• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.97-106
• /
• 1990

1. Background Women's health and their involvement in health care are essential to health for everyone. If they are ignorant, malnourished or over-worked, the health &-their families as well as their own health will suffer. Women's health depends on broad considerations beyond medicine. Among other things, it depends upon their work in farming. their subordination to their families, their accepted roles, and poor hygiene with poorly equipped housing and environmental sanitation. 2. Objectives and Contents a. The health status of rural women : physical and mental complaints, experience of pesticides intoxication, Farmer's syndrome, experiences of reproductive health problems. b. participation in and attitudes towards housework and farming c. accessibility of medical care d. status of maternal health : fertility, family planning practice. induced abortion, and maternal care 3. Research method A nationwide field survey, based on stratified random sampling, was conducted during July, 1986. Revised Cornell Medical index(68 out of 195 items). Kawagai's Farmers Syndrome Scale, and self-developed structured questionnaires were used to rural farming wives(n=2.028). aged between 26-55. 4. Characteristics of the respondents mean age : 40.2 marital status : 90.8% married mean no. of household : 4.9 average years of education : 4.7 yrs. average income of household : \235,000 average years of residence in rural area : 36.4 yrs average Working hours(household and farming) : 11 hrs. 23 min 5. Health Status of rural women a. The average number of physical and mental symptoms were 12.4, 4.7, and the rate of complaints were 22.1%, 38.8% each. revealing complaints of mental symptomes higher than physical ones. b. 65.4% of rural women complained of more than 4 symptoms out of 9, indicating farmer's syndrome. 11.9 % experienced pesticide overdue syndrome c. 57.6% of respondents experienced women-specific health problems. d. Age and education of respondents were the variables which affect on the level of their health 6. Utilization of medical services a. The number of symptoms and complaints of respondents were dependent on the distance to where the health-care service is given b. Drug store was the most commonly utilized due to low price and the distance to reach. while nurse practitioners were well utilized when there were nurse practitioner's office in their villages. c. Rural women were internalized their subordination to husbands and children, revealing they are positive(93%) in health-care demand for-them but negative(30%) for themselves d. 33.0% of respondents were habitual drug users, 4.5% were smokers and 32.3% were alcohol drinkers. and 86.3% experienced induced-abortion. But most of them(77.6%) knew that those had negative effects on health. 7. Maternal Health Care a. Practice rate of contraception was 48.1% : female users were 90.9% in permanent and 89.6% in temporary contraception b. Induced abortions were taken mostly at hospital(86.3%), while health centers(4.7%), midwiferies(4.3%). and others(4.5%) including drug stores were listed a few. The repeated numbers of induced abortion seemed affected on the increasing numbers of symptoms and complaints. c. The first pre-natal check-up during first trimester was 41.8%, safe delivery rate was 15.6%, post-natal check-up during two months after delivery. Rural women had no enough rest after delivery revealing average days of rest from home work and farming 8.3 and 17.2. d. 86.6% practised breast feeding, showing younger and more educated mothers depending on artificial milk 8. Recommendations a. To lessen the multiple role over burden housing and sanitary conditions should be improved, and are needed farming machiner es for women and training on the use of them b. Health education should begin at primary school including health behavior and living environment. c. Women should be encouraged to become policy-makers as well as administrators in the field of women specific health affairs. d. Women's health indicators should be developed and women's health surveillance system too.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.58 no.1
• /
• pp.291-318
• /
• 2006

There were many studies conducted on economical aspects of employment among the elderly in national level, however, very few studies examined social and psychological aspects of senior employment and employment preferences of the elderly persons. The purposes of this study were to examine major determinants of decision making in employment, and to explore some relationships among decision making of employment, socio-economic factors, health and psycho-social factors, and labor and economical factors among non-working elderly persons in the community. In all, two-hundred-twenty elderly persons were interviewed and one-hundred-ninety-four were analyzed in this study. The descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, correlation analysis, and logistic regression were used for the data analysis in this study. The study found that the respondent's sex, ages, education, numbers of children, physical health, ADL, self-efficacy, economical stress, numbers of years in labor, asset of real estate, family allowances, and the benefit levels of pension were major determinants of decision making in employment among non-working elderly persons. Finally, some implications were discussed for developing effective senior employment in national policy, job related services, and welfare programs of the elderly persons for the successful aging.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.155-173
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to find factors affecting the psychological well-being of married working women in Seoul. For this purpose, survey data form 332 employed married women residing in Seoul are used to evaluate the relative effects of Psychological well-being of married working women. Survey questions included demographic information, housework and child-rearing related variables, work related variables, variables related with social support systems, items on child care services for the preschoolers, and psychological well-being of married working women. The major findings were as follows: 1) The psychological well-being of married working women score is 36.14(mean score is 32). The difference between the psychological well-being of married working women varied this according to socio-demographic variables: educational level, income level, spouse's support, occupation, and job satisfaction. 2) The factors that affected psychological well-bing were amount of household labor by husband, job satisfaction, socio-support systems, and educare service satisfaction. 3) The factor that had the most significant impact on the psychological well-being of married working women is job satisfaction. It is suggested to utilize the Employment Assistant Program to establish friendly working environment for married women.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.57 no.2
• /
• pp.185-204
• /
• 2005

In a period of rapid change, transition and re-definition of care concept, this study reviewed social policies on care providers in the UK. In the face of care crisis, the British government has made a radical reform of the care system and enacted new legislations. In the UK social policy, care providers are classified into carers and care workers. Carers mean informal caregivers and care workers are those who are paid for providing care as part of a contract of employment. Recently, the United Kingdom has given carers recognition and reward. To enhance the status and right of carers, the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, the strategy document Caring about Carers 1999, Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000, and Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 have been enacted. At the heart of the policy for carers is the idea of active citizenship, carers-friendly employment and work-life balance etc. In case of paid care worker, government's focus seems to be on quality of employment. The government has established a new national infrastructure for quality. The five national bodies founded on Care Standards Act 2000 has been established. The UK government has realized care work would play an important part in job creation strategy. In this article, we have presented several criticisms and issues of current care policy in UK.

• Korean Security Journal
• /
• no.17
• /
• pp.255-276
• /
• 2008

The important items, which should be considered in Private Investigation Law, can include subjects, licenses, the scope of business, qualifying examinations, and supervisory and penal provisions. The subjects of Private Investigation Law should be permitted to be both natural persons and juridical persons in terms of providing various services, but should be permitted to be juridical persons and should be administered on a license system, even in order to ensure public interests. Concretely, the introduction scope of Private Investigation Law can be regulated to include the followings: that is, investigating the whereabouts identification of runaways and missing children, investigating the personal identification, habit, way of action, motivation, whereabouts identification, real child confirmation, association, transaction, reputation, and personality of specific persons or specific groups, investigating the whereabouts identification of missing persons, owners of government-vested properties or renounced properties, investigating the whereabouts of lost properties or stolen properties, investigating the causes of fire, character defamation, slander, damage, accident, physical disability, infringement on real estate or movable property, and investigating all sorts of accidents including traffic accidents, insurance accidents, and medical malpractices. In the qualifying examination, examinees' age should be restricted to be over age 25. The person, who is exempted from its primary examination, should be restricted to be the person, who has the career of over 20 years in related fields, in consideration of its equity with other certificates of qualification. In the supervisory institution, as the policy institution is the supervisory institution in many countries including France (the police) and Japan (public security committee), so the National Policy Agency should be the supervisory institution in consideration of management aspects. In the penal regulations, especially, we should clarify the management of personal information (personal information protection, personal information management), and so should prevent the infringement of people's basic rights, and then should ensure the public interest.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 1974

Data from this study support the View that the following factors are not sufficiently important in Korea to invalidate the relationships observed between age of marriage and fertility: (1) Premarital pregnancy and common law marriage, (2) shortening of birth intervals in late marriages, (3) adverse effects of very eary marriage in reproductive capacity, and (4) postponement of first pregnancy among early marriages. Thirteen variables which were considered to be potential predictors of fertility were studied to determine their influence on three indices of fertility. Age of marriage and family planning praetice are the strongest predictors and account for about 10% and 7% of the total variance, respectively. Seven other factors each account for an intermediate amount of variability; these are ideal number of children, rural versus urban study area, education, aspiration for daughter, index of exposure to mass media, economic index of respondent's home at survey, and residence before marriage. The remaining variables have no consistently significant relationship to fertility. Most of the relationships appear to be stable and consistent over time; others appear to be changing. The latter group include those variables which are associated with modernization indices of family planning practice, mass media exposure. and aspiration for daughters. Thus, the index of family planning practice is of limited significance for the $40{\sim}49$ age group but is the most important variable for the $20{\sim}29$ year women. The relationship is a direct one for the two age groups between 30 and 49 years which suggests that these groups already had high fertility when family planning services became available and that this high fertility then became an inducement to acccept contraception. The pattern of relationship is not yet clear for the $20{\sim}29$ year group. Similar interactions are observed for the other indices of modernity and are discussed. The thirteen variables together can account for a maximum of about 40% of the variance in the number of live births in the age group $30{\sim}39$, and for lesser amounts of variance in other age and fertility groupings.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.513-538
• /
• 2013

As a childcare program of TaeHwa Christian Women's Institution in 1921, the childcare system in Korea was incepted. Since then, the political foothold of childcare system has steadily been advancing to provide high quality services to young children. In almost a hundred-year-history of public childcare in Korea, depending on the changes enforced on the related laws and regulations and varying perspectives over time, the administration office accountable for childcare policies has been authorized to the Ministries of Health, Social Affairs, Education, Labor, Home Affairs, Rural Development Administration, and/or others. But as of 1991, under the enactment of Infant and Child Care Act, it was changed to be administered by the unified authority of the Health and Social Welfare Ministry. Then, in 2004 and 2007, its statutory authority, respectively, transferred to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and back to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Staring of the Infant and Child Care Act in 1991, Korean childcare policies have been managed by the dual systems of the Education Ministry and the Health and Social Welfare Ministry each holding jurisdiction over kindergartens and childcare centers, respectively. Faced with the recent marked decline of birth rate, diverse childcare policies are currently implemented in the pursuit of finding means to enhance the quality of childcare and to develop policies for the restoration of the low birth rate. This study presented distinct features of current childcare policies and discussed about future directions and challenges of these policies.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.279-301
• /
• 2004

Relations of factors associated with burnout were investigated among 124 child protective service workers currently working in Korean Child Abuse Prevention Centers nationwide. Three categories of factors associated with burnout were examined; (1) individual characteristics, (2) job-related characteristics, and (3) job-satisfaction. Social survey method using questionnaires by mail was employed. MBI(Maslach Burnout Inventory) for measuring burnout, a part of Smith, Kendal & Hulin's JDI(Job Description Index) for job-satisfaction, and a scale measuring the special characteristics of job developed by researchers were used. Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test were employed to analyze the data. Across all burnout sub-scales(emotional depletion, dehumanization of clients, lack of feelings of achievement), subjects reported a high degree(above the cutting point) of burnout. Several factors were identified as associated with burnout. Child protective service workers who are young, single with front line worker status reported higher burnout. Lack of education and training before the job location were another factors which contributed to worker burnout. Lack of proper supervision stood out as another burnout provoking factor. Job-satisfaction was negatively correlated with all three burnout sub-scales, which meant the lower the job-satisfaction, the higher the burnout of service workers. The findings implicate that the administrators of Child Abuse Prevention Centers should pay close attention to their workers' sign of burnout and develop carefully designed support system which include provision of excellent supervision, proper education and training opportunities and organizational effort to strengthen employees' overall job-satisfaction to secure their quality of services toward abused children and their family.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.1127-1148
• /
• 2018

Care-stress among the dementia caregivers has been an important issue. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the dementia elderly's symptoms on the primary caregivers'care -stress. In addition, the moderators, the expert support and the family support, were used to examine the moderating effects between the symptoms and the care-stress. The data was obtained at 10 day-care facilities and services in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Busan province in South Korea. A total of 191 participants were analyzed. They were the spouses or the adult children of the dementia elderly who were diagnosed with dementia within five years. This study was conducted in multiple regression analysis. The main findings are as follows. First of all, the symptoms that the dementia elderly show were significantly associated with the primary caregivers' care-stress. Also, the interactive variable with the expert support was statistically significant. However, it was not significant with the family support. This means that only the expert support from doctors, nurses or social workers decreased the caregivers' care-stress. The implications of this study are 1) the necessities of the education that covers the specific symptoms of the dementia patients', 2) the extension of the supportive policies for caregivers' care-stress, 3) the necessities of more allocation of the dementia specialists in the practical settings and cooperative systems among the dementia specialists in various fields, and 4) the enhancement of the family function among families who have a dementia elderly as a family member.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
• /
• no.55
• /
• pp.265-297
• /
• 2017

This study aims to provide basic information about the policy and system improvements relevant to single elderly men, through an investigation concerning the use and needs of activity spaces near their housing environments. Eighteen single elderly men over 60-years-old living in Gunsan city of Jeonbuk province in Korea participated in in-depth interview, and the data were qualitatively analyzed. The results of the study are as follows: The social networks of the participants were focused on friends or colleagues, while mutual exchanges with their children were intermittently undertaken. Natural networks of the elderly were formed mainly in third places, such as parks, restaurants, or community facilities, and about a half of the elderly participants had no spatial needs, and the rest required spaces for meal services, the elderly living community, jobs, leisure/hobby activities, or facility improvements. The elements influencing use of activity spaces were access from the residence, health, social networks, and economic conditions. The results suggest the following: Exercise or leisure facilities supporting elderly mobility should be set up close to their residential environments. Senior facilities centered on systematic supports and shuttle buses circulating around the places that the elderly visit frequently should be considered. On the other hand, regular maintenance and education on residents' proper use of the facilities, and sufficient information and fee discounts for the general programs are needed so that the elderly could interact with the younger generation. From a public perspective, a rational system and policy based on understanding single elderly men's needs should be prepared for provision and management of the activity space.