• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.8-18
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study was conducted to better understand the illness experiences and palliative care needs in community-dwelling persons with cardiometabolic diseases. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study was conducted with 11 patients (and three family members) among 28 patients contacted. Interviews were led by the principal investigator in her office or at participants' home depending on their preference. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed by a research assistant. The interviews were analyzed by two independent researchers using a conventional method. Results: Participants' ages ranged from 42 to 82 years (nine men and two women). Three themes were identified: (1) same disease, but different illness experiences; (2) I am in charge of my disease(s); (3) preparation for disease progression. Participants were informed of the name of their disease when they were diagnosed, but not provided with explanation of the diagnosis or meant or how to do self-care to delay the disease progression, which increased the feelings of uncertainty, hopelessness and anxiety. Taking medication was considered to be the primary treatment option and self-care a supplemental one. Advanced care plans were considered when they felt the progression of their disease(s) while refraining from sharing it with their family or health care professionals to save their concerns. All participants were willing to withhold life-sustaining treatment without making any preparation in writing. Conclusion: Education on self-care and advanced care planning should be provided to community-dwelling persons with cardiometabolic diseases. A patient-centered education program needs to be developed for this population.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.39-47
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the current status of pediatric palliative care provision and how it is perceived by the palliative care experts. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted with 61 hospice institutions. From September through October 2017, a questionnaire was completed by experts from the participating institutions. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0. Results: Among 61 institutions, palliative care is currently provided for pediatric cancer patients by 11 institutions (18.0%), all of which are concentrated in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi and Gyengsang provinces; 85.2% of all do not plan to provide specialized pediatric palliative care in the future. According to the experts, the main barriers in providing pediatric palliative care were the insufficient number of trained specialists regardless of the delivery type. Experts said that it was appropriate to intervene when children were diagnosed with cancer that was less likely to be cured (33.7%) and to move to palliative care institutions when their conditions worsened (38.2%); and it was necessary to establish a specialized pediatric palliative care system, independent from the existing institutions for adult patients (73.8%). Conclusion: It is necessary to develop an education program to establish a nationwide pediatric palliative care centers. Pediatric palliative care intervention should be provided upon diagnosis rather than at the point of death. Patients should be transferred to palliative care institutions after intervention by their existing pediatric palliative care team at the hospital is started.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.32 no.7
• /
• pp.532-541
• /
• 2022

Obesity induced by high-fat diet (HFD) is verified as a strong risk factor and negative prognostic factor for prostate cancer in several genetically engineered mice although it was not examined in the normal mice. To investigate whether HFD-induced obesity can affect the development and progression of cancer in the prostate of normal mice, alterations in the weight and histological structure of the prostate as well as the expression of cancer-related proteins were analyzed in obese C57BL/6N mice fed with 60% HFD for 16 weeks. First, HFD-induced obesity, including an increase in organ weight, body weight, fat accumulation, and serum lipid profile, was successfully induced in C57BL/6N mice after HFD treatment. The total weight of the prostate significantly increased HFD-induced obesity in the model mice compared with the control group. Among the four lobes of the prostate, the weight of the ventral prostate (VP) and anterior prostate (AP) were higher in HFD-induced obesity model mice than in the control group, although the weights of the lateral prostate (DLP) and seminal vesicle (SV) were constantly maintained. In addition, the incidences of hyperplasia and non-hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in the histological structure were remarkably increased in HFD-induced obesity model mice, while the epithelial thickness was higher in the same group. A significant increase in the phosphorylation levels of key proteins in the AKT (protein kinase B) signaling pathway was detected in HFD-induced obesity model mice. Therefore, these results suggest that HFD-induced obesity can promote hyperplasia and NHL in the prostates of C57BL/6N mice through the activation of the AKT signaling pathway.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.31 no.12
• /
• pp.1110-1119
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the inflammatory response in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW 264.7 macrophages could be promoted by particulate matter 2.5 (PM_2.5) stimulation. To this end, the levels of inflammatory parameters, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation-regulating genes were investigated in RAW 264.7 cells treated with PM_2.5 in the presence or absence of LPS. Our results showed that the production levels of pro-inflammatory mediators (nitric oxide and prostaglandin E₂) and cytokines (interleukin-6 and -1β) were significantly increased by PM_2.5 stimulation in LPS-treated RAW 264.7 cells, which was correlated with increased expression genes involved in their production. In addition, when LPS-treated RAW 264.7 cells were exposed to PM_2.5, nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) expression was further increased in the nucleus, and the expression of inhibitor of NF-κB as well as NF-κB in the cytoplasm was decreased. These results suggest that the co-treatment of PM_2.5 and LPS further increases the activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway compared to each treatment alone, thereby contributing to the promotion of transcriptional activity of inflammatory genes. Furthermore, although the generation of ROS was greatly increased by PM_2.5 in LPS-treated RAW 264.7 cells, the NF-κB inhibitor did not reduce the generation of ROS. In addition, when the generation of ROS was artificially suppressed, the production of inflammatory mediators and the activation of NF-κB were both abolished. Therefore, our results suggest that the increase in the NF-κB-mediated inflammatory response induced by PM_2.5 in LPS-treated RAW 264.7 macrophages was a ROS generation-dependent phenomenon.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.211-219
• /
• 2022

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the awareness of work-related disease prevention of farmers. Method: As a research method, a qualitative focus group interview was conducted in 18 participants. Results: Prevention and management services for work-related diseases of farmers mostly are based on research from other fields and so are not highly effective because their content is not relevant to agricultural work. It has been suggested that such program designers be required to have some appropriate related knowledge, and that incentives and a certification system for participation in such education be established. To analyze work-related diseases of farmers, fields of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation should be created. They demanded the designation of hospitals and the actualization of compensation for farmers' safety insurance. The work-related diseases to address were include musculoskeletal diseases, pesticide poisoning-related diseases (cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease), psychiatric diseases such as depression, and allergic diseases. However, this must have been the result of the harmful factors they felt during agricultural work. And for farmer patients diagnosed with work-related diseases, it was said to strengthen farmer safety insurance. Conclusion: In order to increase the safely and health effects of agricultural work, it is necessary to prevent and manage work-related diseases of farmers. Projects should be developed in consideration of cultural and economic barriers of farmers and the characteristics of the work.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.271-278
• /
• 2022

This study attempted to prepare basic data for international students with Vietnamese nationality in Korea to identify positive psychological capital, social support, social presence, and quality of life and to prepare support measures to improve their quality of life. Data collection is from May 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021, and was conducted through an online survey for anonymity and convenience. For data analysis, the IBM SPSS/25 statistical program was used, and the significance level for the results was measured as .05, and the reliability of each measurement tool was calculated. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the age of the subjects was '24 years old-27 years old', and women accounted for the majority. In the fourth grade, the fourth grade was the most, with "outgoing" personality, "sometimes" experiences of interpersonal conflict, "more than four years and less than five years" in the period of residence in Korea, and the level of Korean proficiency was "grade three." Second, the average quality of life of Vietnamese international students was 3.52 points (out of 5 points), positive psychological capital was 3.98 points (out of 6 points), social support was 2.96 points (out of 4 points), and social presence was 3.59 points (out of 5 points). Third, in the case of the quality of life of Vietnamese international students, there was a significant difference according to their personality, and as a result of post-verification, the quality of life of the 'extroverted' group was higher than the 'mixed' group. There was a significant difference according to interpersonal conflict), and as a result of post-examination, the "no conflict" group had a higher quality of life than the "conflict frequent" group. Fourth, the factors that most affected the subject's quality of life were social support, positive psychological capital, and personality (extroverted). The explanatory power of the model was 33.2%.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.1359-1375
• /
• 2010

Expecting the expansion of the elderly population under long-term home care with the coming of the aged society, this study purposed to propose a prevention and self-reliance support model and to get practical implications for minimizing dependency on care benefits and enhancing the effectiveness of prevention and self-reliance support. Research methods employed for this study were: first, reviewing theoretical literature for clarifying the concept of prevention and self-reliance support in providing long-term care benefits for the elderly; second, identifying factors hindering prevention and self-reliance support through analyzing standard long-term care use plans and documents related to long-term care benefits at elderly welfare centers to which the research subjects belonged; and third, surveying care benefit users on factors hindering their use of prevention and self-reliance support and their needs in the use of care benefits. Based on the results of the three types of qualitative research, we proposed directions for prevention and self-reliance support modeling and suggested practical implications for enhancing the effectiveness of prevention and self-reliance support. For this study, we collected documentary materials and conducted in-depth interviews with the participants with the consents and cooperation of managers and professional social workers at day care centers and elderly welfare centers in D City. According to the results of this study, literature review suggested that long-term care prevention and self-reliance support should be provided in a way of 'strengthening user-centered support systems,' which support elderly long-term care beneficiaries' right to lead a life as the subject of their own life. Document analysis found the absence of benefits related to health and medicine and lack of social support systems for prevention and self-reliance support, and the results of in-depth interviews suggested the necessity to strengthen services related to elderly long-term care beneficiaries' prevention and self-reliance, and the keen needs of the long-term care elders for prevention and self-reliance included: ① loneliness, anxiety, fear; ② missing for and worry about children and people; ③ moving, outing; ④ health and medical services, rehabilitation programs; ⑤ desire to use day care; ⑥ inconvenience of house structure; ⑦desire for meal menus; and ⑧ the occurrence of disuse syndrome. Based on these results, we suggested the base of prevention and self-reliance support modeling with three axes: ① strengthening user-centered support systems; ② strengthening support systems connected to health and medicine; and ③ strengthening social support systems.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.1361-1381
• /
• 2009

There have lately been a variety of social issues in our society due to rapid social changes. Specifically, how to approach elderly people who suffer from dementia is never an easy task, and few in-depth studies have ever focused on their quality of life due to that. The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of life of elderly people with dementia and the relationship between their quality of life and the environments of facilities for them in an attempt to lay the foundation for the development of compatible programs tailored to the environments of the facilities and for relevant policy setting. It's ultimately meant to improve the quality of life of the elderly with dementia and the environments of facilities for them. The subjects in this study were elderly people with dementia who were housed in senior residential and medical welfare facilities in Daegu and Gyeongsangbukdo. The collected data were analyzed with a SPSS 12.0 program, and frequency analysis, cross-tabs and multiple logistic regression analysis were utilized. As a result, facility environments were identified as one of the variables that had a significant impact on the quality of life of the elderly people with dementia. There are some suggestions about how to boost their quality of life: First, good environments should be prepared in consideration of the characteristics of elderly people with dementia in order for themto be satisfied with their own quality of life, and the way of looking at their potentials should be changed. Second, it's found that main caregivers affected the quality of life of the elderly people with dementia, and the kind of programs that focus on the improvement of the relationship between elderly people with dementia and their main caregivers is required. Third, there should be a change in the environments of the facilities. The facilities should be well equipped to successfully respond to the symptoms of elderly people with dementia. To redress their poor accessibility to the facilities, infrastructure involving nursing homes and professional personnels should be built by utilizing the Internet, and the facilities and local community should make concerted efforts to provide quality care to elderly people in want of it.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.239-250
• /
• 2023

Objective: This study was a preliminary study for the prevention programs for farmers' occupational diseases. It selected the priorities recognized by farmers, such as occupational diseases, and also identifies the effectiveness and feasibility of prevention programs among diseases recognized by farmers. Therefore, we plan to use it as basis data for future farmer safety and health programs. Method: The subjects of the study were farmers living in the region, selected through a snowball recruitment method, and a total of 671 people were targeted. The priority selection method was the Basic Priority Rating System (BPRS) method, and among the occupational diseases, programs to prevent musculoskeletal diseases, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and pesticide poisoning were surveyed on the effectiveness and feasibility of farmers. Results: Among occupational diseases, the highest priority was musculo-skeletal disease, followed by respiratory disease and pesticide poisoning. Among the programs for musculoskeletal disease, 'use of agricultural work convenience equipment and auxiliary tools' had the highest perceived effectiveness and feasibility. Among the five programs for pesticide poisoning, 'equipment of protective equipment such as pesticide protective clothing/glove' had the highest effectiveness at 67.4%, and 'compliance with pesticide use instructions' had the highest level of feasibility at 64.3%. Among the four programs to prevent respiratory diseases, 'wearing a dust mask or gas mask' was the highest at 65.5% in terms of both effectiveness and feasibility. Conclusion: When carrying out safety and health programs for farmers, the priorities recognized by farmers should be taken into consideration, and the program contents should also be developed taking into account the size of effect and feasibility recognized by farmers.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.357-362
• /
• 2011

Purpose: The narrow-band pass color-filters with a 500 nm central wavelength and 12 nm FWHM using $Ti_3O_5/SiO_2$ mutilayer were fabricated, and their characteristics and structures were studied. Methods: the optical constants, n and k, of the $Ti_3O_5$ and $SiO_2$ thin films were obtained from the transmittances of their thin film. The narrow-band pass color-filters were designed with these optical constants and the AR coating of the filter was also designed. $Ti_3O_5/SiO_2$ multilayer filters were made by electron beam evaporation apparatus and the transmittaces of the filters were measured by spectrophotometer. the number of layers and the thicknesses of filters were calculated from the cross section of filters by SEM image and the composition of filters was analysed by XPS analysis. Results: The optimization of AR coating for the narrow-band pass color-filter was [air$|SiO_2(90)|Ti_3O_5(36)|SiO_2(5)|Ti_3O_5(73)|SiO_2(30)|Ti_3O_5(15)|$ glass], and the optimization of filter layer for the color filter was [air$|SiO_2(192)|Ti_3O_5(64)|SiO_2(102)|Ti_3O_5(66)|SiO_2(112)|Ti_3O_5(74)|SiO_2(120)|Ti_3O_5(68)|SiO_2(123)|Ti_3O_5(80)|SiO_2(109)|Ti_3O_5(70)|SiO_2(105)|Ti_3O_5(62)|SiO_2(99)|Ti_3O_5(63)|SiO_2(98)|Ti_3O_5(51)|SiO_2(60)|Ti_3O_5(42)|SiO_2(113)|Ti_3O_5(88)|SiO_2(116)|Ti_3O_5(68)|SiO_2(89)|Ti_3O_5(49)|SiO_2(77)|Ti_3O_5(48)|SiO_2(84)|Ti_3O_5(51)|SiO_2(85)|Ti_3O_5(48)|SiO_2(59)|Ti_3O_5(34)|SiO_2(71)|Ti_3O_5(44)|SiO_2(65)|Ti_3O_5(45)|SiO_2(81)|Ti_3O_5(52)|SiO_2(88)|$ glass]. It was known that the color-filters fabricated by the simulation data were composed of 41 layers by SEM image and the top layer of filters was $SiO_2$ layer and the filters were composed of $SiO_2$/$Ti_3O_5$ multilayer by XPS analysis. It was also known that the mixed thin film of TiO2 and $Ti_3O_5$ was made during the deposition of the $Ti_3O_5$ material. Conclusions: The narrow-band pass color-filters with a 500 nm central wavelength and 12 nm FWHM using $Ti_3O_5/SiO_2$ mutilayer of 41 layer were fabricated, and it was known that the mixed form of TiO2 and $Ti_3O_5$ thin film was made during the deposition of the $Ti_3O_5$ material.