• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2005

This study aims to compare a self-reported and expert-observed method on ergonomic risk factors of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). The checklist was developed based on the results of previous studies, and the symptoms of WMSDs were obtained using a self-reported questionnaire from 1,029 shipyard workers. The risk factors were assessed through the self-report by workers and video analysis by ergonomists. The symptom prevalence at the low back (59.2%), shoulders (50.8 %), and knees (49.7%) were relatively higher than those at other body parts. Odds ratios (ORs) by body parts were 2.48 to 2.90 for the risk job, and the ORs were significantly different from those of the low risk job. The risk factor scores by body parts between workers and ergonomist were very high correlation(r=0.82 to 0.92). The rates of self-report from risk job were 54.0% (elbow and arm) to 72.1 % (low back), but sometimes overestimated(105.7 to 122.6%) than those by ergonomists. The checklist, developed in this study, will be an efficient tool for the evaluation of risk jobs using self-report by workers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2024

Scientific exploration of how occupational health risks relate with occupational illnesses are essential for mitigating health-related issues in industries. This study analyzed the risk scores obtained by occupational health risk assessments at 3,172 manufacturing companies and examined their effects on occupational illness. Statistical analyses revealed that companies with an occupational health manager (scored 89.1 out of 100) had significantly higher activity scores of health management compared to those without (78.2). However, companies with a history of occupational illness (79.1) or those classified as high-risk industries (85.2) had significantly lower activity scores than their counterparts (81.7, 87.3). In addition, regression analyses using factor analysis showed that latent risk factors such as cardiovascular disease/job stress, health management, and musculoskeletal problem significantly influenced the risk of occupational illness. The activity factors such as health management, work environment management, and regulatory complaisance significant impacted the reduction of occupational illness. The findings of this study can be used to improve the occupational health risk assessment method and utilized in effectively managing occupational risks in industries.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.5-12
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• 2023

Proactive assessment of landslide susceptibility is necessary for minimizing casualties. This study proposes a methodology for classifying the landslide safety factor using a classification algorithm based on machine learning techniques. The high-risk area model is adopted to perform the classification and eight geotechnical parameters are adopted as inputs. Four classification algorithms-namely decision tree, k-nearest neighbor, logistic regression, and random forest-are employed for comparing classification accuracy for the safety factors ranging between 1.2 and 2.0. Notably, a high accuracy is demonstrated in the safety factor range of 1.2~1.7, but a relatively low accuracy is obtained in the range of 1.8~2.0. To overcome this issue, the synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE) is adopted to generate additional data. The application of SMOTE improves the average accuracy by ~250% in the safety factor range of 1.8~2.0. The results demonstrate that SMOTE algorithm improves the accuracy of classification algorithms when applied to geotechnical data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5195-5199
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• 2012

Objectives: Global cancer statistical data show that India has one of the highest incidence rates of oral cancer worldwide. Early detection is extremely important as it results in lower morbidity and death rates. The present study was undertaken to assess awareness of oral cancer and knowledge of its early signs and risk factors in the general public of the semi-urban Gorakhpur area of Uttar Pradesh (India). It was also intended to educate the same population for early detection by increasing their ability to recognize signs and risk factors. Method: A questionnaire-based household survey was conducted over a period of one month in different parts of Gorakhpur district, a region where tobacco use is apparently very high. A total of 2,093 persons participated in the survey. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software to assess and associate oral cancer awareness with the prevalence, and abstract risk factors, as well as other confounding variables. Results: The general awareness, knowledge of signs and risk factors of oral cancer were found to be proportionate to the literacy level with the highest rate of awareness being among high school and graduates and lowest among illiterates. It was also observed that on most of these dimensions the younger age groups (<30 years) were significantly more knowledgeable. Conclusion: Overall, the awareness of oral cancer in the high-risk population of Gorakhpur was not satisfactory, pointing to a need for further dissemination of information on this issue and its associated risks. This is especially important for the youngsters, as this may possibly help them keep away from the deleterious habit of tobacco indulgence in any form. If necessary risk factor cessation counselling should be provided.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.224-230
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate sex differences in the effect of body mass index (BMI) and stress on high-risk diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: Secondary analysis of data from 4,271 male and female adults participating in the Sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015 was performed. The participants were evaluated using questionnaires and blood tests. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ${\chi}^2-test$, and multiple logistic regression analysis (SPSS 24.0). Results: To identify sexspecific effects, interaction variables were included. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was higher in men than in women, and the risk of DM decreased 0.31 times in women compared to that in men. As age increased, the odds of risk DM increased 1.03. The risk of DM increased 1.99 times in overweight individuals and 2.79 times for obese individuals compared to that in individuals with normal weight. Stress levels were higher in women than in men, but stress is not an influential factor in high-risk DM. In age-sex interaction, the odds of risk DM increased 1.02 in women compared to that in men as age increased. Conclusion: HbA1c level was affected by age-sex interaction, and age and sex should be considered in the application of HbA1c in the diagnosis of DM.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.341-350
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe high-risk health behaviors in middle school adolescents and to identify factors related to this behavior. Method: This survey study employed a self administered questionnaire given to 621 students enrolled in one middle school located in Gyeonggi province. Using the cluster sampling method, 4 classes from the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades were selected. The survey was done between April 20 and May 19, 2004. Data were analyzed using SAS. Result: The results showed that 19.1% of adolescents smoked cigarettes and 8.4 % drank regularly. The mean score for resilience was 6.92 (range:0-10) and for depression, 23.62 (range:0-50). The adolescents in higher grades reported significantly more experience with pornography. Also, adolescents who reported have fewer conversations with their parents had significantly more experience with pornography. Depression was significantly higher for those students who had better academic skills and higher family income. Resilience level was significantly higher for the students who reported better schools records and higher family income. The most important factor related to the high risk behaviors, depression, and resilience was conversations with parents. Conclusion: This study suggests that to develop an effective high-risk health behavior prevention program for adolescents, it is necessary to include communication skills with the parents.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-63
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• 2019

The number of domestic construction company is expanding every year while the construction workers' exposure to disaster risk is increasing due to technological advancements and popularity of high-rise buildings. In particular, the industry faces greater fatalities and severe large scale accidents because of construction industry characteristics including influx of foreign workers with different language and culture, large number of aged workers, outsourcing, high place work, heavy machine construction. The construction industry is labor-intensive, which is to be completed under given timeline and consists of unique working environment with a lot of night shifts. In addition, when a fixed construction budget is not secured, there is less investment in safety management resulting in poor risk management at the construction site. Taking account that the construction industry has higher accident risk rate and fatality rate, risky and unique working environment, and various labor pool from foreign to aged workers, preemptive safety management through risk factor identification is a mandatory requirement for the construction industry and site. The study analyzes about 8,500 cases of construction accidents that occurred over the past 10 years and identified risk factor by construction industry sector to secure a systematic insight for risk management. Based on interrelation analysis between accident types, work types, original cause materials and assailing materials, there is correlation between each analysis factor and work industry. Especially for work types, there is great correlation between work tasks and industry type. For reinforced concrete and earthwork are among the most frequent types of accidents, and they are not only high in frequency of accidents, but also have a high risk in categories of occurrence.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3179-3185
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• 2012

Background: Most of the epidemiology studies on the effects of sun exposure and prostate cancer were conducted among the temperate countries of North America and Europe. Little is known about the influence on Asian populations. The purpose of current study was to evaluate any association of sun exposure with risk of prostate cancer in Chinese, Malays and Indians who reside in the tropics. Methods: The Singapore Prostate Cancer Study is a hospital-based case-control study of 240 prostate cancer incident cases and 268 controls conducted in Singapore between April 2007 and May 2009. Detailed information on outdoor activities in the sun, skin colour, sun sensitivity and other possible risk factors were collected in personal interviews. Cases were further classified by Gleason scores and TNM staging. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using unconditional logistic regression analysis, adjusted for age, ethnicity, education, family history of any cancers, BMI and skin colour. Results: We found that prostate cancer risk was increased in subjects with black/dark-brown eyes (OR 5.88, 95%CI 3.17-10.9), darker skin colour e.g. tan/dark brown/black (OR 7.62, 95%CI 3.41-17.0), frequent sunburn in lifetime (OR 4.30, 95%CI 1.7-11.2) and increased general sun exposure in adulthood per week (OR 2.03, 95%CI 1.09-3.81). The increased risk was consistent for high grade tumours and advanced stage prostate cancers. Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that excessive sun exposure is a risk factor for prostate cancer in Asians.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.65-77
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze factors in country risk between Cambodia and Vietnam. OECD and the Export-Import Ban of Korea assess country risk of Cambodia more highly than Vietnam. As results of the parametric tests for evaluation factors on the basis of country risk classification, the economic growth rate, the foreign trade index, and the foreign exchange reserves among the economic risks with the corruption index as the political and social risk have statistically significant effect on the difference between country risks of two countries. However, discriminant factor analysis indicates that the economic growth rate, the foreign exchange reserves, and the corruption index are key variables, which represent the difference between country risks of Cambodia and Vietnam. Consequently, the government of Cambodia needs to try to root out the corruption and to expand trade through increasing export for lowering the country risk to the level of Vietnam. Vietnam would also need to focus on attaining the sustainable high economic growth rate and increasing the foreign exchange reserves.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.229-240
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• 2010

During the last decade, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have gained more attention due to their toxicity and global distribution. The aim of this study was to examine the distribution and bioaccumulation of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in aquatic wildlife effected from a sewage treatment plant. The concentrations of 12 PFCs were determined in water, sediment and fish samples. PFOS were predominantly detected in both ambient environment and fish. In fish, the concentration of PFCs in blood was the highest (i.e., 112.47 ng/mL wet-wt. PFOS) in comparison to other tissues. However, PFOA and PFHpS were highly detected in gonad as 3.87 and 4.58 ng/g wet-wt., respectively. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) of PFCs was greatest in the blood > liver${\cong}$gonad > kidney > gill, and lowest in the muscle tissue. The BCFs of PFUnDA (39,000), PFDA (2,700) and PFOS (1,100) were rated as high values based on wet weight concentration. BCFs increased with increasing the length of the perfluoralkyl chain.