• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.225-231
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• 2008

Objectives: Bioterrorism (BT) preparedness and response plans are particularly important among healthcare workers who will be among the first involved in the outbreak situations. This study was conducted to evaluate the current status of education for BT preparedness and response in health care-related colleges/junior colleges and to develop learning objectives for use in their regular curricula. Methods: We surveyed all medical colleges/schools, colleges/junior colleges that train nurses, emergency medical technicians or clinical pathologists, and 10% (randomly selected) of them that train general hygienists in Korea. The survey was conducted via mail from March to July of 2007. We surveyed 35 experts to determine if there was a consensus of learning objectives among healthcare workers. Results: Only 31.3% of medical colleges/schools and 13.3% of nursing colleges/junior colleges had education programs that included BT preparedness and responses in their curricula. The most common reason given for the lack of BT educational programs was 'There is not much need for education regarding BT preparedness and response in Korea'. None of the colleges/junior colleges that train clinical pathologists, or general hygienists had an education program for BT response. After evaluating the expert opinions, we developed individual learning objectives designed specifically for educational institutions. Conclusions: There were only a few colleges/junior colleges that enforce the requirement to provide education for BT preparedness and response in curricula. It is necessary to raise the perception of BT preparedness and response to induce the schools to provide such programs.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.905-916
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on the single and recurrent falls in community-dwelling older women. Methods: Seventy eight volunteers aged over 65 were included in the study. The participants experienced at least one fall within the past one year. Data were measured on each participant from May 2007 to September 2007, collected using structured researcher-administered sheets and measuring their physical strengths and analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of recurrent falls were 53.8%. The level of education(Z = -2.455, p = .014) and the presence of spouse($x^2$ = 4.843, p = .044) showed significant differences between the single-fall group and the recurrent-fall group in the study. Significantly predicting factor on the recurrent falls was the level of education and the variable explained 20.1% of variants in the occurrence of recurrent falls. Conclusion: Although a variety of factors affected the single fall in the elderly women, the level of education and the presence of spouse proved to be the significant factors in their recurrent falls. These factors proven to be significant as the result of this should be reflected in the development of effective programs for preventing the elderly from recurrent falls.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.452-463
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to analyze and evaluate prior studies published in Korea on the cardiovascular disease-related quality of life, in order to make recommendations for further research. Methods: A total of 15 studies were selected from four databases(Digital library of Research Information Center for Health, Korea Medical Database, MedRic, and National Assembly Library). The selected studies were analyzed according to criteria, such as diagnosis/operation, used instrument, generic/specific instrument, dimension of quality of life, translation/ back-translation, sample size, reliability, validity, responsiveness, number of items, type of scale, time required, and independent variables. Results: Of the 15 cardiovascular disease-related quality of life studies, approximately half of them were conducted with hypertension or ischemic heart disease patients. All studies asserted that the concept of quality of life had multidimensional attributes. With respect to the questionnaire used for measuring the quality of life, only one study used a cardiovascular disease specific-instrument and most studies did not consider whether or not the validity of their instrument had been established. In addition, when using questionnaires developed in other languages, only one study employed a translation/back-translation technique. The types of variables tested for their influence on quality of life were quite limited. Conclusion: It is recommended to develop a reliability and validity established cardiovascular disease specific-quality of life for Korean patients and to identify associated new variables.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 1982

The main purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill of psychiatric nurses in Korea and to identify the relationships between the nurses' attitudes and demographic variables. Subjects in this study were 122 psychiatricnurses and 111non-psychiatric nurses in active service at 12 hospitals in Seoul. The insrtument used for measuring attitudes was a questionaire developed by Cohen and Struening (1962) referred to as the“Opinions about Mental illness(OMI) Scale”made up to 51 Likert-type items. The findings of this study indicated hatnurses showed negative attitudetoward mental illness and the mentally ill: Very high on social restrictiveness (factor D), low on Mental Health Ideology (factor C), and Interpersonal Etiology (factor E). Since the high score on Factor A, B and the low score on Factor B, C, E reflect a negative altitudes toward mental illness, this study population related extremely negative attitudes compared to any other surveys. And of the demographic variables that related to their attitudes the education degree and the kind of the hospital in active service showed very significant differences. On the basis of the investigation the findings indicated the followings; 1) Althohg attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill of psychiatric nurses were not significant differences from non-psychatric nurses, there was a trend that attitudes of psychaitric nurses did show more negative responses rather than those of non-psychiatric nurses. 2) Demographic variables that relate to their attitudes on the OMI scale were the education degree of the respondent and the kind of their hospital in active service. 3) About attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill baccalaureate nursesshowed more positive attitudes in Factor A (Authoritarianism), Factor C (Mental Health Ideology) and Factor D (Social Restrictiveness) than diploma program murses. 4) Nurses in active Service in the private hospital revealed more positive attitudes(A,B,C,D) except Factor (E) than those in the national or public hospital. 5) The ages, duration of work, wanted or unwantedG roup of psychiatric ward and satisfactory level of psychiatric nursing service were non-significant.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.7589-7598
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence and risk factors of diabetes according to gender among Korean employees over 30 years from 2007 to 2011 using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survery. Mutiple survey logistic tests were performed using SPSS 19.0. The prevalence of diabetes was higher for men than for women, but the odds ratio was higher women physical employee than men. And the prevalence amd over 50 years, with physical employee, with obesity, with hypertension, with Hyperlipidemia increased in comparison with the respective control group. Considering with this results, we can use as a basal data to control the prevalence of diabetes by both preventing and consistently monitoring these identified risk factors.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.759-768
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to apply a chronic disease management non-face-to-face program for the prevention and management of chronic disease and to confirm the effect of a one-group pre-and post-design similar experimental study. The program consisted of nursing, nutrition, and exercise programs for 12 weeks. The subjects were 69 adult men and women using the chronic disease management center at public health centers, and the period was from May 3 to August 6, 2021. Systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, fasting blood sugar, BMI, depression, and quality of life were measured before and after the program. Data were analyzed with SPSS 20.0. As a result, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, fasting blood glucose, and quality of life were found to be significant. Depression was not significant, but mild depression was reduced. Developing, applying, and managing various non-face-to-face programs for chronic disease management will contribute to the prevention of chronic diseases and the promotion of health maintenance.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.44.1-44.11
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• 2023

Background: A series of breast cancer cases were recently reported in a tertiary university hospital in South Korea. Nurses are generally exposed to risk factors for breast cancer such as night shift work, antineoplastic agents, and job strain. However, the epidemiological evidence of excess incidence among nurses remains lacking. This study aims to investigate the excess incidence of breast cancer among nurses in a tertiary university hospital and provide epidemiological evidence of occupational risk factors. Methods: A retrospective cohort was developed using personnel records of female workers in the nursing department who worked from January 2011 to June 2021 in a tertiary university hospital in South Korea. Sick leave records were used to identify cases of breast cancer. The standardized incidence ratio of breast cancer among nurses was compared to the general population. Results: A total of 5,509 nurses were followed up for 30,404 person-years, and 26 breast cancer cases were identified. This study revealed a significantly increased breast cancer incidence among all included nurses, with a standardized incidence ratio of 1.65 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-2.41), compared to the general population. Workers, who handle antineoplastic agents in their representative department and current and/or former department, had significantly elevated breast cancer standardized incidence ratios of 2.73 (95% CI: 1.008-5.94) and 3.39 (95% CI: 1.46-6.68), respectively. Conclusions: This study provides significant evidence of increased breast cancer risk among nursing staff in a hospital setting, particularly those who handle antineoplastic drugs. Measures that reduce exposure to risk factors should be implemented, especially anticancer drugs, to protect healthcare professionals. Further research at a national level that focuses on healthcare workers is necessary to validate breast cancer incidence and its contributing factors.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.253-277
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• 1999

Patients with chronic disease have various treatment patterns because it shows a progressive degenerative feature. Especially various physical and emotional problems of the rheumatoid arthritis patients leave them shopping around various types of treatment. According to previous studies, over 70% of patients with arthritis experienced the traditional oriental medicine or folk remedies simultaneously with medical treatment within one year after the onset of disease. The purposes of this study are 1) to compare the patterns of treatment-seeking behaviors between Korean arthritis patients and Americans ; and 2) test two models of treatment-seeking behaviors by path analysis, one for early treatment-seeking behavior model(ETBM) and the other is chronic treatment-seeking behavior model (CTBM) in Korean sample. The interview survey was performed to 133 RA patients with structured questionnaire at out-patient clinic or public health center. Patients characteristics such as age, duration of disease were similar in two countries except higher educational background in Americans. There were no patients using only alternative therapies or no medical treatment in the US. Most of the American patients have chosen both medical treatment and alternative therapy, while the Koreans less than American. In Korea, combined treatment group usually consists of the people who are younger, more educated and higher economic status than the characters of other groups in early or chronic stages. In early stage, they tend to have strong belief of curing from the disease, satisfy the relationship with their physicians and comply with direction of the medical professional. The paths of two models were explained by 70% in ETBM and 33% in CTBM. When the models were modified, almost all paths of the CTBM were the same as the previous one, but direct determinant factor was changed from the relationship with physicians to the lay referral system in chronic model. These two models' explanation powers became 94% and 88%, respectively. The attitude or perception of disease, lay referral system and the relationship with medical personnel are the main determinants of treatment-seeking behaviors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.5062-5069
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• 2014

In this study, professional oral care was provided and 3 times a day twice a week by a dental hygienist for 3 months from July 24 to October 25, 2011, to 43 long-term patients in a single nursing facility located at the city of D, and the number of mutans strepococci colonies within the saliva and the level of salivation were then analyzed after 3 samplings with an interval of 1 month to compare the intraoral conditions among the subjects and examine the effects of professional oral care on the Streptococcus mutans population in the intraoral region of long-term patients in a nursing facility. The level of salivation was elevated from 5.8 ml to 6.4 ml after one month and to 7.5mL after two months. The population of bacteria decreased from $6{\times}10^8CFU/ml$ to $3{\times}105CFU/ml$. In terms of the change in the bacterial population in accordance with systemic diseases, the patients with hypertension and diabetes showed a meaningful decrease in the population. As more dental charge and prosthesis are present, the number of bacteria decreased significantly. On account of the close relationship between a professional oral care and the population of Streptococcus mutans at the intraoral region of long-term patients in nursing facilities, various dental health programs should be researched and developed to consider the characteristics of long-term patients in nursing facilities and manage them continuously but effectively.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors associated with suspicious developmental delay in infants and early childhood. Methods: Participants were 133 infants, aged from birth to 6 years old and their mothers, who were being seen at 16 Public health centers in B city. Korean Denver II was used to test infant development. ${\chi}^2$-test, Fisher's exact test and multiple logistic regression were used with SPSS 19.0 to analyze data. Results: Of participant infants, 7.5% were below the 3rd percentile for the weight percentile, 8.4% is a weight curve that crosses more than 2 percentile lines on the growth charts after previous achievement, and 9.8% had suspicious developmental delay according to Korean Denver II. Further the predictive factors related to suspicious development delay in the children were decrease of weight percentile (Odds Ratio [OR]=6.69, Confidence Interval [CI])=1.22-36.45), low economic state (OR=6.26, CI=1.50-26.00), and development delay perceived by their mothers (OR=4.99, CI=1.24-20.06). Conclusion: It is necessary to build a government level system to follow management of development of infants and children from the time of birth. Especially, it is necessary to develop a program for children in low income families.