Relationship between emotional labor and perceived health status among service and sales workers

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between emotional labor and general health status in a nationally representative sample of South Korean service and sales workers. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2007 to 2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A total of 1907 subjects were included in the analysis. Multiple logistic regression was performed to determine the relationship between emotional labor and perceived health status (PHS). Results: The adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of poor PHS was 1.869 (1.464 to 2.391) among highemotional laborgroup, comparedwith the lowemotional labor group as the reference. Perceived stress accounted for 35.57%of the variance in the relationship between high emotional labor and poor PHS. Conclusions: Emotional labor was associated with increased risk of poor PHS.