• 한국노년학
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.653-672
• /
• 2011

The present study empirically confirmed Korean elder's four major pains consisted of poverty, disease, role loss, loneliness and investigated the mediating role of depression between the four major pains and the elder's suicidal thought. To investigate the cause and effect of factors, we conveniently collected 309 samples from 16 Gyungrodangs evenly located in Jeonju and 291 samples, survived the data cleaning such as missing values, outliers, normality and covariance conditions, were analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis and structural model analysis. Followed were the selected contributions of the present study. First, the constructs of four major pains such as poverty, disease, role loss, loneliness were predictors of suicidal thought mediated by depression. Second, the elder's poverty, that was the heaviest factor of the four major pain constructs, was a predictor of role loss leading to loneliness. Third, four major pains were predictors of the elder's depression. Note that poverty were not direct but indirect predictor of depression. The present study confirmed the concept of four major pains. Also those who practice in the area of the elderly care should consider the four major pains as well as depression while intervening in the elderly's suicidal thought.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.359-376
• /
• 2012

The present study empirically confirmed knowledge of ageing and quality of contact were predictors affecting middle-aged Korean's ageism against the elderly and verified mediating role of intergroup anxiety between not only knowledge of ageing but also quality of contact and ageism. To investigate causalities of factors, we purposively collected 400 samples from 20 Dongs evenly located in Jeonju and 393 samples, survived the data cleaning such as missing values, outliers, normality and covariance conditions, were analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis and structural model analysis. Followed were the selected contributions of the present study. First, the knowledge of ageing and quality of contact were predictors of ageism mediated by intergroup anxiety. Second, the knowledge of ageing and quality of contact did not directly affect middle-aged Korean's ageism against the elderly. Third, intergroup anxiety had strong effect on ageism. The contributions suggested increasing knowledge of ageing and providing contact experience to middle-aged Korean as combating strategy against ageism.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.343-350
• /
• 2023

Objectives: Water constitutes a majority of the human body and is essential for health. In addition, water intake can prevent dental caries by improving salivary lubrication and self-cleaning. This study aimed to determine the relationship between the amount of daily water intake and the symptoms of oral disease in Korean adolescents. Methods: We used data from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS), conducted in Korea in 2021, and identified the relationship between daily water intake and oral disease symptoms in Korean adolescents. KYRBS is a nationwide cross-sectional survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), and a total of 54,848 participants were included in this study. Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, logistic regression analysis showed that tooth pain was more often experienced by those who drank less than two cups of water per day (odds ratio [OR]: 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-1.30) than those who drank five or more cups of water per day. Conclusions: A low daily water intake is associated with tooth pain, a symptom of dental caries. The results of our study suggest that increasing water intake may reduce dental caries. Therefore, adequate water intake may help prevent dental caries.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2023

In Korea, safety inspections of bridges are conducted periodically in accordance with law. Bridges are classified according to type, length, etdc., and the content and frequency of safety inspections are different. Bridges safety evaluation is performed on relatively large bridges, and safety evaluation of small bridges, which account for the majority of all bridges, is not mandatory. Therefore, in this study, in order to confirm the safety of small-scale bridges, a correlation analysis study was conducted with the common load carrying rate for each safety evaluation indicator. For this purpose, inspection reports of bridges from local goverments were collected, and the values for each bridges for about 50 indicators in the report were converted into data. By performing cleaning on the collected data and analyzing the correlation with the common load carrying rate, the top indicators related to safety for each bridges type were derived.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.372-379
• /
• 2023

Background: Laundry workers are known to be exposed to organic solvents in various works including dry cleaning. Long-term exposure to organic solvents may cause adverse health effects among laundry workers. Objectives: To investigate the association between exposure to organic solvents and symptom of headache or eyestrain among laundry workers. Methods: The subjects were total 267 laundry workers who participated in the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS). Responses to exposure to 'inhalation of vapor from organic solvent' was categorized into two (non-exposed: rarely or absolutely not exposed during working hours; exposed: ≥1/4 working hours) or three (non-exposed; low exposure: 1/4 of the working hours; high exposure: ≥1/2 working hours) groups. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between exposure to organic solvents and symptom of headache or eyestrain in the last 12 months among laundry workers. Odds ratios (ORs) and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for experience of the symptom of headache or eyestrain with adjustment for age, sex, education, workplace size (by the number of workers), working hours per week, and current working period (year). Results: The proportions of exposure groups, i.e., non-exposed, low exposure, and high exposure, were 80.4%, 11.1%, and 8.5%, respectively. The proportion of those who had symptom of headache or eyestrain in the last 12 months was 18.7%. There was a significant association between exposure to organic solvents and experience of headache or eyestrain (OR=3.2, 95% CI=1.4~7.4). And, the proportion of those who experienced symptom of headache or eyestrain tended to increase significantly as the level of exposure to organic solvents increased (P_trend=0.002). Conclusions: Our results suggest that exposure to organic solvents are associated with symptom of headache or eystrain among laundry workers in Korea. However, further studies with more relevant design is needed to replicate the association.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.67-75
• /
• 2023

This study will examine the changing nature of housework by analyzing participation in domestic work among 30-somethings according to generational and life cycle characteristics. To this end, 2,687 men and women in their 30s were taken from the 2020 Family Status Survey data, and a latent class analysis was conducted to categorize their participation in housework. The subjects were categorized into three groups: overall non-participation (18.05%), overall participation (59.96%), and intensive cleaning participation (21.99%). Gender, employment status, family life cycle, and attitudes about gender roles were significantly related to participation in housework. Men were more likely to be in the overall non-participation group, while women were more likely to be in the overall participation group. Individuals in the pre-formative period of the family life cycle were more likely to be in the overall non-participation group, while those in the formative and expanding periods were more likely to be in the overall participation group. The results of this study suggest that gender inequality in housework is common in the younger generation; the results also show that, in the same generation, individual participation in housework differs according to family life cycle.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.16-24
• /
• 2024

Background: Indoor PM_2.5 concentrations in residential houses can be affected by various factors depending on the season. This is because not only do the climate characteristics depend on the season, but the activity patterns of occupants are also different. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to compare factors affecting indoor PM_2.5 concentrations in apartments and detached houses in Daegu according to seasonal changes. Methods: This study included 20 households in Daegu, South Korea. The study was conducted during the summer (from July 10 to August 10, 2023) and the autumn (from September 11 to October 9, 2023). A sensor-based instrument for PM_2.5 levels was installed in the living room of each residence, and measurements were taken continuously for 24 hours at intervals of one minute during the measurement period. Based on the air quality monitoring system data in Daegu, outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations were estimated using ordinary kriging (OK) in Python. In addition, the indoor activities of the occupants were investigated using a time-activity pattern diary. The affecting factors of indoor PM_2.5 concentration were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results: Indoor and outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations of the residences during summer were 15.27±11.09 ㎍/m³ and 11.52±7.56 ㎍/m³, respectively. Indoor and outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations during autumn were 13.82±9.61 ㎍/m³ and 9.57±5.50 ㎍/m³, respectively. The PM_2.5 concentrations were higher in summer compared to autumn both indoors and outdoors. The primary factor affecting indoor PM_2.5 concentration in summer was occupant activity. On the other hand, during the autumn season, the primary affecting factor was outdoor PM_2.5 concentration. Conclusions: Indoor PM_2.5 concentration in residential houses is affected by occupant activity such as the inflow of outdoor PM_2.5 concentration, cooking, and cleaning, as found in previous studies. However, it was revealed that there were differences depending on the season.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.38-49
• /
• 2024

Wastewater treatment using membrane bioreactors has been extensively used to alleviate water shortage and pollution by improving the quality of the treated water discharged into the environment. However, membrane biofouling persistently holds back an MBR process by reducing the process efficiency. Herein, we synthesized carbon nanospheres (CNSs) with many hydrophilic oxygen groups and utilized them as an additive to prepare high-performance ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with hydrophilicity and porous pore structure. CNSs were found to form crescent-shaped pores on the membrane surface, increasing the mean surface pore size by about 40% without causing significant defects larger than bubble points, as the CNS content increased by 4.6 wt%. In addition, the porous pore structure of CNS composite membranes was also attributable to the CNS's isotropic morphologies and relatively low particle number density because the aforementioned properties contributed to preventing the polymer solution viscosity from soaring with the loading of CNS. However, too porous structure compromised the mechanical properties, such that CNS2.3 was the best from a comprehensive consideration including the pore structure and mechanical properties. As a result, CNS2.3 showed not only 2 times higher water permeability than CNS0 but also 5 times longer operation duration until membrane cleaning was required.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.94-104
• /
• 2024

Remanufacturing re-commercializes a used product to achieve an equal or higher performance level than the original product by disassembling, cleaning, inspecting, repairing, reconditioning, and reassembling the used product. The remanufacturing industry is a key industry necessary to realize carbon neutrality by 2050. This study uses life cycle assessment to analyze the resource reduction and greenhouse gas reduction effects with and without considering the avoided effect for an injector, which is an automobile part that is actively being remanufactured. The results of this study showed that the resource reduction effect and greenhouse gas reduction effect induced by injector remanufacturing were reduced by 95.30% and 93.88%, respectively, based on one unit without considering the avoided effect. However, when considering the avoided effect, which in this case is the environmental impact of not disposing of the used injector and not having to use natural resources to manufacture a new injector because the used injector was reused during remanufacturing, the resource reduction effect and greenhouse gas reduction effect were 190.91% and 188.33%, respectively. The results of this study are expected to be used in the future to evaluate the amount of environmental impact reduction while considering the avoided effect during remanufacturing and to help develop research methodology for remanufacturing.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.221-228
• /
• 2024

Background: Social interest is increasing due to frequent accidents caused by chemicals in the electronics industry. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to present a management plan by evaluating the exposure characteristics of dichloromethane (DCM), trichloromethane (TCM), and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH), which are high-risk substances to which people may be exposed in the electronics industry in South Korea. Methods: To investigate the handling companies and status of the hazardous chemicals DCM, TCM, and TMAH, the handling status of the three substances was classified based on electronics industry-related codes from the 2019 Work Environment Survey (Chemical Handling and Manufacturing) data with work environment measurement results for five years. Results: DCM, TCM, and TMAH are commonly used as cleaning agents in the electronics industry. For DCM, it was found that all work environment measurement results from 2018 to 2021 but not 2022 exceeded the exposure standard. Conclusions: Identifying the distribution channels of hazardous chemicals is an intervention point that can reduce exposure to hazardous chemicals. It requires management through tracking systems such as unique verification numbers at the import and manufacturing stages, and proper cultivation of and related support for handling chemicals by business managers.