Background Suicide is the leading cause of death in young adults in Korea. Stress in the workplace affects the suicide rate; young female workers are particularly vulnerable to adverse work environments. We investigated the relationships of shift work, sleep, and work stress to suicidal ideation. Methods This study used data from 508 female workers aged 22–40 years in an electronics company. Data on baseline characteristics, work patterns, sleep quality (using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), and work stress levels using the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) were obtained from questionnaires. We examined associations between suicidal ideation and shift work, sleep quality, and KOSS scores. Results Suicidal ideation was significantly higher among shift workers (odds ratio [OR], 2.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31–4.32), those with poor sleep (OR, 2.84; 95% CI, 1.68–4.84), and those with high work stress (OR, 3.30; 95% CI, 1.82–6.00). Both 3 × 12 h shift workers (OR, 2.98; 95% CI, 1.35–6.57) and 4 × 8 h shift workers (OR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.03–4.45) had increased suicidal ideation. High work stress (OR, 11.55; 95% CI, 2.93–45.48) had stronger associations with suicidal ideation than poor sleep (OR, 3.86; 95% CI, 1.21–12.33) in shift workers. The combined effect of poor sleep and high KOSS on suicidal ideation was stronger in shift workers (OR, 13.39; 95% CI, 3.22–55.62) than day workers (OR, 4.31; 95% CI, 1.03–18.01). Conclusions Shift workers are more vulnerable than day workers to the combination of work stress and poor sleep quality as well as to work stress alone.

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is the most important disease screened for upon patient history review during preimmigration medical examinations as performed in South Korea in prospective immigrants to certain Western countries. In 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed the TB screening protocol from a smear-based test to the complete Culture and Directly Observed Therapy Tuberculosis Technical Instructions (CDOT TB TI) for reducing the incidence of TB in foreign-born immigrants.MethodsThis study evaluated the effect of the revised (as compared with the old) protocol in South Korea.ResultsOf the 40,558 visa applicants, 365 exhibited chest radiographic results suggestive of active or inactive TB, and 351 underwent sputum tests (acid-fast bacilli smear and Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture). To this end, using the CDOT TB TI, 36 subjects (88.8 per 105 of the population) were found to have TB, compared with only seven using the older U.S. CDC technical instruction (TI) (p<0.001). In addition, there were six drug-resistant cases which were identified (16.7 per 105 of the population), two of whom had multidrug-resistance (5.6 per 105 of the population).ConclusionThe culture-based 2007 TI identified a great deal of TB cases current to the individuals tested, as compared to older U.S. CDC TI.