• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.77-88
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• 2017

Objectives : To examine the factors associated with the use of the prenatal care services provided by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family by married migrant women in Korea. Methods : We employed data from the 2015 Nationwide Multiculturale Family Survey. We selected 19- to 39-year-old married immigrant women with children aged 5 years or less for the study (N=1,579). We included four predisposing factors, six enabling factors, and two need factors based on the Andersen's Health-care Utilization Model. Results : Only one third of married immigrant women(31.6%) used prenatal care service and 45.9% of them reported prenatal care service needs. Area of residence, country of birth, and Korean language proficiency were significantly associated with prenatal care service use. Further, age, country of birth, length of time in Korea, household income, and discrimination experience were significantly associated. Conclusions : Findings suggest the need to develop strategies to improve accessibility to prenatal care service use especially for married immigrant women from developing countries, low-income families, having poor Korean language proficiency or having discrimination experience.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.558-567
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• 2016

In the case of France which was successful in improving the ultra-low fertility rates of birth and South Korea, from the late 1980s, the birth rate fell continuously. In 1994, total fertility rate fell 1.66, but thanks to the active family policy of the government in the mid 1990s, it grew and maintained 2.0 average since the year 2008 until now. This study examined carefully how France was not classified as advanced welfare state, overcame the obstacles of low fertility problem in the socio-economic and institutional side and trying to get some suggestions from South Korea in which it of such problems in the field of low fertility.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.141-151
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to test the economic rationality hypothesis of the low fertility trap among 412 college students at 13 private universities located in Seoul. The respondents were requested to complete the self-administered questionnaire, and the hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed for analyzing the data. The major findings of this study were as follows: First, the students' views on the prospects for their future employability were 54.6% for big business, 64.51% for medium-sized business, and 49.63% for public sector. In the most employable job, the mean desired monthly salary was 3,505,400 won, while the mean expected monthly salary 2,753,600 won. Second, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the family income in parental home was positively related to youths' consumption aspirations. Finally, the gap between youths' consumption aspirations and their expected income was negatively related to their desired number of children, while not significantly related to their planned age of first child birth. Thus, the low fertility trap hypothesis was supported in terms of birth rate drop, but not supported in terms of childbearing postponement. The implications of the study results are discussed.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.276-282
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• 2022

Purpose: Infantile colic, a common functional gastrointestinal condition, causes distress and frustration in families. Its prevalence and incidence vary from community to community. The purpose of our study was to demonstrate the incidence of and factors associated with infantile colic in Thai infants. Methods: We conducted a prospective analytic study to explore the incidence and factors associated with infantile colic in 386 Thai infants aged between one month and six months. Caregivers were interviewed using a questionnaire about infants' symptoms of colic based on the definition from the Rome IV criteria. Family background and potential precipitating factors of colic were also evaluated. Results: The incidence of colic in infants younger than 6 months was 6.5%. All infants' colic started within 12 weeks of life and lasted approximately 6 weeks. Sex, gestational age, birth weight, delivery route, birth order, family factors, and parental factors were not correlated with the occurrence of colic. Infants who were exclusively breastfed for the first 2 months of life had a lower incidence of infantile colic than those who were mixed- or formula-fed (odds ratio=3.0; 95% confidence intervals=1.3 to 7.2). Conclusion: The incidence of infantile colic in Thai infants in our study was 6.5%, which is similar to that in other reports. Being exclusively breastfed for the first two months was the only risk factor in our cohort.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.111-136
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• 2012

This paper investigates effects of family size on private tutoring expenditures, using a data set drawn from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF). To deal with endogeneity of family size, the paper employs an instrumental variable (IV) method in which the sex of the first-born of the family is used as an IV. The results suggest that quantity-quality trade-offs of children within a family function in a way that varies by the sex of the child. While the effect of an increase in family size on private turoring expenditures of a second-born daughter is negative, the effect for a second-born son is indeterminate. The result for daughters implies that high costs of raising a child are likely to explain low birth rates of Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.109-121
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• 2006

This study examines the relationship between mother's stress and cortisol level during late pregnancy and how it changes into postpartum periods. Thirty one families were recruited from Daejeon and Incheon in South Korea. The major findings were as follows: (1) The level of mothers' cortisol followed the typical diurnal pattern of decline throughout the day. Further longitudinal analysis revealed that the level of Korean mothers' cortisol steadily lowered from the 8th prenatal month to the 6th postnatal month. (2) During pregnancy, mothers reported to experience changes in physical activities, daily routines, eating habits, types or amount of social activities and sleeping habits. Among these they were stressed the most by changes in physical activities and social activities. (3) The results of postpartum depression tests conducted at two months after giving birth showed mothers at this time were mostly stressed from difficulty sleeping and unnecessary self criticism. (4) The level of psycho social stress in mothers at six months after giving birth was mainly on social roles and the questions about self reliance marked the highest points. (5) Overall, there was a tendency for the level of maternal stress to decrease definitely from before and after the delivery and even though the level of stress was steadily decreasing up to 6th postpartum month it was not as sharp as those of before and after the birth of the babies. The level of cortisol analysis also showed the same obvious tendency.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2010

Objectives Taking detailed patient history helps earlier diagnosis and treatment of developmental disability. In this study we analyzed the clinical questionnaire to find out the clinical characteristics of those with five-retardation, five-limpness, or five-stiffness. Methods The data was collected from 484 children under the age of six who have visited H oriental medicine clinic for developmental delay. The clinical questionnaire was filled out by their parents and the data was analyzed statistically. Results 436 children showed symptoms of five-retardation, 90 children suffered from five-stiffness, 54 children showed five-limpness and 7 children suffered from five-stiffness and five-limpness complex. Generally, boys had higher chance to show disease symptoms than the girls (2.32:1) and 40 children (8.26%) reported family history of developmental disability. Cerebral palsy ranks the most common familial disease, followed by developmental delay, mental retardation, autistic disorder and language disorder. Among the children we have studied, 285 children (63.19%) showed delayed unassisted walk while 192 children (42.57%) had language disorder. Also, 138 children (28.51%) had both walk and language disorders. The children in this study also showed delayed toilet training and half of them had little stranger anxiety when they were infants. It was also found that 120 children (24.79%) experienced epilepsy. This study reaffirmed that low birth weight, premature birth, and suffocation are major risks causing neurological damage. Conclusions They had history which including family history, problems at birth, epilepsy, face recognition, muscle tone disorder, delayed walking without assistance, language ability, and toilet training.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.512-520
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The 6-23 months for infants is the longest period in the "first 1,000 days" of life. This period is very important for child development, so complementary feeding (CF) practices should be optimized to maximize children's potential for growth and development. The aim of this study was to analyze the CF practices and nutritional status of children aged 6-23 months. SUBJECTS/METHODS: For this cross-sectional study, 392 children aged 6-23 months were selected using stratified random sampling. Socio-demographic data were collected through interviews. CF practices, collected by interviews and repeated 24-hour food recall method, were the timely introduction of CF, minimum meal frequency, dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet, consumption food rich in proteins and vitamin A. Nutritional status was assessed using the indicators of underweight, wasting and stunting. To analyze the association between socio-demographic indicators and CF with nutritional status, the chi-square test with a confidence interval of 95% was used. RESULTS: Results showed that 39% were exclusively breastfed, only 61% received prolonged breastfeeding and 50% received timely introduction of CF. Minimum meal frequency was met by 74% of subjects, but dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet were only realized in 50% and 40% of the children, respectively. The prevalence of underweight, wasting, and stunting were 26%, 23%, and 28%, respectively. Age of the child, birth order, birth weight, parents' education level, family size and incidence of fever and diarrhea during the previous two weeks were associated with underweight, while child's birth order, fathers' education level, mother's age, family size, completion of the age-appropriate vaccination and fish consumption frequency were associated with wasting. Age of the child, incidence of fever and acute respiratory infection, and fortified food consumption were associated with stunting. CONCLUSIONS: Suboptimal CF practices and high prevalence of underweight, wasting and stunting were found among children aged 6-23 months old in Aceh. These results highlight the need to improve CF and nutritional status.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.74-85
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• 2022

Along with the change in the values of marriage and the prevalence of non-marriage in Korean society, a new form of family composition called unmarried birth or non-maritalism childbirth has appeared, and social discussion in taking place in connection with the problem of a decrease in the birthrate. Using sentiment analysis and social network analysis, this research explored how the people's sentiment and perception has changed toward 'nonmarital birth.' The data used is comments on news articles from the period of November 2020 to August 2021. As a result of the study, there were a lot of positive comments during the social issue period by marriage, whereas there were many negative comments from the policy agenda to the policy making period. As a result of co-occurrence network analysis, the topic of family norm, policy, and personal aspect appeared. This study is significant in that it revealed that negative perceptions prevailed during the policy-making process after the issue of unmarried births after the issue of unmarried births, and it became a cornerstone of social discussion on unmarried births

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.14-31
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• 1988

The national family planning program in Korea, which was instituted as an integral part of the nation's economic development plans since 1962, has contributed greatly to a reduction in the fertility and population growth rate. The total fertility rate dipped from 6.0 births per women in 1960 to 2.0 in 1985, and the population growth rate rom 2.84 percent per year to 1.25 percent during the same period, while the contraceptive practice rate for the 15-44 married women increased from 9 percent in 1965 to 70 percent in 1985. Study findings indicate that the fertility reduction in the past 26 years is largely attributed to the virgorous implementation of the national family planning program, rising age at marriage, wide-spread use of induced abortion, and the changes in attitude regarding the value of children that came into being in the wake of the rapid socio-economic development over the period. Among the strengths of the national family planning program are the following : 1) a pluralistic system of program manageent with active participation of various government and voluntary organizations, 2) utilization of a large corps of family planning field workers to conduct face-to-face communication and motivation activities, 3) use of private physicians with government support to provide contraceptive services, 4) a systematic program management system including program planning of traget allocation, evaluation, and supervision with a broad MIS and award system, 5) numerous incentive and disincentive schemes for stimulating the small family norm and contraceptive use, and 6) strong commitments to the family planning program by political leaders. The new demographic targets during the Sixth Five-Year Economic and Social Development plan period(1987-91) have been set for a further reduction in the population growth rate to 1.0 percent by 1993, assuming that the TFR will decline to 1.75 level in 1995. This target is, however, not easy to achieve due to anticipated unfavorable factors like the strong boy preference, high discontinuation rates of reversible contraceptive methods, fertility termination-oriented contraceptive use, a plateau level of contraceptive practice rate that has mostly accounted for a sterilization, shortened length of birth intervals, and the changing patterns of contraceptive mix. The recent changes in contraceptive and fertility behaviors clearly indicate that the past quantity-oriented management system of the national program should be redirected toward a quality-oriented approach. Particularly, program efforts should be expanded to recruit new contraceptive users in the 20s of younger age groups, both for birth spacing and controlling their fertility since the women aged 20 to 29 account for more than 80 percent of the total annual births in recent years. In addition, the current contraceptive fee system of the national family planning program should be gradually shifted from free contraceptive services to a acceptor's charge system, and the provision of contraceptive services through the medical insurance system, which will cover the entire population by 1989, should be accelerated as a means of integration of family planning program with other health programs.