• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.31-39
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• 2019

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of self-perception of halitosis on oral health behaviors of college students according to whether they worked in a non-service or service-related job. Methods: A self-reporting questionnaire of 150 university students working in service jobs and 150 university students working in non-service jobs in the metropolitan area was conducted from 26th April to 5th May 2018. The survey tool consisted of 3 general topic areas. There were 5 questions on oral health awareness behavior, 3 questions related to their self-perception of halitosis, and 8 questions on their oral health care practice. All were measured on the Likert 5-point scale. The frequency of their oral health behaviors and their self-perception of halitosis were analyzed according to the subjects' occupation. Pearson's correlation analysis and a linear regression analysis were conducted to confirm the influence of the two. The significance level for the statistical significance test was set to α = 0.05 (two-tailed). Results: In both the service and non-service groups, a coated tongue and food debris were found to influence halitosis(x²=10.95, p=0.027). According to the t-test, taking into account the self-perception of halitosis and oral health behaviors, both were higher in those that had a service job. Self-perception of halitosis and oral health behaviors were found to have a negative correlation(γ=-0.11, p<0.05). As the self-perception of halitosis increased, oral health care practices also increased(Beta=-0.185, p=0.020). Conclusions: Systematic interventions such as oral health programs and health promotion are needed to improve the oral health of service workers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.4999-5003
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• 2016

The testicular cancer (TCa) incidence is increasing in many countries, with age-standardized incidence rates up to 7.8/100,000 men in the Western world, although reductions in mortality and increasingly high cure rates are being witnessed at the same time. In Africa, where rates are lower, presentation is often late and morbidity and mortality high. Given this scenario, awareness of testicular cancer and practice of testicular self-examination among future first response doctors is very important. This study was conducted to determine knowledge and attitude to testicular cancer, and practice of testicular self-examination (TSE) among final (6th) year medical students. In addition, the effect of an intervention in the form of a single PowerPoint(R) lecture, lasting 40 minutes with image content on testicular cancer and testicular self examination was assessed. Pre and post intervention administration of a self-administered structured pre tested questionnaire was performed on 151 medical students, 101 of whom returned answers (response rate of 66.8%). In the TC domain, there was a high level of awareness of testicular cancer, but poor knowledge of the age group most affected, with significant improvement post intervention (p<0.001). Notable also was the poor awareness of the potential curability of TC, this also being improved following the intervention (p<0.001). A poor level of awareness and practice of testicular self-examination pre-intervention was found considering the nature of the study group..Respondents had surprisingly weak/poor responses to the question "How important to men's health is regular testicular self-examination?" Answers to the questions "Do you think it is worthwhile to examine your testis regularly?" and "Would you be interested in more information on testicular cancer and testicular self-examination?" were also suboptimal, but improved post intervention p<0.001, p<0.001 and p=0.037. Age, gender and marital status were without specific influence. In conclusion, this study showed poor levels of knowledge regarding epidemiology of TCa and its potential curability when detected early. There was also a poor awareness of, practice of, and poor attitudes to TSE. The significant improvement in these parameters post intervention indicates value in educational intervention. We recommend inclusion of TCa coverage and TSE teaching in the secondary school curriculum (targeting adolescents). Greater emphasis should also be given to testicular cancer in the curricula of medical schools and other training institutions for health care personnel.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.173-184
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• 2023

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been challenging the healthcare service, i.e., the vitalization of the point of care accompanying self-testing in vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVDs). This study aims to suggest priority criteria to classify self-testing IVDs using the analytic hierarchy process technique. Methods: Two dimensions of the characteristics embedded in the IVDs and the diseases to be diagnosed with self-testing IVDs were parallelly considered and independently investigated. In addition, three expert panels consisting of laboratory medical doctors (n=11), clinicians (n=10), and citizens (n=11) who have an interest in the selection of self-testing IVDs were asked to answer to questionnaires. Priorities were derived and compared among each expert panel. Results: First of all, ease of specimen collection (0.241), urgency of the situation (0.224), and simplicity of device operation (0.214) were found to be the most important criteria in light of the functional characteristics of self-testing IVDs. Medical doctors valued the ease of specimen collection, but the citizen's panel valued self-management of the disease more. Second, considering the characteristics of the diseases, the priority criteria were shown in the order of prevalence of diseases (0.421), fatality of disease (0.378), and disease with stigma (0.201). Third, medical doctors responded that self-testing IVDs were more than twice as suitable for non-communicable diseases as compared to communicable diseases (0.688 vs. 0.312), but the citizen's group responded that self-testing IVDs were slightly more suitable for infectious diseases (0.511 vs. 0.489). Conclusion: Our findings suggested that self-testing IVDs could be primarily classified as the items for diagnosis of non-communicable diseases for the purpose of self-management with easy specimen collection and simple operation of devices, taking into account the urgency of the situation as well as prevalence and fatality of the disease.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

Purpose: To plan and improve consumers' satisfaction by analyzing consumers' purchasing behavior of spectacles. Also this will show the need of improvement in reliance of an optician. Methods: A total of 307 people (10 to 60 years) participated in individual questionnaires. Questionnaires comprised of general characteristic of surveyed people, purchasing spectacles behavior, satisfaction after purchasing spectacles, reliability of optician, and improvement points of optician. Results: Most important points in selecting the product were the design and the price of the spectacles. 142 people (46.3%) replied "average" and 140 people (45.6%) replied "satisfying" out of maximum point of satisfaction level which was 5 points. 72.3% of people have regularly visiting optical shop due to the high accessibility, after-sales care, and courteous optician. On the contrary, 27.7% replied "never visit same optician shop again" because of the low accessibility, minimal range of products, and high price. Data showed that people had high re liability about the opticians' knowledge of product, and their technique of eye refraction. Data revealed that people did not show high satisfaction about opticians' knowledge of ophthalmology, and price of products. Most important improvement points were accurate spectacle prescription by Opticians rating 42% of reply. Factors most considered during spectacle selection among the 10 to 20 age group were design by 34.8% and price by 10.1%. Among the 40 to 50 age group, most considered factors were design by 14% and spectacle frame material by 10.1%. Conclusions: Satisfaction rate of purchasing spectacles for the total participant group was 4.2 average grades. Reliability of opticians' eye refraction result and prescription was 50.5%. However consumers wanted to obtain more accurate eye refraction result and prescription with more comprehensive explanations. Also, consumers wanted opticians to be sensitive and have appreciative eye in select spectacles for customers, and to offer precise spectacle dispensing services and courteous after-sales care.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.274-285
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• 1998

Improvements in therapy have resulted in increasing numbers of children being successfully treated for cancer. However the agrressiveness of therapy & uncertainty about prognosis are associated with many adverse effects, psychological as well as physical for both the child & family. The purpose of this study were to measure the degree of perceived uncertainty, self-efficacy & coping, and then to examine the relationship between the perceived uncertainty, self-efficacy & coping in parents of children cancer patients. The subjects of this study consist of 140 parents with pediatric cancer, registered at pediatric cancer ward & Out Patient Department. Data was collected from July 1st to August 15th 1998. The tools used in this study were Mishel's the Parents' Perception of Uncertainty Scale (28 item, 4 likert scale), Shere's Self-Efficacy Scale (17 item, 5 likert scale) & Folkman & Lazarus Ways of Coping Checklist(34 items, 4 likert scale). Data was analyzed by t-test, Anova, Pearson Correlation coefficient. Results of this study are summerized as follows 1. Parents perceived their uncertainty to be slightly high(Mn 2.41). The degree of perceived uncertainty by the four components were followed as lack of clarity (2.60), unpredictability(2.59), ambiguity(2.51) & lack of information(1.90). The degree of perceived uncertainty of parents with pediatric cancer revealed to be influenced significantly by the family outcome, reliability about health care provider & perceived severity of illness. 2. The range of parents' self-efficacy was measured iron 35 to 85 point, so revealed slightly high. The degree of self-efficacy related to be Influenced signiicantly by the sequency of child birth, family religion & degree of perceived support. 3. The degree of parents' coping was measured slightly high (Mn 2.78). The degree of coping related to be influnced significantly by the sequency of child birth, number of sible & degree of perceived support. 4. parents' uncertainty was related inversely to the parents' self-efficacy(r=-.38, p<.001) & coping(r=-.26, p<.001). And also parents' self-efficacy was positively related to coping(r=.56, p<.001) From the above results, it can be concluded that predicting & controlling parents' uncertainty with children cancer are necessary to improve positive coping strategies. This information may be used as a foundation for developing nursing interventions to decrease perceived uncertainty & to foster self-efficacy & coping for parents with children cancer.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.375-384
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to identify the amount of social support and quality of life perceived by elderly people in rural areas and to examine the relationship between social support and quality of life in an effort to provide the basic data for effective nursing intervention to enhance quality of life among elderly people. Data were collected from a sample of 220 elderly people aged over 60 from a stratified probability method from one rural area in South Jeolla province from Aug. 15 to Sep. 15, 2002. For data collection, pre-educated researchers visited the participants' homes and surveyed them face-to-face. The statistical analysis was performed using the SAS program along with t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson Correlation. The findings were as follows: 1. The most socially supportive people they answered were Spouses (57.28%), followed by children, friends/neighbors, in descending order. In terms of satisfaction about social support, the subjects felt the most satisfaction from spouses, followed by friends/neighbors, children, in descending order. 2. The participants' perceived social support was 26.0 and the highest score was 108.0 out of 125. Also, the average score and average grade point was 81.7 and 3.35, respectively. A comparison of the average grade points per items within sub-areas of social support revealed financial aid(3.56), informative support(3.34), emotional support (3.27), and evaluation support(3.22). 3. Their perceived social support had statistically significant differences in terms of how much they earned (F=18.56, p= .00001) and whether they had family members living together (F=2.68, p= .0512), quality of life had statistically significant differences in terms of how much they earned (F=35.34, p= 0.00001). 4. The quality of life they perceived was the lowest score 47.0, the highest score 196.0, average score 145.7, and average grade points 3.28. A comparison of the average grade points per items within sub-areas of quality of life revealed neighbor relationships(3.97), self-esteem(3.49), family relationships(3.35), economic conditions 3.12), physical health (2.98), and psychological health(2.74). 5. The relationship between the amount of the subjects' social support and quality of life was significantly correlated (r=.696, p< .001). The findings revealed that social support for elderly people in rural areas was a greatly effective factor on their quality, of life. Also, it was shown that the larger the social support for the elderly, the greater the quality of life for them. Therefore, it is necessary to foster geriatric nurse specialists and develop nursing intervention programs connected with health care and social wellbeing in order to enhance the quality of life of elderly people in rural areas. Also, it is necessary to develop effective models for community and its applications, which will playa leading role for elderly people.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.149-162
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to design strategic hospital service based on each hospital's features. For this study, an assessment was conducted by 398 in-patents of one university hospital located in Seoul. The self-questionnaires, which were investigated from Oct. 15th to 29th in 2008, compared central reception desk with ward reception desk in satisfaction and re-use rate of patients. The major results of this study are as follow. First, according to each reception desk user, they have different satisfaction of it. As for the staff kindness, admission procedure, discharge procedure and manner of staff, those made patients be gratified as well. Second, when it comes to the intention of re-use, there were no significant features between them. Only convenience in admission and discharge procedure, however, was an attractive factor for the recommendation. Third, this study found out the reasons for higher re-use rate of central reception desk users. Regarding service, they were contented with the time for test and treatment. As for the hospital service, they would like to re-use this hospital because of convenient steps of paying interim fee and getting certificates. Forth, this study found out the reasons for higher re-use rate of ward reception desk users. As a point of hospital service view, they responded that respected privacy, hospital facility and general service were good for staying. As for the manner of staff, they mentioned nurses and staff in charge and whole staff members were kind. When it comes to the procedures of patient management, steps of discharge and paying interim fee were convenience. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that providing a ward reception desk service can boost the satisfaction and re-use rate of in-patients. Furthermore, this strategic management method would be good for not only cutting the moving line but also efficient in-patient care system. These results can be used for the strategic hospital marketing field, as well. Even though this study has a limitation of the targeted populations which were only in a ward reception desk running hospital, it can say that having competitiveness in satisfaction of hospital service is good for promoting and differencing each hospital. Consequently, whole general management system would be adjusted first for differencing each hospital; however, this sort of additional factor should be concerned as well. I expect that this study would give meaningful data for designing strategic and differencing marketing method to lots of hospitals.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 2000

In this study, we investigate the effects of poor shimming on quantitative measurement of ratios of metabolite levels by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ($^1$H MRS). Coefficient of variation (COV) of metabolite ratios for point resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) and stimulated-echo acquisition mode (STEAM) spectra was evaluated from a phantom containing in vivo levels of metabolites using a conventional whole body 1.5T MR system and conventional acquisition and analysis protocol. A statistical P-value was also calculated from a linear regression for relationship of metabolite ratios. N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/ creatine (Cr) and NAA/ choline (Cho) had low COV values for the long and short TE spectra (29.1 and 27.5%; 23.8 and 12.6 %), whereas Cho/Cr and Cr/Cho had high COV values (50.0 and 68.6 %; 27.5 and 29.3 %). A linear relationship between NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr, and between NAA/Cho and Cr/Cho revealed the statistical significance in the long and short TE spectra, respectively (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001; P = 0.015 and P = 0.005). There was no significant relationship between Cho/NAA and Cr/NAA in the measurement (P = 0.159; P = 0.910). The present study suggested that NAA/Cr and NAA/Cho could be useful for data with poor shimming in $^1$H MR spectroscopy. In conclusion, statistical significance of metabolite ratios indicated that the Cr and Cho levels could be interpreted as a significant alteration factor in the long and short TE spectra, and then should be used with care to provide precise metabolite quantification.

• Journal of Korean Dental Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.6-15
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study is to investigate the degree of coincidence between the peer assessment rating (PAR) index and American Board of Orthodontics objective grading system (ABO-OGS) in the assessment of orthodontic treatment outcomes of Class I malocclusion cases. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 26 Class I patients. The PAR index was used for evaluation of pre-(T0) and posttreatment (T1) casts, and the ABO-OGS for assessment of T1 casts. If there was a reduction in PAR scores from T0 to T1 of more than 30%, the label 'PAR+' was given to the case, and if not, it was labeled 'PAR-'. If the ABO-OGS was less than 27, the label 'OGS+' was given to the case and if not, it was labeled 'OGS-'. 'A PAR-only qualified group' (PAR+), 'ABO-OGS-only qualified group' (OGS+), 'both indices qualified group' (PAR+/OGS+), and 'both indices disqualified group' (PAR-/OGS-) were compared with a Wilcoxon rank-sum test, sensitivity/specifi city test and Spearman's correlation test. Result: PAR scores for T0, T1, and percentage reduction were 21.1, 6.4, and 65.9%, respectively, and 35.4 for ABOOGS. The distribution of the 'PAR+/OGS+', 'PAR+', and 'PAR-/OGS-' group was 19.3%, 76.9%, and 3.8%, respectively. The T0-PAR, T1-PAR and PAR point reductions for the 'PAR+' group were significantly higher than those of 'PAR+/OGS+' groups (23.1 vs. 15.6; 6.7 vs. 4.6; and 16.5 vs. 11.0; all P<0.05). However, the PAR-percentage reduction and treatment duration between the two groups were not statistically different (70.0% vs. 67.0%, P=0.4325; 24.1 months vs. 25.0 months, P=0.4057). The T1-ABO-OGS score for 'PAR+' group was significantly higher than that of the 'PAR+/OGS+' groups (38.2 vs. 24.0, P<0.001). Conclusion: Since the fraction of the 'PAR+/OGS+' group was less than 20% and there was no significant correlation between PAR-percentage reduction and T1-ABO-OGS, development of a new index system for the accurate evaluation of treatment outcome is needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2015

Background: The current study examined health-related quality of life (QoL) for patients with esophageal/gastric cardia precursor lesions or cancer before and after treatment to facilitate improved prevention and treatment. Materials and Methods: Patients with different stages of esophageal/gastric cardia lesions completed two QoL questionnaires, EORTC QLQ-C30 and supplemental QLQ-OES 18, before primary treatment, and at 1, 6 and 12 months after treatment. Results: Fifty-nine patients with precursor lesions, 57 with early stage cancer, and 43 with advanced cancer responded to our survey. Patients with precursor lesions or early stage cancer reported better QoL overall than those with advanced cancer before treatment (p<0.01). Global QoL scores before treatment and at 1 month after treatment were $71{\pm}9$ versus $69{\pm}9$ (p>0.01), $71{\pm}8$ versus $61{\pm}11$ (p<0.01), $67{\pm}11$ versus $62{\pm}9$ (p<0.01) for three stages of lesions. At 6 months after treatment, some QoL measures recovered gradually in precursor lesion and early cancer patients, while some continuously deteriorated in advanced cancer patients. At 12 months, all QoL scores were comparable to baseline for patients with precursor lesions (p>0.01), while global QoL, social, pain, and insomnia scores for early stage and advanced cancer were inferior to corresponding baseline levels (difference between means>5, p<0.01). At this time point, compared with patients with early stage cancer, those with advanced cancer showed worse QoL with all function and most symptom measures (p<0.01). Conclusions: Patients with precursor lesions or early stage esophageal/gastric cardia cancer show better QoL than those with advanced cancer. This indicates that screening, early diagnosis and treatment may improve the QoL for esophageal/gastric cardia cancer patients. Target intervention and counseling should be given by health care providers during treatment and follow-up to facilitate QoL improvement.