• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.176-186
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• 2014

Objectives: As a sequel to the former analysis of the quality of life (QoL) among young-old and old-old in Korea, this research was aimed to identify factors related to the quality of life and the gender difference after controlling for the related factors among Korean elderly. Methods: Selected elderly data of 1,339 subjects from the 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2010 was analyzed. In this survey, QoL was measured using Euro Quality of Life (EQ-5D) instrument. Data were analyzed using complex survey data analysis on IBM-SPSS 20.0. The related factors were identified using general linear models with backward elimination. The gender difference was tested also using general linear models. Results: The distributions of educational level, family income level, and presence of cohabitant were different between male and female elderly in both young-old and old-old age group. So were the health behaviors and perceived health, and experience of stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts. QoL and its subscales- mobility, self care, daily living, pain and discomfort, and anxiety and depression- were consistently better among male elderly regardless of age group. Among the variables considered, education, family income level, presence of cohabitant, perceived health, age group and BMI were found to be related to the QoL at p=.05, and presence of chronic diseases at p=.10. The difference in QoL between male and female elderly after controlling for the variables was statistically significant. Conclusion: Improving QoL is particularly important for the elderly. In order to improve QoL of the elderly, age- and gender- differences need to be considered when developing services and programs for the elderly.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.514-524
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• 2016

The Bio-Climatic impact Assessment System, BioCAS was utilized to produce analysis maps of daily maximum perceived temperature ($PT_{max}$) and excess mortality ($r_{EM}$) over the entire Seoul area on a heat wave event. The spatial resolution was 25 m and the Aug. 5, 2012 was the selected heat event date. The analyzed results were evaluated by comparing with observed health impact data - mortality and morbidity - during heat waves in 2004-2013 and 2006-2011,respectively. They were aggregated for 25 districts in Seoul. Spatial resolution of the comparison was equalized to district to match the lower data resolution of mortality and morbidity. Spatial maximum, minimum, average, and total of $PT_{max}$ and $r_{EM}$ were generated and correlated to the health impact data of mortality and morbidity. Correlation results show that the spatial averages of $PT_{max}$ and $r_{EM}$ were not able to explain the observed health impact. Instead, spatial minimum and maximum of $PT_{max}$ were correlated with mortality (r=0.53) and morbidity (r=0.42),respectively. Spatial maximum of $PT_{max}$, determined by building density, affected increasing morbidity at daytime by heat-related diseases such as sunstroke, whereas spatial minimum, determined by vegetation, affected decreasing mortality at nighttime by reducing heat stress. On the other hand, spatial maximum of $r_{EM}$ was correlated with morbidity (r=0.52) but not with mortality. It may have been affected by the limit of district-level irregularity such as difference in base-line heat vulnerability due to the age structure of the population. Areal distribution of the heat impact by local building and vegetation, such as spatial maximum and minimum, was more important than spatial mean. Such high resolution analyses are able to produce quantitative results in health impact and can also be used for economic analyses of localized urban development.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.596-603
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• 2006

Purpose. This study examined Korean clinical nurses' intentions to care for SARS patients and identify determinants of the intentions. Theory of planned behavior was the framework to explain the intentions of Korean nurses for SARS patients care. Methods. A convenient sample of six hundreds and seventy nine clinical nurses from four university-affiliated hospitals located in Seoul and in Kyung-gi province was used. Self-administered (83-items) questionnaire was used to collect data. Intentions, attitude, subjective norm, perceive behavioral control, behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs were the study variables. All items were measured using 7point Likert scale (-3 to +3). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation method, and stepwise multiple regression methods. Results. Intentions and attitudes toward SARS patient care among Korean clinical nurses were moderate, but their subjective norm and perceive behavioral control of SARS patients care were negative. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that attitude toward SARS patient care, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm were the determinants of the intentions for SARS patients care as theory proposed. Among the behavioral beliefs, 'SARS-patient caring would be a new experience', 'during SARS-patient caring, I should be apart from my family', 'after completing SARS-patient caring, I would be proud of myself being able to cope with a stressful event' and 'with my SARS-patient caring, patients could recover from SARS' were the significant determinants. Among the normative beliefs, colleague approval, spouse approval, and physician approval were significant determinants of the intentions. Among the control beliefs, 'SARS-patient caring would be a challenge' 'SARS-patient caring is a professional responsibility', 'tension during the care of SARS patients' and 'support from team members' were the significant determinants of the intentions. Conclusions. Korean clinical nurses in this study were not willing to care for SARS patients and showed negative attitude toward the care. They believed their friends and family were not approved their care for SARS patients. Nurses were in conflicts between professional responsibilities to care for SARS patients and personal safety. This study was the first to understand stress and burden of Korean clinical nurses who are in front line to care for newly developed communicable disease such as SARS. Under the circumstance where several fatal communicable diseases are predictable, conflicts between professional responsibility and their personal risks should be taken into considerations by nurses themselves and by nursing administrators in order to improve quality of care.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.255-270
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence the consumption of convenience foods among Korean adolescents. Methods: This study had a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the 15th (2019) Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, which involved a nationwide representative sample of 57,303 middle- and high-school students. Convenience-food consumption was defined by frequency of adolescents consuming convenience foods obtained from convenience stores, supermarkets, and cafeterias over the previous 7 days. The analyzed variables were related to sociodemographic, mental health, and health behavior. The Rao-Scott χ² test was applied to examine the difference in the rate of consuming convenience foods obtained from convenience stores according to each factor. Hierarchical logistic regression was conducted to examine the factors that influence convenience-food consumption among Korean adolescents. Results: It was found that 29.1% of Korean adolescents consumed convenience foods obtained from convenience store more than three times per week. The significant influencing factors were female sex; low subjective academic achievement, and subjective household economic status; high perceived stress; low subjective sleep sufficiency; experience of depression; suicidal ideation; lower physical activity; skipping breakfast; lower consumptions of fruit, milk, and vegetables; higher consumptions of soda drinks, sweet drinks, caffeine, and fast food; lower water intake; current smoking and drinking; drug use; and experience of violence. Conclusion: These findings provide a better understanding of the sociodemographic, mental-health, and health-behavior factors that influence the consumption of convenience foods among Korean adolescents. We suggest that differentiated policies, strategies, and nutrition education need to be developed and implemented, in order to address the above-mentioned factors and thereby reduce such behaviors among Korean adolescents.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.225-238
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to examine public health nurses for their morale, test the effect of each factor on the morale, determine the variables affecting the morale, and thereby, provide for some basic data useful to the development of personnel affair administration for nurses. The survey on the nurses for public health centers was conducted for 10 days from April 23 to May 2, 2001; 96 nurses from Pusan, 101 from Kyonggi-do and 108 from Kangwon-do. The results of the study are as follows; 1. For the demographic variables, those aged between 31 and 39 accounted for the majority $(50.2\%)$ of the sample. $90.8\%$ was married, and $67.9\%$ of the sample graduated from junior colleges. $29.6\%$ of them had worked for 10-14 years and $62.5\%$ was of the seventh rank. $62.3\%$ of the nurses was recruited, and $59.4\%$ had chosen the public job for its guaranteed status. Half the nurses were working for the county population of which was more than 260 thousands, and $53\%$ of the nurses was serving the public health centers with 11-15 members. $47.3\%$ of them perceived that their living standard is middle or lower. 2. The degree of the moral was found as mean score. 2.65, which is interpreted as low. It has 11 factors. The rank of mean score of the factors is job satisfaction (3.36), sense of belonging (3.36), sense of recognition (3.30), stress due to supervision (3.13), degree of participation (3.05) and self-achievement (3.04), while those scoring lower points were assurance of status (2.58), pay level (2.53), working conditions (2.35) and promotion opportunity (2.31). 3. The degree of moral depending on the demographic variables was significantly affected by such variables as age. academic background, career, rank, employment method, motive for the job, size of the population served and living standards. 4. The result of the Stepwise multiple regression analysis for the morale factors, it was found that self-achievement accounted for $61\%$ of the total variance of the degree of morale, followed by stable status $(18\%)$, working conditions $(8\%)$, job requirements $(4\%)$ and promotion opportunities $(2\%)$; these five factors explained about $94.6\%$ of total variance of the degree of nurses' morale. On the other hand. age $(8\%)$ and academic background $(2\%)$ accounted for $10\%$ of the total variance of the degree of morale. 5. The factors affecting nurses' job life was economic need $(26.7\%)$, personnel management $(17.5\%)$, sense of recognition $(13.2\%)$, human relationship $(11.0\%)$, stable status and personal development in rank. On the other hand, the factors influencing on their possible resignation were children's bringing-up $(27.8\%)$, poor personnel management and promotion $(13.3\%)$, workload $(11.1\%)$ and little personal development $(8.9\%)$, Since such morale factors as promotion opportunity, working condition. pay level and stable status scored lower, it is required to reconsider those factors to improve nurses' morale.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.135-144
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• 2012

The purpose of this research study is to find factors associated with burnout in social workers in public sector. This study examined the impact of social support and job-related tension on burnout of social workers in public sector. A participant of 300 social workers in public sector were recruited from Inchen city and completed the questionnaires during August, 2011. Data were entered into simple regression and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. First, women had a little higher mean score of burnout than men. However, this was not a statistically significant difference. Job Classification and year of work experiences were very important predictors for burn-out of social workers in public sector. Second, there was a strong positive relationship between job-related tension and burnout. Third, there was a strong negative relationship between social support and burnout. As the perception about social support by social workers increased, the level of burnout tended to decrease. Finally, the set of analyses examined the impact of social support after controlling for effects of demographic variables and job-related tension. Perceived social support, job-related tension made a significant contribution in burnout. The results of this research study provide several implications for social work practices. More research is needed regarding the effects of social support and job-related tension on burnout of social workers in public sector. For social works in public sector, supervision from supervisors appeared to have a protective effect against social workers' burnout.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.84-96
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• 2018

Objective: This is aprospective clinical case study that includes the administration of Ahnjeonbaekho-tang (AJBHT) to patients who have suffered from Graves' disease for the 8 weeks of the clinical research. Methods: Without administration of an antithyroid drug, AJBHT was administered 3 times a day for 8 weeks. In Case 1, AJBHT without modification was administered and in Case 2, in accordance with the patients' symptoms, a dose of Gypsum Fibrosum was increased by 4g from the beginning of week 2, and further increased by 16 g, for a total of 20 g between week 6 and week 8. Body mass index (BMI), thyroid function test (TFT), thyroid autoantibody test, complete blood cell count (CBC), and blood chemistry (BC) tests were conducted at an interval of 4 weeks, for a total of 3 times during the study. The clinical manifestations, a spectrum of symptoms of the patients, was observed by Wayne's Index, Euro-QOL-5 Dimension (EQ-5D), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Results: In both cases, an acceptable significance of reduction of value in T3, fT4, Thyroid stimulating antibody (TSAb) and Thyroid stimulating hormone receptor antibody (TSH-R-Ab) was observed. After treatment, in TFT, T3 decreased by 31.66%, fT4 decreased by 32.82% in Case 1, and T3 decreased by 43.42%, and fT4 decreased by 37.32% in Case 2. In the thyroid autoantibody test, TSAb decreased by 7.59%, and TSH-R-Ab decreased by 53.19% in Case 1, and TSAb decreased by 33.45%, TSH-R-Ab decreased by at least 7.75% in Case 2. Besides this, there was a decreasing trend of Wayne's index, and a loss of typical symptoms of hyperthyroidism also declared the efficacy. Conclusion: From these results, AJBHT is very effective in the regulation of TFT and improving the symptoms of hyperthyroidism, and is also expected to be an effective alternative to antithyroid drugs for patients who have side effects or drug intolerance.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 2010

Objective: Despite the increasing number of female participation in employment, blue-collar women have been exposed to higher health risk. This study is to describe the prevalence of chronic diseases, health behaviors, and medical service utilization of female blue-collar workers. Methods: Data were derived from the 2001 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES). The sample was made up of 37,108 male and female participants aged 20 or over selected nation-wide by probability sampling from Korea. This study applied the logistic regression for nominal variables such as disease prevalence and health behaviors and with the regression for continuos variables such as the length and costs of medical services. Results: In general, women's prevalence of chronic illness and uncured rate were significantly higher than male, and especially female blue-collar workers had the highest prevalence, uncured rate, unhealthy status, and perceived stress. However, the medical care cost was the lowest in female blue-collar workers. Conclusions: The findings suggest that female blue-collar workers were more likely to experience health problems, and that despite the highest health risk, health service is not effectively utilized, and health policy maker should take consider of special status of female blue collar workers who are in health inequality.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.379-388
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• 2006

Objectives: This study assessed the influences of various factors that are related to youth smoking such as gender, age and type of school, and we wanted to provide supporting data for tailored and effective policy initiatives to reduce adolescent smoking. Methods: A self-report survey was conducted on 14,910 teen-age students who were selected based on the nationwide distribution of students in large and small cities and counties, the gender ratio of the students and the ratio of students attending various type of school at 38 middle and high schools in six representative areas of each province. The survey was handled and managed by a health education teacher at each school. Binary and multinomial logistic regression was used in the analyses. Results: Smoking by adolescents was associated with gender, age and even height. Male high school students tended to smoke more than female high school students, but this differences was not significant for middle school students. The older the adolescents were, the more likely that they smoked, except for the female high school students. Height was meaningful for all adolescents, except for the boys at the vocational high schools. Monthly allowance was significant for all adolescents. School factors such as type of school and the students' school performance were also crucial factors. Attending a vocational high school was strongly related to smoking, especially for girls. Students' school performance and the perceived level of stress were strongly associated with smoking, especially for boys. Home factors such as the relationship with parents and conversation time with family members were closely related to smoking behavior. Knowledge about the health hazard of smoking was also found to be strongly related to adolescent smoking. Conclusions: In conclusion, demographic factors, school factors, home surroundings and the perception on the harmfulness of smoking are strongly related to adolescent smoking behavior, but these differ from gender and type of school.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.268-278
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• 2020

This study aimed to identify the moderating effect of public health service utilization rate between public health resources and community mental health. The subjects included 144 local communities, from the data of 6th Community Health Plan and the 2015 Community Health Survey. Public health resources were measured by public health budget, public mental health budget and public mental health personnel; and mental health was measured by rate of perceived stress, rate of depressive mood and suicide rate. The hierarchical regression analysis was used to identify the moderating effects. The results were as followed. First, the effect of public mental health budget on rate of depressive mood was moderated by public health service utilization rate. Second, the effect of public mental health personnel on rate of depressive mood was moderated by public health service utilization rate. Third, the effect of public mental health personnel on suicide rate was also moderated by public health service utilization rate. Fourth, the effect of public health resources on mental health differed between the groups with high and low public health service utilization rate. In improving community mental health, the measures to improve the public health service utilization rate should be considered to ensure that reinforcing public health resources leads to the improvement of community mental health.