• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.47-59
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• 2021

Purpose: To assess levels of mental health among community health practitioners during the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea and associations between practitioner mental health and personal and psychosocial factors. Methods: Data were collected from a convenient sample of 275 community health practitioners using an online questionnaire, which included items on mental health (K-WEMWBS), psychosocial factors (COVID-19 sensitivity, COVID-19 self-confidence, social support, perceived stress), and personal characteristics. Collected data were analyzed using the t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe's test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression in SPSS 25.0. Results: Mean mental health score was 51.27±8.47. Multiple linear regression revealed that time spent as a community health practitioner, COVID-19 self-confidence, social support, and perceived stress were significantly associated with mental health. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that comprehensive intervention with emphases on improving COVID-19 self-confidence, social support, and reducing stress is required to improve community health practitioner mental health. The results also indicate a need for educational programs aimed at improving the mental health of young community health practitioners.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.280-292
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• 2013

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the perceived needs and confidence of school nurses in health education at middle and high schools in Seoul, Korea. Methods: A descriptive survey questionnaire was developed by a research team to investigate the perceived needs and confidence across eight health education areas. A total of 329 school nurses at secondary schools in the metropolitan areas of Seoul participated. Descriptive statistics, the t-test, and ANOVA were conducted to analyze the data. Results: Generally high means in perceived education needs(Mean: 3.8~4.7/5) and health education confidence (Mean 3.3~4.5/5) were reported. However, there were significantly low means of health education confidence related to perceived needs in health education for all areas of health education. While injury prevention and emergency care education were the highest perceived educational needs and were also areas with high confidence of school nurses, mental health, social health, and sexual health were areas where nurses showed a significantly lower confidence. In general, nurses with a longer clinical experience and educational career had a higher confidence in injury prevention, emergency care, and mental health. Conclusions: Multi-level support, including the continuing education and proactive in-service training, for the school nurses needs to be developed to improve their teaching competency.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aims to examine the effect of adolescent suicide survivors' experience on suicide death risk, and the effect of referral to mental health services (hereafter referral) in this regard. Methods: This study used the data of 878 suicide-deceased and suicide-attempted adolescents aged 8-19 years, managed by the Suicide and School Mental Health Institute from 2016 to 2018. Results: Regression analysis for main effects showed that although suicide experience had no direct effect on suicide death, non-referral status was associated with a greater risk of death by suicide. While the "non-suicide survivor with non-referral" and "suicide survivor with non-referral" groups showed 1.87 [adjusted odds ratio=1.87, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.21-2.89] and 4.59 (adjusted odds ratio=4.59, 95% CI=2.02-10.42) times higher odds of suicide death, respectively, the "suicide survivor with referral" group showed no difference compared to the "non-suicide survivor with referral" group. Conclusion: From these findings, there is a need to strengthen referral to mental health services and apply complicated grief treatment to improve the mental health of adolescent suicide survivors.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.899-910
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the rates of perceived stress of elderly people over 65 years old and to confirm the influence of stress on general health and oral health status. Methods: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey for 2014, 1,472 people over 65 years of age were selected as final subjects. Stress was used as an independent variable and dependent variables were included physical health (perceived health status), mental health (depression), and oral health (perceived oral health status). The following confounding variables were adjusted for the current study: demographic characteristics (gender, age, education level, house income) and health - related characteristics (drinking, smoking, exercise, frequency of tooth brushing, using oral care product, dental exam, comorbidity, restrict activity). Complex sampling analysis was applied and logistic regression was performed to determine the effects of stress on physical health, mental health and oral health status. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% Confidence Interval, 95% CI) were calculated. Results: Logistic regression indicated that stress was significantly associated with low physical health (OR=2.18, 95%CI: 1.49-3.20), low mental health (OR=8.68, 95%CI: 4.98-15.11), low oral health (OR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.06-2.21) after adjusting for confounding variables. Conclusions: The perceived stress of the elderly was found to be related to the general health and oral health status. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate stress as a predictor of health risk for the health promotion of the elderly on multidisciplinary assessment and continuous evaluation. In addition, health support policies should be provided to achieve good health status for elderly.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.505-532
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among the growth period wounds, inferiority complex and personality disorder of teenaged students, which affected their mental health. The subjects in this study were 2,110 secondary students. After a survey was conducted, the collected data were analyzed. Whether there would be any differences among the adolescents in those factors were analyzed, and multiple regression analysis and path analysis were carried out. As a result, there were relatively more significant problems with the growth period wounds, inferiority complex, personality disorder and mental health of the students who were girls, who were high schoolers, whose household economy was more vulnerable and whose academic standing was lower. The growth period wound that exerted the largest significant influence on inferiority complex was happiness, followed by wound of security and wound of recognition, and the growth period wound that had the greatest significant impact on personality disorder was happiness, followed by wound of security, wound of confidence, wound of love and wound of equity. The growth period wound that exercised the biggest influence on mental health was happiness, followed by wound of security, wound of confidence, wound of love and wound of equity. As for the influence of the variables related to mental health, the indirect effects of the growth period wounds through personality disorder and inferiority complex were greater than their direct effects. The findings of the study suggest that growth period wounds are likely to lead to inferiority complex and personality disorder and ultimately to the injury of mental health, and indicate the importance of healthy family environments and of educational environments in the growth period.and mental health was analyzed, there was a statistically significant positive(+) correlation among all the variables. Third, the wound factors related to happiness and stability were identified as the factors that affected inferiority complex among the growth period wound factors. Personality disorder was found to be under the influence of the wound factors related to happiness, stability, love, confidence and a sense of equality in the growth period, and mental health was found to be affected by the wound factors related to happiness, stability, confidence, love and a sense of equality. Fourth, the growth period wounds had a direct impact on mental health, and inferiority complex played a significant mediating role at that time. Every subfactor of personality disorder also produced significant mediating effects except the wound factor of pride. The above-mentioned findings suggest that every possible effort should be made to let secondary students get hurt less to promote their mental health and resolve their mental health problems, and that professional counseling intervention and institutional assistance are required to help them to remove their inferiority complex and personality disorder.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.563-574
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• 2016

This study aimed to examine the predictors of mental health confidence(MHC) among individuals in psychiatric long-term care facilities(PLCF). It further examined whether the predictors and underlying mechanisms differed by the length of hospitalization. Sample consisted of 1,742 individuals residing in PLCF who participated in the Survey on PLCF. Structural equational modeling was used to examine the predictors of MHC. Multi-group Structural Equation Modeling(SEM) was used to examine whether the predictors and mechanisms differed by the length of hospitalization between those of 10 years or less (n=962) and 10 years and more (n=780). Major findings were as follows. (1) Education, duration of mental illness, and psychiatric symptoms were significantly related to MHC. (2) Duration of mental illness presented significant indirect effects on MHC via its effects on perceived stigma. (3) The predictors and underlying mechanisms differed by the length of hospitalization. Based on the findings, implications and limitations of the research were discussed.

• Korean journal of aerospace and environmental medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.64-67
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• 2021

When the COVID-19 crisis hit air transport, the whole aviation industry was affected. The change in the behavior of passengers following the COVID-19 crisis, travel restrictions and the ensuing economic crisis have resulted in a dramatic drop in demand for airline services. The COVID-19 pandemic, with all its associated consequences, has had a significant impact on the mental health and well-being of pilots, which could impact operational safety. As the number of international flights has decreased, pilots are exposed to high levels of psychological stress such as job instability, reduced income and increased risk of infection during flight work. Psychological stress lowers work performance and threatens aviation safety. The pilot needs mental health management during the COVID-19 pandemic, but psychological support is weak. For pilot mental health management, it is important to raise awareness about mental health and to continuously respond. To this end, it is necessary to foster a safe and trustworthy culture in which mental health issues are discussed freely and solved together without hiding them. They should also support the establishment of a peer support program that is easily accessible and that allows pilots to discuss their issues with confidence.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.79-88
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• 2015

The purpose of the study was to investigate mental health and mental health-related factors of adolescents with allergic diseases. Methods: The subjects were 72,060 middle and high school students, the data of whom were extracted from the 2014 Korean Youth' Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Allergic diseases included asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema. Mental health was measured by indicators such as perceived stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. To compare the mental health of adolescents who have allergic diseases with that of those who don't, the study used ${\chi}^2-test$ and calculated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). In addition, the study used ${\chi}^2-test$and multiple logistic regression, calculating OR and 95% CI, to analyze the association between mental health and allergic diseases and other variables. Results: Of 72,060 adolescents who participated in the study, 51.6% had allergic diseases(asthma 9.2%, allergic rhinitis 32.2%, eczema 23.9%). And 37.1% reported perceived stress, 26.6% depression, and 13.1% suicidal ideation. The adolescents with allergic diseases, compared to the adolescents without allergic diseases, were 1.26 times, 1.28 times, and 1.29 times more likely to experience perceived stress, depression, and suicidal ideation, respectively. The mental health-related factors of adolescents with allergic diseases were school type, sex, socioeconomic status, and academic performance. Conclusion: The adolescents with allergic diseases had poorer mental health than the adolescents without the diseases. Further studies should be done to verify this. And based on the study's findings, school-based intervention programs for mental health of adolescents with allergic diseases need to be developed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.225-237
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the Relationshipss of Ego-Identity, Social support and Mental health of Adolescents. The subjects for this study were 347 adolescents composed of 169 middle school students, 347 high school students in Kyung-gi Do. The data was conducted by using a correlations coefficient and the multiple regression analysis. The results of the study were as follows: First correlations among measured subordinate variables of Ego-Identity, Social support on subordinate variables of Mental health of Adolescents were significant. except compulsiveness and support of friend, hostility, phobia and support of teacher, somatization and confidence of one's future, intimacy, support of teacher, support of friend, depression, psychosis and confidence of one's future. Second, the result of the multiple regression analysis, the significant variables affected mental health are ranked in the order of self-acceptance, aim for goal, support of parents, intimacy, independence. while confidence of one's future, leading, support of teacher, support of friend are not significant. The result of this study shows that adolescents of high level of self-acceptance, aim for goal, intimacy, independence and perceived highly support of teacher are high level of mental health.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.216-227
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• 2022

Background: Food insecurity may contribute to mental health indicators such as stress, anxiety, or depression. We investigated whether food insecurity was associated with mental health indicators and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a representative sample of the Korean population. Methods: This study enrolled 12,987 adults without a history of medically serious disease from the 2012, 2013, and 2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Household food security status was categorized as "food security," "mild food insecurity," and "moderate/severe food insecurity." The association between mental health and HRQoL was evaluated using a multivariate logistic regression model with food security as the reference group. Results: The adjusted odds ratio of adverse mental health or low HRQoL increased significantly in mild or moderate/severe food insecurity compared to food security. In the moderate/severe food insecurity group, it was 1.98% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-2.99) higher for perceived stress, 3.58% (95% CI, 2.44-5.26) higher for depression symptoms, 4.16% (95% CI, 2.68-6.45) higher for suicidal ideation, and 2.81% (95% CI, 1.91-4.15) higher for quality of life. Conclusion: Food insecurity was strongly associated with negative mental health status and poor HRQoL. There is a need for a dietary support program that provides psychosocial support to those experiencing food insecurity.