Current Status and Issues for the Role of Occupational Health Physicians in Japan

Mori, Koji

doi:10.31662/jmaj.2018-0011

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In Japan, employers with less than 50 full-time staff are not obligated to appoint an occupational health physician or health supervisor or to establish a health committee. This lack of obligation means that workers in small companies often do not have occupational health services available to them [17]. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, there were marked differences among companies of different sizes in the implementation of remote work and infection control measures [14,15].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We classified the responses into three categories: those who worked for small (1-49), mediumsized (50-999), or large (1,000 or more) companies. This classification was made because under the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the obligation to establish an occupational health management system differs depending on the size of the worksite [17]. Furthermore, the government-provided workplace vaccination program was eligible for locations that could vaccinate at least 1,000 people [13].…”

Section: Company Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of socioeconomic factors and workplace vaccination in Japan: a cohort study

Mori

Nagata

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: Vaccination is considered the most effective control measure against COVID-19. Vaccine hesitancy and equitable vaccine allocation are important challenges to disseminating developed vaccines. To promote COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the government of Japan established the workplace vaccination program. However, while it appears that the program was effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, the program may have hindered the equitable allocation of vaccines because it mainly focused on employees of large companies. We investigated the relationship between company size and COVID-19 vaccination completion status of employees and the impact of the workplace vaccination program on this relationship. Methods: We conducted an internet-based prospective cohort study from December 2020 (baseline) to December 2021. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey. Briefly, 27,036 workers completed the questionnaire at baseline and 18,560 at follow-up. After excluding ineligible respondents, we finally analyzed the data from 15,829 participants. At baseline, the participants were asked about the size of the company they worked for, and at follow-up they were asked about the month in which they received their second COVID-19 vaccine dose and the availability of a company-arranged vaccination opportunity. Results: In each month throughout the observation period, the odds of having received a second COVID-19 vaccine dose were significantly lower for small-company employees than for large-company employees in the sex- and age-adjusted model. This difference decreased after adjusting for socioeconomic factors, and there was no significant difference after adjusting for the availability of a company-arranged vaccination opportunity. Conclusions: The workplace vaccination program implemented in Japan to control the COVID-19 pandemic may have been effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy in workers; however, it may have caused an inequitable allocation of vaccines between companies of different sizes. Because people who worked for small companies were less likely to be vaccinated, it will be necessary to enhance support of vaccination for this population in the event of future infectious disease outbreaks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Company Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of socioeconomic factors and workplace vaccination in Japan: a cohort study

Mori

Nagata

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We classified the responses into three categories: those who worked for small (1–49), medium-sized (50–999), or large (1,000 or more) companies. This classification was made because under the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the obligation to establish an occupational health management system differs depending on the size of the worksite [ 17 ]. Furthermore, the government-provided workplace vaccination program was eligible for locations that could vaccinate at least 1,000 people [ 13 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of workplace vaccination program in Japan: a cohort study

Mori

Nagata

et al. 2022

Environ. Health Prev. Med.

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Background Vaccination is considered the most effective control measure against COVID-19. Vaccine hesitancy and equitable vaccine allocation are important challenges to disseminating developed vaccines. To promote COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the government of Japan established the workplace vaccination program. However, while it appears that the program was effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, the program may have hindered the equitable allocation of vaccines because it mainly focused on employees of large companies. We investigated the relationship between company size and COVID-19 vaccination completion status of employees and the impact of the workplace vaccination program on this relationship. Methods We conducted an internet-based prospective cohort study from December 2020 (baseline) to December 2021. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey. Briefly, 27,036 workers completed the questionnaire at baseline and 18,560 at follow-up. After excluding ineligible respondents, we finally analyzed the data from 15,829 participants. At baseline, the participants were asked about the size of the company they worked for, and at follow-up they were asked about the month in which they received their second COVID-19 vaccine dose and the availability of a company-arranged vaccination opportunity. Results In each month throughout the observation period, the odds of having received a second COVID-19 vaccine dose were significantly lower for small-company employees than for large-company employees in the sex- and age-adjusted model. This difference decreased after adjusting for socioeconomic factors, and there was no significant difference after adjusting for the availability of a company-arranged vaccination opportunity. Conclusions The workplace vaccination program implemented in Japan to control the COVID-19 pandemic may have been effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy in workers; however, it may have caused an inequitable allocation of vaccines between companies of different sizes. Because people who worked for small companies were less likely to be vaccinated, it will be necessary to enhance support of vaccination for this population in the event of future infectious disease outbreaks. Trial registration Not applicable.

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“…The current coverage of OHS in Malaysia remains low, with approximately one OHD per 26,756 employees (DOSH, 2018;Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2018). The prevalence of occupational diseases in Japan (0.01%) and France (0.18%) are relatively low due to their high accessibility of OHS, with one OHD per 685 employees in Japan, and one per 5,477 employees in France (Eurogip, 2018;Japan Statistics Bureau, 2018;Mori, 2018;"Number of physicians", 2018;Organization for Economic Co-operation Development, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Implementing Occupational Health Services (OHS) in Malaysia -Perspective of Occupational Health Doctors

Roze¹,

Samsuddin²,

Razali³

et al. 2021

JSSH

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Mortality estimation due to work-related illness has reached up to 2.4 million each year. The current coverage of occupational health services (OHS) in Malaysia is still low. Occupational health doctors (OHDs) are one of the essential personnel to ensure proper execution of OHS. This study was conducted to explore the experiences and views of OHDs on the challenges in implementing OHS in Malaysia. Four focus group discussions were conducted with OHDs (N = 23) from four different states in Malaysia in 2016. Another five OHDs participated in in-depth interviews to implement the identified codes or themes. The discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. NVivo version 11.0 was used to facilitate data analysis. The data were analysed following the thematic analysis guidelines. Three themes were identified from the discussions: difficulties in diagnosing occupational diseases and poisoning; poor practices, attitudes, and commitment by both workers and employers; and non-compliance with laws and regulations related to the industries. The common challenges discussed by the participants were the lack of knowledge and skills among OHDs, and the shortage of standard procedures, leading to difficulties to screen occupational diseases. The poor cooperation and behaviour from the industries also hindered OHDs when performing their services. This study suggests better training and provision of standard tools or guideline to assist OHDs in making occupational disease diagnoses, increasing OHS awareness among the industries, and enacting OHS as part of the laws and regulations with adequate enforcement.

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Current Status and Issues for the Role of Occupational Health Physicians in Japan

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of socioeconomic factors and workplace vaccination in Japan: a cohort study

COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of socioeconomic factors and workplace vaccination in Japan: a cohort study

COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of workplace vaccination program in Japan: a cohort study

Challenges of Implementing Occupational Health Services (OHS) in Malaysia -Perspective of Occupational Health Doctors

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