• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1111-1112
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• 2004

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2021

Objectives: Acute exposure to high concentrations of chemicals can occur when a chemical accident takes place. As such exposure can cause ongoing environmental pollution, such as in the soil and groundwater, there is a need for a tool that can assess health effects in the long term. The purpose of this study was assessing the health risks of residents living near a chemical accident site due to long-term exposure while considering the temporal concentration changes of the toxic chemicals leaked during the accident until their extinction in the environment using a multimedia environmental dynamics model. Methods: A health risk assessment was conducted on three cases of formaldehyde chemical accidents. In this study, health risk assessment was performed using a multimedia environmental dynamics model that considers the behavior of the atmosphere, soil, and water. In addition, the extinction period of formaldehyde in the environment was regarded as extinction in the environment when the concentration in the air and soil fell below the background concentration prior to the accident. The subjects of health risk assessment were classified into four groups according to age: 0-9 years old, 10-18 years old, 19-64 years old, and over 65 years old. Carcinogenic risk assessment by respiratory exposure and non-carcinogenic risk assessment by soil intake were conducted as well. Results: In the assessment of carcinogenic risk due to respiratory exposure, the excess carcinogenic risk did not exceed 1.0×10-6 in all three chemical accidents, so there was no health effect due to the formaldehyde chemical accident. As a result of the evaluation of non-carcinogenic risk due to soil intake, none of the three chemical accidents had a risk index of 1, so there was no health effect. For all three chemical accidents, the excess cancer risk and hazard index were the highest in the age group 0-9. Next, 10-18 years old, 65 years old or older, and 19-64 years old showed the highest risk. Conclusion: This study considers environmental changes after a chemical accident occurs and until the substance disappears from the environment. It also conducts a health risk assessment by reflecting the characteristics of the long-term persistence and concentration change over time. It is thought that it is of significance as a health risk assessment study reflecting the exposure characteristics of the accident substance for an actual chemical accident.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.27-42
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• 2017

Objectives : This study analyzes the characteristics of hospital organization structures, insurance claims reviews and assessment tasks and their effects on hospitals in Pusan. Methods : The data for this study were collected through interview and self-administered surveys in 109 hospitals. The study included only - hospitals with a minimum of 50beds and excluded those providing only dental, psychiatric, or long-term care. Results : The findings of this study state that the number of beds has an influence on the organizitional structure. Conclusions : Hospital managements should seek human resources management(the insurance claims reviewer and evaluator) schemes that take into account the characteristics of the medical institution. In addition, insurance claims review and assessment tasks in hospitals require considerable knowledge and experience, and hospitals should be equipped with staff that have the relevant expertise. Therefore, to further deepen knowledge, comprehensive training should be continuously carried out in order to produce specialists in claims review and assessment.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.366-375
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• 2009

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of case management using Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care(RAI-HC) in home health service for older people. Methods: All elders were assessed at baseline and 3 months later using RAI-HC. The change of function in the intervention group was compared with that of a conventional intervention group. Function was measured with Activities of Daily Living(ADL), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living(IADL), Cognitive Performance Scale(CPS), Depression Rating Scale(DRS), Pain and the number of Clinical Assessment Protocols(CAP). Results: Among ninety two elders participated in the program, 59 were allocated to the case management group and 33 to the conventional group. The intervention, home health service by a nurse over a 3 month period, consisted of comprehensive assessment, case conference for care plan, direct care, education and referral, and outcome evaluation. The percent of elders whose function improved in the intervention group was greater than the conventional group for depression(odds ratio [OR]: 10.941, confidence interval [CI]: 2.338-51.206), IADL(OR: 4.423, CI: 1.151-16.999) and the number of CAP(OR: 11.443, CI: 3.805-34.410). Conclusion: Case management was effective for older people in the community. The effect might have resulted from individual, systematic intervention, however, standards of service including eligibility criteria for case management and collaboration of multi-disciplines is required for more effective home health service programs.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.2-10
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• 2021

Microplastics with a size of less than 5 mm have emerged as an important environmental and food safety issue, as they have been detected not only in marine but also in terrestrial ecosystem and drinking water. Although many studies have been conducted on the exposure of microplastics and the effects on human health, the lack of standardized experimental methods for microplastics has been reviewed as a major problem. In order to overcome this, European countries such as the Netherlands and Germany are conducting a project to develop detection methods for microplastics as well as to establish the risk assessment methodologies for microplastics. Being the microplastics suggested to have a substantially potential risk on human health, reliable risk assessments should be conducted considering the various sources of microplastics, chemical pollutants and biological factors. In addition, international standards and regulations should be applied.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.110-121
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• 2022

The root of ginger (Zingiber officinale) contains gingerol, which is known to be responsible for its pharmacological activity. The essential oil extracted from ginger has been found to have various pharmacological effects. Thus, interest in the development of various beverages using ginger oil has recently increased. Therefore, in this study, the organoleptic quality assessment of cow milk, yogurt, kefir, soy milk, oat milk, and almond milk was conducted by supplementing them with oil extracted from ginger at various concentrations (supplemented with 0.5% increments from 0% up to 2%). A poor grade was obtained in the organoleptic quality evaluation, owing to the strong odor of ginger oil. However, when compared to that of the control, the samples supplemented with 0.5% ginger oil showed a good grade of organoleptic quality assessment. Therefore, this study is considered valuable as it is the first study to review the organoleptic quality assessment by supplementing milk, yogurt, kefir, soy milk, oat milk, and almond milk with ginger oil. Additionally, in order to improve organoleptic quality assessment, it is critical to estimate how much ginger oil supplementation concentration could be reduced and whether ginger oil exhibits various bio-activities at this concentration.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.268-277
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• 2021

Background: Most antipsychotic drugs studies have been mainly conducted on side effects, randomized clinical trials, utilization rates, and trends. But there have been few studies on the influencing factors in elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influencing factors on the outpatient prescription of antipsychotic drugs in the elderly patients. Methods: Active ingredients of antipsychotic drugs in Korea were selected according to the Korean Pharmaceutical Information Center (KPIC)'s classification. Data source was Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) claims data in 2020 and target patient group was the elderly patient group. We extracted patients who have been prescribed one or more antipsychotic drugs and visited only one medical institution. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square, t-test, negative binomial regression. Results: A number of outpatients were 245,197 and prescriptions were 1,379,092. Most characteristics of patients were 75-85 year's old, female, health insurance type, no disease (dementia, schizophrenia), atypical drugs, cci score (>2) and characteristics of medical institution were neurology in specialty, rural region, general hospitals. Results of regression showed that patient's characteristics and medical center characteristics had significant effect on the outpatient prescription of antipsychotic drugs in the elderly patients. Conclusion: This study suggests that national policy of antipsychotic drugs in the elderly patients, with the consideration of the patients' and medical institutions' characteristics, is needed.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.87-98
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• 2005

Human exposure to nano-sized particles (NSP) has increased over the last century with anthropogenic sources, and the rapid development of nanotechnology becomes an another source of such exposure. Information regarding the safety of nanotechnology and its product, nanoparticles, is urgently needed when assuming exposure through inhalation, oral intake, and penetration across skin is ever increasing as growing nanotechnology rapidly. The recent advancement of biokinetic studies with NSP and newer epidemiologic and toxicologic studies with ultrafine particles can be the basis for the nanotoxicology. Some concepts of nanotoxicology can be known from the results of these results. Specific small size of NSP, when inhaled, facilitates deposition by difusional mechanism in all regions of the respiratory tract and uptake into cells, ranscytosis across epithelial and endothelial cells into the blood and lymph circulation to reach target sites. Translocation along axons and dendrites of neuron makes an access to CNS and ganglia. These biokinetics are dependent on NSP surface chemistry. Risk assessments of NSP include appropriate and relevant doses/concentration selections, the increase effects in the organism and the benefits of possible desirable effects. An interdisciplinary team approach is desirable for nanotoxicology research and an appropriate risk assessment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.1361-1364
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• 2001

The recent national contract (Ecotechnopia 21) supported by the ministry of environment puts much significance on new issues for the assessment of human effects arising from vibration and noise exposed to human. This paper focuses only on hand-arm vibration since it has been a major problem in protecting vibration exposure to human. To set up a systematic way of assessing adverse effects of hand-arm vibration, surveys were made on recent international standards and researches related to hand-arm vibration. The measurement and evaluation methods of hand-arm transmitted vibration, the relationship between vibration exposure and effects on health, and the assessment methods of nerve dysfunctions are addressed in this paper. Those methods are linked into a logical way of assessing effects of hand-arm vibration on human. Finally, the current activities and achievements in this work are briefly summarised.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2019

Objectives: The Regional Cardiocerebrovascular Center (RCCVC) Project designated local teaching hospitals as RCCVCs, in order to improve patient outcomes of acute cardiocerebrovascular emergencies by founding a regional system that can adequately transfer and manage patients within 3 hours. We investigated the effects of RCCVC establishment on treatment volume and 30-day mortality. Methods: We constructed a panel dataset by extracting all acute myocardial infarction cases that occurred from 2007 to 2016 from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service claims data, a national and representative source. We then used a panel fixed-effect model to estimate the impacts of RCCVC establishment on patient outcomes. Results: We found that the number of cases of acute myocardial infarction that were treated increased chronologically, but when the time effect and other related covariates were controlled for, RCCVCs only significantly increased the number of treatment cases of female in large catchment areas. There was no statistically significant impact on 30-day mortality. Conclusions: The establishment of RCCVCs increased the number of treatment cases of female, without increasing the mortality rate. Therefore, the RCCVCs might have prevented potential untreated deaths by increasing the preparedness and capacity of hospitals to treat acute myocardial infarction patients.