Occupational musculoskeletal disorders currently account for the largest proportion of the occupational illnesses in Korea. In this research, status of musculoskeletal disorders among the occupational illnesses was examined through workers' compensation claims data. Types and characteristics of musculoskeletal disorders were looked at other data set as well. The data sets included epidemiological investigation data reported by Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, and data collected from occupational disease surveillance reports and Korean occupational health-related scientific journals. Number of cases, incidence rate and insurance benefits for occupational musculoskeletal disorders in Korea are increasing every year. In addition, musculoskeletal disorders occurrence is shifted from large enterprises group to small-and-medium group, from manufacturing to service sector, and from production workers to office and professional workers. Although low back pain is still most common, its occurrence characteristics is gradually shifted from traumatic to cumulative while musculoskeletal disorders are somewhat seemingly moved from lumbar to upper limb body part. Musculoskeletal disorders were observed to be more diverse and prevalent in epidemiological investigations or surveillance data rather in workers' compensation claims data. Musculoskeletal disorders occurrence is related to demographic factors, occupational psychosocial factors, and ergonomic risk factors at workplace for which appropriate preventive measures needed to be made accordingly.
Hearing loss is a common health issue caused by aging, disease, noise, and genetic factors. Besides ear diseases, systemic diseases can be leading causes in hearing loss. This paper investigates the influence of systemic diseases on hearing loss by examining the relationship between hearing loss and representative kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, arterial sclerosis, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cataracts, hyperlipidemia and immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In addition, hearing loss caused by aging, namely the influence of bone density and menopause in women on hearing loss, was reviewed.
Military service personnel are constantly exposed to sudden, loud noises, and often show a higher auditory threshold than the general population, as well as tinnitus. Tinnitus in military personnel can occur alone, without any complaints of hearing impairment. When accompanied by hearing impairment, the low/mid-frequency hearing loss is not large, and the hearing threshold may appear to be increased in the high frequency range from 3-6 kHz. Therefore, by calculating the average hearing threshold and restricting disability assessments to cases of tinnitus with a moderate degree of hearing impairment of 50 dB, most veterans with tinnitus will be excluded from compensation. Not only are the diagnoses, evaluations, and auditory complications of tinnitus not considered, neither are the mental and psychological effects, nor the aspects of treatment and rehabilitation related to quality of life. This study aims to examine the characteristics of tinnitus disorder due to military noise. In addition, this study proposes that tinnitus should be classified as a public occupational disease in veterans, and discusses problems with the criteria for disability compensation and examinations.