• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2001

It has been proposed that the acceptable level of discomfort was a valid measure of postural loading. Although the number of women employees has increased at a much faster rate than men workers did and female workers are thought to be more vulnerable to musculoskeletal disorders, most previous studies dealt with perceived discomforts for joint motions focused on male subjects. This study aims to measure perceived discomfort ratings of females for static joint motions. Ten female subjects participated in the experiment measuring perceived discomforts, in which almost every possible joint motion was included and the free modulus method of the magnitude estimation was employed. The results showed that discomfort levels were dependent on the joint motions and joints, and subjective discomfort ratings of women were significantly larger than those of men.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.276-286
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• 2005

Purpose: The study is to investigate the effects of tea tree oil gargling on oral cavity micro-organism growth and on the perceived discomfort of patients receiving chemotherapy. Methods: A nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design was used to determine the effects of tea tree oil gargling on oral cavity for 20 second after using it for one week, twice a day. The sample consisted of two groups of patients receiving chemotherapy : 19 patients in experimental and 20 patients in control group. The instruments used in the study were Oral Assessment Guide(OAG), a measure of perceived symptoms on oral cavity, and a test of oral mucosal micro-organism culture. The data were analyzed using chi-square test, repeated measure of ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in micro-organism culture test of oral mucosa. The experimental group showed a lower number and fewer kinds of micro-organisms than the control group. Conclusion: It is considered that use of tea tree oil is effective in infection control of the oral cavity.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.779-791
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to measure a perceived joint discomfort in the seated and standing position, and to provide ranking systems of perceived joint discomfort. Nineteen mole subjects with no history of musculo-skeletal disorders participated in the experiment. Their physical characteristics were: age $-25.4{\pm}2.7$years, stature $-171.9{\pm}6.0cm$, and body weight $-67.1{\pm}7.0kg$. The results showed that the perceived joint discomforts were different depending upon the joints involved in motion and their movement directions (degree of freedom of motions), which implied that the human body motions and their degrees of freedom should be classified into several distinct classes that need to be assigned different weights of postural stress. Therefore, three ranking systems based on the perceived joint discomforts were suggested, which were classified by the degree of freedom of motions and joints, by only degree of freedom motions, and by joints involved in motion, respectively. In the seated position, the hip movement was the most stressful, the bock was the second, and the shoulder was the third. Likewise, in the standing postures, the hip was the most, the bock was the second, and the ankle was the third. It was expected that these joint motion ranking systems could be used by practitioners of health and safety to improve the comfort of working postures in industry.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.100-106
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to measure perceived joint discomfort in the seated and standing position, and to provide a ranking system of joint discomfort measured in this study. Seven male subjects with no history of musculo-skeletal disorders participated in the experiment. Their physical characteristics were: age -$27.6 {\pm}1.8$ years, stature -$171.0 {\pm}5.5cm$, and body weight -$66.4{\pm}9.3kg$. The results showed that perceived joint discomfort was different depending on the human body joints involved in motion and their movement directions, which imply that the human body motions should be classified intoseveral distinct classes that need to be assigned different weights of postural stress. In the seated postion, the hip movement was the most stressful, the back was the second, and the shoulder was the third. Similarly, in standing postures, the hip was given the highest ranking, followed by the back, and the wrist.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.67-79
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• 2007

The objective of this study is to investigate a perceived discomfort and cause of Korean elderly in various activities such as work and leisure as well as in daily activities. 120 subjects (30 female and 30 male for each age: the young and elderly) participated in the interview type of questionnaire. Each participant answered to 41 items of activities of daily living. The examination of each item was progressed with 3 steps: whether to do the activity or not, degree of activity discomfort, and the reasons or causes of discomfort. Borg's CR10 scale is used to measure the degree of discomfort of daily activities. As a result, there are differences for the proportion of performers between two age groups, except for essential activities such as individual maintenance and housekeeping. The elderly complained about their daily activities more than the young did, and the degree of discomfort of women was significantly larger than that of men with aging. There are seven items, the mean degree of discomfort of which is over three points for the elderly, and they showed significant difference between two age groups. It was the important reason that physical capacities such as muscle strength and suppleness are declined. The results showed the characteristics of Korean elderly in the whole daily activities. These will be used to understand various life styles of them and to propose a field or direction of study related to the aging.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to measure of dental impact on daily lining among workers. The number of subjects were 1.457 workes. To predict the oral health of workers, we used the measurement of dental impact on daily living. Using methodology was self-questionnaire which included the perceived oral health status, and performance, appearance, pain, eating restriction and discomfort. The associations between the performance factors and perceived oral health status, pain, eating restriction and discomfort, the results were as follows: 1. There were consisted of 48.3% of female. 63.1% of smokers. 92.3% of lower than 30years and 99.4% of graduating high school. 2. Measurement of daily impact on daily living were classified into the following 6 categories. Facter analysis for validity was carried out for corroboration. 3. Association between performance factors and other factors(pain, eating restriction and discomfort) were evaluated by multiple regression was significant(44%, p<0.01).

• PNF and Movement
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.379-389
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• 2019

Purpose: This study examined the effects of wheelchair handle directions on the trunk muscle activity of adult males when climbing ramps. It also evaluated the wheelchair attendant's physical discomfort during tasks. Methods: Healthy males aged over 20 years were chosen and the direction of wheelchair handle grip was randomly selected. The grips included a general grip with ulnar deviation, a medial grip with wrist pronation, and a neutral grip with a neutral wrist. The trunk muscle activity was measured using surface electromyography. Furthermore, the physical discomfort of wheelchair attendants was subjectively evaluated using the Borg CR-10 Scale, which rates the perceived exertion. In addition, the SPSS 18.0 program was used perform repeated measure ANOVA to compare muscle activity and subjective discomfort during the interventions. The contrast test was also conducted with a significance level (α) of 0.05. Results: There was significant difference between the general grip and the medial grip in the rhomboid major muscle and the lumbar erector spinae muscle (p<0.05). In addition, there was significant difference between the general grip and the neutral grip in the rhomboid major muscle and the lumbar erector spinae muscle (p<0.05). Further, there was significant difference between the general grip and the neutral grip in subjective discomfort (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, adult male trunk muscle activity and subjective discomfort were lowest when using the neutral grip while climbing ramps. Accordingly, we suggest that neutral grips will help improve the function of the musculoskeletal system and reduce the subjective discomfort by putting less strain on the trunk muscles and maximizing efficiency with less force.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.3-14
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• 2014

Since the domestic introduction of iPhone in 2009, use of smartphones rapidly increased and many tasks, previously performed by various devices, are now performed by smartphones. In this process the importance of reading little text using small smartphone screen has become highly significant. This research tested how display factors of smartphone (pixel density, sub-pixel structure, luminance) and environmental factor (illumination) affect legibility related discomfort in text reading. The results indicated that legibility related discomfort is largely affected by pixel density, where people experience inconvenience when the pixel density becomes lower than 300 PPI. Illumination has limited effect on legibility related discomfort. Participants reported more legibility related discomfort when stimulus presented in various levels of illumination rather than single illumination level. Sub-pixel structure and luminance did not affected legibility related discomfort. Based on the results we suggest lower limit resolution of smart devices (smartphones, tablet computers) of different sizes for text legibility.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.19 no.4 s.68
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• pp.123-128
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• 2004

This study investigated effect of arm posture, repetition of wrist motion and external load on perceived discomfort. The arm postures were controlled by shoulder flexion, elbow flexion, and ist motions such as flexion, extension, radial deviation and ulnar deviation. An experiment was conducted to measure discomfort scores for experimental treatments using the magnitude estimation, in which the L16 orthogonal array was adopted for reducing the size of experiment. The results showed that while the effect of the shoulder flexion, repetition of wrist motion and external load was statistically significant at $\alpha=0.05$or 0.10, that of the elbow and wrist motions was not. Discomfor ratings increased linearly as levels of wrist repetition and external load increased. This implies that the existing posture classification schemes such as OWAS, RULA, which do not properly consider effect of motion repetition and external load, may underestimate postural load. Based on the regression equation for wrist repetition and external load, isocomfort region indicating the region within which discomfort scores were expected to be the same was proposed. It is recommended that when assessing risk of postures or developing new posture classification schemes, motion repetition and external load as well as posture itself be fully taken into consideration for precisely evaluating postural stress.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2002

Objectives : The object of this study was to investigate the relationship between coping strategies and perceived stress or pain discomfort in patients with chronic low back pain. 80 patients with chronic low back pain and 100 normal controls participated in this study. Methods: Global assessment of recent stress (GARS) scale and Stress Response Inventory (SRI) were used to measure perception for stressors and stress responses. Coping scale and pain discomfort scale were used to measure coping strategies and pain perception. Results : Scores of perceived stress related to work or job, interpersonal relationship, changes in relationship, sickness or illness and the total scores on the GARS scale were significantly higher in those with chronic low back pain than normal controls. Scores of the SRI fatigue subscale scored significantly higher in those with chronic low back pain than normal controls. No significant difference was found on total scores of the pain discomfort scale between those with chronic low back pain and normal controls. The patients with chronic low back pain scored significantly higher on planful problem solving and positive reappraisal than normal controls. In the patient group, pain perception had significant positive correlations with total scores of the SRI and scores of stress perception related to illness or injury. The extent of escape-avoidance showed significant negative correlations with age, whereas the extent of distancing or escape-avoidance had significant negative correlations with the level of education. Significant difference was also found in accepting responsibilities between male subjects and females. However, no significant correlations were found between coping strategies and perceived stressors, stress responses or pain perception. Conclusion : The results suggest that patients with chronic low back pain were more likely to use more active coping strategies than normal controls, though the former had more perception for stressors than the latter. It was also found that coping strategies used by the patients were associated with sociodemographic factors, but that they were not associated with perceived stressors, stress responses or pain perception.