• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.272-281
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• 2023

Objectives: Young mothers are vulnerable to postpartum depression due to role transition-related stress. Understanding the causes underlying these stressors is essential for developing effective interventions. Methods: This study analyzed the 2018 Indonesian Basic Health Research data. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to assess postpartum depression symptoms in mothers aged 15-24 years with infants aged 0-6 months. In 1285 subjects, the risk factors for postpartum depression were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression. Results: The overall prevalence of depression in the 6 months postpartum was 4.0%, with a higher prevalence in urban areas (5.7%) than in rural areas (2.9%). Urban and rural young mothers showed distinct postpartum depression risk factors. In urban areas, living without a husband (odds ratio [OR], 3.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.24 to 11.76), experiencing preterm birth (OR, 4.67; 95% CI, 1.50 to 14.50), having pregnancy complications (OR, 3.03; 95% CI, 1.20 to 7.66), and having postpartum complications (OR, 5.23; 95% CI, 1.98 to 13.80) were associated with a higher risk of postpartum depression. In rural areas, postpartum depression was significantly associated with a smaller household size (OR, 3.22; 95% CI, 1.00 to 10.38), unwanted pregnancy (OR, 4.40; 95% CI, 1.15 to 16.86), and pregnancy complications (OR, 3.41; 95% CI, 1.31 to 8.88). Conclusions: In both urban and rural contexts, postpartum depression relates to the availability of others to accompany young mothers throughout the postpartum period and offer support with reproductive issues. Support from the family and the healthcare system is essential to young mothers' mental health. The healthcare system needs to involve families to support young mothers' mental health from pregnancy until the postpartum period.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.289-296
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• 2022

Objectives: Integrating retail and manufacturing enables limitless potential for food businesses, but also creates challenges for navigating within complex food safety regulations. From public health inspectors' (PHIs) perspective, this study aimed (1) to describe the characteristics of crossover businesses in Louisiana, and (2) to evaluate regulation awareness and food safety education needs for business owners and PHIs who inspect crossover businesses. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was administered to Louisiana Department of Health PHIs using Qualtrics^®. A descriptive analysis was performed, focusing on the frequency of each item. Results: In total, 1774 retailers were conducting or planned to conduct specialized processes, while 552 food manufacturers were performing or planned to perform retail functions. Reduced oxygen packaging, the use of additives such as vinegar as a method of preservation, and smoking food as a method of preservation were observed by 62%, 36%, and 35% of the PHIs, respectively. The PHIs perceived crossover businesses as "not aware" or "somewhat aware" of the food safety regulations. The current food safety training level for these businesses was reported to range from "no training" to "some training but not sufficient." When asked for a self-assessment, the majority of PHIs reported themselves as being "familiar" with the variance requirement for specialized processing. Their confidence in inspecting crossover businesses, however, leaned towards "not confident" or "somewhat confident." Conclusions: To better guard public health, food safety training is needed for crossover food business owners, as well as PHIs, on regulations and conducting or inspecting specialized processes.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.15-32
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• 2024

Purpose: The number of severely ill patients requiring post-acute care has been increasing. Careful discharge planning minimizes unplanned emergency room visits and readmissions. This study aimed to survey the knowledge, experience, confidence, and obstacles faced by medical residents and fellows regarding the discharge process of severely ill patients. Methods: A survey consisting of 27 questions was sent electronically to residents and fellows who had experience in discharging severely ill patients from a tertiary hospital in Korea. The survey was conducted over a two-week period from September 29, 2022. Results: A total of 98 residents and fellows responded to the survey. Of these, 94% experienced difficulties related to the discharge process. The main obstacle was changes in the patient's condition during discharge planning (92.3%). Although 95% of the respondents acknowledged the need for providing discharge information, only 53.1% of the residents and fellows practiced this. Only 42.9% of the respondents and 20.4% of residents and fellows explained local community healthcare and welfare resources to patients because of a lack of relevant knowledge (69.7%) and feeling no responsibility to explain (40.4%). Conclusion: This study revealed that residents and fellows experienced difficulties in devising discharge plans and providing post-acute care related information, despite recognizing the importance of these. These gaps result from the lack of a discharge planning curriculum regarding critically ill patients and appropriate training in the discharge process. This suggests that an integrated discharge planning curriculum should be developed and adopted in residents' training programs for the differentiated treatment of critically ill patients.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 1999

Objectives. This study surveyed medical students attending clerkship to assess their attitude toward and knowledge about breastfeeding, and self-confidence to manage common breastfeeding problems. Methods. A self-report questionnaire was administered to the 323 medical students at four medical colleges in Taegu in May 1997. The response rate was 92.9%, but the respondents used in the final data analysis were 245 (75.8%) due to missing variables. Results. Overall, respondents showed equivocal attitudes toward breastfeeding (mean score 2.9 on a 6-point scale). Knowledge about breastfeeding was substantially low with the median % correct 39.2%. Of nine knowledge areas, weak areas were especially 'contraindications and barriers to breastfeeding', 'use of breastfeeding aids', 'expression and storage of breast milk'. Those reported to be confident to manage common breastfeeding problems were only 25.7%. Correlations between knowledge and self-confidence were not statistically significant except in college A (r=0.35, p<0.05). Correlations between knowledge and attitude were not significant. Conclusions. These results suggest that medical students attending clerkship in Taegu show equivocal attitudes toward breastfeeding, low self-confidence to manage common breastfeeding problems and have substantially limited level of knowledge. There should be more concerted efforts to improve this situation on the part of those involved in breastfeeding education.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.175-185
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• 2015

Objectives : This study was did a meta-analysis of emergency room visits decreased effectiveness of self management education interventions in asthma among adult patients with asthma. Methods : A search of the database PubMed resulted in identifying 8,619 studies done between January 1990 and November 2012. STATA version 10.0 was used to analyze the effect size, explore possible causes of heterogeneity, and determine publication bias with a funnel plot. Results : We included 7 cases on emergency room visits decreased effectiveness of self management and education. Asthmatic patients experienced fewer attacks (summary effect size, 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65-0.95). We found that emergency room visits decreased effectiveness of self management and education were associated with statistically significant effects. Conclusions : Based on these finding, self management and education on interventions are necessary to prevent asthmatic attacks in patients and to reduce the severity of the attacks, and self management and education programs are needed in Korea.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.316-322
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• 2012

Objectives: Abdominal obesity increases mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular disease and there is a possibility that smoking effects obesity. However, previous studies concerning the effects of smoking on obesity are inconsistent. The objective of this study was to examine whether smoking is positively related to abdominal obesity in men with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Subjects consisted of 2197 type 2 diabetic patients who visited Huh's Diabetes Center from 2003 to 2009. Indices of abdominal obesity were defined as visceral fat thickness (VFT) measured by ultrasonography and waist circumference (WC). Overall obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI). Results: Statistically significant differences in WC and VFT by smoking status were identified. However, there was no statistical difference in BMI according to smoking status. Means of WC and VFT were not significantly higher in heavy smokers and lower in mild smokers. Compared to nonsmokers, the BMI confounder adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval for VFT in ex-smokers and current-smokers were 1.70 (1.21 to 2.39) and 1.86 (1.27 to 2.73), respectively. Conclusions: Smoking status was positively associated with abdominal obesity in type 2 diabetic patients.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2016

Objectives: In South Korea (hereafter Korea), the number of adolescent offspring of immigrants has rapidly increased since the early 1990s, mainly due to international marriage. This research sought to examine the association between the experience of school violence and mental health outcomes, and the role of help-seeking behaviors in the association, among biethnic adolescents in Korea. Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data of 3627 biethnic adolescents in Korea from the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families. Based on the victim's help-seeking behavior, adolescents who experienced school violence were classified into three groups: 'seeking help' group; 'feeling nothing' group; 'not seeking help' group. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to examine the associations between the experience of school violence and depressive symptoms for males and females separately. Results: In the gender-stratified analysis, school violence was associated with depressive symptoms in the 'not seeking help' (odds ratio [OR], 7.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.76 to 13.23) and the 'seeking help' group (OR, 2.77; 95% CI, 1.73 to 4.44) among male adolescents after adjusting for potential confounders, including the nationality of the immigrant parent and Korean language fluency. Similar associations were observed in the female groups. However, in the 'feeling nothing' group, the association was only significant for males (OR, 8.34; 95% CI, 2.82 to 24.69), but not females (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.18 to 3.28). Conclusions: This study suggests that experience of school violence is associated with depressive symptoms and that the role of victims' help-seeking behaviors in the association may differ by gender among biethnic adolescents in Korea.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2020

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of atrial fibrillation (AF) on the risk of dementia in the Korean elderly. Methods: A 10-year retrospective cohort study was conducted using the National Health Insurance Service-Senior Cohort database. We excluded those who were under 65 years of age as of January 2006 (n=46 113), those who were diagnosed with dementia between 2002 and 2005 (n=9086), and those with a history of stroke prior to AF diagnosis (n=8392). We used a Cox proportional hazards model with a time-varying covariate to determine whether AF is associated with the risk of dementia after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: In univariable Cox regression, the hazard ratio (HR) of dementia according to AF status was 1.28 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23 to 1.33). After adjusting for potential confounders, AF was found to increase the risk of dementia (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.17), Alzheimer dementia (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.17), and vascular dementia (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.18). In patients diagnosed with AF, the incidence of dementia was lower (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.52) in patients who were treated with oral anticoagulants. Conclusions: Investigating the potential risk factors of dementia in an aged society is important. We found a slightly higher risk of dementia in those with AF than in those without AF, and we therefore concluded that AF is a potential risk factor for dementia.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.613-621
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between dietary quality and the risk of coronary heart disease (CBD) among Korean men by a case-control study. Methods: The cases were 108 male patients with a first acute myocardial infarction or a new diagnosis of angina pectoris who were admitted to a university teaching hospital in Seoul. Controls were 142 age-matched patients admitted to the departments of ophthalmology and orthopedic surgery at the same hospital. Dietary information was assessed by a nutritionist using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and dietary quality index (DQI) scores were calculated. Results: The intakes of total fat and cholesterol and body mass index (BMI) in cases were significantly higher than those in controls. The mean DQI scores were 8.6 for the cases and 9.4 for the controls. A higher DQI, which was indicative of a better quality diet, was inversely associated with the risk of CHD when comparing the highest to lowest quatiles, but borderline significant (odd ratios 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.25-1.39, P for trend ＝ 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that better dietary quality may reduce the risk of CHD among Korean men.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.4939-4944
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• 2016

Background: An upward trend has been noted for the incidence of prostate cancer (PCa) in Vietnam, but information is limited on modifiable factors associated with this form of cancer. This case-control study was conducted to ascertain any relationship between habitual tea consumption and PCa risk. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and fifty-three incident patients with histologically confirmed PCa and 419 (340 community-based and 79 hospital-based) controls, matched by age, were recruited in Ho Chi Minh City during 2013-2015. Information on frequency, quantity and duration of tea consumption, together with demographics, habitual diet and lifestyle characteristics, was obtained by direct interviews using a validated questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess associations between tea consumption variables and PCa risk. Results: The control subjects reported higher tea consumption levels in terms of cumulative exposure, frequency and quantity of tea drank than the PCa patients. After accounting for confounding factors, increasing tea consumption was found to be associated with reduced risk of PCa. The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.52 (95% CI 0.35-0.79) and 0.30 (95% CI 0.18-0.48) for participants drinking 100-500 ml/day and > 500 ml/day, respectively, relative to those drinking < 100 ml/day. Significant inverse dose-response relationships were also observed for years of drinking and number of cups consumed daily (P <0.01). Conclusion: Habitual tea consumption is associated with a reduced risk of PCa in Vietnamese men.