• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.503-510
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• 2016

Background: Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer is a crisis situation which effects women's lives physically, socially and spiritually. Investigating women's perceptions of this disease is crucially important for treatment decisions. We therefore determined social perceptions and interpretations of women diagnosed with breast cancer during therapy and in the post-treatment period. Materials and Methods: In the study, focus group and in-depth interviews were made with women still undergoing or having completed breast cancer treatment. Some 25 women were included in the research. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the qualitative data obtained after the focus group and in-depth interviews. Results: Some of the women demonstrated positive perceptions towards accepting the disease, whereas others had emotions such as rebellion and anger. The loss of a breast is important with different interpretations. Conclusions: Women's acceptance or rebellion against the disease varies within their social interpretations after the treatment, as at the stage of diagnosis/treatment. All stages of breast cancer negatively affect the social life of the affected individual as much as her body. Nurses assume crucial roles in coping with these negative effects. Thus, it is necessary to know, and sociologically interpret, what is indicated by the information on what the negative effects concerning the disease are and how they are interpreted.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.237-248
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of urinary incontinence (UI) for elderly Korean women using a narrative approach. Methods: The data were collected using individual in-depth interviews with 15 communitydwelling elderly women who had UI for at least 1 yr. The narratives of the life stories of these women were analyzed from the actor’s perspective, motivation and purpose of actions, and action toward goal achievement. Also the narratives on UI were analyzed according to cognition, behavior, and evaluation of UI. Results: Three major types of the life stories emerged from the analysis. First, the conquest narrative type reflects active characteristics of narrators within the circumstances of the sociocultural context. Second, the patience narrative is characterized as having flexibility between self determination for goal achievement and the boundary of the sociocultural context. Lastly, the compliance narrative reflected characteristics of narrators who easily adapt their way of life to circumstances. In terms of UI, the narrators in all three types lacked awareness of UI as an illness condition. Three different reasons are specifically identified according to the narrative types. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the concept and the illness behaviors related to UI in elderly Korean women with UI were closely related to the way of women's lives within the sociocultural and historical context.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2007

The objective of this study is, first of all, to investigate the positive and the negative interaction between the work and family lives of married company employees. Secondly, it is to investigate the variables affecting this matter. The conclusion drawn by the result acquired through process is as follows. First, married company employees feel positive more than negative because of the influence that their families have on their work. Secondly, male employees feel more of the positive influence that family has on their work more than the female employees do. Thirdly, with respect to the type of business, self-employed individuals and specialized managers seemed to have negative influences on the interaction between work and family. Fourthly, it was found that the managerial ability of the individual is a variable that affects both directions. Fifthly, it was observed that variables related to family affect the interaction between work and family in the positive direction. Finally, the negative influence between work and family was decreased by family coherence.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.699-713
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand and describe the experiences of patients with Meniere disease. Methods: Data were collected from February 19, 2019, to February 5, 2020, through individual in-depth interviews with 13 Meniere patients. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis. Results: The experiences of patients with Meniere disease were clustered into the following four themes from 22 meaning units: 1) Complex unfamiliar symptoms that shatter both balance of the body and peace of the heart; 2) A disease that medical treatment and health professionals cannot cure; 3) Suffering hardships that cannot be understood by non-Meniere sufferers; and 4) Making daily efforts to become healthier. Symptoms of Meniere disease are life-shattering and depressing because they are neither visible nor easily curable. Over time, as they accepted the reality of living with the disease, the participants would shift their focus from complete symptomatic cure to leading a healthy and more balanced life. Conclusion: This study shows that Meniere disease has a pervasive impact on all aspects of the patients' lives. Patients are prone to experiencing restrictions in their social functioning and activities. They also experience psychosocial problems due to the unseen nature of their symptoms. This study elucidates the experiences of Meniere patients and the need for nursing intervention to help improve their quality of life and ability to self-manage. Lastly, this study shows the need for a coordinated interdisciplinary approach to raising public awareness of the disease.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 2004

Background: Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are ubiquitous in modern society including medical field. As the technology of medical instruments and telecommunications has developed rapidly, it has influenced on our lives in many ways. Modern medical practice requires high quality medical equipments, which have a great deal of electromagnetic interference and susceptibility. The purpose of this study were to evaluate electromagnetic condition under usual clinical condition and to suggest a practical guideline in general hospital. Materials and Methods: The actual state of the electromagnetic interference in the medical field was studied under usual clinical conditions including operating rooms, intensive care units, magnetic resonance imaging unit, and hyperthermia unit. Results: There was considerable noise as a result of electromagnetic fields from medical equipments including electrosurgical units and hyperthermia unit, and cellular phones, which could induce serious functional derangements of functioning medical devices. Conclusion: It will be necessary to evaluate the individual electromagnetic situations under various medical conditions and to define a limited zone for cellular phone as well as reposition medical equipments to secure a safer medical practice and to minimize electromagnetic interference.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1-11
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• 2004

This study has been performed to review pre-school children's needs for privacy within normal residential space. In this study, there were three circumstances in which children need to stay alone without being interrupted by their parents; First, they strongly want to be stay quiet until relieving their anger or fear, shortly after disciplined and impugned by their parents. Second, infant children need to obtain their own territory in order to demonstrate ownership and dignity in their sley space. Third, there are also special circumstances of privacy needs among families with intrusive parents such as alcoholics and heavy smokers, or for the children of disability. In Korea, it is presumed that more than 60 percent the pre-school children aging three to six are in deficit of privacy for relieving their emotional disturbance, but no research has been documented for the case of disabled or interrupted children. Therefore in this study, it was primarily proposed that empirical studies need to be peformed among Korean preschoolers, in order to evaluate privacy needs in the perspectives of ordinary family lives, individual household behaviors, and special conditions of disability or offensive family members.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.205-221
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• 2009

My concern was to explore how the Korean 'wild geese families' functioned to maintain 'familyhood' in spite of spatial separation by using a qualitative approach. I used personal narratives from eleven 'geese mothers' living in the United States. Family paths across time were analyzed to understand their complicated nature. Respondents adopted some coping strategies to obtain the flexibility and the stability for relocating their transnational lives. These were 1) communications, 2) relocation of household work, and 3) reinterpretation of 'sacrifice.' It seemed that their family paths become either the continuous type (prolong their stay) or the discontinuous type (not prolong their stay). These were shaped by complex individual, familial, and social forces which affected differently according to the steps of family life cycles. Therefore, this study showed that the Korean 'wild geese family' did not move toward the uni-direction with the same experiences and nature. More importantly, it is noteworthy to acknowledge that the prevalence of 'wild geese family' reveals the dynamic interactive nature of the family, i.e., actively responding to the changes and challenges from the diverse circumstances. It is inferred that the social and cultural factors such as the class mobility, the education system, and the values may influence the family life style.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.241-248
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• 2004

In order to reduce flood damage, it is necessary to build up comprehensive flood control, including structural and non-structural countermeasures. In this paper, the decision making factors of individual refuge activities which are major non-structural activities to save peoples, lives against flood have been estimated based on questionnaire survey. Furthermore, in order to effective flood countermeasures, the refuge place and its distance are analyzed by questionnaire survey in the flooded area caused by typhoon RUSA and MEAMI. The refuge running time was assessed by its simulation. As a result of the simulation, it was found that the refuge running time is effected by refuge distance and the family numbers for refuge.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.25-42
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of wives' economic contributions and sex-role attitudes on couples' decision-making for use in family education and to improve stable couple relationships. This study targeted 286 married women who have a child or children. The main results of this study indicate that almost half of the participants showed that their couple decision-making, economic resource contributions and sex-role attitudes were husband-dominated. Additionally, the participants' most modern sex-role attitudes were toward gender stereotypes, though the most conservative attitudes were toward women and men's household lives. The variables that distinguished between husband-dominated and equality couples were age, education level, spouse's average income and resource evaluation; related, age, education level, spouse's average income, contribution toward household management and the occupational life of the woman were the variables that distinguished between husband-dominated and wife-dominated couples. This study also revealed the variables that affect couples' decision- making, demonstrating the necessity of considering several variables in the approach to the decision-making process of individual couples.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.71-82
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• 2012

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify contraception behaviors in unmarried men and women. Methods: A descriptive qualitative study design was used. Individual in-depth interviews with fifteen participants were conducted. Content analysis was utilized to determine the main outcomes. Results: For men, three themes were consistently seen as contraception behaviors: 'men desired sexual intercourse greatly', 'men would not use a contraceptive device, even though they knew it was necessary', and 'men gradually considered contraceptive use to live their lives without interruption'. For women, the three themes were as follow: 'women had sex half willingly while half did not have sexual inter course for the first time', 'women did not use contraceptive devices because of ignorance of contraceptive methods', and 'women did not carefully consider contraceptive use'. Conclusion: To prevent unmarried men and women from having unplanned pregnancies, tailored sex education programs should be established throughout Korea. All things considered, the effect of multimedia sex education should be considered to maximize the use of contraceptive devices.