• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.358-377
• /
• 2023

During the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions. For these policy interventions to be effective, authorities engaged in the political discourse of legitimising their activity to generate positive public attitudes. To understand effective COVID-19 policy, this study investigates public attitudes in South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States and how they reflect different legitimisation of policy intervention. We adopt a big data approach to analyse public attitudes, drawing from public comments posted on Twitter during selected periods. We collect the number of tweets related to COVID-19 policy intervention and conduct a sentiment analysis using a deep learning method. Public attitudes and sentiments in the three countries show different patterns according to how policy interventions were implemented. Overall concern about policy intervention is higher in South Korea than in the other two countries. However, public sentiments in all three countries tend to improve following implementation of policy intervention. The findings suggest that governments can achieve policy effectiveness when consistent and transparent communication take place during the initial period of the pandemic. This study contributes to the existing literature by applying big data analysis to explain which policies engender positive public attitudes.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.208-245
• /
• 2017

Background: Attitudes toward breastfeeding in public are one potential barrier to optimal breastfeeding rates and durations. Method: Questions about breastfeeding experience and attitudes toward breastfeeding in public were asked in face-to-face interviews as part of the Korean Academic Multimode Open Survey (KAMOS), May-July, 2017. The response rate was 65.8% (2000 respondents nationwide). Results: A majority of Koreans disagreed (1 or 2 on a 4-point scale) with the statement "Women should not breastfeed their child in open, public places" (53.9%) and agreed (3 or 4 on the 4-part Likert scale) with the statements "I do not feel uncomfortable seeing women breastfeed their child in open, public places" (64.0%) and "Breastfeeding a baby, instead of letting the baby cry, in public places is better for other people" (71.8%). However, despite these generally positive attitudes, the majority also said that they would not breastfeed in public (57.4% of women) or, in the case of men, would not want a close female relative to do so (63.8% of men). Breastfeeding in public was positively correlated with the duration of breastfeeding. People were more positive about breastfeeding in public if they: were parents; did not use formula and breastfeeding a similar amount; had children who had been breastfed in public; were older; were Buddhists rather than Christians. An attempt was made to compare attitudes toward breastfeeding in public and breastfeeding durations internationally, but was inconclusive due to not perfectly comparable data. Conclusion: Our results may be useful in planning public health campaigns in South Korea or future attempts at international comparisons to better understand and address the effect of public opinion regarding breastfeeding in public on breastfeeding rates and durations.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.22 no.1 s.25
• /
• pp.162-168
• /
• 1989

This study was conducted to analyse attitudes to a new health care system in a rural community. The specific purpose of this thesis was to classify attitudes to the patient referral system in Kangwha county, and to identify factors affecting the attitudes. Sampling was done by a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method from the population. The data were collected in Kangwha county through a structured interview survey for two weeks in June, 1957. Attitudes to the patient referral system were classified into four types based upon answers to questions about awareness of the system, the recognition for the necessity of the system, and opinions on the improvement of the system. The four types of attitudes were active acceptance(10.2%), partial acceptance (27.2%), refusal(35.8%), and indifference(26.7%). The respondent's age, educational level, age of head of household, medical insurance fee, the number of ill family members, and the percentage of medical utilization by the family were the variables which affected the attitudes. The medical insurance fee, respondent's age, age of head of household, and the percentage of medical utilization by the family were the statistically significant discriminant factors of the four types of attitudes.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 1976

In an attempt to recognize attitudes of teachers and general public toward mental health, III teachers of middle and high school and 130 general public were selected for this study from September 6, 1975 to October 18, 1975. Date were collected through "Mental Health Questionnaire"designed by Nounally. Results of the study were as follows : 1. The selected teacher group and general public group revealed almost similar altitudes toward psychotic patients, that is, positive aspects for employment problems and relationship toward other persons. 2. Both teacher group and general public group revealed the same attitudes toward neurotic patients, felt relatively more reliance on them, and showed much more positive attitudes toward neurotic patients than psychotic patients. 3. Both groups indicated that, for the security of mental health, It is best way to show him the right path and make sure that he follows it. As to mental health, most of the selective subjects consulted with psychiatrist about the problems and obtained the information through books. 4. Both teacher group and general public group identified mental illness being equal in seriousness to alcoholism or cardiac disease. In case of a close relative living in their home having mental disease, most of them responded to be glad to help him. 5. Both teacher group and general public group revealed intensively negative attitudes toward mental hospital in order of despair. danger, and filth, while positive attitudes toward psychiatrist.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.59-89
• /
• 2017

Changes in the public welfare attitudes are very important to the welfare politics and policy. Considering that variability of public welfare attitudes has been ignored in previous studies, we analyzed welfare attitudes changes at individual level in Korea. Using the longitudinal data from the Additional Survey of 2010/2013/2016 Korea Welfare Panel Survey, we analyzed the changes in public welfare attitudes during 2010th-2016th years. Major findings are as follows. First, one of the findings from analysis is that the public welfare attitudes are very active and dynamic in Korea. This finding is contradiction to the results of the previous researches that are point to the stability or inertia of the public welfare attitudes in western welfare states and also in Korea. Second, occurrences of the welfare attitudes change are related with various individual characteristics; income status, occupation status, age, region, sex, political ideology, etc. These results from this study on the welfare attitudes change suggest that dynamics of the Korea welfare politics in recent years reflected the dynamic changes in public welfare attitudes. And, they suggest that Korea welfare politics are transformed from the traditional classes welfare politics to the new welfare politics which are influenced by various interests of the socio-demographic groups.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.626-630
• /
• 2019

After several significant nuclear accidents, public attitudes toward nuclear energy technologies and facilities are considered to be one of the essential factors in the national energy and electricity policy-making process of several nations that employ nuclear energy as their key energy resource. However, it is difficult to explore and capture such an attitude, because the majority of prior studies analyzed public attitudes with a limited number of respondents and fragmentary opinion polls. In order to supplement this point, this study suggests a big data analyzing method with K-LIWC (Korean-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), sentiment and query analysis methods, and investigates public attitudes, positive and negative emotional statements about nuclear energy with the collected data sets of well-known social media and network services in Korea over time. Results show that several events and accidents related to nuclear energy have consistent or temporary effects on the attitude and ratios of the statements, depending on the kind of events and accidents. The presented methodology and the use of big data in relation to the energy industry is suggested as it can be helpful in addressing and exploring public attitudes. Based on the results, implications, limitations, and future research areas are presented.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.236-244
• /
• 2020

Objectives: Although the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative "My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene" has been lauded as effective in preventing hospital-associated infections, little is known about healthcare workers (HCWs)' hand hygiene behavior. In this study, we sought to assess knowledge and attitudes towards the concepts in this initiative, as well as associated factors, among Vietnamese HCWs at a general hospital. Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to HCWs at a central Vietnamese general hospital in 2015. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with HCWs' knowledge and attitudes towards hand hygiene. Results: Of 120 respondents, 65.8% and 67.5% demonstrated appropriate knowledge and a positive attitude, respectively, regarding all 5 hand hygiene moments. Logistic regression indicated better knowledge of hand hygiene in workers who were over 30 years old, who were direct HCWs (rather than managers), who had frequent access to clinical information, and who received their clinical information from training. Those who worked in infectious and tropical disease wards, who had frequent access to clinical information, and who received information from training were more likely to have a positive attitude towards hand hygiene than their counterparts. Conclusions: Although many Vietnamese HCWs displayed moderate knowledge and positive attitudes towards the WHO hand hygiene guidelines, a key gap remained. Regular education and training programs are needed to increase knowledge and to improve attitudes and practices towards hand hygiene. Furthermore, a combination of multimodal strategies and locally-adapted interventions is needed for sustainable hand hygiene adherence.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.52-70
• /
• 2014

Gathering polling items about China and Japan from 1937 to 2011, we examine how Americans think about these two powerful East Asian countries. Our study investigates American attitudes from two perspectives. First, we analyze the content of polling items asked in the US about China and Japan to track changes in salient issues over a period of over 60 years. Second, by tracking repeated items, we show how American attitudes toward China and Japan have changed over time, both in long-term general favorability, and shorter-term perception of geopolitical, ideological, and economic threat in response to historical events.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.115-129
• /
• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate the attitudes towards mathematics of high school students by comparing students of a general public school and a foreign language high school. The researchers were interested in how the two groups, middle or middle lower achievers and high achievers, showed their attitudes toward mathematics and where their attitudes were derived from. For the investigation, the researchers surveyed 121 students of general public high school and 64 students of a foreign language high school. Reliability, mean difference with t-test and frequency were analyzed. The results showed that many students from both groups had negative attitudes toward mathematics. However, the causes of the attitudes were different between the two groups. This implies that we need to reform the instructional methods and curricula of mathematics cources.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.742-749
• /
• 2011

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine public level of knowledge and attitudes regarding antibiotic use and potential drug resistance. Methods: A cross-sectional face-to-face survey of 1,177 residents aged 18 or over was conducted in Korea. A quota sampling method was used. Results: Most respondents (70%) did not know that antibiotics are ineffective in treating coughs and colds. Two-thirds of the respondents were unaware of the conditions under which antibiotic resistance occurs, despite understanding the concept of resistance. Lower education level and older age were independently associated with inadequate knowledge. Lower education level, older age, inadequate knowledge and no exposure to the education campaign were independently associated with poor attitude. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that the general public has misunderstandings and a lack of knowledge with regard to antibiotic use, despite a national educational campaign. However, the campaign may have had an effect on the public's attitudes towards antibiotics.