• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.271-280
• /
• 2013

This study aims to analyze the effects of tooth-brushing facilities (TBF) at middle schools that installed TBF in 2012 as part of the oral health project in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. The subjects were the first graders at A middle school that installed TBF previously and B middle school that installed TBF in 2012. The results are as follows: DMFT, DMFS and CPI didn't show significant difference by schools (p>0.05), but code (0) was higher and code (2) was lower in female students than male students (p<0.05). As to PHP index, the students at A school with TBF indicated better oral hygiene (p<0.01). In the research on before and after installing TBF, the oral hygiene was improved significantly more after the installation than before (p <0.01). In the comparison on the oral health-related behavior, the percentage of not brushing after lunch was higher B school than A school and the frequency of toothbrushing after lunch was higher A school than B school (p<0.01). About the reasons why not to brush after lunch, there was difference in 'lack of the place' as A school showed 2.6% while B school without TBF indicated 14.2% (p<0.01). About the changes of the oral health-related behavior before and after TBF installation, the percentage of not brushing after lunch increased from 78.7% to 83.8% after the installation. The average frequency of tooth-brushing after lunch for one week also decreased from 0.50 to 0.34 (p>0.05). Among the reasons why not to brush after lunch, 'lack of the place' significantly reduced, but 'because other friends don't do it' increased greatly after the installation (p <0.05). Only with the improvement of oral health knowledge, we cannot expect either clinical or behavioral significance. Not only schools but policies of governmental agencies and financial support, cooperation of community-related groups for program development and evaluation will contribute altogether to helping teenagers to habitualize proper oral health management.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.580-589
• /
• 2015

The artificially grown forests of larch, planted in accordance with the nationwide afforestation policy in the 1970s, are located inside national parks. This study intended to induce a forestation system by which the forests develop into an ecologically healthy and broadleaved ecosystem with broad species diversity. For this, the aspects of natural regeneration of broadleaves from 2010 to 2013 after thinning by density (30%, 50%, and 70%) in 2009 were surveyed using the larch forest in the Woljeong Temple region inside Odaesan National Park. There were no trees that were larger than 2 cm in in diameter at breast height among the trees recently introduced between 2012 and 2013. A significant number of herbs have been introduced to the subsurface alongside young arboreal trees species such as Bumalda bladdernut, Acer triflorum, Cornus controversa etc and shrubs. However, many woody species did not survive the competition with herbs and repeated withering and regeneration. The number of woody species generated within the 30% cutting area was 440 species in 2013 and this figure has been increasing twofold each year. The number of woody plants within the 50% cutting area also showed an upward tendency and most plants did not survive in the competition with herbs and Sasa borealis and withered in only 1 ~ 2 years after generation. Unlike other thinning areas, the 70% cutting area showed 608 broadleaved trees, reflecting a decrease from 748 trees in 2012. This appeared to be attributed to the luxuriance of S. borealis and the sharp increase of fatsia following the inflow of total sunlight to the forest floor. Herbs were hardly generated due to the influence of S. borealis. Regarding the density for thinning at 50% or upper height, the forest treatment division shall maintain a proper density in the course of inducing artificial forestation of larch into natural broadleaved forests considering the luxuriance of sasa borealis and herbs due to the inflow of total sunlight to the forest floor.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.1-32
• /
• 2003

An analysis on cause-specific mortality at the provincial level provides essential information for policy formulation and makes it possible to draw hypotheses regarding various diseases and causes of death. Although the mortality level and causes of death at the provincial level are determined by the multiple effects of socioeconomic, cultural, medical and ecological factors, this study primarily intends to examine similarities and differences of cause-specific mortality at the provincial level. Utilizing the registered death and the registered population as of 1998, the delayed death registration and unreported infant deaths were supplemented at the provincial level and age-standardized death rates and life tables were calculated. Regarding the mortality level due to all causes, major findings were as follow: (1) For both sexes as a whole, Seoul showed the lowest mortality level, and Jeonnam showed the highest mortality level; and (2) The differences of the mortality level among provinces were greater for males than females and for those less than 65 years than those 65 years and over. Regarding the cause-specific mortality level revealed in all indicators (cause-specific age-standardized mortality rates and the probability of dying at birth due to a specific cause for males, females, and both sexes combined respectively), the major findings were as follow: (1) The mortality level due to heart diseases was the highest in Busan and the lowest in Gangweon; (2) The mortality level due to liver diseases was the highest in Chonnam; and (3) The mortality level due to traffic accidents was the highest in Chungnam and the lowest in Inchon. As the mortality differentials at the provincial level are related to various factors, exploratory statistical analysis is attempted for the 25 explanatory variables including socioeconomic variables and 90 mortality variables. Mortality due to all causes are related to socioeconomic variables. Among cause-specific mortality, mortality due to liver diseases and traffic accidents is related to socioeconomic variables. Finally, the need to improve the quality of death certificate is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.44 no.7
• /
• pp.1007-1015
• /
• 2015

This study investigated the correlation between smartphone addiction and eating behaviors of 288 elementary school students (fifth and sixth grades) in the Ansan area. Addiction and normal groups consisted of 29 (10.1%) and 259 students (89.9%). Average usage time of the smartphone addiction group was higher than that of the normal group (P<0.001). Percentages of using a smartphone when eating meals as well as skipping meals due to using a smartphone were also higher in the addiction group than the normal group (P<0.01). Degree of reduction of physical activity and sleep disorders due to using a smartphone were higher in the addiction group than the normal group (P<0.001). However, nutritional knowledge related to protein and dietary life scored lower in the addiction group than the normal group (P<0.05). Correlation between smartphone usage time and eating behaviors was as follows: smartphone usage time on weekdays increased with elevated usage time on weekends in the addiction group (+0.742) (P<0.001) and the normal group (+0.762) (P<0.001). Frequency of snack intake in the addiction group increased with elevated usage time on weekdays (+0.460) (P<0.05). Sleeping time of the normal group decreased with elevated usage time on weekdays (-0.150) (P<0.05), and good eating behaviors decreased with elevated usage time the on weekend (-0.143) (P<0.05). Consequently, smartphone addiction in elementary school students showed negative eating behaviors. Therefore, effective nutritional education programs and national support policy are required to solve problems of unhealthy eating behaviors from smartphone usage in elementary school students.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.60-78
• /
• 2012

The main objective of this study is to conduct subnational population projections of Korea based on a Myriad Things" (萬物門), which is part of Seongho's representative work entitled $Miscellaneous$ $Explanations$ $of$ $Seongho$ (星湖僿說), has been in this paper in order to understand Seongho's "thinking on geography". To do so, contents related to geography were selected and these were discussed and interpreted in terms of the classification system of today's geographical knowledge. Following is the result of this research. First, information on astronomical geography and natural geography such as uplift, tornado, structure of soil, and the $yut$ board as well as humangeographical topics such as wild $ginseng$, cigarettes, hot pepper, traditional fruits and nuts (chestnuts, jujubes, and persimmons), Goryeo paper (Korean paper), mulberry trees, cotton plants, natural dye, policy about horses, magnetic compass needles, and farming implements for rice transplantation are mentioned in "Myriad Things" in relation to geography. Second, the depth of information described varies from topic to topic, but the topics on tornado and magnetic compass needles, horses, wild ginseng, traditional fruits and nuts, and $yut$ board are described in depth and in detail. Third, authenticity of the contents on these topics are "true" insofar as bibliographical information and citations are provided for support. Fourth, these topics reflect the interests and circumstances that are related to the "economic improvement of common people's livelihood" in those days, such as agriculture, crops, and transportation of goods. Fifth, the bibliography and citations explaining all instances reveal that China (Qing) is a great civilization of the advanced world and that the scholarship of Joseon relied on and accepted it. Sixth, except for horse raising and management, farming implements for rice transplantation, sericulture, and natural dying of cloth, most of the topics are useful even today. In short, theres is a profound aspect to the content that makes it possible to estimate the "geographical thinking". In general, the focus of the content of this book directly linked to the practical agricultural economy of the common people.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.12-21
• /
• 2017

From 1960, the government decided to build apartment houses on a large scale in order to resolve the rising housing problems. However, the maintenance issues that have arisen from the deterioration of housing has not received adequate attention. The policy focuses only on the supply of housing. By passing new laws, the durable period during which buildings allowed reconstruction was increased, and long term maintenance plans were treated as important issues. The government was then obligated to establish certain long term maintenance plans and costs by legislating a Housing Act and requiring it be adjusted every three years. However, when planning long-term repair costs, doing so without considering the time value of money would become a problem. In addition, if differences between the planned repair costs and actual costs occur, it becomes necessary to adjust the long-term repair costs but, as of yet, the criteria to adjust such things does not exist. For these reasons, if there is lack of money to execute large-scale repair work, a building is unlikely to respond to deterioration of housing; on the other hand, an unnecessary reserve or pool of money can lead to conflict among residents. Therefore, this paper will propose estimation and adjustment models considering the time value of money for long term maintenance costs of apartment houses.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.99-128
• /
• 2008

Nearly all Koreans are insured through National Health Insurance(NHI). While NHI coverage is nearly universal, it is not complete. Coverage is largely limited to minimal level of hospital and physician expenses, and copayments are required in each case. As a result, Korea's public insurance system covers roughly 50% of overall individual health expenditures, and the remaining 50% consists of copayments for basic services, spending on services that are either not covered or poorly covered by the public system. In response to these gaps in the public system, 64% of the Korean population has supplemental private health insurance. Expansion of private health insurance raises negative externality issue. Like public financing schemes in other countries, the Korean system imposes cost-sharing on patients as a strategy for controlling utilization. Because most insurance policies reimburse patients for their out-of-pocket payments, supplemental insurance is likely to negate the impact of the policy, raising both total and public sector health spending. So far, most empirical analysis of supplemental health insurance to date has focused on the US Medigap programme. It is found that those with supplements apparently consume more health care. Two reasons for higher health care consumption by those with supplements suggest themselves. One is the moral hazard effect: by eliminating copayments and deductibles, supplements reduce the marginal price of care and induce additional consumption. The other explanation is that supplements are purchased by those who anticipate high health expenditures - adverse effect. The main issue addressed has been the separation of the moral hazard effect from the adverse selection one. The general conclusion is that the evidence on adverse selection based on observable variables is mixed. This article investigates the extent to which private supplementary insurance affect use of health care services by public health insurance enrollees, using Korean administrative data and private supplements related data collected through all relevant private insurance companies. I applied a multivariate two-part model to analyze the effects of various types of supplements on the likelihood and level of public health insurance spending and estimated marginal effects of supplements. Separate models were estimated for inpatients and outpatients in public insurance spending. The first part of the model estimated the likelihood of positive spending using probit regression, and the second part estimated the log of spending for those with positive spending. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance from administration data and of private insurance status from insurance companies made it possible to control for health status, the types of supplemental insurance owned by theses individuals, and other factors that explain spending variations across supplemental insurance categories in isolating the effects of supplemental insurance. Data from 2004 to 2006 were used, and this study found that private insurance increased the probability of a physician visit by less than 1 percent and a hospital admission by about 1 percent. However, supplemental insurance was not found to be associated with a bigger health care service utilization. Two-part models of health care utilization and expenditures showed that those without supplemental insurance had higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures than those with supplements, even after controlling for observable differences.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.53-61
• /
• 2016

Eating supports to gain energy and nutrition and improves quality of life. Ageing affects the food intake ability due to loss of natural teeth and the progressive muscle degeneration. Our objective was to investigate how the food intake ability (FIA) and the remaining teeth could influence on oral health related quality of life in the elderly. This study was performed with 503 elderly subjects living in Daejeon, Korea. The questionnaire with the FIA with 30 Korean food and Oral Health Impact Profile 14 (OHIP-14) and oral examination were surveyed. The five groups according to cluster analysis of FIA had the different numbers of remaining teeth and functional posterior teeth with opposing teeth or prosthesis significantly: group 1, $21.78{\pm}8.27$ and $2.80{\pm}2.63$; group 2, $16.75{\pm}7.87$ and $2.16{\pm}2.44$; group 3, $14.68{\pm}9.77$ and $1.73{\pm}2.30$; group 4, $9.93{\pm}8.13$ and $0.78{\pm}1.68$; group 5, $10.18{\pm}8.37$ and $0.51{\pm}1.22$. The more foods the subjects could masticate, the better oral health related quality of life they had. The medium FIA, soft FIA and the number of remaining teeth could explain 46% of OHIP-14, but hard FIA could not in the multiple regression model. We suggested to develop the oral health program for the elderly to be able to eat the food with medium physical property at least be helpful to improve oral health related quality of life.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.443-451
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of dental hygiene students about the possible countermeasure of domestic hospitals for the opening of the medical market. The subjects in this study were 269 dental hygiene sophomores, juniors and seniors at two different colleges in the region of Busan. The findings of the study were as follows: The opening of the medical market and views of possible countermove, whether they agreed to that or not made a statistically significant difference to their opinions on the necessity of customer-oriented marketing strategy(p=0.023), analysis of foreign medical markets/attempt to make inroads into the markets(p<0.000) and the improvement of the quality of medical services/the diversification of the services(p=0.025). As to an intention of going to a foreign hospital, they had a statistically significantly different intention about whether to go to a foreign hospital regardless of medical bills(p<0.000), whether to consult a doctor in a foreign hospital after going to a domestic hospital first (p<0.000), whether to consider the distance between their houses and a foreign hospital(p=0.05) and whether to take considerations on the assistance of an interpreter(p=0.023). In regard to preference for foreign hospitals, American hospitals ranked first(41.9), followed by Australian hospitals(19.9) and Canadian ones(14.2).

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.53-66
• /
• 2003

Objectives: To investigate the state of medical care around health sub-centers, public health doctors' participation and opinion in the process of district public health programs. Methods: The study included 1,036 public health doctors who worked at health sub-center all over the country. The data were collected for Feb, 2002 using self-administered questionnaire by mail. Results: One or two doctors were working at health sub-center and 33.5% of health sub-centers was located in the region of the separation of prescription and dispensing. There were another medical facilities in 45.9% of the administrative district(eup or myon) where health sub-centers were located. The count of medical utilization went down to 14.8${\pm}$14.8 per a day in Nov, 2001 from 18.0${\pm}$15.6 in May, 2000, and the decline was much more in the region of the separation of prescription and dispensing. Among public health programs in health sub-centers, public health doctors participated mostly in preliminary medical examination for vaccination and least in health education. They participated in implementation rather than planning or evaluation of health program. Over a half of public health doctors were found to be positive that health programs implemented in their health sub-centers would promote the level of health in community people and they were willing to participate in district public health program if community people were in need. Conclusions: Recently health sub-centers are required to turn into health promotion facilities rather than medical practice facilities. Health program in health sub-centers will be advanced in both quality and quantity by turning the role of public health doctors who have provided medical services mainly into managing health program. Persistent education about managing health program and the policy to motivate participation in health program should be provided for public health doctors.