exercise, sleep duration, and working conditions.
Discussion
In conclusion, work-related factors, particularly blue-collar work and uncomfortable job gestures, are independently associated with the risk of PUD. Therefore, it is important to monitor the development of PUD in workers exposed to these factors.
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Acknowledgements
Guarantor of the article: Dong Kyun Park MD, PhD.
Funding
This work was supported by Institute for Information & communications Technology Promotion (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2018-2-00861, Intelligent SW Technology Development for Medical Data Analysis) and additionally supported by Gachon University Gil Medical Center (Grant number: FRD2019-14).
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YIC, DKP: contributed to the study concept and design. YIC: analyzed and interpreted the data. YIC and DKP: drafted the manuscript. DKP, KOK, KAK, JWC and YJK: critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript submitted.
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Choi, Y., Chung, JW., Kim, K. et al. Effect of work-related factors on the prevalence of peptic ulcer disease among Korean workers: a nationwide population-based study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 93, 965–973 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01546-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01546-1