Kang Dongsuk
Department of Business Administration, College of Social Sciences, Gangneung-Wonju National University (GWNU), Street 7, Jukheon-gil, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, 25457, Republic of Korea.
Saf Health Work. 2022 Mar;13(1):32-39. doi: 10.1016/j.shaw.2021.10.001. Epub 2021 Oct 13.
Industrial accidents can determine the overall level and quality of the work environment in industries and companies that contribute to national economic development. Korea has transformed the country from an international aid recipient to a donor country, but it has ranked first among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries in the number of fatal industrial accidents. Little has been known about the policy effects in terms of the workers' insurance for their industrial accidents and rehabilitation. This study raises two research questions about the influence of workers' personal characteristics and vocational rehabilitation services on their return to workplaces.
The study implements weighted logistic regression analysis using propensity score matching. This research utilizes the relevant dataset (3,924 persons) of Korea's industrial accident and insurance.
The findings show that the level of workers' awareness of health recovery and their counseling for rehabilitation by physicians had positive effects on their return to work. Environmental factors such as workers' job stability at the time of industrial accidents and the temporal effects of industrial accidents (e.g., the level of disability, their age) had negative impacts on their return to work.
These findings have policy implications that the concentration of rehabilitation services for patients who have been mildly affected by industrial accidents would be effective in the short and medium term. The findings also highlight the necessity of ongoing policies about workers' vocational recovery with concrete evidence about policy impacts.
工业事故能够决定那些对国家经济发展有贡献的行业和公司的整体工作环境水平及质量。韩国已从一个国际援助接受国转变为援助国，但在经济合作与发展组织成员国中，其工业事故死亡人数却位居第一。关于工业事故工人保险及康复方面的政策效果，人们了解甚少。本研究提出了两个关于工人个人特征及职业康复服务对其重返工作岗位影响的研究问题。
本研究采用倾向得分匹配法进行加权逻辑回归分析。本研究利用了韩国工业事故与保险的相关数据集（3924人）。
研究结果表明，工人的健康恢复意识水平以及医生为其提供的康复咨询对他们重返工作岗位有积极影响。诸如工人在工业事故发生时的工作稳定性以及工业事故的时间影响因素（如残疾程度、年龄）等环境因素对他们重返工作岗位有负面影响。
这些研究结果具有政策意义，即集中为受工业事故影响较轻的患者提供康复服务在短期和中期将是有效的。研究结果还强调了持续出台有关工人职业康复政策并提供政策影响具体证据的必要性。
