• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.406-414
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine dysphagia risk among community-dwelling elderly people living at home. We also examined the impact of socio-demographic variables on dysphagia risk as well as the relationship between dysphagia risk and dietary characteristics. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The study sample included 568 community-dwelling individuals, aged 65 years and above, who were living independently in their own home in Seoul, Gyeonggi, or Gwangju in South Korea. We used a dysphagia risk assessment scale to screen for dysphagia risk and the Mini nutritional assessment to evaluate the nutritional status. Associations between dysphagia risk and other variables were assessed using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 568 subjects, 350 (61.6%) were classified into the dysphagia risk group (DR) and 218 (38.4%) were classified into the normal group (non-DR). Being female (odds ratio (OR) = 1.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.28-2.59), being 75 years and older (OR = 2.40, 95% CI = 1.69-3.42), having a lower education level (OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.33-3.97), and having a lower perceived economic status (OR = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.32-3.60) were more frequently observed with dysphagia risk compared to those who did not have such characteristics. Lowered mastication ability (OR = 14.40, 95% CI = 4.43-46.95), being at risk of malnutrition or malnourished (OR = 2.72, 95% CI = 1.75-4.23), lowered appetite (OR = 3.27, 95% CI = 2.16-4.93), and decreased food intake (OR = 2.95, 95% CI = 1.83-4.78) were observed more frequently in the DR group than in the non-DR group when adjusting for potential confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to develop and apply integrated programs to improve the dietary habits and nutritional status of elderly individuals at risk for dysphagia, especially for women aged 75 years or older with lower educational and economic levels.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.75-86
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• 1995

This study was performed to investigate the negative side effects of video display terminal (VDT) work on the human body and to provide data for preventing VDT syndrome. A questionnaire survey was made to 339 VDT workers at 22 offices in Taegu, Kyungpook and Kyungnam areas from July 1 to August 31, 1994, and 280 of them were finally used for statistical analysis. The VDT syndrome in the present study inclhded five factors, namely as eye-related symptom, psychological symptom, general body symptom, musculoskeletal symptom, and skin-related symptom, and the estimates of Crombach coefficients of the five factors were 0.954, 0.952, 0.953, 0.957, and 0.955, respectively, showing very high reliability. In view of socio-economical characteristics, the symptoms of female were higher than those of male in the order of musculoskeletal symptom, eye-related symptom, skin-related symptom and psychological symptom. The age group of 30 years or less was higher than the older groups in the order of musculoskeletal symptom, eye-related symptom, psychological symptom and skinrelated symptom. The group of lower education level showed higher skin-related symptom. The psychological symptom and skin-related symptom increased as the amount of smoking increased. Higher eye-related symptom was observed in the group without glasses. In the job-related variables, the group of working on programming and data input showed higher eye-related symptom and psychological symptom. The group of working on programming and graphic design showed higher musculoskeletal symptom and skin-related symptom. The skin-related symptom increased as the total time of VDT operation per day increased. The group of working 2-4 hours followed by 15 minutes rest was higher in musculoskeletal symptom and psychological symptom. Higher musculoskeletal symptom was observed from the group working on Friday and Sunday. The group of 1 year or less working showed higher in skin-related symptom. In relation with the VDT type, all symptoms except skin-related symptom were higher in the group using monochrome monitor. As showed above, the questionnaire could be a tool for evaluating VDT syndrome and prevention of the syndrome would be possible by a comprehensive consideration of factors including socio-economic characteristics, job-related variables and VDT type.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 1985

A study on the image identification of urban streetscape is valuable for illuminating identity that is not yet fully approached in the field of environmental design. This analysis of urban streetscape for image identification allows us to make a more detailed exploration of an important approaching methods in dealing with the structural characteristics of identity. As a matter of fact, the earlier indirect studies on this image identification were made by environmental designers, such as architectural and urban designer in the field of environmental perception and came to its environmental cognition & environmental pattern research with assistances by such researchers as K. Lynch A. Rapoport & Christopher Alexander. Through its environmental perception research, we can see its structural characteristics that is aesthetic & visual structural contents of physical environmental elements. And we can see its cognitive characteristics through the environmental cognitive research, that is continuity, territoriality, identity of place, uniqueness or individuality, meaning & symbolism. Through its environmental pattern research, we can see its physical, socio - economic, cultural and symbolic pattern identification contents, that is physical form of the city, style of the street, pattern of streetscape, socio- economic & geographical locality, arid life cycle, life style, common style of the behavior, cultural pattern of the activity, socio - cultural expression of the symbol. In these process, we can set up a set of the environmental design criterias from those three integral studies for identity. And for an environmental research, Tongsung-Ro around the CBD (central business district) in Taegu City was selected for a case study, because this streetscape is suitable for that approaching methods in this study.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.9-15
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to assess risk indicators of depressive symptoms such as demographic, socio-economical domains (age, gender, marital status, education, child, religion, income, health, friendship) and personality domains (neurotic personality, self-esteem and life goal attitude) of community dwelling elderly persons. A total of 300 community-residing elderly participants aged 65+ in a metropolitan city in Korea, were recruited for this interview survey. The interview covered demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and administration of the 20-item Korean Version of CES-D, the 10-item Self-esteem, the 19-item Neuroticism and the 10-itm Goal Instability scale. The prevalence of significant depressive symptoms (CES-D scale >= 21) was 31%. Logistic regression analysis showed high risk for depression was associated with high neuroticism, less intimate friendship, high goa1 instability, and childlessness, respectively in the order of significance. Factors in the personality domains were more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than factors in the socio- economical domains. Both cultural and universal meaning of the findings was discussed with regard to intervention.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.589-601
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• 2022

Although drought is a natural phenomenon, its damage occurs in combination with regional physical and social factors. Especially, related to the supply and demand of various waters, drought causes great socio-economic damage. Even meteorological droughts occur with similar severity, its impact varies depending on the regional characteristics and water supply system. Therefore, this study assessed regional drought risk considering regional socio-economic factors and water supply system. Drought hazard was assessed by grading the joint drought management index (JDMI) which represents water shortage. Drought vulnerability was assessed by weighted averaging 10 socio-economic factors using Entropy, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). Drought response capacity that represents regional water supply factors was assessed by employing Bayesian networks. Drought risk was determined by multiplying a cubic root of the hazard, vulnerability, and response capacity. For the drought hazard meaning the possibility of failure to supply water, Goesan-gun was the highest at 0.81. For the drought vulnerability, Daejeon was most vulnerable at 0.61. Considering the regional water supply system, Sejong had the lowest drought response capacity. Finally, the drought risk was the highest in Cheongju-si. This study identified the regional drought risk and vulnerable causes of drought, which is useful in preparing drought mitigation policy considering the regional characteristics in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.13-25
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• 2014

This research was performed to investigate the characteristics and determination factors on tertiary hospital inpatients. The used data was the four waves of Korea Health Panel(2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), and the number of subjects was 4,430 cases of tertiary and general hospital admission. The statistical methodology used in the study is the logistic regression model. The significant affecting factors in utilizing tertiary hospital admission were gender, marital status, education, household income, residence region and ICD-10 classification. Man, graduating college/university, married, high-income were socio-economic affecting factors in tertiary hospital admission. Medical need factor of ICD-10 classification and residence region of inpatients was also significant affecting factors in tertiary hospital admission. The 81.4% of inpatients at tertiary hospital had chronic disease and the 12.9% of inpatients readmitted, the 68.2% had a selecting doctor and the only 26.7% of inpatients reinforced by private medical insurance. This study recommended the Korean government to provide proper rule for tertiary hospital admission in order to improve the equity and efficiency of health care system.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2008

This study was conducted to suggest some alternatives to facilitate consumers' purchase of EAP (Environment-friendly Agricultural Products) by comparing purchasers and nonpurchasers in terms of their socio-economic characteristics, EAP purchasing behaviors and perceptions, and overall evaluation on EAP. Data were collected by 562 Gwangju citizens selected through snowball and convenient sampling procedures in 2007. Purchasers were more likely to be female, older, and in a higher income level than nonpurchasers. Purchasers, who were more knowledgeable about EAP, had a higher tendency to obtain EAP information through more diverse sources, and more relied on EAP certification mark to distinguish EAP. Purchasers were also more concerned about the safety from pesticides and had more confidence in the safety of EAP than nonpurchasers. Purchasers were more likely to perceive the importance of 'facilitation of EAP' and 'providing education and information about EAP' than nonpurchasers. Generally purchasers tended to be more satisfied with EAP and higher intention to increase their EAP purchase in the future. Implications of the results were discussed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 2014

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of an emergency ambulance system and to investigate socio-economic and clinical characteristics associated with emergency ambulance service. Methods: Based on 2011 Korea health panel, unmet need and inappropriate use of emergency ambulance service were measured by Gibson in 1977. Furthermore, the factors associated with unmet need and inappropriate use of emergency ambulance service were identified by Fisher's exact tests and multiple logistic regression models. Results: Unmet need, defined as the proportion of emergency patients who clinically need ambulance transportation but do not receive it, was found to be 59.8%. Inappropriate use, defined as the proportion of emergency patient receiving ambulance care who did not clinically need it, was found to be 37.2%. There were statistically significant differences between appropriate and inappropriate groups in overall variables of socio-economic and clinical characteristics. Specifically, gender, age, relationship to household, and reasons of visiting emergency department (accident/disease) were statistically significant factors associated with appropriate use of emergency ambulance service. Conclusion: Unmet ambulance need is a useful measure for patients needs assessment, and inappropriate ambulance use is a valid criteria in judging the efficiency of emergency ambulance system. To improve and understand emergency ambulance system, unmet need and inappropriate use of emergency ambulance service should be more concerned.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.825-833
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between smoking behavior and periodontitis in Korean adults. Methods: The study subjects were 4,896 from the sixth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data were analysed by chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis using SPSS 20.0 program. Results: The rate of periodontitis was 27.5%. The prevalence rate of periodontitis was closely related to socio-economic characteristics including gender, age, living area, household income, educational level, history of diabetes mellitus, and regular dental visit. The rate of periodontitis in non-smoker, ex-smoker, and current smoker were 56.7%, 19.5%, and 23.8%, respectively. Smoking behavior was significantly related to socio-economic characteristics. After adjusting for gender, age, household income, educational level, history of diabetes mellitus, and dental visit within 1 year, the risk of periodontitis in ex-smoker and current group were 1.31 (95% CI; 1.04-1.65) and 2.31 (95% CI; 1.87-2.85), respectively. Conclusions: Smoking behavior had a significant impact on periodontitis prevalence in Korean adults.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.889-898
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted in order to identify the various influencing factors of dental caries according to the socio-economic characteristics and oral health behaviors across the life cycle among Koreans. Methods: The data were extracted from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013-2015) and a total of 4,871 subjects with ages of 7 and over were selected. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 for ${\chi}^2$-test and multi-logistic regression. Results: Significant differences were observed in the socio-economic characteristics, health behaviors and in the dental caries across the life cycle. The influencing factors of DT includes the type of health insurance (p<0.05) in school aged & adolescence, Oral health examination/year (p<0.01), Residence (p<0.05) in early adults, type of health insurance (p<0.001), Oral health examination/year (p<0.001), use of oral hygiene products (p<0.01) in late Adults, Oral health examination/year (p<0.05) and Gender (p<0.05) in old age. Conclusions: This study suggests that dental health promotion can be enhanced by regular checkup. The government must provide the people with better quality of oral health care and promotion across the life cycle in the near future.