Impact of Long Working Hours and Shift Work on Unmet Health Care Need Among Korean Workers

Hye-Eun Lee; Jeongbae Rhie

doi:10.1016/j.shaw.2021.09.003

Impact of Long Working Hours and Shift Work on Unmet Health Care Need Among Korean Workers

Saf Health Work. 2022 Mar;13(1):17-22. doi: 10.1016/j.shaw.2021.09.003. Epub 2021 Sep 30.

Authors

Hye-Eun Lee^{1

2}, Jeongbae Rhie³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
² Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to identify work-related risk factors, including long working hours and night/shift work, for unmet health care need using data of a representative panel of Korean adults.

Methods: Associations between work-related factors and unmet health care need were analyzed using data of 3,440 participants (10,320 observations) from the 2011-2013 Korean Health Panel Study. A generalized estimating equation was used for the analysis of repeated measures.

Results: The prevalence of unmet health care was 16.6%. After adjusting sex, age, socioeconomic status, work characteristics, and working more than 60 hours per week (odds ratio [OR]: 1.43, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.23-1.65) or 50-59 hours per week (OR: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.08-1.46) instead of 40-49 hours per week and night/shift work (OR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.06-1.51) were associated with unmet health care need.

Conclusion: Long working hours and night/shift work are risk factors for unmet health care need among the Korean working population.

Keywords: Korea health panel; Long working hours; Night work; Shift work; Unmet health care need.