• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.42-52
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine effects of school-based alcohol prevention programs on drinking statuses of adolescents. Methods: The findings of this study was based on the data obtained from the '2015 11th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. The number of study subjects were 68,043. Results: It was figured that 35.6% of the study subjects had experienced school-based alcohol prevention programs within the last 12 months. As the students got older, the chances to participate in the programs decreased (p<.01). For both middle and high school students, current drinking rates for the educated was lower than those of the uneducated students(6.6% vs 8.0%; 22.2% vs 25.9%) and it was statistically significant. A similar pattern was found for high-risk drinking rates. Those educated showed lower rates than the uneducated with statistical significance of p<.001. In addition, the educated had lower problem drinking rate than the uneducated for both middle (p<.05) and high school students (p<.001). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that school-based alcohol prevention programs had statistically significant effect on current drinking status of adolescents (p<.05). However, it had significant effect only on high-risk drinking status of high school students (p<.05) and had no effect on problem drinking. Conclusion: This study addressed effectiveness of school-based adolescent alcohol prevention programs and that it is important to develop means to implement school health education.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.91-100
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• 2016

Fuzzy matching is proposed to make propensities of two groups similar with their propensity scores and a way to select control variable to make propensity scores with a process that shows how to acquire propensity scores using logic regression analysis, is presented. With such scores, it was a method to obtain an experiment group and a control group that had similar propensity employing the Fuzzy Matching. In the study, it was proven that the two groups were the same but with a different distribution chart and standardization which made edge tolerance different and we realized that the number of chosen cases decreased when the edge tolerance score became smaller. So with the idea, we were able to determine that it is possible to merge groups using fuzzy matching without a precontrol and use them when data (big data) are used while to check the pros and cons of Fuzzy Matching were made possible.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.206-220
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between practice and infectious diseases in elementary, middle and high school students. Methods: In 16 metropolitan cities and province of the Korea, the students who from fourth grade of elementary school to third grade of high school were surveyed by personal interviews and an web-based online survey from 5 to 25 September, 2014. We analyzed data with chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Common cold, diarrhea, and eye infections were more prevalent among students in higher grade than lower grade. In particular, common cold was more prevalent among girls than boys, using hand sanitizer than washing with soaps, and students who wash the dorsal side of hand than not wash the dorsal side of hand. Conclusions: Higher-grade students showed low status of hand washing practice. Hand washing was determined as the fact which influences to increase the prevention of communicable disease such as common cold. Considering the fact that youth groups have higher risk of being infected due to their group life, schools are recommended to provide adequate educations regarding proper hand washing practice with soap.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of socio-demographic factors on food consumption frequencies among adolescents in Korea. Data were obtained from the Seventh Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2011 KYRBS), a nationwide representative sample of 75,643 (37,873 males and 37,770 females) middle and high school students. It was carried out as a self-administered on-line survey. The frequency of eating breakfast was 4.8 times per week for middle school students and 4.6 times per week for high school students (p < 0.001). Higher levels of perceived household economic status, family affluence scale (FAS) and education attainment of mother were associated with more frequent breakfast eating. The frequencies of consumption of vegetables and milk were higher in males than in females (p < 0.001). The frequency of consumption fruits was higher in females than in males (p < 0.01). Higher levels of perceived household economic status, FAS and education attainment of mother were associated with more frequent consumption of vegetable, fruits and milk. The frequencies of consumption of soda, fast food and instant noodls were higher in males than in females (p < 0.001). The frequency of consumption of snacks was higher in females than in males. Adolescents with lower levels of FAS and education attainment of mother were at risk for skipping breakfast and consuming of soda, fast food and instant noodls more frequently. Whereas, adolescents with higher levels of FAS, education attainment of mother were more likely to be frequent consumers of vegetable, fruits and milk. These findings demonstrated that being high school students and belonging to lower level of socio-economic status (SES) were associated with undesirable food habits.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.465-475
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• 2019

Objectives: This study investigated dietary and lifestyle factors associated with the weight status among Korean adolescents in multicultural families. Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed 1,751 multicultural families' adolescents who participated in the 2017-2018 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Surveys. Information on dietary and lifestyle factors was self-reported using a web-based questionnaire and this information included breakfast and foods consumption, perceived health status, alcohol drinking, smoking, physical activity, and weight control efforts. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated based on the self-reported height and body weight (kg/㎡). Weight status was assessed according to the 2017 Korean National Growth Chart: underweight (weight-for-age <5^th percentiles), overweight (85^th≤ BMI-for-age <95^th percentiles), and obese (BMI-for-age ≥95^th percentiles). Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the dietary and lifestyle factors associated with weight status after adjustment for covariates. Results: Among Korean adolescents from multicultural families, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was 20.9%, whereas about 7% of adolescents were underweight. The weight status did not show differences according to gender, school level, area of residence, and household income. Compared to adolescents who did not have breakfast during the previous week, those who had breakfast 3-4 days/week and ≥5 days/week had a 42% (p=0.021) and a 37% (p=0.009) lower prevalence of overweight/obesity, respectively. The adolescents who frequently consumed carbonated soft drinks (≥5 times/week) showed an odds ratio (OR) of 1.69 (95% CI=1.01-2.83) for overweight/obesity relative to those adolescents who did not consume carbonated soft drinks. The OR of being underweight for adolescents who ate fast food ≥3 times/week was 1.97 (95% CI=1.04-3.71) compared to those adolescents who had not eaten fast food during the previous week. Conclusions: Dietary and lifestyle factors were associated with overweight/obesity as well as underweight among Korean adolescents in multicultural families. Our findings could be used to design and provide nutrition interventions for this specific population.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.223-233
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• 2009

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the relations between exposure to anti-smoking promotion media and smoking, targeting middle school students who were exposed to various media of promotion. Methods: The subjects of the study were 38,820 middle school students who answered to the 2007 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Answers of 37,714 subjects were used for the final analysis except those of 1,106 that could not be used to judge anti-smoking promotion media and prevalence of smoking as they were considered insincere to the questions. We used SPSS of version 17.0. This study conducted a chi-square test to identify smoking rate according to characteristics of subjects and a multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify whether they are independently significant. Results: Smoking rate increased as the subjects were in higher grades. From the results of multivariate logistic regression, odds ratio(OR) at points 5~6 of the first graders that had never been exposed to anti-smoking promotion media was 0.49(95% CI=0.33-0.74), which was significantly low. And OR at points 5~6 of the third graders was 0.57(95% CI=0.43-0.76), significantly low. Conclusions: This study identified the relations between exposure to anti-smoking promotion media and smoking of middle school students in Korea.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.415-419
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• 2008

Purpose : Herbal medicine is thought to be widely used by children with epilepsy, but there have been few studies. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions and the actual conditions of usage of herbal medicine by children with epilepsy. Methods : From July to August 2007, three hundred seventy eight questionnaires were completed by parents of epileptic children who visited pediatric neurology clinic of Korea University hospital and Kwangmyung-Sungae hospital. Demographic data and patterns of usage of herbal medicine were investigated. Results : Among 378 patients, sixty five (17.2%) reported using herbal medicine. Major reasons for using herbal medicine were 'to enhance general health' and 'belief that it has fewer side effects'. Majority of respondents did not notify their physician about using herbal medicine because 'they did not need to share this with doctor' and 'they thought their doctor would disapprove'. After taking herbal medicine, 33.3% of patients reported that it did not benefit their seizure but they felt healthier. Usage of herbal medicine was significantly related to number of AEDs (antiepileptic drugs), duration of AED treatment, association with psychosomatic disorders and motivation by other people or by mass media. Conclusion : Considerable numbers of epileptic children were using herbal medicine during treatment with AED and did not inform their physician about usage of it. Physicians should be aware of benefits and harms of herbal medicine and actively intervene in the usage of herbal medicine by epileptic patients.