• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.459-466
• /
• 2014

An index was developed that estimates cardiovascular health degree with easily available physiological information such as survey and noninvasive measurement. The survey score was calculated by utilizing questions related to personal disease history, self-feeling, and management state. The measurement score was calculated using physiological parameters such as blood pressure, accelerated plethysmograph(APG), and heart rate variability(HRV), and augmentation index(AI). In order to evaluate effectiveness of the cardiovascular index and modify weighting factors used in each item, a clinical trial was done in a general hospital. The cardiovascular index showed a clear correlation of 0.685 with the doctor's score on the cardiovascular health degree. The correlation between the self-estimated score and doctor's score was as low as 0.217. The large gap between these two scores demonstrated necessity of more objective tools like the cardiovascular index. The cardiovascular score showed a significant difference between normal persons and patients suffering hypertension or diabetes. (p=0.000).

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.43-51
• /
• 2015

Objectives: Socioeconomic factors are one of the significant factors explaining drinking problems in our society. From the poverty and inequality perspective, not only absolute poverty but perceived level of poverty or inequality has a direct effect on one's health and health behaviors. The purpose of the study is to explore the growth trajectories of problem drinking in Korea in relation to poverty and perceived income. Methods: Data from 13,414 adults were analyzed using 4 years of data (2010 to 2014) from the Korea Welfare Panel. Main variables included poverty status, perceived income inequality, and problem drinking. A latent growth modeling was employed for the analysis. Results: The non-poverty group had higher initial level of problem drinking; however, the poverty group showed higher rate of increase in problem drinking rate. The perceived income inequality had no significant influence on the initial level, but over time, those with higher level of perceived income inequality showed higher rate of increase in problem drinking. Conclusions: Findings showed that poverty and inequality affect changes in problem drinking. Efforts to prevent and decrease problems related to alcohol should not only focus on changing individuals' behavior but also on decreasing the inequality gap.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.91-100
• /
• 2013

Objectives: Despite the considerable interest in the increase in obesity particularly of socially disadvantaged group in Korea, how obesity varies according to various socio-demographic characteristics still remains largely unanswered. To further develop the understanding of obesity in Korea, the present study focuses on the possibility that the relationship between educational attainment and obesity varies across age. Methods: Using 2010 Korea National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), this study divides the adults into male and female groups and examines the interaction effect of age and educational attainment on obesity through binominal logit models for each group. Results: The most educated male group is more likely to be obese than those who did not complete high school. And the relationship between male's educational attainment and obesity does not significantly change across age. In contrast to male's obesity pattern, female educational attainment has a significant negative association with obesity. The gap in obesity across educational groups converges after middle ages in female. Conclusions: Health policies should pay more attention to those who are more vulnerable to obesity risk in order to effectively reduce obesity.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.173-183
• /
• 2015

The study conducted questionnaire analysis on 607 host company employee and 404 subcontractor employee in order to examine the difference in the safety culture cognition of host company and subcontractor. As a result, host company had higher recognition in all safety culture factors compare to that of subcontractor, and there were bigger gap of cognition in the 'cognition in safety status and culture', 'accident and near-miss', 'immediate superior's concentration degree in safety and health' than that of other cognition factors. Furthermore, team leaders showed the highest cognition in both host company and subcontractor, and employees with above 20 year career had the highest cognition in both host company and subcontractor. There is high relationship between host company and subcontractor in the correlations in safety culture cognition factors. Through this study, we identified the difference in the safety culture cognition factor of host company and subcontractor.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.245-262
• /
• 2020

In recent years, nanotechnology has revolutionized global healthcare and has been predicted to exert a remarkable effect on clinical medicine. In this context, the clinical use of nanomaterials for cancer diagnosis, fertility preservation, and the management of infertility and other pathologies linked to pubertal development, menopause, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) has substantial promise to fill the existing lacunae in reproductive healthcare. Of late, a number of clinical trials involving the use of nanoparticles for the early detection of reproductive tract infections and cancers, targeted drug delivery, and cellular therapeutics have been conducted. However, most of these trials of nanoengineering are still at a nascent stage, and better synergy between pharmaceutics, chemistry, and cutting-edge molecular sciences is needed for effective translation of these interventions from bench to bedside. To bridge the gap between translational outcome and product development, strategic partnerships with the insight and ability to anticipate challenges, as well as an indepth understanding of the molecular pathways involved, are highly essential. Such amalgamations would overcome the regulatory gauntlet and technical hurdles, thereby facilitating the effective clinical translation of these nano-based tools and technologies. The present review comprehensively focuses on emerging applications of nanotechnology, which holds enormous promise for improved therapeutics and early diagnosis of various human reproductive tract diseases and conditions.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.13-28
• /
• 2022

Purpose: Natural products are becoming gradually popular because of their health - related benefits and consumers' environmental awareness. However, research in this field remains limited, the present study attempts to address this research gap by measuring the influencing levels of the antecedents on natural product brand love. Research design, data and methodology: The study employs S-O-R (Stimulus - Organism - Response) framework together with Innovation Resistance Theory and Dual-Factor Theory to propose the research model, in which health and environmental stimuli influence both of facilitators and inhibitors of internal states or organism, and then shape purchase intention and brand love as consumers' responses. The mixed research method is designed with the application of structural equation model (SEM) to analyze 530 consumers collected by convenience sampling. Results: The results revealed that two chosen stimuli, including health awareness and environmental concern were positively related to both facilitators (natural content and regional products) and inhibitors (image barrier and usage barrier) and these four factors were significantly associated to purchase intention and brand love. Furthermore, purchase intention played the mediating role on the relationship between the four organisms and brand love. Conclusions: The originality of this paper is extend S-O-R theory into natural product context with mediating effects in an emerging economy. The findings make theoretical contribution on consumer behavior and managerial implication.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.448-455
• /
• 2022

Background: While the organizational factors that account for firefighters' burnout have been extensively explored, the individual factors related to how they regulate interpersonal conflicts and emotions remain to be investigated. Previous research has demonstrated the association between emotional intelligence and conflict management styles and burnout, but no study has looked at the interrelationships among these factors in high-risk sectors. The present exploratory study aimed to fill this research gap by investigating the relationships between conflict management style, emotional intelligence and burnout in a sample of firefighters. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 240 French firefighters. Measures comprised validated scales of conflict management styles, emotional intelligence and burnout. Results: Results showed that the integrating conflict style reduced burnout. They also revealed the effects of emotion regulation on burnout, whereby the awareness and management of one's own emotions reduced burnout. Moreover, awareness of one's own emotions moderated the relationship between integrating conflict resolution style and burnout, whereby the effect of integrating style on reduced burnout was higher when awareness of one's own emotions was high. Conclusion: These results reveal that strategies used by firefighters to regulate their emotions in order to meet the emotional demands specific to their job are important for reducing the emotional exhaustion component of burnout. Training programs for conflict and emotion management are needed to preserve the mental health of firefighters and ensure the safety of interventions.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.244-251
• /
• 2003

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway and the prevalence rate is increasing. As the burden of asthma to the society is significant due to the increasing hospital admissions and emergency visits, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI, USA) and World Health Organization (WHO) have developed comprehensive guidelines to help clinicians and patients make appropriate decisions about asthma care. The aim of study was to analyze the pattern of asthma prescriptions based on the national asthma guidelines for the patients visiting primary health care providers. Prescription data for asthma were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance claims database of January 2002. Ten percent of the primary health care providers were sampled based on their specialty areas, and 20％ of the claim cases were randomly chosen. Study results showed that prescription rate for oral beta-2 agonists was 44.3％, and that for oral theophylline was 46.9％. Oral steroids were prescribed for the 28.2％ of the claims. Utilization of inhalers was low for both bronchodilators (20.3％, beta-2 agonists inhalers), and steroids (8.4％ steroids inhalers). Bronchodilators were more preferred to the longterm anti-inflammatory controllers among the primary health care providers. Prescription rate for antibiotics was 46.0％ for asthmatic patients. Also gastrointestinal drugs were prescribed for 59.0％, antitussives 65.3％, antihistamines 25.3％ and analgesics 29.4％, respectively. This study presented that the prescribing pattern of the primary health care providers for the asthma was quite different from the national and international guidelines. More efforts need to be made to reduce the gap between the present pattern of asthma prescription and the guidelines.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.583-588
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to survey on the Health promotion behavior practice. The subjects in this study were the 158 students who were in their first, second and third year in a middle school that was selected by convenience sampling from a city in Chung-cheong province. The collected data were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS 17.0 software. After a survey was conducted in November, 2010, the following findings were given: 33.8 percent of the students had ever smoked. The group of students who suffered less stress was significantly better at every part of health care except oral health and as for the status of oral health, the group who was less stressed had less decayed teeth, and the gap between them and the others was significant. The former was better at oral health control and expressed more satisfaction with their school lives as well. Variables that affect health-promoting behaviors include mental health, which showed the greatest impact.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.23-30
• /
• 2019

Background: The health of the economically active population contributes to increased corporate productivity by reducing the productivity loss caused by disease and increasing job efficiency, which in turn is a national benefit. Since the economically active population is a concept encompassing workers and a source of economic development for a country, that population's health should be treated with importance not only from a personal standpoint but also at a national level. Methods: In this study, data of 11,007 adults aged 20 years and older who participate in economic activities were analyzed in the five-year Korea Health Panel Study from 2010 to 2014 including the number of dental visits and dental medical expenses. Results: Factors related to "gender," "education level," "age," "duty category," "income level," "employment type," "national health insurance," and "chronic disease status" of the economically active population are affected in relation to the number of visits and dental medical expenses. The number of dental visits increased with higher education levels (p<0.001), and the number of visits to the dentist increased with older age (p <0.001). Dental medical expenses were 91,806 Korean won (KRW) more for "white-collar workers" than for "blue-collar workers" (p<0.03), and 127,674 KRW more for "regular workers" than for "atypical workers" (p<0.02). Conclusion: When it is necessary to improve policies to enhance the efficiency of the distribution of health and medical resources in the overall balance of the dental health sector, we should try to identify various factors of oral health disorder due to income inequality among the classes according to the country's employment type in order to find ways to reduce the health gap among the social classes.