Despite the steady growth of the delivery industry and the continuous increase in delivery workers, the average working hours of delivery workers have increased due to the explosive increase in online shopping, and the volume has also increased, increasing the burden on delivery workers. The health status of delivery workers are associated with physical factors, occupational stress and emotional labor, but little is known about the stress coping strategies of them.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the health status of delivery workers based on the theory of salutogenesis and to verify the significance of the fit and path of the model by establish the health structure model to derive the factors directly or indirectly affecting the health.
A questionnaire survey of delivery workers working belonging to 43 parcel delivery offices located in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do province was conducted from August 2 to August 27, 2021. A total of 270 delivery workers participated in the study, 262 were used for the analysis except for the insufficient questionnaire responses.
The result of this study showed that sense of coherence was the most important factor explaining the health status of delivery workers. Social support and health promotion activities which are generalizes resistance resources all affected health status. Also social support and health promotion activities indirectly influenced health status through mediation of sense of coherence. Working environment directly affected health status and indirectly influenced health status through mediation of sense of coherence.
The results of this study reveal that the Salutogenesis theory is adequate to use for developing health promotion programs for delivery workers. In particular, social support, health promotion activities and sense of coherence are important competencies for health promotion. Therefore, it is necessary to actively cope with stress, strengthen sense of coherence and promote various social resources and health promotion activities for delivery workers.