• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.291-302
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was a secondary data analysis aimed at identifying the predictors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the home-dwelling disabled person by using EQ-5D which is a standardized instrument used as a measure of health outcome. Methods: Data were drawn from the 3rd Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW). Subjects were 1,021 home-dwelling disabled persons over 19 years of age. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson's correlation, one-way ANOVA, Scheff$\acute{e}$ test, and Stepwise multiple regression. Results: HRQoL (Health Related Quality of Life) is differentiated within age, genders, educational level, employment status, economic status, types and grades of disability, health problems associated with limited mobility, and the limited duration of time. HRQoL is correlated with age, number of cohabiters, educational level, grades of disability, activities of daily living (ADL), and instrumental ADL (IADL). HRQoL is significantly associated with ADL, health problems in connection with limited mobility, employment status, types of disability, marital status, grades of disability, and the limited duration of time. These factors explained 63.7% of variance in HRQoL. Conclusion: HRQoL among the disabled is related to their characteristics, ADL, and IADL. For this reason, it is necessary to develop health programs to promote those variables required to improve HRQoL.

• The Journal of Korea Assosiation for Disability and Oral Health
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to clarify the barriers of dental treatment for special needs patients felt by dentists and to determine the dentist-related factors contributing to the obstacles in treatment planning and decision making. Questionnaires were distributed and responded by dentists working at five public-based special care clinics in South Korea. Factors divided into three parts (dentist demographics, clinical factors, and educational and administrational factors) were assessed and analyzed for correlations between dentist-related factors and dentist-felt burdens for special care treatment. Fisher's exact test and Chi-square test were used at the level of 0.05. A total of 34 dentists responded to the questionnaires. Almost all dentists had obstacles in the treatment of special needs patients in terms of the patients' lack of cooperation (94.1%), proxy communication with caregivers (94.1%), payment reward system (63.6%), deficient workforce (67.7%), and others. The longer dentists had been practicing for special needs patients, the more they were dissatisfied with the reward system and a longer time was spent for communication with patients and their caregivers (p<0.05). For specialists, more obstacles were experienced in treatment planning due to a deficiency in the clinical information obtained from their patients compared to general practitioners (p<0.05). A total of 82.4% of the respondents approved of mandatory educational programs for special care dentists. There were practitioner-based factors related to the amount of obstacles felt by special care dentists. To overcome the treatment barrier of special needs patients, in-depth education and training are required in special care dentistry.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2024

Background: This study examines the relationship between functional disability and work ability in workers affected by low back pain (LBP) through an analysis of correlations between the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Work Ability Index (WAI). The role of personal and work factors on functional disability/work ability levels has also been studied. LBP is the most common musculoskeletal problem and a major disabling health problem worldwide. Its etiology is multifactorial. Multidisciplinary approaches may help reduce the burden of pain and disability and improve job continuity and reintegration at work. Methods: A cohort of 264 patients affected by LBP from an Italian outpatient clinic were included in a clinical diagnostic/therapeutic trial aiming at rehabilitation and return to work through an integrated investigation protocol. Data were collected during the first medical examination using anamnestic and clinical tools. The final sample is composed of 252 patients, 57.1% man, 44.0 % blue collars, 46.4% with the high school degree, 45.6% married. Results: WAI and ODI reported a negative and fair correlation (r = -0.454; p = .000). Workers with acute LBP symptoms have a higher probability of severe disability than those with chronic LBP symptoms. White collars without depressive symptoms reported higher work ability - even in chronic disability conditions-than those with depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The study found that ODI and WAI have a convergent validity and this suggests that the two tools measure capture distinctive aspects of disability related to personal, environmental, and occupational characteristics. The most important and modifiable prognostic factors found for ODI and WAI were depressive symptoms, workday absence, and intensity of back pain. The study also found a mild association between age and ODI. The study's findings highlight the importance of using a multidisciplinary approach to manage and prevent disability due to LBP.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.324-329
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• 2000

Objective : Psychological factors may have a major influence on the outcome of treatment for back pain. We investigated the relationship between the outcome and some psychological factors, such as self-reported pain intensity, disability, sleep disturbance and fatigue. Method : The study was conducted as a survey using a questionnaire and telephone interviews. The survey included consecutive 294 patients who visited the neurosurgical out-patient department complaining of low back pain and contacted by telephone on average seven months after the first visit. Pain intensity was measured by visual analog scale, and disability was assessed by Waddell's chronic disability index. Results : The outcome of treatment for back pain was recovered in 36.7%, improved in 30.6%, almost same in 28.6%, and aggravated in 4.1%. Overall rate of improvement was 67.3%. The rate of improvement was related to the duration, patterns and intensity of the symptom, and Waddell index. It was not influenced by the doctors, special studies, and methods of treatment. When the duration was more than 6 months, there were the symptoms of both back and legs, and the self-reported Waddell index was 1-3, the rate of improvement was relatively low. Although the intensity of the pain and disability was closely related to the degree of sleep disturbance, fatigue, appetite, or indigestion, the outcome of treatment for back pain was not always bad in patients with high psychological stress. Actually the outcome of the patients who complained severe pain and disability was better than the outcome of the others. Conclusion : The outcome of the back pain can be predicted by the duration, patterns and intensity of the symptom, and Waddell index. The multidisciplinary treatment will be necessary for the patients whose expected outcome is not good to reduce not only the physical symptoms but also the psychological stress.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.575-584
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influenced health related quality of life in women with disabilities. The other purpose was to examine the correlations of activities of these women's daily life, self esteem, and health promoting behavior with health related quality of life. Method: The subjects consisted of 120 adult disabled women. Data was collected from February to June 2004 using structured questionnaires. Spearman's correlation, and multiple regression were used to test the quality of life with K-ADL, self esteem, and health promoting behaviors by using SPSS 12.0 for windows. Result: The health related quality of life of women with disabilities was related to educational level, marital status, residential type, cause of acquired disability and disability of spouse. In addition, it was related to self esteem (r=.385, p=0.00), health promoting behaviors(r=428, p=0.00), K-ADL(r=-419, p=0.00) and K-IADL(r=-439, p=0.00). Activities of daily life, self esteem and health promoting behaviors were significant predictors $37.3\%$ (=0.212, p=0.000) to explain quality of life in disabled women. Conclusion: The more self esteem, health promoting behaviors, K-ADL and K-IADL are positive, the more the health related quality of life is good. Further studies need to be done to investigate additional effects of health related quality of life and to investigate nursing approaches to improve their health related quality of life with significant predictors.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.73-86
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• 2023

Purpose : This study aimed to identify the factors affecting the quality of life of lung transplant patients. Method : The participants were patients who received lung transplants at a general hospital in City Y. Data were collected through structured questionnaires from June 2023 to August 2023. General characteristics, lung transplantation-related characteristics, quality of life, functional disability, treatment compliance, social support, anxiety, and depression-were measured. For data analysis, hierarchical multiple regression was performed using SPSS/WIN 29.0. Results : In the final model, quality of life was associated with income, self-help group attendance, functional disability, social support, treatment compliance, and anxiety and depression. Together, they explained 61.2% of the total variance in the results. Conclusion : Our findings suggest that improving lung transplant patients' quality of life requires active intervention in stress management to perform treatment instructions well, a social support system that can help them financially, and encouraging and participating in social activities as patients.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2014

Purpose: Recently our country is rapidly aging population is growing. In the oral cavity of the elderly status of oral health-related quality of life to evaluate any impact. Methods: The survey used structured self administered questionnaires from April to May in 2011 in Daejeon and Chungcheong provinces to 277 people, analysis of the general characteristics of a frequency analysis method, the difference between the quality of life T/F test, whether oral self-according to the quality of life healthy oral health effects of the multiple regression analysis. Results: Award comes on the number of residual value, lower age all the more, smaller monthly income was small, but significant difference between them was no difference between gender. Residual value according to the number of differences in the quality of life of physical pain upper, physical disability, the lower the physical pain, physical disability, psychological disability were significant differences in degradation. Depending on oral maxillary prosthesis fitted to physical pain, psychological discomfort, physical disability, the lower the functional limitation, physical pain, there was a significant difference in physical disability. Conclusion: Status of the oral cavity of the elderly factors affecting the quality of life remaining in the lower dimensions, upper and lower prosthetics, self-aware state of oral health in order to improve the quality of life of elderly oral health education to be strengthened to increase the residual value, reducing their own prosthetic perceived oral health is health, so they feel it should be for the development of health education programs for the elderly should be.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2008

The self-report measure is a useful tool for evaluating self-recognized disability and difficulty in daily living activities. Although many studies and clinics used the Neck Pain and Disability Scale (NPDS) for measuring neck pain and functional impairment, there has not been much adaptation of this for use with Korean patients. The purpose of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of NPDS among Korean neck pain patients. Fifty-five subjects (32 males, 23 females) with neck pain enrolled in this study. They completed standardized self-administered questionnaires. The NPDS measures pain intensity; its interference with vocational, emotional, recreational, social, and functional aspects of living; and the presence and extent of associated factors. Reliability was determined by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency. Validity was examined by correlating the NPDS scores to the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score. The test-retest reliability of the translated versions of the NPDS was good ICC (2,1)=.86 (95%CI .76~.92). Cronbach's alpha value for NPDS was found to be .93, and this was statistically significant (p<.05). The criterion-related validity coefficient was .79 (p<.Oll. We conclude that the Korean version of NPDS has been shown to be a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of neck pain. Successful linguistic and cultural translation will admit appropriate cross-cultural comparison for clinical analysis. Therefore, this study can be expected to be used as an adequate evaluation scale for neck pain related studies and treatments.

• 재활복지
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.65-84
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• 2017

This study identified predictors of intention to work among people with disabilities who maintain economic inactivity for two successive years by analyzing a total of 2,255 Participants in the 2014 data of the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED) with through $X^2$, t test, logistic regression. To explore factors affecting intention to work among people with disabilities who maintain economic inactivity, this study hypothesized the effectiveness of variables of demographic, disability, human resources, psycho-social factors based on previous studies. The analysis showed that male, spouse-being, low income status out of demographic variables were related to high probability of having intention to work among people with disabilities who maintain economic inactivity. In case of disability variables, experiencing disability-related discrimination significantly predicted the probability of having intention to work. However, the relationship between disability-related discrimination experiences and high intention to work needs to be viewed as correlated rather than cause-and-effect.In addition, literacy related to computer use/English proficiency/interpersonal and adaptation skills(human resources), experiences of vocational rehabilitation services (human resources), self-esteem (psycho-social) significantly predicted the probability of having intention to work among people with disabilities who maintained economic inactivity. Based on these results, support services for females with disabilities, effective rehabilitation programs of improving literacy related to computer use/English proficiency/interpersonal and adaptation skills and self-esteem, general expansion of vocational rehabilitation services for people with disabilities are suggested.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.390-397
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• 2023

Introduction: Biological risks are a major global problem in the workplace. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the biological risks at work. This study presents data on both communicable infectious biological agents and noncommunicable factors leading to death and disability for the year 2021. Methods: We followed the methodology established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in their past global estimates on occupational accidents and work-related diseases. We used relevant ILO estimates for hazardous substances and related population attributable fractions derived from literature, which were then applied to World Health Organization mortality data. The communicable diseases included in the estimates were tuberculosis, pneumococcal diseases, malaria, diarrheal diseases, other infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases, influenza associated respiratory diseases and COVID-19. Noncommunicable diseases and injuries considered were Chronic Obstructive Diseases (COPD) due to organic dusts, asthma, allergic reactions and risks related to animal contact. We estimated death attributable to biological risk at work and disability in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Results: We estimated that in 2022, 550,819 deaths were caused by biological risk factors, with 476,000 deaths attributed to communicable infectious diseases and 74,000 deaths caused by noncommunicable factors. Among these, there were 223,650 deaths attributed to COVID-19 at work. We calculated the rate of 584 DALYs per 100,000 workers, representing an 11% increase from the previous estimate of the global burden of work-related disabilities measured by DALYs. Conclusion: This is a first update since previous 2007 ILO estimates, which has now increased by 74% and covers most biological risks factors. However, it is important to note that there may be other diseases and deaths are missing from the data, which need to be included when new information becomes available. It is also worth mentioning that while deaths caused by major communicable diseases including COVID-19 are relatively rare within the working population, absences from work due to these diseases are likely to be very common within the active workforce.