• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.227-234
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• 1999

An association of low total cholesterol in blood with psychiatric diseases and suicidal behavior has been suggested. As part of an attempt to further explore this relationship, we examine first, whether serum cholesterol levels in psychiatric patients with suicidal attempt would be lower than in non-suicidal psychiatric inpatients or normal controls, second, whether such significant difference of cholesterol levels would be present when the diagnostic groups are analyzed separately, third, whether low cholesterol level would be associated with a history of serious suicidal attempts, and finally, whether low cholesterol level in suicide attempters is a state or a trait marker. We determined the serum cholesterol levels in 231 patients admitted to an emergency room following an suicidal attempt, in the same numbers of age-, sex- and diagnosis- matched non-suicidal psychiatric controls, and in the same numbers of age-, sex matched normal controls. The seriousness of an attempt was divided into 5 grades according to the degree of the resulting medical injury. Total cholesterol levels in suicide attempters were significantly lower compared with both psychiatric and normal controls, when sex, age, and nutritional status (i.e., body mass index) were controlled for. This significant relationship was observed in major depressive disorders and personality disorders, but not in schizophrenia and bipolar type I disorders. The severity of suicide by a lowering of blood cholesterol was related to the magnitude of the cholesterol reduction. After treatment of their psychiatric ailments, the cholesterol levels in suicide attempters were significantly increased. This result suggests that low cholesterol level in psychiatric patients might be a potential biological marker of suicide risk. It is hypothesized that low cholesterol levels is associated with the suicide by modifying the serotonin metabolism, the production of interleukin-2 and melatonin metabolism in psychiatric patients.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.281-289
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• 1994

This is a clinical study on 235 inpatients who sustained a total of 350 mandibular fractures and who were treated in our department during the period of Oug., 1989 through Dec., 1993. The results obtained are as follows : 1. The mumber of patients has not been increased year after year. In respect of incidence, there were the highest frequency as 67 patients(28.5%) in 1991 and the least frequency as 16 patients(6.8%) in 1989 and the highest frequency as 28 patients(11.9%) in October and the least frequncy as 12 patients(5.2%) in February. 2. The age frequency was the highest in the second decade(30.6%). The youngest patient was 8 months and the eldest patient was 80 years and mean age was 27.8 years. The ratio of men to Wemen was 4 : 1. 3. The most frequent cause was fall down as 86 patients(36.6%) and the next was fist blow 4 as 75 patients(31.9%), traffic accident as 56 patients(23.9%) in order. 4. The most common location was symphysis as 141 numbers(40.3%) and the next was condyle as 96 numbers(27.4%), angle as 94 numbers(26.8%), body as 14 numbers(4.0%) in order. The sum of fracture sites were 350 and there were 1.49 fracture sites per one patient and multiple fractures occured in 100 patients(40.5%) of the 235 patients. The ratio of Left to Right except for symphysis was 1.71 : 1. 5. Among the 333 associated injuries, facial laceration was 136(57.9%) and tooth injury was 58(24.7%) and extremity was 31(13.2%). 6. Among the 350 mandibular fractures, complications after treatment occured in 51(14.6%) and infection as 20(5.7%) was the most frequent complication. 7. In respect of treatment of mandibular fracture, close reduction was 64 patients(27.2%) and open reduction was 164 patients(69.8%) and other were 7 patients(3.0%) of all and so open reduction was the most common in type of treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1234-1243
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• 2011

Our study was carried out to develop the severity-adjustment model for length of stay in hospital for community-acquired pneumonia so that we analysed the factors on the variation in length of stay(LOS). The subjects were 5,353 community-acquired pneumonia inpatients of the Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Injury Survey data from 2004 through 2006. The data were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA and the severity-adjustment model was developed using data mining technique. There are differences according to gender, age, type of insurance, type of admission, but there is no difference of whether patients died in hospital. After yielding the standardized value of the difference between crude and expected length of stay, we analysed the variation of length of stay for community-acquired pneumonia. There was variation of LOS in regional differences and insurance type, though there was no variation according whether patients receive their care in their residences. The variation of length of stay controlling the case mix or severity of illness can be explained the factors of provider. This supply factors in LOS variations should be more studied for individual practice style or patient management practices and healthcare resources or environment. We expect that the severity-adjustment model using administrative databases should be more adapted in other diseases in practical.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 1976

Contemper nursing literature place much importance on human- centered and individualized care. Nursing research has related stress during hospitalization of adolescent patients to adaptation to a new environment, isolation from friends, limitation due to illness, over protection of parents and communication with member of the medical team. The investigator conducted this study in the hope that an understanding of adolescents responses to hospitalization, their perceptions, the kinds and levels of stress, and the relationships between stressors and individual characteristics would contribute to the improvement of adolescent patient care. The objective of the study was to obtain informations related to the adolescents psychological stress experience during hospitalization, specifically stress from interpersonal relationships and communication, isolation from the family, social or economic problems, illness and from the treatment environment and nursing care. An interview schedule adopted from Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Rating Scale and selected items from Voicer's instrument on stress-producing events was used with 120 adolescent inpatients aged 13 to 18 years three general hospitals in Seoul during Aug. 10, to Sep. 30, 1975. 1. The sample consisted of 66 male and 54 female patients. Sixty-six percent were late adolescents, aged 16 to 18 years: 4% were early adolescents, aged 13 to 15 years. The primary cause for hospitalization was for orthopedic problems (35.8%). More than half of these (54.4%) were due to injury or accident. 2. Stress eclated to illness revealed the highest score (4.97), followed by stress related to treatment environment and nursing care (4.34) , isolation from family and social or economic problems (4.01) and interpersonal relationships and communication (3.96). 3. The perceived indifference of doctors and nurses was a serious cause of stress (mean=4.83). Fellow patients and visitors caused least stress (mean=2.06). 4. Discontinuation of education or unemployment were major stressful events (mean=4.71). Least stressful was isolation from the family (mean=3.47). 5. More than 94% of the respondents expressed fears related to body image (mean=4.97) 6. Within the category of treatment environment and nursing care, items related to restrictions because of treatment, discomfort because of treatment, inadequate explanation from nurses about procedures were rated as severe stress events (mean=4.6). Items related to the ward environment and to having a relative stay with them were seen by the group as less serious events (mean=3.7). 7. Stress related to interpersonal relationships and communication was correlated positively with female patients and those preferring passive activities. (P〈0.05) 8. Stress related to family problems was positively related to female and early adolescent patients (P< 0.05). Stress related to social problems was positively , elated to students and those preferring active pursuits (P< 0.05). 9. There were no correlation between the high stress related to disease and any of the characteristic items. (P> 0.05) 10. Stress related to treatment environment and nursing care was positively related of early adolescent and female and student patients. (P< 0.05) This group of hospitalized adolescents reported high level of stress related to treatment environment and nursing care, due to lack of consideration of normal growth and development and individual characteristics. The findings have important implications for the planning of effective, individualized, comprehensive nursing care of adolescents during hospitalization.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.14-24
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• 2009

This study aims at deriving any useful information necessary to strengthen the competitiveness for growth through empirical analyses on general hospital located in a province in order to countermeasure the opening and competition of medical markets. The characteristics of user were identified on the basis of disease groups under KCD in the research method. In addition, the analysis on the expenses of diagnosis and treatment was divided into the treatment progress and degree of hospital resource utilization And the regression was carried out to identify the impacts of characteristics of inpatient users on the degree of hospital resource utilization. As a result of major research, the inpatient users of the general hospital located in the provincial area in consideration of inpatient users were formed around the inpatient disease groups representative for Korea(diseases of the respiratory system, injury and poisoning & certain other consequences of external causes). And it was understood that most of residents within a distance of 40 minute by the public transportation were using. And mostly were under the age of 9 or over 60, and the provision of medical features such as the degree of consultation and operational functions were inadequate. When we classify inpatient treatment cost for each resource application as the medical cost being the center of patient care function, the equipment and human resource application sector are constituted over half. Accordingly, the following suggestions are made as plans to strengthen the competitiveness for the growth of general hospitals located in the provincial areas on the basis of analytical results. First, it is necessary to have the characterization matching to the age and disease groups with a high frequency. Second, it is necessary to increase the degree of hospital resource utilization according to the characterization. Third, it is necessary to concentrate on public relations. The above suggestion, as a method for securing image improvement and competitive power as a general hospital, and through expansion of social function that a regional general hospital needs to secure not only as an individual institution but also as a general hospital, it can be seen that a general improvement of image as a regional general hospital is possible.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.487-497
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting length of stay(LOS) and death in tuberculosis(TB) patients by disease type, patient characteristic, admission and disease characteristic, and hospital characteristic from 2008 to 2017. Survey data was using Korean national hospital discharge in-depth survey data produced by Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Study subjects were 10,634 inpatients with TB(A15, A16, A17, A18, A19, U88.0, U88.1, U84.30, U84.31) and analyzed frequency, chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and logistic regression by using STATA 13.0. As a study result, the type of TB(extrapulmonary TB, multidrug-resistant TB, extensively drug-resistant TB), sex(woman), age(35-49, 50-64, 65-74, 75 years old or older), admission type(outpatient department), CCI(1-2 point, 3 point over), hospital location(metropolitan city) and bed size(300-499, 500-999, over 1000) were significantly influence LOS. Also, the type of TB(extrapulmonary TB, extensively drug-resistant TB), sex(woman), age(50-64, 65-74, 75 years old or older), residence(small town/rural), admission type(outpatient department), CCI(1-2 point, 3 point over), hospital location(provincial) were significantly influence death. In conclusion, the existing tuberculosis management has been patient management with rapid diagnosis and treatment following early detection. But other studies should be carried out for the system that identifies and supports high-risk groups of the long-term length of stay in hospital or high mortality rates as a result of treatment.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.109-124
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• 2023

Objectives This study aims to find out effect of Korean medicine treatment on managing thoracolumbar compression fractures through retrospective observational study. Methods Among hospitalized patients at the Department of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation from January 1st, 2018 to February 28th, 2023, a total of 24 inpatients who were diagnosed with thoracolumbar compression fractures and received Korean medicine treatment were included in this study. Numeric rating scale (NRS) was used for pain assessment and clinical variables such as sex, symptoms, age, thoracolumbar injury classification and severity (TLICS) scores were collected. For subgroup analysis to analyze factors affecting treatment response, we divided patients into responders and non-responders according to NRS change. For statistical analysis, we compared before/after hospitalization and analyzed distinct features between two groups. Results Most of the patients were in their 70s and 83.33% were female. Average hospitalization period was 24.54±11.91 days. All patients had back pain as their chief complaint and only 2 patients received surgeries. In TLICS, only 1 patient got score 6, which represented surgery indication. After Korean medicine treatment, NRS of almost every patient got lower significantly at the time of discharge (3.02±1.93) than admission (5.52±1.95). Comparing two groups, responders had lower NRS at the time of discharge and TLICS score of them were lower than non-responders. Conclusions Our results show that Korean medicine treatment for thoracolumbar compression fractures was effective in reducing pain. There were distinct clinical features such as age, past history, surgeries between those with significant improvement in pain scores and those who did not.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2007

A safety management rule of the diagnosis radiation system which opened a court 2006 February 10th was promulgated for safety of the radiation worker, patients and patients' family members. The purpose of this study is to minimize injury by radiation that can happen to patients and people around a sick ward when managing mobile X-ray system. This study analyzed sickroom environment of mobile X-ray examination and the statistical data of the Konkuk medical Information System(KIS) and the Picture Archiving Communication System(PACS). This study also investigated patient conditions, infection, relation information and related data, when the sickroom mobile X-ray examination is used. Through data analysis, many problems were expected such as restriction of space side, manpower and expense of business side, satisfaction degree decline of patient and protector of operation side. Therefore, we tried to restrict examination of multi bed sickroom, and to use treatment room in each ward to solve problem mentioned. As a result, the whole sickroom mobile X-ray examination rate decreased to near 50%, and mobile X-ray examination rate for inpatients decreased to more than 85%. This study shows that several attempts we did should be helpful for manpower, patients satisfaction and expenses. Also, they should protect patients in sickroom from unnecessary radiation exposure and could minimize inconvenience of patients and their family members from x-ray examination.