• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.325-332
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• 1999

Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify major factors associated with physical functioning among the Korean elderly. Methods: Data come from a survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,058 older people aged 60 years or elder living in the community. A hierarchical functioning scale was constructed, using upper and lower body mobility, IADLs, and ADLs. Socioeconomic characteristics, chronic conditions, measures of health status, health service use, and social support were analyzed to explore their influence on functioning. Polytomous logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify major contributing factors to different levels of functioning. Results: Persons of older age, female, with chronic diseases (heart disease, stroke, fracture/dislocation) were consistently more likely to show a higher degree of functional limitation. There were variations, however, among other factors; e.g., those with arthritis were more likely to be only mildly impaired, but not moderately or severely impaired. Conclusions: Older Korean adults living in the community with impaired functioning constitute persons with diverse characteristics. Policy and program activities need to address specific needs of older people in different functioning states.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.142-146
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• 2008

Facial palsy is a general nerve disease which is occurred in a lateral incomplete or complete facial palsy. But it makes man restrict a social activity and so it is very important that we know the prognosis factors of a patient for medical care. We want to investigate the position and the patterns of the facial palsy according to sex and age. In this study, we performed the excitability test of the facial nerve on 103 patients (male 45 and female 58) which diagnosed as the Bell's palsy having an acute facial palsy, and the rate of the facial palsy was 42% (43 case) in right oculi and 58% (60 case) in left oculi. The facial palsy was appeared widely from young to elderly patients and especially, the rate of the facial palsy was high in age groups from 40 to 50.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.851-856
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• 1995

Thymectomy has played a central role in the management of myasthenia gravis. Although both the etiology of myasthenia gravis and the reason for improvement after thymectomy remain incompletely explained, complete removal of the thymus is the logical goal of surgical treatment for this disease.From April 1989 to June 1994, maximal thymectomy was performed for 19 cases of myasthenia gravis at Chonnam National University Hospital. The results were as follows:1.Among the 19 cases, male-to-female ratio was 1:1.4, the age ranged 13 years to 71 years, and a diphasic presentation appeared with a peak in young females and a second peak in elderly males;2.Five cases were classified by modified Osserman`s classification as Group I and Group IIa and 14 cases as Group IIb and Group IIc; 3.Histologic examination of the excised thymus glands revealed normality in 5 cases [26% , thymic hyperplasia in 4 [21% , benign thymoma in 8 [42% , and malignant thymoma in 2 [11% ;4.There was no operative mortalities but two deaths occurred during the follow-up periods due to myasthenic crisis and other causes;5.The clinical improvement and the complete remission rates were 85% and 32%, respectively;6.The clinical improvement and the complete remission rates were not so good in patients with thymomas, beeing 70% and 20%, respectively; and 7.Young women with hyperplasia of the thymic tissue tended to show the best response to thymectomy.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.843-850
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• 2009

A recent High Court's decision regarding the withdrawal of life supporting medical treatment (artificial ventilator) from an elderly female patient in the terminal stage has opened up a new era of the "euthanasia dispute" in Korea. With this decision, the legitimate withdrawal of life supporting treatment became possible under certain conditions and the Korean Medical Association is working toward the establishment of practical guidelines for the terminal-stage patients. However, there are still very few debates on the cases of pediatric patients in the terminal stage or suffering from fatal diseases. For pediatric patients, the core principle of autonomy and following procedure of "advance directives" are hardly kept due to the immaturity of the patients themselves. Decisions for their lives usually are in the hands of the parents, which may often bring out tragic disputes around "child abuse", especially in Korea where parents have exclusive control of the destiny of their children. Some developed countries such as the U.S.A., the U.K. and Canada have already established guidelines or a legal framework for ensuring the rights of the healthcare system regarding children suffering from severe illness, permitting the withdrawal of Life supporting medical treatment (LSMT) in very specific conditions when the quality of life of the children is severely threatened. For the protection of the welfare and interest of the children, we should discuss this issue and develop guidelines for the daily practice of pediatricians.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1036-1047
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• 2013

In this study, we applied the time series analysis to the randomized controlled trial (RCT) researches related to insomnia for finding international trends. The data used in the analysis of 379 of ClinicalTrials, Web of Science was the of 132 by several keyword related with 'Insomnia' and 'Randomized Clinical Trial'. In ClinicalTials, RCT studies for insomnia, drug, cognitive behavioral therapy, depression were the key words make up the main network. In WOS, 'melatonin' key word was added in the main network. In addition to, we found the characteristic that the elderly and female subjects were steady studied.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.449-457
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• 2001

This study was performed to show change of fat-free mass(FFM), representing mostly the muscle mass change, and muscle strength with increasing age, and relationship between dietary, exercise behaviors and FFM in healthy middle-and old aged women who are of age over 55 years. The FFM and correspondingly hand grip strength showed significant positive correlation with age. But concentration of serum albumin showed no significant relationship with age. The subjects were categorized into groups according to FFM tertile. The anthropometry such as weight, BMI, fat mass, circumferences of waist and hip, WHR, and hand grip strength decreased significantly in the lowest FFM group. But the albumin level showed no change according to FFM level. The FFM showed significant correlation with nutrient intakes such as energy, carbohydrate, protein, Fe, P, Ca. No association, however, was shown with exercise behavior probably because of no case with resistance exercise habits. The variance of FFM was explained 55.2% by height and carbohydrate intake. The variance of height-adjusted FFM could be explained only 16.2% by intake amount of carbohydrate. In conclusion, the decrease of FFM may cause to reduce muscle strength in female elderly. The increasing nutrient intakes were associated with the increased FFM and may protect from risk of sarcopenia. However, only the carbohydrate intake could influence independently the FFM in middle- and old-aged women. The FFM has no association with endurance exercise habits. (Korean J Nutrition 34(4) : 449∼457, 2001)

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to determine whether movement strategies affect functional forward reach distance in a standing position. Forty-seven healthy subjects were selected for this study: 23 men and 24 women, with an average age of 22.3. Functional forward reach distances were measured as hip strategy and squat strategy (included knee and ankle movement strategy) in a standing position, respectively. The mean values of functional forward reach distance in hip strategy, squat strategy were 33.57 cm, 29.48 cm, respectively. There was significantly difference in functional forward reach distance between hip strategy and squat strategy(p<.001). There was no difference of functional forward reach distance between male and female in hip strategy, but there was significant difference in other strategy(p<.05). These results suggest that movement strategies should be considered during functional forward reach test in standing. Further study is required to determine whether movement strategies affect functional reach distance in elderly and disabled groups.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.53-68
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• 2010

This study tried to develop the theoretical backgrounds, explaining consumers energy consumption behavior and analyzed its effects. In other words, this study investigated the factors influencing the amount of electronic energy consumption. In this study, we used 678 questionnaires which were selected a quota sampling by living area who were above 20 years old and married. Summary of results of this study follows. First, attitude for energy saving was positively related with female, high school graduated large size of family members, elderly, and middle-class consumers. In addition, consumers' search for energy saving were appeared passively in young consumers under 30 years old, and the family with the highest household income. Consumers' purchasing energy-efficient products was presented in large size of family members, and young consumers. Second, consumers' environmental oriented behavior, action-directed behavior, healthseeking behavior were significantly related with energy saving behavior, and active information search for energy saving, but not with purchasing energy-efficient products and consuming behavior of electrical energy. Third, the quantity of electric energy consumption was affected by the size of family members, the living size of house related with high energy demand, the attitude for energy saving, and searching information for energy-saving.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.47-54
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• 2016

Objectives: The prevalence of insufficient physical activity is relatively high in the Republic of Korea and it is increasing. The national strategies to improve physical activity are essential and are suggested in this paper. Methods: National level of physical activity is compared globally by WHO statistics. Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey showed the level of physical activity. National strategies to improve physical activity were suggested referring to the other countries' strategies, public health books and Health Plan 2020. Results: Prevalence of insufficient aerobic exercise in 2010 were 33.4%, 94.8% in over and 18 years old, 11~17 years old, respectively. And it is increasing. Sufficient exercise to fit the national guidelines of physical activity were done by 15.6% of Korean older and 19 years old. Prevalence of insufficient physical activity was high in the elderly, female, adolescent, rural area and lower income. The national spread of the physical activity guidelines, primary care physicians involvement, supports for the physical activity programs, development of the evaluation protocol for the programs and environmental supports are suggested. Conclusions: The government induced various efforts to improve the level of physical activity is needed urgently.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.292-298
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• 2006

Modification of the diet during childhood and adolescence may be an effective strategy for maximizing the peak bone mass. Many supplementation studies have suggested a positive effect of the increased vitamin D intake on the bone mineral status in the elderly. However to date all studies have been conducted on old men and postmenopausal women. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of vitamin D supplementation on the bone mineral density and bone mineral content in growing rats. Twenty Sprague-Dawley female rats were divided into two groups; Control, and vitamin D supplementation. The bone mineral density(BMD) and bone mineral content(BMC) were measured using PIXImus in the spine and femur. Vitamin D supplementation did not affect the level of weight gain, mean food intake and food efficiency ratio. In addition, vitamin D supplementation had no added effect on the spine and femur BMD, and BMC. There were no significant differences in the spine BMD/weight and BMC/weight between the groups, but the spine BMD/weight and BMC/weight was 11 % higher in the vitamin D supplementation group. The femur BMD/weight and femur BMC/weight were significantly higher in the vitamin D supplementation group 9 weeks after the experiment. These results provide evidence of the beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation on the BMD during the growth period.