Background Discrimination is associated with depressive symptoms and other negative health effects, but little is known about the mental health risks of workplace gender discrimination. We aimed to investigate the association of workplace gender discrimination and depressive symptoms among employed women in South Korea. Methods The 6 th wave (2016) survey datasets of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Family (KLoWF) were analyzed for 2,339 respondents who are identified as wage workers. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the short-form (10-item) Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale. Association of workplace gender discrimination and depressive symptoms was assessed using multivariate logistic regression, adjusted for potential confounding variables including age, income satisfaction, education level, marital status, and currently diagnosed disease. We then measured the age effect using age stratification multivariate logistic regression model. Results Women who experienced gender discrimination at workplace had higher odds of depressive symptoms regardless of the type of the discrimination including hiring, promotion, work assignments, paid wages, and firing. These associations were consistent in younger women below 40 years of age in regard to hiring, promotion, paid wages and firing, whereas inconsistent among older women above 40 years of age. Limitations We did not investigate the effect of workplace gender discrimination on depressive symptoms in a longitudinal manner. Conclusions Workplace gender discrimination was found to be significantly associated with depressive symptoms after adjustment for socio-demographic factors. Further, women under 40 years of age were especially vulnerable to workplace gender discrimination.

Objectives: Previous studies mostly focused on the relationship between chronic environmental noise exposure and hypertension but the effects of subacute (under 4 years) exposure with severe (>85 dB) noise exposure on clinical level hypertension have not been explored. This study aimed to reveal the association between severe noise exposure and hypertension. Methods: The severe noise exposure group was recruited from a Common Data Model conducted for the Korean Participants Health Examination from January 2014 to December 2017. The use of antihypertensive drug and/or blood pressure of at least 140/90 mmHg was defined as new onset clinical hypertension. A multivariate Cox proportional hazard model was implemented to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) by adjusting covariates including demographic, lifestyle, and other chemical exposure factors. Time-dependent Cox analysis and Landmark analysis were further performed as a sensitivity analysis. Results: During the 29 332 person-years follow-up with 12 412 participants of the entire cohort, new onset hypertension occurred in 1222 participants. The findings showed that severe noise exposure was associated with an increased risk of hypertension incidence in the entire cohort [final model hazard ratio 1.28 (95% CI 1.11–1.47)]. Other covariates did not attenuate the association after adjusting age and sex. Time-dependent Cox and Landmark analysis also showed significant results [hazard ratio 1.60 (95% CI 1.38–1.85) and hazard ratio 1.33 (95% CI 1.13–1.57)]. Conclusion: Severe noise with subacute exposure is significantly associated with hypertension development. Further studies should be implemented to clarify whether severe exposure to noise could be an important risk factor for hypertension.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is prevalent around the world, and many studies suggest that depression among medical staff is on the rise during the pandemic. This study aims to assess the relationship between depressive symptoms and individual resilience among military hospital personnel responsible for treating patients with COVID-19. Individuals from the Armed Forces Daejeon Hospital who responded to the questionnaires from 8 February to 15 February 2022 participated in this study. Resilience and depressive symptoms were measured via the Korean Resilience Quotient Test-53 and Patient Health Questionnaire-9, respectively. We employed multivariable logistic regression analysis to estimate Odds Ratios (ORs) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) of depressive symptoms. Among 181 participants, the individuals with depressive symptoms and high resilience accounted for 8.8% and 61.9%, respectively. Significant correlations between depressive symptoms and both the low resilience and low resilience positivity groups were found (adjusted OR 10.30 [95% CI 1.74–61.01] and OR 13.90 [95% CI 1.93–100.02], respectively). This study notes a significant inverse relationship between depressive symptoms and resilience even after adjusting for demographic and occupational characteristics. To overcome depressive symptoms among hospital personnel, it is necessary to seek ways to improve individual resilience, especially positivity.

Objectives A rest time of less than 11 h taken by a shift worker between shifts is defined as quick return (QR). QR is shown to decrease sleep time by virtue of decreasing rest time, diminishing sleepiness and exhaustion, and increasing the number of sick days taken by employees. Therefore, in this multicenter retrospective study, the association between QR and the incidence of insomnia was established using the night‐shift questionnaire from the Korean Workers Health Examination‐Common Data Model. Methods Three hospitals collected the night‐shift profiles and baseline demographic data of 33 669 workers between January 2015 and December 2017. The most recent date of examination was used for participants who had been examined multiple times at the same institution. We used multiple logistic regression to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The pooled ORs were estimated using combined results from the three institutions. Results The proportion of men was higher than that of women in the QR group at each institution. The pooled ORs were computed using combined data from the three institutions. Workers who reported a QR had the highest risk of sleeplessness (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.12–1.31) compared to those workers who reported a slow return, after adjusting for possible confounders. Conclusions A substantial correlation was established between QR and insomnia using the CDM approach and data from multiple centers. This study may serve as a foundation for developing guidelines to enhance the health of shift workers and prevent occupational accidents.

The role of hazardous occupational noise exposure on the development of prediabetes is not well researched. We aimed to elucidate exposure to hazardous occupational noise as an independent risk factor for high fasting blood glucose (FBG). Participants exposed/non-exposed to occupational noise were recruited from the Common Data Model cohorts of 2013/2014 from two centers and were followed-up for 3 years. Multivariate time-dependent Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and were adjusted for various covariates. Pooled HRs were calculated. Among the 43,858 participants of this retrospective cohort study, 37.64% developed high FBG. The mean (standard deviation) age in the cohort was 40.91 (9.71) years. In the fully adjusted models, the HRs of high FBG in the two centers were 1.35 (95% CI: 1.24–1.48) and 1.22 (95% CI: 1.17–1.28), and the pooled HR was 1.28 (95% CI: 1.16–1.41). A Kaplan–Meier plot of high FBG incidence by occupational noise exposure showed significant results (p < 0.001). We found that occupational noise exposure is significantly associated with high FBG. Preventing exposure to hazardous noise in the work environment may help reduce the risk for prediabetes among workers.