Association between sleep disturbance and occupational injury among Korean employees

Jongwoo Lee; Seong-Sik Cho; JungIl Kim; Mo-Yeol Kang; Suhwan Ju; Byoung Gwon Kim; Young Seoub Hong

doi:10.35371/aoem.2021.33.e29

Association between sleep disturbance and occupational injury among Korean employees

Ann Occup Environ Med. 2021 Sep 10:33:e29. doi: 10.35371/aoem.2021.33.e29. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jongwoo Lee¹, Seong-Sik Cho^{2

3}, JungIl Kim², Mo-Yeol Kang⁴, Suhwan Ju¹, Byoung Gwon Kim², Young Seoub Hong³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dong-A University Hospital, Busan, Korea.
² Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea.
³ Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea.
⁴ Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Background: Occupational injury has been a serious social problem steadily. Sleep disturbance is a risk factor for occupational injury. However, there were few researches studied on the linking between sleep disturbance and occupational injury in general working population of Korea. Therefore, we explored the association between sleep disturbance and occupational injury among Korean workers.

Methods: This study used data from the 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey. Occupational injury was assessed by asking work related injury for 12 months prior to the point of the survey. Sleep disturbance was assessed using the Minimal Insomnia Symptoms Scale (MISS). To analyze the association between sleep disturbance and occupational injury, multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted.

Results: The odds ratio (OR) of sleep disturbance group for occupational injury was 2.57 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.68-3.93) in the fully adjusted model. For the association between MISS score and occupational injury, it showed increasing trend that ORs increase from the 1st to the 4th quartiles. The OR of 2nd quartile was 1.10 (95% CI: 0.60-2.01), the OR of 3rd quartile was 2.27 (95% CI: 1.53-3.38) and the OR of 4th quartile was 2.80 (95% CI: 1.84-4.26).

Conclusions: Sleep disturbance was associated with occupational injury. In addition, increasing trend was observed between MISS score and occupational injury. These findings imply that developing of intervention programs to manage sleep disturbance and fatigue may be necessary to prevent occupational injury.

Keywords: Occupational injuries; Sleep; Sleep disorders.