• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.228-244
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• 1998

The nutritional status of 362 elderly men and women in Chung-bud area was evaluated in terms of their nutrient intakes, biochemical and anthrophometric measurements by interviews with questionnaires from August to October 1996. Mean intake of all nutrients except ascorbic acid did not meet the RDA for this sample. Protein, vit A, reboflavin, calcium were the most likely to be deficient on the basis of propotions of elderly consuming less than 75% of the RDA. The subjects nutrient intake was significantly affected by gender, marital status, number of family, family composition, educational level, pocket money, and region. Men in rural areas and women over 75 in urban areas were the most vulnerable groups with nutritional deficiency. According to serum biochemical indices, mean level of cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, total protein, albumin and iron belonged to normal range but mean level of HDL showed below the normal range. More elderly men and women in urban areas showed a higher percentage of abormal level of cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL and HDL than those in rural areas. More elderly men and women in rural areas had abnormal levels of RBC, Hematocrit and hemoglobin compared to those in urban areas. Mean height and weight of elderly men was 161.4cm and 56.2Kg, respectively and 149.1cm and 50.5kg for women. The elderly in rural areas were taller than those in urban areas but had less weight, MAC, TSF, MAMC. Mean BMI of this sample belonged to normal range. However, the elderly in rural areas had a higher rate of underweight and lower for overweight than those in urban areas. The elderly in urban areas had higher blood pressure than those in rural areas.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.867-878
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of understanding about school foodservice management and environmentally friendly agricultural products between urban and rural elementary school children's mothers. The subjects were 280 elementary school children's mothers who lived in Gunsan city and the nearby countryside. The results are summarized as follows. The mothers in urban schools were higher on the degree of participation (p < 0.01) and interest (p < 0.01), but were lower on the degree of satisfaction (p < 0.001) for school foodservice than rural ones. The best improvement of school foodservice management was improving food tastes and qualities of the foodstuffs in urban schools and sanitation at the service area in the rural schools (p < 0.001). The school foodservice program contributed to cure the unbalanced diets and developing of bodies and minds; there was no difference of urban and rural schools. But eating habits in rural schools were more improved than urban schools (p < 0.001). The primary reason for using environmentally friendly agricultural products was to improve their health and in securing safe foods, there was no difference of urban and rural schools, but generating the farmer's income from the products in rural schools was higher than urban schools (p < 0.001). There are conflicting views between urban and rural schools for the additional costs brought by using the environmentally friendly agricultural products (p < 0.001). The order of preference on using environmentally friendly agricultural products was rice and various grains, vegetables, fruits, livestock, seasoning, etc. In conclusion, our central and local governments should change their roles in financially positive ways and reflect the issues in making the policy effective. Responsible administrators of school food suppliers run the system more faithfully with the above government support.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.89-98
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• 2022

This study was attempted to analyze the causal relationship on the factors influencing the inactivation of urban-rural exchanges. 33 previous studies related to urban-rural exchange in Korea were investigated, and 27 factors were derived in 4 sectors (resources and facilities, contents and programs, human resources and management, legal system and support) by deriving, rearranging, and classifying various influencing factors suggested in previous studies. Based on the derived influencing factors, an expert survey was conducted, and the causal relationship between factors was structured through the DEMATEL method. As a result of the analysis, 'human resources and management' was the factors with the highest prominence and 'legal system and support' was analyzed as factors with a very strong dispatcher character, and other factors were analyzed as having a receiver character. This study is meaningful in that it provided basic information for establishing related policies by structurally analyzing and presenting the necessary influencing factors when implementing an efficient urban-rural exchange project despite several limitations.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2010

Purpose: The living standards vary between the urban and rural areas in Korea. This study aims to compare the characteristics of acute poisoning victims in urban and rural areas. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted over a period of 2 years from 2008 to 2009. The study group included adults over 19 year old with acute poisoning and who were later were admitted to the local emergency medical center located in Daegu, Korea. The exclusion criteria were 1) the victims of adverse effects of therapeutic doses of drugs, 2) the victims with chronic exposure and 3) the victims who were missing data in their emergency medical records. We divided the victims into the adult group (19-64 years old) and the old group (over 65 years old). Results: There were 569 acute poisoning victims during the study period, and they constituted 1.11% of the total ED visits (51,199). Four hundred seventy six patients were enrolled in this study. Out of the 359 acute poisoning victims, 252 victims were from urban areas and 107 victims were from rural areas. They showed statistical differences for gender, ED access, transport, toxins and the time to the ED. In the old group, 61 victims out of 117 were from urban areas and the remaining 56 victims were from rural areas. They showed statistical differences for gender, ED access, toxins and transport. Conclusion: Through the clinical comparison between the acute poisoning victims of urban and rural areas, we exposed the clinical differences between the urban and rural areas, and we concluded that prevention and education for acute poisoning should be generated differently between the two groups.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.288-300
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the association of social participation and depressive symptoms with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among older adults living in urban and rural areas. Methods: This secondary, cross-sectional study was conducted with a total of 66,765 adults aged ≥65 years (urban-26,485 and rural-40,280) who participated in the household and individual surveys of the Korea Community Health Survey 2019. Data on the main study variables including social participation, depressive symptoms, and HRQoL were collected from August 16 to October 31, 2019. Multiple linear regression was used to identify the factors affecting HRQoL in urban and rural older adults. Results: The proportion of social participation (χ²=354.69, p<.001) and the level of HRQoL (χ²=12.06, p<.001) were significantly higher in older adults living in urban area than those in rural area. However, there was no significant difference in depressive symptoms between older adults living in urban and rural areas. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that social participation and depressive symptoms were significant predictors of HRQoL in both urban and rural older adults. Conclusion: Our main finding highlights that active participation in social activities and management of depressive symptoms in older adults regardless of living arrangements are crucial to improve HRQoL in later life. Interventions to increase social participation include early assessment of depressive symptoms in the community to promote HRQoL. More longitudinal studies are needed to identify the factors associated with HRQoL between older adults living in urban and rural areas while considering neighborhood environment and living arrangements.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1093-1096
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• 2012

Background: Cervical cancer is common among women worldwide. A multitude of risk factors aggravate the disease. This study was conducted to: (1) determine the prevalence and (2) make a comparative analysis of the socio-demographic and behavioural risk factors of cervical cancer and knowledge, attitude and practice between rural and urban women of North Bengal, India. Study Design: Community-based cross-sectional study. Methods: A survey (first in North Bengal) was conducted among 133 women in a rural area (Kawakhali) and 88 women in an urban slum (Shaktigarh) using predesigned semi-structured questionnaires. The respondents were informed of the causes (including HPV), signs and symptoms, prevention of cervical cancer and treatment, and the procedure of the PAP test and HPV vaccination. Results: The prevalence of risk factors like multiparity, early age of marriage, use of cloth during menstruation, use of condom and OCP, early age of first intercourse was 37.2%, 82%, 83.3%, 5.4%, 15.8% and 65.6% respectively. Awareness about the cause, signs and symptoms, prevention of cervical cancer, PAP test and HPV vaccination was 3.6%, 6.3%, 3.6%, 9.5% and 14.5% respectively. Chi-square testing revealed that in the study population, significant differential at 5% exists between rural and urban residents with respect to number of children, use of cloth/sanitary napkins, family history of cancer and awareness regarding causes of cervical cancer. Regarding KAP, again using chi-square tests, surprisingly, level of education is found to be significant for each element of KAP in urban areas in contrast to complete absence of association between education and elements of KAP in rural areas. Conclusions: A large number of risk factors were present in both areas, the prevalence being higher in the rural areas. The level of awareness and role of education appears to be insignificant determinants in rural compared to urban areas. This pilot study needs to be followed up by large scale programmes to re-orient awareness campaigns, especially in rural areas.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2015

This research was designed to examine the dietary habits and unbalanced diet of middle school students by gender and region. The survey was conducted using questionnaires on dietary habits and unbalanced diet administered to 726 students (urban: 367, rural: 359). The obesity index using BMI showed that the largest proportion of girls was 'underweight' in both regions, which showed a significant difference by region (p<0.001). Male students in urban areas prefer salty taste more than rural students (p<0.05). In urban areas, problems relating to dietary habits were 'unbalanced diet' and 'overeating' in male students and 'frequent snacks' and 'irregular mealtime' for female students (p<0.01). The frequencies of skipping breakfast (p<0.01), snack intake (p<0.001), eating out (p<0.001) and fast food consumption (p<0.001) were significantly higher in urban students than in rural students, and the reason for eating snacks was 'hungry' in urban students and 'habitually' and 'delicious' in rural students (p<0.01). Unbalanced diet was significantly higher in rural students compared with urban students (p<0.001) and male students compared with female students in urban (p<0.05), and the factors affecting dietary habits were mostly related to family. Male students in urban areas showed a significantly lower intake frequency of 'fish, tofu and beans' (p<0.05) and 'milk and yogurt' (p<0.05), but higher intake frequency of 'vegetables' (p<0.001) compared with female students. Male students in rural areas showed a significantly lower intake frequency of 'meat' (p<0.05) but higher intake frequency of 'milk and yogurt' (p<0.05) compared with female students. Urban students showed a significantly higher intake frequency of food groups compared with rural students. To conclude, desirable nutrition education on meal regularity, snack choice, and problems relating to unbalanced diet should be conducted in schools.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.77-87
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• 2019

This study is to identify the factors affecting commuting time and modes in urban and rural areas using household traffic survey data. The findings indicated that commuting time using passenger car in rural areas was 1.6 times longer than those in urban areas. When citizen use public transportation, however, there was not much difference in commuting time in urban and rural areas. Among the various factors affecting commuting time in rural areas (13 factors have statistical significance), the most influential factors were that public transportation, managers and office workers, functional and device managers, and passenger car. In urban areas, the highly influential factors were public transportation and walking among the 16 affecting factors which have statistical significance. The commuting time in rural areas increased according to the occupation types, but the commuting time of full-time workers decreased. This phenomenom means that occupation groups with the full-time system prefer residential areas in the densely populated town.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.848-853
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• 1997

The daily intake of dietary fiber by Korean population in urban and rural areas was computed from an optimized food intake based on national nutrition survey, food balance sheet, and the dietary fiber content of Korean foods. The average intake of dietary fiber the nationwide and in urban and rural areas were 24, 22 and 28g in the 1970's, 20, 21 and 20g in 1980's , and 22, 22 and 21g in the 1990's , respectively. As compared with the recommended dietary allowance of 20-25g for Koreans, the average intake of dietary fiber was within the normal range, regardless of urban and rural areas. Since the dietary pattern of korean people is being changed according to different life style, the exact intakes of dietary fiber by diverse specific population groups should be assessed in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.183-191
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• 1994

This study was conducted to find out the contents of salt in stored foods and urine of housewives. The contents of sodium in soy sauce, kochujang and kimchi was significantly higher in rural than urban area. The contents of potassium In soy sauce and kimchi was significantly higher in rural than urban area but that of soybean paste was significantly higher in urban than rural area. The level of NaCl in soy sauce, hochujang and kimchi was significantly higher in rural the urban area. The excretion amount of Na, K and NaCl in urine was significantly higher In rural than urban area. The between of blood pressure and the contents of Na in urine had a high correlation.