사무직은 여성노동자의 비중이 높은 직종이나 이 집단의 건강에 대한 실태파악이나 정책은 매우 미비한 실정이다. 사무직의 노동환경은 전통적인 물리적, 화학적 요인과는 다른 요인이 더욱 중시되고 장기간 누적되어 나타나는 직업성 질환이 문제가 되고 있다. 따라서 본 논문은 사무직 여성노동자의 건강현황을 파악하고 사무직 여성노동자의 건강권 확보를 위한 방향제시를 하고자 한다. 본 연구를 위해 사무직에서 문제가 되고 있는 근골격계질환에 대한 실태조사를 실시하였다. 인구, 사회적 요인, 작업환경의 제반 요인과 근골격계질환에 영향을 미칠 수 있는 비작업적 요인을 포함한 질문지를 작성, 872부의 질문지를 대상으로 집단간 교차비(odds ratio)를 분석하였다. 미국산업안전보건기구가 규정하고 있는 기준에 따를 때 전체 응답자의 62.5%인 545명이 질환을 호소하였다. 근골격계질환 발생과 관련된 요인은 평균근무시간, 잔업/특근 여부, 작업 중 휴식시간, 작업량 조절가능, 작업강도, 직무의 요구량, 동료와 상사로부터의 정서적인 지원, 스트레스, 피로, 음주회수로 나타났다. 근골격계질환을 호소함에도 불구하고 문제의 해결을 위해 질병을 보고하지 않은 사람은 83.4%였고, 근골격계질환에 관한 교육을 받아본 적이 없는 노동자가 95%로 절대 다수를 차지하고 있다. 따라서 사무직 여성노동자의 심각한 근골격계질환발생의 감소를 위해서는 현재의 근골격계질환 예방대책을 권고수준에서 사업주의 강제사항으로의 변경과 성인지적 관점에서 성별 노동환경과 질환에 대한 자료 구축, 보건관리의 혜택이 성평등적으로 작용하고 있는지에 대한 관리가 필요하다.
Concerns of women's health have mostly focused on women's pregnancy and childbirth and recently on women workers working in the manufacturing sector. Women's absorption into clerical work has rapidly increased, yet their health conditions in relation to working environment have not been paid much attention. In fact, clerical workers work in the different working environment from what traditional occupational health and safety law has covered. In the office working setting, physical and chemical risk factors are not so much important as factories and occupational disease, not injuries, recognized after long-term, is prevalent. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine conditions of female clerical worker's health paying special attention to musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) and suggest a way to improve health of those workers. To understand prevalence and risk factors of MSDs among female clerical workers, we used a questionnaire containing demographic and social factors, various dimensions of working environment and non-occupational variables. 872 questionnaires were collected and odds ratio was obtained to understand group difference by each variable. According to NIOSH definition of MSDs, 62.5% of workers had symptoms at least one part of body. Workers had the most severe symptoms on shoulder and hick, wrist/hands/fingers, knee/ankle/, ann/elbow in order. Factors affecting prevalence of MSDs were average working hours, overtime work, duration of break time during working time, possibility of accommodating job demand, labour intensity, social support, stress, level of tiredness and alcohol drinking. In spite of recognizing MSDs, 83.4% of workers did not report their symptoms to the company or trade union. Thus workers did not have opportunities to have appropriate treatment and ask for improvement of working environment. In addition, 95% of workers have never had education on MSDs. Since many female clerical workers had MSDs, several measures should be suggested. First, currently Korean occupational health and safety(OHS) law regulates MSDs only through various recommendations that company owner should take. Thus the recommendations should be at the level of law giving more responsibility of company owner to take substantial actions at the workplace. In addition to the reform of law, every workplace should establish occupational health and safety management system to analyze health problems, make changes and evaluate those changes for the following changes of working environment. Through these measures, clerical workers could have education on work-related diseases and make changes of various dimensions of the working environment.