• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.71-81
• /
• 2005

Objective : To elucidate the correlates of self-rated fatigue in Korean employees. Methods : The data for 10,176 (men, 7,984; women, 2,192; mean age, 34.2; SD: 8.8) employees recruited from a nationwide sample were examined. A structured questionnaire was used to measure the participants' fatigue, sociodemographics (sex, age, education, and marital status), job-related characteristics (work duration, grade at work, work hours, shiftwork, employment type, and magnitude of workplace), and health-related habits (smoking, drinking, coffee intake, and exercise). Two types of measurement for fatigue were used to evaluate the magnitude of fatigue: self-rated question and a standardized measurement tool (Multidimensional Fatigue Scale: MFS). Results : According to the self-rated fatigue, 32% of employees reported that they felt fatigue for the past two weeks, and 9.6% of males and 8.7% of females had experienced excessive fatigue (6 months or more). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that fatigue measured by MFS was more common in women, younger, college or more graduated, single, and employees who do not regularly exercise. Fatigue was also associated with long work hours, and the size of the workplace (<1,000 employees). Conclusions : These results suggest that fatigue has been considered as a common complaint, and that it is affected by job-related factors like work hours and the workplace size as well as sociodemographics or health-related behaviors. Further research is needed to clarify the effects of fatigue on adverse health outcomes, work performance, work disability, sick absence and medical utilization, and to examine the relationship of job characteristics (e.g.: work demand, decision latitude) to fatigue.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.213-239
• /
• 1997

In recent years, adolescent issues including smoking, drinking, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, deviant sexual behavior, mental health problems, high suicide rate, misconducts and absence without due notice, etc are emerging as serious social problems and the debate on these controversial issues is heating up. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze factors which are changeable and fixable among the factors influencing the adolescent's health behavior and misconducts and, eventually influencing factors which can be used as the basis to establish health policies and health promotion program to reduce the health risk behavior and misconducts of adolescents. The smoking rates are 34.1% for male students of prep schools and 13.8% for females students of the same school and 55.7% for males, 31.8% for females of the vocational schools and 58.3% for males and 48.8% for females of social institutional schools, which showed the great diffence among the different types of schools and between sex. In particular, male students of social institutional school showed 1.7 times higher smoking rate than those of prep schools and in case of female students, 3.5 times higher rate. The time of initial smoking was most frequently during the middle school days for both males and females. In case of drug abuse, 5.4% of males and 2.7% females of general schools were using adhesives and inhalants which was 2.5 times higher for males and 6.3 times higher for females of social institutional schools. 41.8% of males and 30.3% of females of prep schools, 41.8% of males and 59.4% of females of vocational schools and 55.1% of males and 36.6% of females of social institutional schools have experienced kissing. Regarding the health promoting behavior and misconducts, female students practiced the health promoting behavior more than male students while male students showed higher rate of health risk behavior and misconducts than female students, which was statistically significant. The group of students who have not attended the health education class, in comparison to those who have attended, were more likely to practice health risk behavior and misconducts. Those with higher academic achievement was more likely to practice the health promoting behavior while those with poor academic achievement were more likely to practice health risk behavior and misconducts. As the perceived health status was higher and as students experienced less illness, the health promoting behavior was higher.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.469-481
• /
• 2019

Background: As South Korea is becoming an aged society very rapidly, the increase in osteoarthritis prevalence raises various public health issues in this country. This study aimed to explore the socio-demographic factors associated with osteoarthritis in the current Korean elderlies. Methods: Using the National Survey of Korean Elderly data (2014, 2017), we analyzed 20,326 elderlies (males, 8,248; females, 12,078) and conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses by sex. The dependent variable is whether a participant was diagnosed with osteoarthritis or not. Independent variables of interest is socio-demographic factors such as age, marital status, household type, residential area, household income, religion, the longest job, the number of close relatives, the number of close friends, and survey year. Control variables are various health behavioral factors and disease-related factors. Results: Prevalence of osteoarthritis was 19.2% in male elderlies and 47.0% in female elderlies. According to the results of the multivariate logistic regression adjusted for all studied control variables, the odds ratio (OR) for having osteoarthritis of under-elementary school graduates (their counterpart was college graduate group) was 1.81 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29-2.52) in males and 1.67 (95% CI, 1.12-2.47) in females. The OR of those having a job in agriculture & forestry fishery as their longest job (their counterpart was those who had never participated in labor force during their lifetime) was 5.07 (95% CI, 1.46-17.58) in males and 1.49 (95% CI, 1.27-1.74) in females. In males, the second-low quartile group in household yearly income (their counterpart was the highest quartile group) had the OR of 1.22 (95% CI, 0.98-1.53). In females, the OR of those having a religion of Buddhism (their counterpart was those having no religion) was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.07-1.35) and the OR of those who had no relatives (their counterpart was those having more than 3 close relatives) was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.10-1.56). Conclusion: This study found that in Korean elderlies, education, the longest job, household income, religion, and the number of close relatives are associated with their suffering from osteoarthritis. Further study and designing appropriate interventions are needed to alleviate current and future individual and socioeconomic burdens of osteoarthritis in an aged society like South Korea.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.85-90
• /
• 2007

Purpose: Usually college students having a strong desire for sexual behavior, thus, knowledge about sexually transmitted disease is very important to prevent infection. The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge about AIDS and STDs in the college students, and to provide a basis for sex education for them. Methods: The subjects were 86 medical students and 59 non-medical students at One University. The data were collected by self-reported questionnaire which were consisted of 19 items (8 for AIDS, 11 for STDs). Results: The frequency of experience in sexual intercourse was significantly higher in males than females (44.0% vs 7.1%, P=0.001) and in medical students than non-medical students (36.1% vs 11.9%, P=0.015). Among 19 questions, 8 questions' score were significantly higher in medical students than non-medical students. Conclusion: Medical students had higher score for knowledge about AIDS and STDs than non-medical students. However there were no difference in the knowledge according to a experience in sexual intercourse.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.2156-2169
• /
• 2012

This study was performed to find out the relationship between farmer's syndrome and self-conscious fatigue symptoms in farmers of suburban area. The questionnaire was prepared to survey the socio-demographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, farming activities, farmer's syndrome, and self-conscious fatigue symptoms of the farmers, and the survey was carried out from April 1 to June 30, 2011 by interviewing 296 farmers residing suburban area of Daejeon city. As a results, the ratio of farmers who had positive farmer's syndrome, doubtful syndrome, and no syndrome were 34.1%, 47.6%, and 18.2%, respectively. The farmer's syndrome was positively correlated with the self-conscious fatigue symptoms, and farmers with self-conscious fatigue symptoms in high risk group were at higher risk of having farmer's syndrome. The results of hierarchic multiple regression analysis indicated that sex, education, health, and self-conscious fatigue symptom were correlated with the farmer's syndrome. Among the affective factors variables, independently self-conscious fatigue symptom was the most influential. As a conclusion, the occurrence of farmer's syndrome was influenced by the socio-demographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, and self-conscious fatigue symptoms of the farmers. Especially, self-conscious fatigue symptom was independently influenced the occurrence of farmer's syndrome.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.73-82
• /
• 2011

This study was aimed to analyze the wedding servicescape color combination image focusing on the comparison between hotel banquet hall, general wedding hall and sanctuary. The survey was conducted among 400 customers(aged from 20~39 years old) who lived in Seoul and Kyunggi Province and 315 were analyzed. The statistical data analyses were performed using SPSS/WIN 17.0 and reliability analysis, factor analysis, t-test, ANOVA were used. Based on the result of the conducting factor analysis, color image of wedding hall were classified into 3 factors: delicateness, nobleness, and vivaciousness. Cronbach's alpha was calculated for the reliability of the survey instrument. Consequently, wedding hall color image were shown 'clear' 3.60, 'mild' 3.50, 'delicate' 3.38. Comparison among wedding hall types, 'vivaciousness' was 3.00 at general wedding hall, 'nobleness' was 3.64 at hotel banquet hall, and 'delicateness' was 3.60 at hotel banquet hall. Demographic differences of wedding hall color image were found by sex, marital status, monthly income but not by age, education and occupation. The results of this study will serve as a basis of wedding hall color marketing researches.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.329-348
• /
• 2011

This research analyzed 168,010 cases of death of the aged over 65 from 244,867cases of death excluding 7 unknown age cases from 244,874 all age cases of death by using the death data of the National Statistical Office for 2007 to figure out factors affecting the quality of causes of death statistics of the aged and to suggest the ways of improving the quality of death statistics of the aged in korea. This research tried to derive factors affecting ill-defined cause of death category in acordance with WHO's guidelines and to find causes of lowering the accuracy of causes of death statistics of the aged. This research identified the problems of causes of death statistics of the aged by using both demographic characteristics such as sex, age, marital status, educational attainment, residential region, region size and factors of death items as independent variable to find causes of ill-defined cause of death of the aged. Logistic regression analysis was executed to calculate the hazard ratio about the ill-defined causes of death of the aged and multiple regression analysis was conducted to derive factors affecting the ill-defined cause of death by regional groups through using these independent variables such as the component ratio of over age 65, female death rates, doctors insitutions rate, medical institutions rate, attaching rates of death certificate by neighborhood. As a results of this research, R-code was the highest of ill-defined causes of death, accounting for 82.1%, and senility death(R54) of R-code was the highest, accounting for 91.2%. through subdivided order distribution of the ill-defined causes of death of the aged. As ill-defined causes of death by regional groups, attaching rates of death certificate by neighborhood was the most important factor(p<0.05) and also showed regression model's description with 83.8% ($R^2$=83.8%). Furthermore, Jeon-nam was the highest in the regional groups and these regions such as Je-ju, Jeon-buk, Chung-nam were not only attaching the death certificate by neighborhood but also were high at the rate of ill-defined causes of death. Therefore, this research found that both reconsideration about death certificate by neighborhood and education for doctors who write death certificate were needed the most.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.31-53
• /
• 2006

The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the strategy of hospital specialization by analyzing the differences in expected and perceived services, perceived service quality, satisfaction, and intentions to revisit and recommend the hospital to others between general and specialty hospitals. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire from patients admitted to four study hospitals: two speciality and two general hospitals. The questionnaire was developed based on SERVQUAL to measure five dimensions of service quality. Four hundreds questionnaires were distributed to inpatients or their guardians and 282 returned questionnaires were used in the analyses. The significance of the differences in study variables between specialty and general hospitals were tested by t-test and $x^2$-test. The factor analysis result confirmed the construct validity of 28 questions asked to measure service quality and resulted in four dimensions of service quality: reliability, assurance, tangible and empathy/responsiveness. Cronbach's Alpha ranged from .9013 to .9358, that confirmed the internal consistency of answers. The study results indicated that patients who used specialty hospitals had higher levels of expected and perceived service, a higher level of perceived service quality, and higher levels of service satisfaction than patients who used general hospitals. Percents of patients who had the intention to revisit the hospital and to recommend the hospital to others were higher among patients in specialty hospitals. The most frequent reason to choose the hospital was the excellence of doctors in both general(29.9%) and specialty(43.8%) hospitals, that was followed by convenient transportation(15.3%) and someone know works at the hospital(15.3%) in general hospitals and other's recommendation(14.6%), and nice amenities(13.1%) in specialty hospitals. Although there were no significant differences in clinical department, age, and sex of patients between general and specialty hospitals, patients who visited speciality hospitals had higher levels of education and income than their counter part in general hospitals. These results suggested that specialty hospitals performed better than general hospitals. Specialization could be a viable strategy to tide over recent financial difficulties experienced by hospitals, particularly small- and medium-sized hospitals.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.39 no.12
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2001

The purpose of this study was to analyze the current states of interior design as a major at vocational high schools and to suggest ways in which it can be improved. Three hundred and four students and twelve teachers of two vocational high schools comprised the sample population for this study. Data was collected using two methods, questionnaires and interviews. Frequency distribution, mean, and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. The findings of this study are as follows: The student respondents were more interested in studying residential design, furniture design and making, drafting and perspective drawing than other areas of study. Most teachers had difficulties teaching the subject of residential design because they were not well educated with this area. Surprisingly most students hoped to extend their education to a university or college after graduation, not to enter the workforce. According to teachers'responses, almost ninety percentage of students entered university or college. And more than two thirds of the students desired to study an interior design related major at the university level. Among graduates having jobs, half of them were working in interior design fields. If the students had to choose their jobs, they would work in interior design fields. The variables differentiating several related careers after graduation were school, grade, and sex. The students viewed interior design, interior coordination, and CAD related work as fields likely to enter upon graduating from vocational high schools; however, teachers viewed furniture making, interior accessorizing, and home fashion as fields more appropriate to the students'level of training. The teacher respondents criticized the textbooks in four categories; suitability with the students'level was average or below average; students'interest level and students'understanding level were average or above average; and whether the book was easy or difficult to be utilized for the purposes of teaching was also average or above average. The criticism was a little diverse depending on each book or each chapter. The teachers pointed out several problems using those books, such as insufficient examples or explanation, lack of coherence between some chapters, and an incompatibility with the allotted time frame in class. The merits of the textbooks varied such as a well organized structure, ability to generate students'interest. This study revealed that the strategy for improving the interior design major at vocational high schools should invoke, 1) dividing students into two groups-one to enter a university; the other to have jobs after graduation to focus their interests. 2) improving textbooks more appropriate to the students. 3) providing present teachers the opportunities for in-service training and hiring new teachers with credentials more suitable to educate students who desire to be interior designers.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.56-67
• /
• 1999

This study was designed to identify the relationships of role-conflict and role-overload, coping strategies, and stress response of clerical workers. The subjects were 115 clerical workers from two company. The instruments were the role-conflict and role-overload scale developed by Lee(1989), coping scale developed by Latack(1986), and the stress response scale developed by Chang(1993). Analysis of data was done by descriptive statistics, Cronbach's $\alpha$, Pearson correlation coefficietnt, ANOVA. The results of this study were summarized as follows ; 1. The average score for the level of stress response was $83.6({\pm}9.1)$. The high risk stress group was 86.1% of the clerical workers, the latent stress group members was 13.9%, and healthy group was 0%. The overall stress level was very high. 2. Considering the coping strategies by sociodemographic factors, the use of control coping strategies showed significant differences by work-time. The use of symptom management coping strategies showed significant differences by sex, age, married status, year of career, pay, and type of work. The organizational coping strategies showed significant differences by year of education and type of work. 3. The clerical workers who had worked below 44 hours per week complained significantly lower stress response(F=4.942, p<.05). 4. Above 65% of all respondents answered that they needed all of organizational level coping strategies. 5. The role-confilct positively related to escape and organizational level coping strategies(r=.562, r=.495, p<.05). The role-overload didn't related to individual level coping strategies, but positively related to organizational level coping strategies(r=.320, p<.05). 6. The control coping strategies and the escape coping strategies positively related to symptom management, organizational level coping strategies(r=.409, r=.324, r=.316, r=.339, p<.05). 7. The relationship between role-related stress and stress response revealed positive correlation(r=.482, r=.431, p<.05), and the relationship between stress response and control, symptom management coping strategies revealed negative cor-relation(r=-.3204, r=-.3146, p<.05). In conclusion, this study revealed that relationship of role related stress, coping strategies, stress response was statistically significant. The result of this study support that coping strategies vary across situation of stress. Based on survey results, future studies should consider coping strategies in specific stress situation and concept of symptom management coping strategy. Also organizational or training interventions could be developed and initiate to help to increase the use of adaptive coping strategies in light of individual and situational differences.