IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i20p12992-d938546.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Workplace Mistreatment and Health Conditions Prior and during the COVID-19 in South Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study

Author

Listed:
  • Nataliya Nerobkova

    (Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
    Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea)

  • Soo Young Kim

    (Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
    Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea)

  • Eun-Cheol Park

    (Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
    Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea)

  • Jaeyong Shin

    (Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
    Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
    Department of Policy Analysis and Management, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA)

Abstract

Background: This study examined the relationship between workplace mistreatment, including discrimination, abuse, and overworking, and health problems among full-time workers prior to and during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in South Korea. Methods: We analyzed data from the 2017 and 2020–2021 Korean Working Conditions Surveys, including the final sample of 44,425 participants. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between workplace mistreatment and health problems among workers by gender. Interaction analysis was conducted to establish the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and health problems related to mistreatment. The occupational, demographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds were adjusted. Results: We found a significant association between workplace mistreatment and health problems, including headaches, eyestrain, and anxiety. The association increased after the COVID-19 pandemic: “discrimination” (men (OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.93–2.65), women (OR 2.73, 95% CI 2.36–3.17)); abuse (men (OR 5.42, 95% CI 2.87–10.23), women (OR 4.70, 95% CI 3.12–7.08)); and overworking: men (OR 2.36, 95% CI 2.01–2.77), women (OR 3.52, 95% CI 2.68–4.61). The interaction indicates an increased incidence of people having health problems due to workplace mistreatment (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00–1.06) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Statistically, employees who experience workplace mistreatment have worse health conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the job environment and increased the association between workplace mistreatment and health problems. To eliminate the health problems related to workplace mistreatment, it is necessary to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work and employee health conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Nataliya Nerobkova & Soo Young Kim & Eun-Cheol Park & Jaeyong Shin, 2022. "Workplace Mistreatment and Health Conditions Prior and during the COVID-19 in South Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:12992-:d:938546
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/12992/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/12992/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Del Boca, Daniela & Oggero, Noemi & Profeta, Paola & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2020. "Women's Work, Housework and Childcare, before and during COVID-19," IZA Discussion Papers 13409, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Richman, J.A. & Rospenda, K.M. & Nawyn, S.J. & Flaherty, J.A. & Fendrich, M. & Drum, M.L. & Johnson, T.P., 1999. "Sexual harassment and generalized workplace abuse among university employees: Prevalence and mental health correlates," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(3), pages 358-363.
    3. Lucrezia Ginevra Lulli & Gabriele Giorgi & Caterina Pandolfi & Giulia Foti & Georgia Libera Finstad & Giulio Arcangeli & Nicola Mucci, 2021. "Identifying Psychosocial Risks and Protective Measures for Workers’ Mental Wellbeing at the Time of COVID-19: A Narrative Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-26, December.
    4. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2020. "Women’s Work, Housework and Childcare, before and during COVID-19," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 613, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    5. Van Borm, Hannah & Burn, Ian & Baert, Stijn, 2021. "What Does a Job Candidate's Age Signal to Employers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Tetsuya Yamamoto & Chigusa Uchiumi & Naho Suzuki & Junichiro Yoshimoto & Eric Murillo-Rodriguez, 2020. "The Psychological Impact of ‘Mild Lockdown’ in Japan during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Survey under a Declared State of Emergency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Yuhyung Shin & Won-Moo Hur & Hansol Hwang, 2022. "Impacts of customer incivility and abusive supervision on employee performance: a comparative study of the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 16(2), pages 309-330, June.
    8. Seung-Sup Kim & David R Williams, 2012. "Perceived Discrimination and Self-Rated Health in South Korea: A Nationally Representative Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, January.
    9. Siegrist, Johannes & Starke, Dagmar & Chandola, Tarani & Godin, Isabelle & Marmot, Michael & Niedhammer, Isabelle & Peter, Richard, 2004. "The measurement of effort-reward imbalance at work: European comparisons," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1483-1499, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2021. "Did COVID-19 Affect the Division of Labor within the Household? Evidence from Two Waves of the Pandemic in Italy," Working Papers 2021-043, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    2. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    3. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    4. Cassandra E DiRienzo & Jayoti Das, 2021. "Formal Female Entrepreneurship and the Shadow Economy," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 13(5), pages 63-72.
    5. Boca Daniela del & Oggero Noemi & Profeta Paola & Rossi Maria Cristina, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on the gender division of housework and childcare: Evidence from two waves of the pandemic in Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Shaila Jamal & Antonio Paez, 2024. "Well-being implications of immobility during COVID-19: evidence from a student sample in Bangladesh using the satisfaction with life scale," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2019-2049, October.
    7. Ali, Umair & Herbst, Chris M. & Makridis, Christos A., 2021. "Minimum Quality Regulations and the Demand for Child Care Labor," IZA Discussion Papers 14684, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Camila Salazar-Fernández & Daniela Palet & Paola A. Haeger & Francisca Román Mella, 2021. "COVID-19 Perceived Impact and Psychological Variables as Predictors of Unhealthy Food and Alcohol Consumption Trajectories: The Role of Gender and Living with Children as Moderators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, April.
    9. Jordy Meekes & Wolter H J Hassink & Guyonne Kalb, 2023. "Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 393-417.
    10. Marta Pasqualini & Marta Dominguez Folgueras & Emanuele Ferragina & Olivier Godechot & Ettore Recchi & Mirna Safi, 2022. "Who took care of what? The gender division of unpaid work during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in France," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(34), pages 1007-1036.
    11. Elisa Brini & Mariya Lenko & Stefani Scherer & Agnese Vitali, 2021. "Retraditionalisation? Work patterns of families with children during the pandemic in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(31), pages 957-972.
    12. Shinsuke Asakawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Impact of Temporary School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Academic Achievement of Elementary School Students," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 21-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    13. Giulia Bettin & Isabella Giorgetti & Stefano Staffolani, 2024. "The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the gender gap in the Italian labour market," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    14. Ainaa, Carmen & Brunetti, Irene & Mussida, Chiara & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Who lost the most? Distributive effects of COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 829, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    15. Kugler, Maurice & Viollaz, Mariana & Duque, Daniel & Gaddis, Isis & Newhouse, David & Palacios-Lopez, Amparo & Weber, Michael, 2023. "How did the COVID-19 crisis affect different types of workers in the developing world?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    16. Matthew A. Ng & Anthony Naranjo & Ann E. Schlotzhauer & Mindy K. Shoss & Nika Kartvelishvili & Matthew Bartek & Kenneth Ingraham & Alexis Rodriguez & Sara Kira Schneider & Lauren Silverlieb-Seltzer & , 2021. "Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated the Future of Work or Changed Its Course? Implications for Research and Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-28, September.
    17. Alon, Titan & Doepke, Matthias & Olmstead-Rumsey, Jane & Tertilt, Michèle, 2020. "This Time It's Different: The Role of Women's Employment in a Pandemic Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 13562, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Ewa Sygit-Kowalkowska & Andrzej Piotrowski & Ole Boe & Samir Rawat & Jelena Minic & Alexandra Predoiu & Radu Predoiu & Žermēna Vazne & Andra Fernate & Romualdas Malinauskas & Nguyen Phuc Nguyen & John, 2022. "Evaluation of Work Mode and Its Importance for Home–Work and Work–Home Relationships: The Role of Resilience, Coping with Stress, and Passion for Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-19, November.
    19. Stephan Payr & Andrea Schuller & Theresia Dangl & Philipp Scheider & Thomas Sator & Britta Chocholka & Manuela Jaindl & Elisabeth Schwendenwein & Thomas M. Tiefenboeck, 2021. "Maintaining Medical Resources to Treat Paediatric Injuries during COVID-19 Lockdown Is Essential—An Epidemiological Analysis of a Level 1 Trauma Centre in Central Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, May.
    20. Alicia Regodon & Maxime Armand & Carmen Lastres & Jose De Pedro & Alfonso García-Santos, 2021. "Data-Driven Methodology for Coliving Spaces and Space Profiling Based on Post-Occupancy Evaluation through Digital Trail of Users," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-24, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:12992-:d:938546. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.