• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.79-91
• /
• 2010

Objectives: This study was conducted to analyze health behavior and utilization of university health clinics by college and university students. Methods: There are 376 colleges and universities in Korea as of May 2007. Of them 243 (69.6%) run health clinics in their campuses. Twenty of them were selected and 1,754 students were surveyed by using self reporting questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed by SPSS ver. 12.0. Results: Out of 1,754 students 56.5% were in good health. Of the subjects 15.6% were cigarette smokers, 30% were non drinkers, 20.8% exercise regularly, 53.7% sleep for seven to eight hours a day, 48% had proper body weight (BMI) 20-25) and 20% had physical examination in the past two years. The scores of health practices were higher in male students than female students (P 0.05). Perception rates of university clinics were higher in female students than male students. (P 0.01). Many students have intention to use the clinics (P 0.01). On health promotion program 35.2% of the subjects used clinics for emergency service, 32.8% participated in drinking control program, 32.8% in smoking cessation program, 20.4% in immunization program and 19.2% in regular health screening program. Conclusions: Comprehensive data for health behavior and need of health promotion services by the students should be collected regularly in order to meet the needs of students and faculty members in higher education institutes. The university authorities should pay more attention on the activities of health clinics in order to promote health of the students.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.125-138
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The study investigated the effect of adolescent health behavior on the prevalence of current allergic diseases. Methods: The subjects were 57,303 middle and high school youth. Data were analyzed using Rao-Scott χ² test and complex sample logistic regression analysis. Results: While controlling the affect of the general characteristics of the subjects, health behaviors affecting the current prevalence of allergic diseases were smoking, drinking, physical activity, eating habits, drug abuse, and mental health. Smoking behaviors affecting the current prevalence of allergic diseases were lifetime smoking experience, smoking days, liquid e-cigarette lifetime smoking experience, number of liquid electronic cigarette smoking days, e-cigarette lifetime smoking experience, e-cigarette smoking days, amount of smoking, second-hand smoking and drinking behaviors were lifetime drinking, drinking days, the amount of drinking, and severe drinking. Variables such as physical activity exceeding 60 minutes days, intake of energy and sweet drinks, water intake, habitual drug use and mental health behavior such as stress perception, weekday sleep time, subjective sleep satisfaction, depression, suicidal thoughts/ plan/ attempts affect current allergic diseases (p<.001). Conclusion: The results showed that current allergic disease related health behaviors in Korean adolescents. Therefore, considering these factors, it may be helpful to facilitate a health promotion plan for prevention and management of such diseases and to promote evidence-based health practices at school.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.141-149
• /
• 2004

Purpose: To identify the status of regular cervical cancer screening practices among middle-aged women, the associations between regular practice and research factors, and the predictive model and factors effecting such behavior was studied. Method: Two hundred women, aged 40 to 60, were selected by convenience in one urban area of Seoul. They were asked about their regular attendance for screening, knowledge of cancer and screening, health belief, health self-determination index and certain personal factors. Result: Approximately 54.5% of the women had periodic screening tests every 6 months to 2 years. Their knowledge of cervical cancer and health belief were at the medium level of each scale, but their health self-determination scores (HSDI) were low. Some influencing factors, and their cancer odds ratio were identified through univariate regression analysis. These variables were included in a predictive model, and this model proved to have enough fit and classification power (83.5%). In this model, the financial state, self-belief and self-determination scores were found to be significant. Conclusion: Middle-age women's intrinsic motivation for healthy behavior was found to be low in those who felt to be in a poor financial state, had higher perceived barriers, lower perceived benefits and a lower prevalence of undergoing regular screening test.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.11-19
• /
• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the experiences and needs about sex education of university entrants in Korea, and to identify the relationship among the levels of sex-related knowledge, sexual attitude and reproductive health promoting behavior. Methods: Totally 188 freshman year of two different university were recruited to reply. The design of study was a exploratory research, using a cross-sectional survey. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure the experiences and needs about sex education. The data were analyzed with the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: 95.2% of the experienced sex education but the level of satisfaction about sex education was 38.3%. The sex education methods that subjects wanted were comfortable and interesting using videos and practices. Sex-related knowledge significantly differed according to sex. Sexual attitude differed according to the experience of sex, the line of dating and the route of information about sex. There was positive correlations among sex-related knowledge, sexual attitude and reproductive health promoting behavior of female entrants. Conclusion: So sex education program, composed of knowledge, attitude and behavior should be interesting and helpful in order to fit current trends and fulfill university entrants' needs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.17
• /
• pp.7967-7973
• /
• 2015

Background: The abrupt rise of colorectal cancer in developing countries is raising concern in healthcare settings. Studies on assessing relationships with modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors in the Pakistani population have been limited. The present investigation was designed to examine associations of dietary practices, addictive behavior and bowel habits in developing colorectal cancer (CRC) among patients in a low-resource setup. Materials and Methods: An age-gender matched case control study was conducted from October 2011 to July 2015 in Karachi, Pakistan. Cases were from the surgical oncology department of a public sector tertiary care hospital, while their two pair-matched controls were recruited from the general population. A structured questionnaire was used which included questions related to demographic characteristics, family history, dietary patterns, addictive behavior and bowel habits. Results: A family history of cancer was associated with a 2.2 fold higher chance of developing CRC. Weight loss reduced the likelihood 7.6 times. Refraining from a high fat diet and consuming more vegetables showed protective effects for CRC. The risk of CRC was more than twice among smokers and those who consumed Asian specific addictive products as compared to those who avoid using these addictions (ORsmoking: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.08 - 4.17, ORpan: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.6 - 5.33, ORgutka: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.14 - 3.97). Use of NSAID attenuated risk of CRC up to 86% (OR: 0.14, 95% CI: 0.07 - 0.31). Conclusions: Most of the findings showed concordance with the literature elucidating protective effects of consuming vegetables and low fat diet while documenting adverse associations with family history, weight loss, constipation and hematochezia. Moreover, this study highlighted Asian specific indigenous addictive products as important factors. Further studies are needed to validate the findings produced by this research.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.173-183
• /
• 2004

The purpose of the present study was to assess food hygiene and safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food-service personnel in school food-service programs and to find factors affecting their knowledge, attitudes, and practices. A self-administered questionnaire was offered to a random sample of 40 kitchen employees in elementary schools in one region of Korea, with 37 completing the survey, a response rate of 92.5%. The survey was carried out over a two-month period (April-May, 2001). Knowledge score of the employees was high with a mean/standard deviation of 4.75/0.32 on a 5.0-point scale. They had significantly lower attitude score (4.55$\pm$0.33) and practice score (4.55$\pm$0.45) compared to the score of knowledge (p＜0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that (1) the employees＇ education level and work experience in school food-service programs affected their knowledge, (2) age, level of living, monthly income, and housing type affected their attitudes, and (3) monthly income, level of living, housing type, and work experience in school food-service programs affected their practices. Pearson＇s correlation analysis confirmed that the knowledge and attitude scores were significantly correlated (r=0.598, p＜0.001). The results indicate that the knowledge, attitude, and practice levels of the employees regarding the food hygiene and safety were better than expected, however, the results suggest a need for the adoption of approaches which take account of socio-economic and environmental influences on behavior to improve and maintain their practice level. The food-handling practices of school food-service employees need to be monitored routinely in order to ensure that safe food is served to our school children.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.104-117
• /
• 2004

Objectives: To propose the basic data for the development of the optimum health promotion program (HPP) for the workers in a petrochemical industry complex. Methods: The subjects were 553 workers who worked at the six plants in a petrochemical industry complex. From February to March 2003, questionnaire survey was conducted by the nurses with occupational health specialty about the life styles, interests, self-cognitions, practices of health behavior, subjective symptoms thought to be related the working environments, burden to the own health, needs and intentions to participation of the HPP. Data analysis was done using SPSS program (ver 10.0) with ${\alpha}=0.05$ of statistical significance. Results: The mean age and tenure of the subjects were 39.7 years and 14.2 years, respectively, and proportion of smokers was around 50%. Two of third (66%) satisfied their own job, and 58% recognized themselves healthy. The most frequent health behavior were exercise (60%) and regular health check (87%) in individual and job based, respectively. About half of them (58%) had at least one of the symptoms thought to be related the working environments, and the most frequent one was odor (21%). These symptoms were more frequent in case of the shorter career. The needs of HPP was relatively higher in exercise (66%), cancer prevention (51%), stress control (47%), and intention to participation was also the highest in exercise (64%). Job satisfaction was higher in case of the higher interests and cognitions to their own health, and thought that the ownership's interest to workers' health be high (p<0.01), but no associations with the subjective symptoms. The mean level of burden to the own health were $14.1{\pm}13.9$ of physical, $11.7{\pm}13.6$ of emotional, $9.1{\pm}10.7$ of behavioral as out of one hundred. They felt the more burden in case of office workers, the lower interests and cognitions to their own health, the lower satisfaction to their job, the frequent drinking group, and complained the subjective symptoms (p<0.05). Abnormal results of the regular health check was higher in the frequent drinking group (p=0.083). Conclusions: For the optimum HPP for the workers in the petrochemical complex, the ownership's interest to workers' health would be enhanced, and the priority would be focused on exercise and drinking habits control.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.241-253
• /
• 2013

Purpose: We performed an ethnographic analysis on health-related behavioral patterns of male college students enrolled in a weight-control program. Methods: The participants in this study were 12 obese male college students and one member of the health program staff. Data, collected through interviews and participatory observations during fieldwork, were analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods. Results: Patterns of health behavior were categorized into one of two types: the type with a willingness and motivation toward improving health (including a positive management of diseases and lifestyle) or the type concerned with social development and competence (including the application of strategic relationships and a self-conscious inclination toward appearance). Conclusion: The concepts of body and health in sociocultural contexts lead to weight-control practices. These results strongly indicate that providers of dieting programs for young adults need to understand the physical and psychological concerns of their students. Moreover, another implication from our results is that health-related interventions should be designed according to specific aspects of its participants.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.273-284
• /
• 2000

The objective of this study consists on clarifying what factors are influenced upon skin care behavior using fender's Health Promotion Model, widely used to anticipate practices of health care behavior for women with keen interest in skin care and then manifesting their correlations from July 1 to August 22, 1998, on 159 women interested in skin care. A subvariable included practice of skin care behavior and independent variables include general characteristics, health fitness, the level of agreement with the advantages of the perceived skin care behavior, the level of cognition of the necessity for skin care behavior The data collected processed with ANOVA and multiple regression analysis to clarify what factors among other independent variables have the most powerful effects upon skin care. The resultant findings were revealed, as follows : 1. In health care behavior among skin care behavior,'full ingestion of water' represented the highest value by 3.45 points, 2. The testees of this study had for the most part a higher level of cognition for the necessity for skin care behavior than for practice of skin care behavior. The more points they have for cognition of the necessity for skin care behavior, the more points they present for practice of skin care behavior. 3. From the perspective of the relationship between sociometic factors on the testees and their skin care behavior, the higher level married women were on (p<0.05) and the more points they have for economic status, the higher points were reflected . 4. The correlations between the testees' recognition or perception factors and points for practice of skin health state showed the higher points than the group who thought that they did not know their own skin health state (p<0.05). The higher the points of skin care fitness (p<0.0001), the higher the points of self-awareness (p<0.0001) 5. The factors that had the most powerful influence upon cognition and practice of women's skin care behavior were found, with statistical significance, to be adjustable factors such as age, smoking, drinking habit, economic status, etc. and points of cognition of the necessity for skin care behavior.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.4 no.6
• /
• pp.535-540
• /
• 2010

In this study, 342 grade 4-6 elementary school students in Gyeonggi-do were recruited to determine their readiness to change food safety behavior and to compare their food safety knowledge and practices by the stages of change. The subjects were divided into three stages of change; the percentage of stage 1 (precontemplation) was 10.1%, the percentage of stage 2 (contemplation and preparation) was 62.4%, and that of stage 3 (action and maintenance) was 27.5%. Food safety knowledge scores in stage 3 (4.55) or stage 2 (4.50) children were significantly higher than those in stage 1 children (4.17) (P < 0.05). The two food safety behavior items "hand washing practice" and "avoidance of harmful food" were significantly different among the three groups (P < 0.05). Stages of change were significantly and positively correlated with food safety knowledge and practice. Age was significantly and negatively correlated with the total food safety behavior score (r = -0.142, P < 0.05). The most influential factor on the stage of change was a mother's instruction about food safety (P < 0.01).