• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.506-525
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• 1992

Older people, because of the psychological and physiological changes related to the aging process are more vulnerable to experiencing powerlessness than any other age group. This self destructive cycle of depression in older people related to the experience of continued and long term powerlessness can lead even to death. The purpose of this study was to measure powerlessness and resources to increase power in older people, and to measure the effectiveness of a psychological rehabilitation program for reducing powerlessness. The research methodology used was a two step process. In the first step, a survey was done of perceived powerlessness and power resources comparing four groups of elderly people ; those living at home, those in hospital, those living in nursing homes and those attending educational programs for the elderly. The total sample size was 236. In the second step, a psychological rehabilitation program was carried out, pre and post measurements were taken related to this program. The sample consisted of 29 residents in a nursing home. The results of the study are as follows : 1. Powerlessness was classified as cognitive, emotional, activity and learning. The lowest score for powerlessness was in the area of activity, that is the people in the sample felt more power concerning their activities. The highest score was in the area of cognition where they felt they had less power. 2. When the different groups of elderly were compared, it was found that the residents of the nursing home had the highest score on perceived powerlessness and the group who were living at home had the lowest score. 3. Among the general characteristics, the factors influencing the powerlessness score were age, sex, level of education, financial resources and health status. In the interaction effects among these factors, it was found that level of education and health status were factors influencing perceived powerlessness. The elderly with lower education and poorer health status had the higher scores for perceived powerlessness. 4. The power resources could be classified into the following areas : physical strength, emotional strength, positive self-image, energy, knowledge, motivation and belief system. Belief system was given the highest score among the power resources and energy, knowledge and motivation were given low scores. 5. The group participating in an educational program for the elderly had the highest score for power resources while the group made up of residents of a nursing home had the lowest score as well as the highest score for perceived powerlessness. 6. The factors influencing the power resource scores were sex, level of education, financial resources and health status. In the analysis of the interaction effect among the factors, it was found that sex, level of education and financial resources were the factors that influenced the power resource score, that is, women, those with a low level of education and those with poor financial resources reported a lower level of power resources. 7. There was a negative correlation between perceived powerlessness and power resources in the elderly in this study. Since power resources explainded 49% of the variance for powerlessness, it can be concluded that the power resources can be used to reduce powerlessness. 8. The psychological rehabilitation program was carried out with the nursing home residents over a period of five weeks. No statistically significant difference was found in the scores on powerlessness between the pre and post tests, but there was a slight decrease in the raw scores on the post test for emotional, activity and learning powerlessness. There was a statistically significant increase in the power resource scores for emotional strength, positive self-image, energy, knowledge and motivation in the post test as compared to the pre test. In conclusion, the study indicates that a psychological rehabilitation program for the elderly could be effective in increasing power resources and this in turn could lead to a decrease in perceived powerlessness.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.102-110
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• 1987

One of the familiar medical facility that most people reach easily in Korea is the drug store. In Korea, it is possible to purchase all kinds of common drugs without physician's prescriptions, which caused some problems. In other words, such treatment without professional supervision has led to medical, social and economical problems. In view of the above, this study is aimed at revealing the actual status of long-term use of drugs in some urban residents. Long-term use of drugs is operationally defined as using certain drugs at least once a week for more than 3 months. This survey took the residents of Guro 6-Dong where was one of the target areas for Community Health Development Project managed by Korea University as a target population. A sample of 1,517 residents was selected by the multistage sampling method. The interview was conducted on September 21st and 22nd in 1985. The object of this study was to compare the result with that of the rural area which was obtained by the same method, tools and research team, prior to this study in 1984. The results were as follows; 1) The age-standardization of the study showed that 97 per 1,000 urban residents were actually on long-term drug use. The prevalance of long-term use is high in accordance with aging and low with education level. 2) Out of 1,000 urban samples the most popular item involved in the long-term drug use was antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drug (26), and next in order was vitamin (23), antibiotics (13), digestives (10) and antacids (7). In the rural samples as for compare, that was antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drug (100), antacids (36), digestives (23), adrenocortical hormones (12) etc. 3) With antipyrctic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drugs, 50% of the urban samples were taking for more than a year, whereas such were 82.7% of the rural samples. Using such a high percentage of antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflamatory drugs in the rural residents is probably due to the high prevalence rate of musculo-skeletal diseases. 4) The urban long-term drug users of antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drugs were influenced mostly by the mass media (43.6%), next in order was pharmacist (35.9%) and physician (10.3%). Comparing with the result from the rural areas the role of mass media was much more influencial in the urban areas. 60% of them consulted with pharmacists, 14.3% with physicians and 25.7% had no history of consultation in the urban samples. 5) Considering the incidence of knowing the possible side-effects of each drug, 28.2% of the urban residents had no recognition about side-effects prior to use antipyretic-analgesic-antiinflammatory drugs. In the rural residents, 29.67o had no knowledge about the side-effects before using the drug. 6) For the solution of the above problems, it is necessary to limit the advertisement of some drugs by the parmaceutical company. And therapeutic drugs which may bring on side effects in case of long-term use should not be sold at drug stores without physician's prescription.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.65-77
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• 1999

In order to estimate the utilization pattern of a rural health subcenter, and to identify the recognition for it among the farmhouse members in a suburban area, a questionnaire survey was carried out for objects of 696 population. The results observed were as follows: The annual utilization rate of rural health subcenter for a basic health service unit was 25.0 per 100 persons, and annual mean visiting times was 0.22 times. And the most frequent disease by annual health subcenter utilization illness was musculoskeletal disease(30.6%), and the next was respiratory disease(14.1%), gastrointestinal disease(13.9%) by order. Favorite reason for community health subcenter utilization were near distance from living place(49.6%), lower disease severity(18.9%) and lower medical cost(18.1%) by order. But disfavoring reasons for it were absence of specialist(20.2%), non effective treatment(19.2%) and insufficient equipment(14.7%) by order. And insufficient items about community health subcenter utilization were restriction of treatment limit(40.7%), lower reliance(22.5%) and difficulty in traffic(13.4%) by order. The results of logistic regression analysis suggested that statistically significant factors in health subcenter utilization was educational level. The desirable works for the health subcenter in a suburban area were disease control of elderly and disease preventing service. These results suggested that to increase the utilization of rural health subcenter in a suburban area and to promote the accessibility of rural residents to primary health care, there must be considered public relation about health subcenter, improvement of medical quality and change of priority about health subcenter's works.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2008

Objective : The purpose of this study is to investigate awareness of rehabilitation practitioners working at community wellness centers regarding the sensory integration (SI) therapy. Methods : 121 rehabilitation practitioners working at community wellness centers, located in Seoul Gyeonggi, Daegu Gyeongbuk and Busan Ulsan, participated in a questionnaire survey to examine their awareness of SI therapy. The questionnaire constructed based on four elements of the information about SI therapy; SI therapy's purpose, target population and technical process, and the qualification of SI therapist. Correlations between general characteristics and the four awareness elements of SI information were explored. The level of recognition on SI therapy were examined in various perspective such as 'have heard', 'means of the recognition', 'easiness of getting information', 'recognition of necessity of SI therapy', 'willing to participate in professional education course' and 'opinions for improving recognition'. Result : There is significant difference in awareness of the all four elements of SI informations depends on several general characteristics; practitioner's clinical field, location of the center, whether SI service has been provided or not at the center, whether the practitioner carry out SI therapy, and the practitioner's clinical experience in SI therapy. Specially, the recognition of occupational therapists is relatively high compared other rehabilitation practitioners. In terms of level of recognition, most rehabilitation practitioners(96.7%) are well-aware of necessity of sensory integration therapy. 79.4% of the practitioners manifest somewhat of difficulty in getting information related SI therapy. 93.4% of the practitioners are willing to participate in professional education course for SI therapy. Opinion for improving recognition with the most number of people(21) chosen is 'educational revitalization'. Conclusion : Many rehabilitation practitioners working at community wellness centers recognize the necessity of understand SI therapy, but there is uneasiness to get relative and valid information. There are difference awareness of the SI therapy Revitalization of education for SI therapy may provide an opportunity to improve level recognition of rehabilitation practitioners. It is suggested that organ related rehabilitation, there is a need for public relations.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.125-150
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• 2009

RFID(Radio Frequency IDentification) is a wireless frequency of recognition technology that can be used to recognize, trace, and identify people, things, and animals using radio frequency(RF). RFID will bring about many changes in manufacturing and distributions, among other areas. In accordance with the increasing importance of RFID techniques, great advancement has been made in RFID studies. Initially, the RFID research started as a research literature or case study. Recently, empirical research has floated on the surface for announcement. But most of the existing researches on RFID adoption have been restricted to a dichotomous measure of 'adoption vs. non-adoption' or adoption intention. In short, RFID research is still at an initial stage, mainly focusing on the research of the RFID performance, integration, and its usage has been considered dismissive. The purpose of this study is to investigate which factors are important for the RFID adoption and implementation with organizational resources. In this study, the organizational resources are classified into either finance resources or IT knowledge resources. A research model and four hypotheses are set up to identify the relationships among these variables based on the investigations of such theories as technological innovations, adoption stage, and organizational resources. In order to conduct this study, a survey was carried out from September 27, 2008 until October 23, 2008. The questionnaire was completed by 143 managers and workers from physical distribution and manufacturing companies related to the RFID in South Korea. 37 out of 180 surveys, which turned out unfit for the study, were discarded and the remaining 143(adoption stage 89, implementation stage 54) were used for the empirical study. The statistics were analyzed using Excel 2003 and SPSS 12.0. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, the adoption stage shows that perceived benefits, standardization, perceived cost savings, environmental uncertainty, and pressures from rival firms have significant effects on the intent of the RFID adoption. Further, the implementation stage shows that perceived benefits, standardization, environmental uncertainty, pressures from rival firms, inter-organizational cooperation, and inter-organizational trust have significant effects on the extent of the RFID use. In contrast, inter-organizational cooperation and inter-organizational trust did not show much impact on the intent of RFID adoption while perceived cost savings did not significantly affect the extent of RFID use. Second, in the adoption stage, financial issues had adverse effect on both inter-organizational cooperation and the intent against the RFID adoption. IT knowledge resources also had a deterring effect on both perceived cost savings and the extent of the RFID adoption. Third, in the implementation stage, finance resources had a moderate effect on environmental uncertainty and extent of RFID use while IT knowledge resources had also a moderate effect on perceived cost savings and the extent of the RFID use. Limitations and future research issues can be summarized as follows. First, it is difficult to say that the sample is large enough to be representative of the population. Second, because the sample of this study was conducted among manufacturers only, it may be limited in analyzing fully the effect on the industry as a whole. Third, in consideration of the fact that the organizational resources in the RFID study require a great deal of researches, this research may deem insufficient to fulfill the purpose that it initially set out to achieve. Future studies using performance research are, therefore, needed to help better understand the organizational level of the RFID adoption and implementation.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.518-522
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• 2008

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of enuresis in association with voiding habits and socioeconomic status in elementary school children. Methods : A dynamic survey was done of 1,514 students from two elementary schools in Suwon, Korea in December 2006. Data regarding gender, age, height and weight, voiding habits, and monthly family incomes were gathered and analyzed to discover any correlation with the incidence of enuresis. The percentile value of height or weight was extrapolated from the standard population curve. Results : Among 1,514 children, 1,063 (70.2%) answered and returned the questionnaires. Overall, the prevalence of enuresis was 8.7% and there was no difference between the public (8.8%) and private school (8.7%). The family incomes of the students from the two schools differed greatly from each other, but there was no difference in the prevalence of enuresis between the two schools. Children with a habit of void-holding showed a higher prevalence of enuresis. No significant correlation was found between the prevalence of enuresis and the height and weight percentile of children. Experience with hospital visits was low among enuretic children (20.8%), suggesting that Korean parents tend to neglect treatment of enuresis for their children. The prevalence of enuresis decreased by 2.0% each year, as school children aged. Conclusion : The overall prevalence of enuresis among elementary school children in Suwon district was 8.7%. The 12.1% prevalence of enuresis at the seven years came down gradually, to be nil at the age of 13. Infrequent urination or void-holding was assumed to be one of the important factors causing enuresis in elementary school children.