• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.483-512
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• 2022

This study examined the patterns of coping strategies among Koreans during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, explored the influence of demographic information (gender, age, economic level, household type), along with the unusual experiences due to COVID-19 (fear, stress of COVID, constraints of routine, income risk) on the classification of subclasses, and analyzed the latent profile differences in psychological wellbeing (life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety). An online survey was conducted among Korean Adults(n=600) between April 13, 2020 and 21, when WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and Daegu as well as Gyeongsangbuk-do was nominated as a special disaster zone. First, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify subclasses of coping strategies and results suggested that the 4-class model had the best fit. Second, Class memberships were predicted by gender, age, economic level, as well as fear, stress, constraints of routine, and income risk, among the unusual experiences due to COVID-19. Finally, there are differences in psychological wellbeing among latent profiles. 'High level of adaptive coping group 3' showed the highest level of life satisfaction, 'Adaptive-maladaptive coping group 4' showed the highest level of depression, anxiety. Implications and suggestions are discussed based on the study results.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.530-540
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• 2022

The aim of this study was to analyze the impacts of perceived economic instability on drinking frequency in the mist of exercising the strong social distancing in the early phase of COVID19 pandemic. The data were collected from 1,117 adults aged between 19 and 70 across the nation from May 13 to May 19 in 2020 by Embrain, an on-line research company. We used only 820(73.4%) out of 1,117 who answered that they had a drinking in 2020. Bi-variate analysis and multivariate multinomial logistic regression were performed using STATA16. Multinomial logistic regression results showed that the increase of employment instability was related to the increase of drinking frequency, whereas the increase of income instability was related to the decrease of drinking frequency. In sum, the impact of perceived economic instability during the early phase of pandemic may be presented as an increase or decrease of drinking frequency depending on the effect of employment instability and income instability.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.247-260
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the characteristics and competencies of practice experienced by public health center nurses(PHNs) during the early response phase of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: PHNs were recruited from public health centers(PHC) in ten cities in Korea, using purposive sampling. They participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews from December 21, 2020, to February 18, 2021. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Three themes and nine categories were drawn from the findings. The three themes that emerged from the data analysis were as follows: 'Handling expanding work scope and overwhelming workload beyond prepared competencies, willing to go anywhere.', 'Performing tasks of cooperation and communication required in the disaster management administrative system.', 'Demonstrated proficiency in clinical nursing practices, but recognized the need for further development of leadership and administrative capabilities.' Conclusions: The experiences of the subjects' have implications for the development of content for community nursing education that cultivates basic competencies to respond to real pandemic situations during undergraduate education. It is proposed that it would be necessary to establish a support system for developing specialized competencies in public health nursing.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.77-86
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• 2020

The study aims to analyze the compliance and non-compliance of the Korean health authorities regarding WHO's mask use recommendations following the spread of Covid-19, and to suggest the limitations and implications of the recommendations in the prevention of epidemics by deriving the causes of non-compliance with the results of alternative options. To this end, documents related to masks at home and abroad are reviewed, and WHO's mask recommendations and the Korean health authorities' mask guidelines are targeted for analysis. The analysis results are as follows. First, Korea's health authorities have basically accepted and applied WHO's "limited mask user perspective" in two recommendations. Second, Korea's health authorities have implemented differently from WHO mask recommendations due to the lack of supply and demand of masks. Third, Korea's health authorities were able to succeed in the initial prevention of Corona 19 based on the stabilization of the mask supply. Fourth, in the WHO mask recommendations, mask user restriction resulted in partial errors as a recommendation. The implication derived from the analysis is that even international recommendations based on medical evidence need to be allowed to follow autonomous guidelines according to the country's quarantine situation and competence, rather than strict adherence to international rules, in the infectious disease pandemic situation.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.67-98
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• 2023

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea took the lead in implementing "social distancing" policies more strongly than other countries. In addition to making it mandatory to wear a mask according to the policy, all patients using medical institutions are tested for COVID-19 to prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections, and only those patients who test negative have been regulated to receive face-to-face medical treatment. In this process, situations such as the disabled, who have difficulty wearing masks, were not taken into account, and emergency patients did not receive timely treatment or surgery from medical personnel. In response, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea has decided that forcing everyone to wear a mask and restricting access to medical institutions constitutes discrimination against the disabled. Therefore, the purposes this study has that, the first is to review cases of human rights discrimination against persons with disabilities due to measures to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases that did not consider the characteristics of persons with disabilities in the COVID-19 situation and issues regarding the decisions of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the second is to find a reasonable plan and the need for measures to prevent refusal of treatment by medical institutions for the disabled who have difficulty wearing masks.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.143-159
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• 2022

This study was undertaken to assess levels of job stress, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and job involvement as perceived by school dietitians/nutrition teachers during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine the effects of these three factors. An online survey was sent from May 18 to May 26, 2021, to school dietitians/nutrition teachers in Seoul with experience of foodservice operations during 2020; 250 responses were used for this analysis. Job demands contributed most to job stress, whereas human relations contributed most to job satisfaction. Job stress caused by COVID-19 had a negative impact on self-efficacy (P<0.01) and job satisfaction (P<0.01), but a positive impact on job involvement (P<0.05). Self-efficacy positively impacted job involvement (P<0.01) but did not significantly influence job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction during early COVID-19 positively impacted job involvement (P<0.05). In conclusion, job stress associated with job requirements was greater during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic guidelines are needed that enable school dietitians/nutrition teachers to better cope with the job pressures generated by infectious diseases.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2021

The unprecedented pandemic of infectious diseases called COVID-19 has dampened human and material movement, and changes in the global economic structure have caused various economic and industrial problems such as worsening employment along with the domestic and international economic recession. In this crisis situation, the government announced the "New Deal" as a new card to enhance economic vitality following the "emergency disaster support fund." This means that the first business of the Digital New Deal, the beginning and core of the New Deal, begins digital transformation from collecting data, which is the "rice" of digital transformation to the data dam. Until now, not only the government but also local governments have established and operated platforms for collecting and sharing public data by establishing various data portals. It is evaluated that it lacks utilization for commercialization as not only the government but also local governments focus only on building the platform without considering the business model when building the initial public data platforms. In particular, in the case of regions, there is a lack of public data to be used for data business, so it is necessary to utilize data from public institutions in the region. In this study, various data collection, data quality improvement, and data utilization improvement were suggested as measures to solve these problems.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2024

Purpose: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic ended, the number of patients with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) pneumonia increased during the spring/summer of 2022. This study aimed to analyze the clinical features and antibiotic usage of children hospitalized for RSV pneumonia in a recently established general hospital in Sejong city. Methods: In this retrospective review, we included inpatients of the Pediatric Department of Chungnam National University Sejong Hospital diagnosed with RSV pneumonia between March 2022 and April 2023. Patients were divided into 2 groups: with and without antibiotic treatment. Demographic data, initial presentations, and clinical courses were reviewed. Results: A total of 116 patients with RSV pneumonia were hospitalized during this period, of which 102 were analyzed, excluding 14 with underlying diseases or who did not fall within the definition of pneumonia. The median age was 17 months. Diagnoses of bacterial infections (acute otitis media and sinusitis) were documented in 9.8% of cases. Intravenous (IV) antibiotics were administered in 46% of cases. The group receiving IV antibiotics showed higher inflammatory levels (C-reactive protein; CRP), more infiltration on initial chest X-rays, and longer fever duration. There was no difference in the length of hospitalization between the groups with and without IV antibiotics. Conclusions: This study showed a tendency for the attending physician to prescribe IV antibiotics to patients with longer fever duration, pulmonary infiltrations on the initial chest X-ray, and higher CRP levels. However, given the high rate of IV antibiotic usage compared to previous studies, care should be taken in antibiotic use.