• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.435-440
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women in Malaysia. A diagnosis is very stressful for women, affecting all aspects of their being and quality of life. As such, there is little information on quality of life of women with breast cancer across the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of life in Malay and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study involved 58 Malays and 15 Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer prior to treatment. Quality of life was measured using the Malay version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast-specific module (QLQ-BR23). Socio-demographic and clinical data were also collected. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Most of the women were married with at least a secondary education and were in late stages of breast cancer. The Malay women had lower incomes (p=0.046) and more children (p=0.001) when compared to the Chinese women. Generally, both the Malay and Chinese women had good functioning quality-of-life scores [mean score range: 60.3-84.8 (Malays); 65.0-91.1 (Chinese)] and global quality of life [mean score 60.3, SD 22.2 (Malays); mean score 65.0, SD 26.6 (Chinese)]. The Malay women experienced more symptoms such as nausea and vomiting (p=0.002), dyspnoea (p=0.004), constipation (p<0.001) and breast-specific symptoms (p=0.041) when compared to the Chinese. Conclusions: Quality of life was satisfactory in both Malays and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. However, Malay women had a lower quality of life due to high general as well as breast-specific symptoms. This study finding underlined the importance of measuring quality of life in the newly diagnosed breast cancer patient, as it will provide a broader picture on how a cancer diagnosis impacts multi-ethnic patients. Once health care professionals understand this, they might then be able to determine how to best support and improve the quality of life of these women during the difficult times of their disease and on-going cancer treatments.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2004

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of urinary incontinence and its correlation to the underlying diseases of women in Daegu. Materials and Methods: Urinary incontinence questionnaire regarding age, body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), parity, delivery mode, menopausal status, history of hormonal replacement therapy, abortion history, and any underlying diseases were administered from May to November, 2001 to 412 women over 20 who had been randomly selected from the Outpatient Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Yeungnam University. The clinical characteristics of women who experience, and those who do not experience urinary incontinence were compared by means of the Student's t-test for continuous variables and by the Pearson's Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the urinary incontinent group (N=193) was 44.2 years. There was a significant increase in the prevalence of incontinence with the increase of age (p=0.000). The prevalence of urinary incontinence was significantly related to the number of deliveries and the mode of delivery (p=0.007, p=0.001) No significant relationship was demonstrated between urinary incontinence and BMI (body mass index); the number of abortions; hormonal status; or any underlying diseases such as thyroid disease, diabetes mellitus, and chronic respiratory disease. Also, most of the urinary incontinent women didn't recognize their incontinence as pathological and consequently, didn't consult a physician. Conclusion: Our study indicates that the prevalence of urinary incontinence is significantly correlated to age, parity, and the mode of delivery. Most of the middle-aged women who suffered from urinary incontinence didn't recognize their incontinence a pathological. Those results suggest that women in this age group need more information and more education about urinary incontinence.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.13-26
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• 1975

Seven aspects of attitude toward marriage in Korea are examined to better understand present and future marriage patterns. Also, various facets of current marriage practice are compared with attitudes. The study comprises three groups of roughly 600 women each, selected by random sampling from a rural, an urban, and a semi-urban area. A carefully designed and pretested questionnaire was checked for reliability by a reinterview in a 15% subsample. The great majority of Korean women support traditional attitudes that one must or should marry. The small group who recommend that one should not marry are mostly the very young or the never married, whose attitudes still may change. However, there are important and probably predictive shifts in favor of more individual decision, especially among the better educated, the young, and the more urban. Traditional reasons for marriage such as "custom" and procreation are ranked first by a majority, but there is a large shift to more contemporary or liberal desire for companionship and love, also primarily among the better educated, the urban, the young, and the never married. The traditional attitude that parents should have the sole or major role in mate selection is still held by a bare majority; the educated, urban, young, and never married are more liberal. Only 6% opt for each of the two extremes: That the parent alone or the respondent alone should decide. The remainder prefer one of the two middle-of-the-road positions where parent and child together decide. The proportions of respondents who classed specified criteria as moat important for selecting a husband, arranging the criteria in order from traditional to contemporary were: Lineage, etc., 23%; personal attributes, 40%; health and education, 27%; and love, 10%. The changing attitudes are suggested by the fact that love was ranked first by only 3% of the poorly educated rural poulation versus 23% of urban college level and 31% of the urban never married. There has been a substantial rise in the ideal age of marriage over the past twelve or more years, but there also is evidence that the ideal age is at or near a ceiling. Knowledge about legal age of marriage is minimal; the implications of this for proposed legislation are discussed. Three-fifthes to four-fifths of all respondents married husbands of the same religious, residential, and economic backgrounds as themselves. Almost all of them married men of the same or higher educational level. These evidences of traditional influences in mate selection are contrasted with the low priority given some of those items in earlier questions on reasons for marriage and criterion for selecting husband. Contrary to the expressed attitudes as to who should select the husband, we find that marriages of the study sample were stated to be arranged by parents alone in 62%; and in another 23%, the parents made the decision but asked the respondent's views. Such arrangements were most frequent among the rural, the less educated, and the older respondents and less common in the urban and more educated. The implications of these and related findings are discussed.

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

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.6158-6167
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to perform comparative analysis of the duties of 7 new roles of HIMs in Malaysian and Korean hospitals of a similar scale. A Malaysian general hospital with a scale of 272 hospital beds was chosen. The researcher visited a Malaysian hospital in person and interviewed the staff in charge over a 2 week period from July 22nd 2013 to August 2nd 2013. For domestic hospitals, 13 general hospitals with 270 hospital beds, similar to the Malaysian general hospital, were chosen. Phone interviews with the department recorded the duty recording work. Regarding 7 new roles of Health Information Manager (HIM), although the role as a Health information manager and Security Officer in Malaysian general hospital was not defined, 30.8% performed their role in Korean general hospitals. The classification of disease & procedure within the role of Clinical data specialist was performed by both countries, and while the tumor registry was done in a Malaysian general hospital, only 15.4% of Korean general hospitals were operating. The statistics of the discharged patients were not measured in the Malaysian general hospital but 76.9% of Korean general hospitals recorded these statistics. Although 22.1% of Korean general hospitals operated registration work of special disease, Malaysian general hospital not only had a total legal contagious disease registration, but also took charge of information registration of hospital births and deceased ones. Other than these, the Patient Information Coordinator, Data Quality Manager, Document and Repository Manager, Research and Decision Support Analyst roles were not done by either country. The new role of HIM is operated in a low percentage in Korean middle and small hospitals. Therefore, to clearly establish the role of HIM in Korea, and have middle and small hospitals to operate such a role, it is essential for the related association to give continuous education and provide support to clarify the role within the hospital working environment. It is desirable to benchmark Malaysian general hospital's registration work on special diseases and others, and expand the work to improve overall.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2007

Purpose : Rotavirus is one of the most important etiologic agents of nosocomial infections among the neonates. This study was designed to investigate nosocomial rotavirus infection in neonates who were admitted to a postpartum-care center after birth. Methods : From March 2005 to September 2006, 957 healthy neonates were examined for rotavirus antigen in stool by immunochromatographic method and 216 neonates were rotavirus antigen positive within 24 hours after admitted to a postpartum-care center. We reviewed the nursing charts retrospectively such as characteristics, monthly distribution, birth hospitals, delivery methods, feeding types and clinical manifestations. Results : Among 957 neonates, 216 neonates (22.6%) were rotavirus antigen positive and there were no differences in sex, birth weight, gestational age. Monthly positive rate of rotavirus antigen showed diversity from 10% to 36%. According to birth hospitals, positive rate showed diversity from 3.5% to 53.6%. Out of 957 neonates, 655 cases (68.4%) were born of vaginal delivery and mean hospitalized duration was 2.4 days, 302 cases (31.6%) were born of cesarean section and mean hospitalized duration was 5.7 days. 17.6% of vaginal delivery and 33.4% of cesarean section were rotavirus antigen positive. The positive rate was higher in neonates by cesarean section than vaginal delivery (P<0.001). According to feeding types, positive rate of rotavirus antigen was lower in breast-fed group than formula-fed group (P<0.001). Proportion of symptomatic case among rotavirus antigen positive was 34.7%. Most common clinical manifestation was diarrhea (61.3%), following poor feeding (45.3%), fever (40.0%), vomiting (25.3%), delayed weight gain (12.0%), and decreased urine amount (5.3%). Conclusion : Some neonates were already infected before admission to a postpartum-care center. Without meticulous management, nosocomial rotavirus infection would transmit rapidly in a postpartum-care center spreading to the community. Recommendation of breast-feeding, routine rotavirus screeing test with or without symptom, and isolation of all rotavirus antigen positive neonates in a postpartum-care center seem to be necessary. Also attentive hygiene education and further investigations of rotavirus infection in a postpartum-care center would be needed.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.36-46
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• 2011

Objectives: To investigate the experience and competence of physicians providing emergency medical services at public health sub-centers on remote Korean islands. Methods: This study enrolled 79 doctors who work at public health sub-centers on remote Korean islands. Data were collected in December 2009 via self-administered e-mail questionnaires. The response rate was 44.3%. Results: Emergent situations occurred at most (58.68%) of the public health sub-centers that were surveyed in December 2009. An average of 1.92 cases required treatment by public health physicians. Only 20.25% of the physicians were specialists in emergency medicine, while the remainder were general practitioners (GPs) without clinical experience as emergency doctors. We also found that the physicians we surveyed had insufficient knowledge of emergency medical care. At some health centers only one doctor was available, and there was no medical team in holiday, although most of the physicians indicated that the ideal number of doctors per center was two or three. In cases of emergency, patients were often sent to the mainland by ship without receiving first-aid treatment. The public health sub-centers lacked the necessary medical equipment to save lives in emergencies and lacked escort systems for emergency patients. Conclusions: The Korean government should address the importance of providing emergency care in remote areas. Health administrators should provide suitable manpower, medical equipment, guidelines for emergency medicine, and education for public health physicians on remote islands.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 1991

To investigate the period prevalence rate and therapeutic practic for low back pain (LBP) in the adult population of rural area, a personal interview was conducted for 2.024 persons or 20-59 years old in Seohu Myon, Andong County, Kyungpook Province between 1st and 20th of April, 1991. The period prevalence rate (l February 1990-31 January 1991) of LBP for 1,106 adults who were interviewed was $47.9\%$. The age adjusted period prevalence rate for males was $43.7\%$ and that for females was $52.3\%$ and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.005). Clinical course of th LBP was acute in $14.1\%$ of males and $9.0\%$ of females, recurrent in $57.0\%$ and $55.2\%$, and chronic in $28.9\%$ and $35.8\%$, respectively. Common causes of the LBP were insidious on set with aging without known cause$(48.1\%)$, heavy work $(15.1\%)$, and trauma $(11.3\%)$. Due to LBP $12.5\%$ of the patients were not able to stand or walk for more than an hour and $2.5\%$ were bed-ridden or unable to carry out daily routine. To have the LBP diagnosed $10.2\%$ of the patients utilized a oriental medical clinic or hospital, $31.3\%$ visited a clinic or hospital, and $56.6\%$ hat not utilized any medical facility. Main reason for not having the LBP diagnosed was that the LBP was tolerable. The most popular therapeutic method that the LBP patients chose at the first was drug and physical therapy. Herb medicine was most commonly used when the first therapeutic method was not effective and the acupuncture was the most popular choice of therapy when the second therapeutic method failed. Folk medicine was utilized in $15.5\%$ of the LBP patients and it included 36 regimens such as tincture of motherwort (Leonurus sibiricus), boiled chicken with liquor, etc. It was revealed by this survey that the LBP is a serious health problem in the rural area and many of the LBP patients do not utilize a clinic or hospital but take non-scientific folk remedy. To prevent the economic waste and side effects of the folk remedy, public health education is needed for tile rational therapy of LBP.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.11-24
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• 2020

Objective : The Human Rights constitute one of the basic pillars of every work where persons are involved, such is the case of the occupational therapy field. Methods : In this study we investigate the human rights sensitivity and the advocacy activities of occupational therapists. The differences according to their characteristics, the relationship and the impact of the human rights sensitivity are examined and presented. Making use of online surveys 116 subjects participated in the study. Results : The measured average of human right sensitivity is 69.00 ± 17.67 point, being them distributed according to the following subcategories: to the perception of the situation corresponds 23.25±5.62 points, to the perception of the consequences 22.75±6.54 points and for the perception of the responsibility 23±6.54 points. In all the cases have been taken in account the equal rights, the right to education in disables, the right to pursue the happiness of the elderly, the right of the disables to have personal freedom, the privacy rights and the privacy rights for mental illness people. According to the working area the Human Right sensitiveness is higher in Seoul than in the Gyeongsang province meanwhile the advocacy activities is higher in Seoul and in Gyeonggi province than in Gyeongsang province. Depending of the type of service, general hospitals and rehabilitation/nursing hospitals showed higher human rights sensitivity than other service organizations According to the working field, occupational therapy group focused in elderly showed higher Human Right sensitivity than other fields. Professionals belonging groups of clinical experience from 3 to 5 years and from 6 to 10 years showed higher advocacy activities than professionals with more than 11 years of experience. A positive correlation was showed between the human rights sensitivity and the advocacy activities. For this situation, the human rights sensitiveness was divided in sub-categories in perception of the situation, perception of the consequences and perception of the responsibility. As showed by the result of multiple regression analyses the advocacy activities of human would grow up in accordance with the increase of the human rights sensitiveness of responsibility perception. Conclusion : Due to the actual lack of information, the collection and study of basic data is fundamental for the development of practical human rights educational programs and to emphasize the role of the defense of the human rights.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.22-33
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• 2003

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the present status of patients' satisfaction and the reasons for any satisfaction or dissatisfaction in cancer pain management Methods : A cross-sectional survey was used to obtain the feedback about pain management. The results of the survey were collected from 59 in- or out-patient who had cancer treatment at two of the teaching hospitals in Seoul from July, 2002 to November, 2002. The data was obtained by a structured questionnaire based on the American Cancer Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire(APS-POQ) and other previous research. The clinical information for all patients were compiled by reviewing their medical records. Resuts : 1) The subjects' mean score of the worst pain was 6.77, the average pain score was 3.80, and the pain score after management was 2.93 for the past 24 hours. The mean score of total pain interference was $25.03{\pm}12.82$. Many of the subjects had false beliefs about pain such as 'the experience of pain is a sign that the illness has gotten worse', 'pain medicine should be 'saved' in case the pain gets worse' and 'people get addicted to pain medicine easily'. 2) 66.1% of the subjects were properly medicated with analgesics. 33.9% of the subjects reported use of various methods in controlling pain other than the prescribed medication. Only 33.9% of the subjects had a chance to be educated about pain management by doctors or nurses. 3) The mean score of patients' satisfaction with pain management was $4.19{\pm}1.14$. 72.9% of the subjects answered 'satisfied' with pain management. The reasons for dissatisfaction were 'the pain was not relieved even after the pain management', 'I was not quickly and promptly treated when I complained of pain', 'doctors and nurses didn't pay much attention to my complaints of pain.', and 'there was no appropriate information given on the methods of administration, effect duration and side effects of pain medicine.' The reasons for satisfaction were: 'the pain was relieved after the pain management.', 'doctors and nurses quickly and promptly controlled my pain.', 'doctors and nurses paid enough attention to my complaints of pain.' and 'trust in my physician'. 4) In pain severity or pain interference, no significant difference was found between the satisfied group and dissatisfied group. On the belief 'good patients avoid talking about pain', a significant difference was found between the satisfied group and dissatisfied group. Conclusions : The patients' satisfaction with cancer pain management has increased over the years but still about 30% of patients reported to be 'not satisfied' for various reasons. The results of this study suggest that patients' education should be done to improve satisfaction in the pain management program.