• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.11-23
• /
• 2003

Objectives : The 1990s has seen advances in the conceptualization of self-perceived health status which has important roles for individual health and the quality of life. Many types of standardized questionnaires have been developed with the current wide use of SF-36, NHP, andEuroQol. However, the outcomes of these tools may be different with regard to regional, cultural and emotional backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to trial the development of a Korean Health Profile (KHP 1.0) to measure the self-perceived health stati of Koreans. Methods : The KHP 1.0 was designed on the basis of the Medical Outcome Study Form 36 (SF-36), the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), and the EuroQOL. It was composed of 9 scales; physical functioning, role limitation-physical, pain, general health, energy, social isolation, sleep, role limitation-emotional, and e-motional health. Self-reported chronic disease conditions, and the Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), were also checked for the evaluation of clinical validity. This study was conducted, from December 2000 to January 2001, on 800 middle-aged parents, with four high school students, with 100 retest sets being conducted two weeks later. From the 800 subjects there were 588 complete responses (effective response 73.5%). The reliability of the test-retest results, and the factor analysis on the validity of the KHP 1.0 components, were evaluated using the SPSS (ver 10.0) software. Results : The reliability of the KHP 1.0 was good with Cronbach's alpha (>0.6), test-retest correlation coefficients (>0.5), but with no significant differences from the paired t-test. From the psychometric validity tests, the 9 scales of the KHP 1.0 were divided into two components; physical and mental, and trimmed to the established model with 55% of the total variance, with the exception of role limitation-emotional. The clinical validity on the basis of the comparison for the four characteristic groups; healthy, physical conditions only, mental conditions only, and physical and mental conditions were also good. Conclusions : The KHP 1.0 appears to be a valid measurement tool of self-perceived health stati of Koreans, although there are limitations, i.e. sample size was too small, a limited number of middle-aged subjects, and it was based on unconfirmed diagnoses, etc. Therefore, further study is required to standardize the assessment.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.139-146
• /
• 2008

Purpose: The objective of this study is anthropometric analysis of mouth and lower face of Korean. The relationship of soft-tissue to underlying bony structures determine the overall aesthetics of the face. The goal of aesthetic surgery of the face is to achieve the ideal normal and enhance the aging face. The purpose of present study was to determine the change of the morphology of the mouth and lower face based on soft-tissue landmarks according to age group to facilitate prediction during aesthetic surgery. Methods: The standardized photographs of 2,018 healthy volunteers(18 to 79 years of age; 1,070 males, 948 females) were investigated. Age groups were classified into young, middle-aged, and elderly groups. Five and seven items were measured on frontal and lateral view photographs, respectively. Individual dimensions were compared in the three age groups and between males and females. Results: The width of mouth is 4.5 times larger than that of philtrum. Most of measured data decreased with age. However, woman's lip width of the mouth somewhat increased from the young to elderly. The width of lower face is 2.5 times larger than mouth in young age group and increased slightly from the young to middle-aged and thereafter slightly decreased to elderly group. Upper lip was more higher than lower lip and male lip was more higher than female. But male and female lip height is similar at old age. Conclusion: Most of Koreans showed prominent lower face because of the development or protrusion of the mandible. And the descent of soft-tissue around the mouth was one of the significant characteristics of senile change. The posterior retrusion of the subnasal was an another characteristic. This study will help to elucidate the age-related dimensional differences of the human being and to provide useful information for clinical applications in oral and aesthetic surgery.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.491-499
• /
• 2003

Selenium is a strong antioxidant trace mineral, scavenging free radicals. The prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases is increasing in Korean adults with increasing age. The increased cell damage from free radicals has been implicated in the etiology of these diseases, and evidence is accumulating that the low selenium status that comes with advanced aged is involved in the prevalence of age-associated diseases. However, little is known about the selenium status of Koreans, its age-related change and its relationship to dietary nutrient intake. In this study, the serum selenium levels of healthy adult females according to life cycle and its association with blood albumin levels and nutrient intake were examined. Serum selenium level was measured with the Huwo research reactor using the neutron activation analysis method (NAA). The overall proportion of women with selenium deficiency, serum selenium concentrations below 7.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$/dl, was 9.4%. The average serum selenium levels were 12.39 $\mu\textrm{g}$/dl, 9.45 $\mu\textrm{g}$/dl and 9.16 $\mu\textrm{g}$/dl in the young adult, middle-aged and elderly groups, respectively, showing a reduction of selenium status with advancing age. Selenium deficiency was seen only in the elderly group. Generally, serum selenium levels positively or negatively correlated with nutrient intake, but these association patterns differed depending on the age. The nutrients that showed positive correlations with selenium levels were proteins and phosphate in the young adult group (p < 0.05, p < 0.05), and total calcium, potassium and vegetable-origin calcium in the middle-aged group. Vitamin C and fiber were the negative correlated nutrients with serum selenium levels in the elderly group (p < 0.05, p < 0.05). Multiple stepwise regression analysis of the determining factors responsible for selenium status showed that age and serum albumin levels were important factors which explained up to 26.9% variances in serum selenium levels. The average selenium concentrations of Korean adult female subjects were above the deficiency levels in all three age groups. There was a tendency toward decreasing selenium levels as the age of the subjects increased. The factors with the strongest in-fluence on selenium status in healthy adult Korean females were age and serum protein status. (Korean J Nutrition 36(5): 491~499, 2003)

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.176-188
• /
• 2008

In this study, we compared demographic anthropometric characteristic, health-related lifestyle and diet behavior among weight control behaviors of 1187 (555 male, 632 female) aged $40{\sim}69yrs$ in Ganghwa country. All the data were analyzed by chi-square test, trend test, student t-test using SPSS 12.0 version at p < 0.05. 'Attempting weight control (loss)' was more in women than that was found in men (36.6% vs 20.7%), and women attempting weight loss most were 40-50 yrs. The reasons of weight loss were 'health problem' and 'health promotion'. Physical activity and diet restriction were commonly employed as weight control methods. Both genders attempting weight loss had a higher education level, BMI, percentage of body fat, waist circumference and physical activity than those not attempting weight control (p < 0.05). In dietary habits like 'meal regularity', 'slow eating' and 'over eating', women attempting weight loss were superior than those who not attempting weight control group (p < 0.05). Eating pattern changes like 'decrease of fats and fatty foods intake', 'vegetable oil usage', 'increase of fruit and vegetables intake', 'decrease of sugar and salt intake' showed significant differences (p < 0.001) between the attempted weight control groups and nonattempted weight control groups. Salt taste was a preference in male non-attempted weight control group, while sour, hot and spicy taste were preference in female attempted weight control group (p < 0.05). Preference for processed foods, fried foods and snack were significant differences (p < 0.05) in women attempted weight control group. Those attempting weight loss tried to improve their eating patterns. However, those attempting weight loss were poorer than the others in health-related lifestyle and eating habit. Therefore, it is necessary to make an effort that improve healthrelated lifestyle and diet behavior in middle aged group.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.610-619
• /
• 2008

In order to investigate if the employment of housewives may affect the nutritional status of their family members, an analysis was made for the data of 2001 Korea National Health and Nutrition survey. Housewives aged 20 or over were divided into two groups of the working (W, 44.3%) and the non-working (NW, 55.7%), and household income levels were divided into 4 groups of low, middle, high, and high above according to the minimum cost of living in the year of 2001. Nutrient intakes were assessed by using dietary recommended intakes for Koreans of 2005. Working housewives showed similar levels to those of non-working housewives in most nutrients intakes except energy and vitamin C. However their families excluding housewives of W, than those of NW, took less protein, calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin C when assessed as % of recommended intakes and took more sodium. Such differences were very strong in children and adolescents, and in the middle income households. More % of the families of W than those of NW consumed nutrients below the estimated average requirements. Percents of hypertension classified by both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher in adult family members of W than in those of NW. This tendency seemed to be more significant in the family members aged 30 to 49. Both obesity and under-weight rates of school children ($7{\sim}12\;yrs$) in W were higher than those in NW. The above resuIts suggested that employment of housewives could have negative influences on the nutritional status of their family members, especially of their children and in the middle income class.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.463-478
• /
• 2012

This study investigated the health and nutritional characteristics according to household income level and obesity in Koreans aged over 50 years based on the 2005 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Subjects were classified into 3 groups by average household income with reference to the minimum monthly living expenses (MLE): low (n = 319, < 100% MLE), middle (n = 222, < 200% MLE), high (n = 411, ${\geq}$ 200% MLE) and each group was compared by BMI index. With increasing income level, the prevalence of systolic hypertension and hyperlipidemia was increased. In the low income group, serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting glucose were higher in the obese compared with the normal. In the middle and high income groups, the prevalence of hyperlipidemia and diastolic hypertension were higher in the obese. Subjects had nutritional imbalance, such as inadequate intake of calcium and potassium. With increasing income level, the percentages of protein and fat to total calorie were increased in addition to the intakes and density of nutrients. The obese in the low income group had higher intakes of energy, protein, phosphorus and higher consumption frequency of cereals and potatoes compared with the normal. It was shown that the obese of the middle and high income groups tended to have lower consumption frequency of Korean cabbage and higher frequency of fruits. The obese of high income group also had binge drinking habit. Therefore, this study suggests that specific approaches based on economic status should be considered in developing nutrition education program for the elderly.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.289-294
• /
• 2020

Peptic ulcer disease is a gastrointestinal disorder caused by Helicobacter pylori infection and the use of nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs. While many studies have been conducted to find the risk factors of peptic ulcers, there are no studies on the suggestion of peptic ulcer prediction models for Koreans. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to implement peptic ulcer prediction model using machine learning based on demographic information, obesity information, blood information, and nutritional information for middle-aged and elderly people. For model building, wrapper-based variable selection method and naive Bayes algorithm were used. The classification accuracy of the female prediction model was the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of 0.712, and males showed an AUC of 0.674, which is lower than that of females. These results can be used for prediction and prevention of peptic ulcers in the middle and elderly people.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.353-363
• /
• 2011

The objective of the current study was to examine associations of whole grain consumption with socio-demographic (i.e.: sex, age, household income, education, marriage status) and certain eating behavior factors (i.e.: dish source, eating place, meal type) among a generally healthy Korean population. Using twenty-four hour recall data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, whole grain intake (g/day) was calculated for a total of 8,836 generally healthy Koreans aged 6 years and higher. The study subjects had very low whole grain intake. Specifically approximately 60% of the subjects reported no whole grain consumption on the survey day, and mean daily intake ranged from 8.0 g to 15.1 g in different gender and age groups. Living with a spouse was found to be a positive environment factor for whole grain consumption, especially among men. As household income levels increased, whole grain consumption status also improved. The proportion of non-consumer was lowest in a 6-19 year group, and mean intake amount was highest in middle-aged adults. Major dish sources for whole grain consumption included boiled rice with mixed grains, corn, boiled rice with brown rice, cereal products, and other types of boiled rice. It was found that whole grain consumption was highly affected by eating places rather than meal types. The best contributing eating place was home in each age and gender group. The study findings may be useful in planning nutrition education strategy and formulating dietary behavior guidelines for whole grain consumption improvement.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.511-526
• /
• 2011

This study aims at surveying how Koreans look upon and prepare for the age of longevity("age of 100 years") drawing near at hand, analyzing factors affecting such a perception and behavior. To this end, a telephone survey was launched for 1200 persons sampled to evenly comprise the young, middle-aged, and elderly groups. Our findings indicate that more Koreans looked upon the upcoming "age of 100 years" as a 'disaster' rather than a 'blessing.' The sense of combined uneasiness over the aged life being further elongated while they are unprepared for it, anxiety over maintaining health and so forth came into play. However, the better a person is prepared by way of health management, savings for retirement, preparation for leisure activities and employment for the later life, the more positively he or she looked upon the "age of 100 years". An analysis by group indicates that women rather than men, the elderly rather than the young, the less educated rather than the highly educated, the low-income bracket rather than the high-income bracket looked upon the "age of 100 years" more negatively. Under such circumstances, it is suggested that the nation's social system tailored to a life expectancy of 80 years should be readjusted, tailored to a 'longevity paradigm' and that to this end social systems should be reoriented toward the direction where 'healthy aging' and 'active aging' are fully supported.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.203-212
• /
• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The branched-chain amino acids (BCAA), including isoleucine, leucine, and valine, promote muscle protein synthesis. However, obesity may interfere with protein synthesis by dysregulating mitochondrial function in the muscles. This study aimed to examine the association between dietary intake levels of BCAA and skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) in middle-aged participants, and the effect of obesity/abdominal obesity on this association. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The data of 3,966 men and women aged 50-64 years who participated in the 2008-2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. Intake levels of energy-adjusted dietary amino acids were obtained using a 24-hour dietary recall. SMI was calculated by dividing the appendicular skeletal muscle mass by body weight (kg) and multiplying the result by 100%. Multivariable general linear models were used to analyze the association of dietary BCAA intake levels with SMI. RESULTS: The beneficial effects of energy-adjusted dietary BCAA intakes on SMI were greater in the non-obesity/non-abdominal obesity groups; however, no significant associations were observed in the obesity/abdominal obesity groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Healthy weight and sufficient intake of dietary BCAA are recommended to maintain muscle mass.