• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.308-319
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• 2018

Background: Some mental illnesses such as depression are known to be one of the risk factors of suicide and proper antidepressant therapy can reduce suicidal behavior. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze regional variations in antidepressant consumption and adherence, suicide rate, prevalence of suicide related mental disorders, and access to relevant healthcare services. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using National Patients Sample data compiled by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service between 2014 and 2016. We included patients who had a diagnosis record of suicide related mental disorders during the study period. Cause of death statistics and National health and medical statistics were used to identify suicide rate and distribution of healthcare service. We conducted visual analyses, chi-squared tests, independent t-tests and correlation analyses to demonstrate regional variations. Results: Between 2014 and 2016, the average prevalence of suicide related mental disorders was 5.4 per cent. Suicide rate and prevalence of suicide related mental disorders were higher in Gangwon, Chungcheong, and Jeolla (p < 0.001), and lower in Seoul (p < 0.001) than the national average. Unexpectedly, regional variations in antidepressant consumption were seen in the limited area including Daejeon, Chungnam and Gyeongnam (p < 0.05). The number of mild patient-centered clinics was associated positively with antidepressant consumption (p < 0.01) and associated negatively with suicide rate (p < 0.01). Conclusion: There were some regional variations in prevalence of suicide related mental disorders, antidepressant adherence and suicide rate. The higher level of antidepressant therapy and the lower level of suicide rates were seen in regions with easy access to mild patient-centered clinics.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.13-26
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• 2022

Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in allergic reactions by type of Sasang constitution using multiple allergen simultaneous test(MAST). Methods This study was conducted using the big data of Korean medical health checkups. Subjects with a history of allergic disease, Sasang constitution type information, and MAST results were included. Subjects who had taken drugs before MAST that affected allergic reactions were excluded. We compared total immunoglobulin E(IgE) concentrations, and the number of positive antigens by Sasang constitution using analysis of variance. The presence or absence of a positive reaction and specific IgE concentration classes of 92 antigens in MAST were analyzed by Fisher's exact test or Chi-squared test. Results The distribution of Sasang constitutional types of Tae-Yang, Tae-Eum, So-Yang, and So-Eum among 147 subjects was 2.7%, 42.9%, 38.1%, and 16.3%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the total IgE concentration, the number of positive antigens, and specific IgE concentration classes for each antigen. There was a statistically significant difference in MAST-positive reaction for alder and pine antigens by type of Sasang constitution, and Tae-Eum had the most. Conclusions Tae-Eum showed a relatively strong positive reaction to a large number of antigens compared to the other types, but no statistically significant difference was observed. It is necessary to continuously investigate allergic reactions to provide evidence for the treatment of allergic diseases by Sasang constitution.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.73-86
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to prepare basic data that can be applied to the development of personalized programs in which chronic patients can actively participate in health care on their own, by analyzing the relationship between health literacy, level of metal health, and level of life health of patients with chronic diseases. For the study, the Korean Medical Panel's annual data(Version 2.1) was used, and 4,095 people aged 19 or older with chronic diseases and without disabilities were extracted, and frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and chi-squared goodness of fit test, etc. were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0. As a result, it was found that the higher health literacy, the higher level of mental health and level of life health. In addition, the distribution between health literacy, level of mental health, and level of life health was found to be different from each other. Respondents with higher ability to health literacy tend to evaluate level of metal health and life health lower, and the rate of change in this trend was relatively higher than the rate of change in the tendency to evaluate level of mental health and life health higher in respondents with lower ability to health literacy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.5287-5294
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• 2016

Background: Breast cancer is a worldwide public health concern and is the most prevalent type of cancer in women in the United States. This study concerned the best fit of statistical probability models on the basis of survival times for nine state cancer registries: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington. Materials and Methods: A probability random sampling method was applied to select and extract records of 2,000 breast cancer patients from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database for each of the nine state cancer registries used in this study. EasyFit software was utilized to identify the best probability models by using goodness of fit tests, and to estimate parameters for various statistical probability distributions that fit survival data. Results: Statistical analysis for the summary of statistics is reported for each of the states for the years 1973 to 2012. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Anderson-Darling, and Chi-squared goodness of fit test values were used for survival data, the highest values of goodness of fit statistics being considered indicative of the best fit survival model for each state. Conclusions: It was found that California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, New Mexico, and Washington followed the Burr probability distribution, while the Dagum probability distribution gave the best fit for Michigan and Utah, and Hawaii followed the Gamma probability distribution. These findings highlight differences between states through selected sociodemographic variables and also demonstrate probability modeling differences in breast cancer survival times. The results of this study can be used to guide healthcare providers and researchers for further investigations into social and environmental factors in order to reduce the occurrence of and mortality due to breast cancer.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate long-term results in terms of failure, survival and voice preservation after radiation therapy for early glottic cancer. Materials and Methods: From February 1988 to December 2003, 70 patients with early glottic cancer were treated with radiation therapy at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. Patient age distribution was from 39 to 79 years, with a median age of 62 years. All patients had squamous cell carcinoma. According to the TNM stage, 58 patients had stage I disease, 12 patients had stage II disease; 67 patients were male. The laryngeal area was irradiated with the use of bilateral opposing fields with/without a wedge filter with 6 MV photons at a total dose of $54{\sim}70.2$ Gy in $1.8{\sim}2.2$ Gy fractions over $6{\sim}8$ weeks. We delivered a median radiation dose of 60 Gy for stage I patients and a median radiation dose of 66 Gy for stage II patients. Salvage surgery was performed in patients with local recurrence. The voice preservation rate was analyzed after all treatments including salvage surgery. Follow-up periods were from 13 to 180 months, with a median follow-up period of 77.5 months. The survival rate was analyzed by the use of the Kaplan Meier method and log rank test. A comparison of two groups was performed with the use of the chi-squared test. Results: The local control rate was 98.5% (69/70). The five-year-overall survival rate was 93.9%. The five-year disease free survival rate (5YDFS) was 84.1% and the 5YDFS after radiation and salvage surgery was 92.8%. According to stage, the 5YDFS was 93.1% and 91.7% for stage I and stage II respectively. Thirteen patients (18.5%) had local failure with 24 months of median time to local failure and nine patients received salvage surgery; however, four patients were lost to follow-up after a diagnosis of recurrence. Only two patients died due to a distant metastasis at 33 months and 71 months after radiation therapy, respectively. Nine patients died due to other diseases with a median time of 73 months. There were no severe acute or chronic complications after radiation therapy. Voice preservation was ultimately achieved in 88.5% (62/70) of patients. Conclusion: We considered that radiation therapy was effective and we achieved excellent survival and voice preservation in early laryngeal cancer. The use of radiation therapy should be the first choice for the treatment of early glottic cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.207-215
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• 1999

The objectives of this study are to explain the use of media materials in school health education with other related factors in elementary, middle, and high schools in Korea. The data were collected by questionnaires from June to September in 1998. The number of subjects were 294 school nurses. The PC-SAS program was used for statistical analysis such as percent distribution, chi-squared test, spearman correlation test, and logistic regression. The use of media materials in health education has become extremely common. Unfortunately, much of the early materials were of poor production quality, reflected low levels of interest, and generally did little to enhance health education programming. A recent trend in media materials is a move away from the fact filled production to a more affective, process-oriented approach. There is an obvious need for health educators to use high-quality, polished productions in order to counteract the same levels of quality used by commercial agencies that often promote "unhealthy" lifestyles. Health educators need to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of media. Selecting media materials should be based on more than cost, availability, and personal preference. Selection should be based on the goal of achieving behavioral objectives formulated before the review process begins. The decision to use no media materials rather than something of dubious quality usually be the right decision. Poor-quality, outdated, or boring materials will usually have a detrimental effect on the presentation. Media materials should be viewed as vehicles to enhance learning, not products that will stand in isolation. Process of materials is an essential part of the educational process. The major results were as follows : 1. The elementary schools used the materials more frequently. But the production rate of media materials was not enough. The budget was too small for a wide use of media materials in school health education. These findings suggest that all schools have to increase the budget of health education programs. 2. Computers offer an incredibly diverse set of possibilities for use in health education, ranging from complicated statistical analysis to elementary-school-level health education games. But the use rate of this material was not high. The development of related software is essential. Health educators would be well advised to develop a basic operating knowledge of media equipment. 3. In this study, the most effective materials were films in elementary school and videotapes in middle and high school. Film tends to be a more emotive medium than videotape. The difficulties of media selection involved the small amount of extant educational materials. Media selection is a multifaceted process and should be based on a combination of sound principles. 4. The review of material use following student levels showed that the more the contents were various, the more the use rate was high. 5. Health education videotapes and overhead projectors proved the most plentiful and widest media tools. The information depicted was more likely to be current. As a means to display both text and graphic information, this instructional medium has proven to be both effective and enduring. 6. An analysis of how effective the quality of school nurse and school use of media materials shows a result that is not complete (p=0.1113). But, the budget of health education is a significant variable. The increase of the budget therefore is essential to effective use of media materials. From these results it is recommended that various media materials be developed and be wide used.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.393-399
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to realize research demands by gathering the research agenda from the Korean Dental Hygienists Association and affiliated groups through a Delphi survey. The study subjects were the heads of eight groups. The Delphi survey was conducted by e-mail after a researcher explained the objective of the study to the heads. The research agenda was classified according to the Korean dental hygiene academic classification and the National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda classification. To compare the number of research agendas according to classification among the groups, we conducted a chi-squared test by using IBM SPSS 20.0. In total, 316 agendas were submitted. According to the Korean dental hygiene academic classification, there was a significant difference among the groups, and the agendas associated with clinical dental hygiene (36.7%) were the best. According to the National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda classification, there was no significant difference and the agendas associated with health promotion and disease prevention (27.8%) were the best. In conclusion, the Korean Dental Hygienists Association and affiliated groups demanded similar research agendas, corresponding to the purpose of each establishment. However, the groups did not seem to show unique characteristics according to the purpose of each establishment. In other words, the groups should corroborate such characteristics and suggest a corresponding agenda to establish specific areas of research in dental hygiene. Also, dental hygiene researchers should mark the academic classification of the studies they want to submit.