• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2024

Background: Korea's recent suicide problem has been the most serious in the world. This study was conducted to identify factors related to suicidal ideation of Korean adults and to identify the association with socioeconomic deprivation. Methods: The 17th Korea Welfare Panel Study (2022) raw data was used, and 10,065 adults aged 20 years or older who responded to all major questions were selected as subjects for the study. SAS ver. 9.4 program (SAS Institute Inc., USA) was used for data analysis. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the association between socioeconomic deprivation and suicidal ideation. Stratified analysis was performed to confirm the difference by subjective health status and gender. Results: For every 1 unit increased in socioeconomic deprivation, suicidal ideation increased 1.5 times (odds ratio [OR], 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37-1.61). People with good subjective health status showed 1.3 times higher suicidal ideation (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.12-1.52) for each unit increased in socioeconomic deprivation, and those with poor subjective health status showed 1.6 times higher (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.43-1.75). Conclusion: As socioeconomic deprivation increased, suicidal ideation increased. Therefore, policy measures should be prepared to improve the level of more multidimensional deprivation and subjective health status in order to lower the suicide rate of Korean adults.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.193-203
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• 2008

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of acute poisoning cases admitted to a local emergency department in an urban-rural area. Methods: This retrospective study included all patients with acute poisoning who admitted the emergency department between June 2004 and May 2005. We analyzed the medical records for etiological and demographical characteristics of the acutely poisoned patients. Results: There were 155(1.0%) poisoning cases among 15,457 admitted to the emergency department. Of the admitted cases, 51.0% were female and 49.0% male. The poisoning made a peak in the age range of 30-39 and over 60. The seasonal distribution in poisoning patients suggested a peak in spring(38.1%) and summer(24.5%). The majority of exposures(95.5%) occurred in patient's home, 81.8% were deliberate. The most common agents of acute poisoning in deliberate causes were drugs(p<0.01). All of deliberate cases were suicidal attempts. The most common poisoning cases were pesticides in male, but in female were medications(p<0.01). Overall mortality rate of total cases were 12.9%. The overall mortality rate was higher in male(p<0.05), increasing age(p<0.05) and intentional ingestion(p<0.05), pesticides poisoning(p<0.05). Conclusions: The study forms a foundation for future work on poisoning epidemiology which hopefully will facilitate the allocation of preventive services in order to reduce the incidence as well as morbidity and mortality of toxic exposures.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.86-95
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• 2020

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between school-life adjustment and suicidal ideation in adolescents by applying the latent growth curve models to the longitudinal data. Methods: This study analyzed three waves of data from the Korean Children & Youth Panel Survey (2014~2016). A total of 1,534 students were included in the analysis. In the application of the latent growth curve models to the longitudinal survey data, we analyzed the initial status and growth changes for each wave, identified individual differences in the general characteristics, and examined the direct relationship between the two latent constructs. Results: The analysis revealed that variations in the initial status and rate of school-life adjustment were significant with respect to parents' education level, household income and academic satisfaction. Variations in the initial status and growth rate of suicidal ideation were significantly associated with household income and family structure. The relationship between school-life adjustment and suicidal ideation showed a negative correlation in which the starting value of the former increased and that of the latter decreased and vice versa. Conclusion: The results confirmed that school-life adjustment and suicidal ideation varied according to students' general characteristics. In addition, school-life adjustment was negatively correlated with suicidal ideation, thereby highlighting students' ability to adjust as an important factor influencing their suicidal thinking.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.295-299
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• 2011

According to the national railway safety plan 1 billion US$ have been invested in railway industry every year. As a result, railway accident rate has been reduce to half recent 6 years. Currently, Korea has 3 kinds of national railway safety target, which are accident fatalities, train accident rate, and passenger fatality per passenger kilometer. Increase of railway passengers and train operating companies force to set up new safety target. Current safety target cannot reflect train operator's safety activities because they include suicide and trespass related accidents, which are hard to be controlled by the operators. In order to reflect to the national railway safety plan, new safety targets are proposed in this study.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.142-149
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• 1977

To use basic data for health planning and evaluation of Kangwha community health project of Yonsei University, a study on death rates and causes of death were investigated in two townships (Naega and Sunwon Myuns) in Kangwha County from April 1, 1975 to March 31, 1977 All death was identified and reported by family health workers who are living in each village and 2 trained public health nurses confirmed the death. The causes of death were investigated by 2 public physicians. Total number of deaths for 2 years was 230 and the followings are brief summary of the study. 1. Age-adjusted crude death rates of study area were 8.69 per 1,000 population in 1975 and 7.18 per 1,000 population in 1976. Age-adjusted crude death rates for male were 9.18 in 1975 and 6.38 in 1976 and for female were 8.33 and 7.80 per 1,000 population 2. Age specific death rate curves by year and sex showed 'U' shapes. 3. Infant and neonatal death rates were 30.08 and 22.56 per 1,000 live births in 1975, and the rates in 1976 were 18.18 and 13.64. 4. The most common cause of death was cerebrovascular disease and average cause specific death rate for the disease was 215.5 per 100,000 population. 5. Four leading causes of death were non-infectious origin; cerebrovascular disease, malignant neoplasms, senility and suicide. Pulmonary tubeculosis and pneumonia occupied 5th and 9th causes of death. 6. Stomach cancer and hepatoma occupied 61.3% of total death due to malignant neoplasms. 7. Most frequent cause of neonatal death was birth injury. Two deaths due to tetanus were found in 1975, but no death due to this disease was found in 1976. 8. About half of deceased received care from physician before death.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.164-173
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• 1991

Clinical observations were made on 349 cases of acute drug intoxication who were visited to emergency room of Yeungnam University Hospital during recent 7 years from January 1984 to December 1990. The following results were obtained 1) Total number of cases of acute drug intoxication was 349 which was 0.39% of the total patients of the emergency room during the same period. 2) The ratio of male to female was 1.1 : 1. The age incidence was highest in the third decade(26.7%). The monthly incidence was hightest in May. Higher frequency was observed in summer season. 3) The most common drug of the intoxication was pesticides and herbicides(71.9%), the remainders were miscellaneous drugs(11.2%), sedatives(7.7%), rodenticides(6.3%) and unknown drug(3.2%) in orders. 4) The most common cause of drug intoxication was suicide(69.1%) and the others were accident, unknown cause, intention in orders. 5) Main clinical manifestations were the impairment of consciousness, nausea, vomiting and convulsion. Physical examination revealed increased pulses, increased blood pressure, miosis of the pupil and sweating. Above symptoms and signs were more prominent in pesticide intoxication. Leukocytosis, glycosuria and abnormal LFT were common findings in acute intoxications. 6) The complications were developed in 18.3% among 349 cases and the most common complication was respiratory failure, pneumonia, cardiovascular collapse and pulmonary edema in orders. 7) Overall mortality rate was 8.3% of total cases and mortality rate was highest in herbicide intoxication(22.2%).

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1337-1348
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• 2009

This study was conducted to determine major factors underweight and obesity by comparing and analyzing dietary habits, exercise and weight control of obesity and underweight of Adolescents. The subjects were 26,039 students and they were divided according Body Mass Index(BMI). The collected data was analyzed through frequency, percentage, chi-square test. The results were as follows. 1) Among the male students 67.3%, 32.7% and among the female ones 82.7% and 17.3% were included in the underweight and the obese groups, respectively. 2) For dietary habits, the rate of skipping breakfast(12.5%, 13.6%) was considerably higher than those of skipping lunch and dinner. 3) The females and the obese group received more stress, felt more unhappiness, grief, depression and thought more suicide than the males and the underweight group, respectively. 4) The underweight group had higher rate of strengthening exercise of males and females. 5) For self-recognized body shape, while in the underweight group had a wrong image of their body shape, while more males in the obese group had a distorted self body image. 6) Measures to control weight were regular exercise, reduced amount of diet, and the obese group controled their weight more actively than the underweight group of the male and the female students. 7) From these results, appropriate mental health programs and education programs about health knowledge, properly self-recognized body shape and measures to control weight were considered to be necessary.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2005

Objective : To compare the mortality rate of Korean medical doctors to that of the general Korean population for the period 1992-2002. Methods : The membership records of the Korean Medical Association were linked to the 1992-2002 death certificate data of Korea s National Statistical Office using 13-digit unique personal identification numbers. The study population consisted of 61,164 medical doctors with a follow-up period of 473,932 person-years. Standardized mortality ratios(SMRs) were calculated to compare cause-specific mortality rates of medical doctors to those of the general population. Results : We confirmed 1,150 deaths at ages from 30 to 75 years from 1 January 1992 to 31 December 2002. The SMR for all-cause of death was 0.47(95% CI : $0.44{\sim}0.50$). The SMRs for smoking-related diseases such as cerebrovascular accidents and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were smaller than the SMR of all-cause of death. However, the SMRs for colorectal and pancreatic cancers were not significantly lower than those of the general population. Transport accidents and suicides accounted for 72% (94 of 131) of external causes of death. The SMR for suicide was 0.51 (95% CI : $0.38{\sim}0.68$). Conclusions : The mortality rate of South Korean medical doctors was less than 50% that of the general population of South Korea. Cause-specific analysis showed that mortality rates in leading causes of death were lower among medical doctors although differences in mortality rates between medical doctors and the general population varied with the causes of death. These health benefits found among medical doctors may be attributable to the lower level of health damaging behaviors (e.g., lower smoking rates) and better working conditions.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.147-158
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• 2014

Objectives: This study aims to examine the association of depression, suicidal behaviors with smartphone use behaviors among Korean adolescents. Methods: We analyzed data from 'Youth Health and Life Skills Survey' in 2013. The survey was based on self-reported questionnaires distributed to 915 grade 7th and 8th students at four middle schools in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, Korea in 2013 to evaluate the effects of 'Youth Health and Life Skills' program. Depression and suicidal behaviors were measured in terms of the experience rate, and smartphone use behaviors were measured with average hours of smartphone use a day and overindulged behaviors in smartphone use by using 5-point Likert scales. We examined the association of depression and suicidal behaviors with smartphone use behaviors by using t-test and regression analyses. Results: 21.5% of respondents have ever felt depressed or hopeless to lose interest in school life almost everyday for 2 weeks or longer in the past year. The experience rate of suicidal ideation, suicide plan, and suicidal attempt were 21.1%, 6.1%, and 5.7%, respectively. The mean of average hours of smartphone use a day was 3.9 hours, and the mean score of overindulged behaviors in smartphone use was 2.99. The students who have experienced depression and suicidal behaviors were more likely to have more smartphone using time and higher scores of overindulged behaviors in smartphne use than those who have not. Conclusion: We concluded that for preventing addictive or problematic smartphone use behaviors among adolescents we should consider and develop more positive strategies for the moderate use of smartphone than regulatory measures, which include the implementation of skill-based health education program including life skills at schools and the development of smartphone applications useful for resolving mental stress and promoting mental health.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.234-243
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• 2007

Vibrio vulnificus is an opportunistic pathogen that causes septicemia in humans. To identify the genes associated with its pathogenicity, in vivo expression technology (IVET) was used to select genes specifically expressed in a host, yet not significantly in vitro. Random lacZ-fusions in the genome of V vulnificus strain MO6-24/O were constructed using an IVET vector, pSG3, which is a suicide vector containing promoterless-aph and -lacZ as reporter genes. A total of ${\sim}18,000$ resulting library clones were then intraperitoneally injected into BALB/c mice using a colony forming unit (CFU) of $1.6{\times}10^6$. Two hours after infection, kanamycin was administered at $200{mu}g$ per gram of mouse weight. After two selection cycles, 11 genes were eventually isolated, which were expressed only in the host. Among these genes, VV20781 and VV21007 exhibiting a homology to a hemagglutinin gene and tolC, respectively, were selected based on having the highest frequency. When compared to wild-type cells, mutants with lesions in these genes showed no difference in the rate of growth rate, yet a significant decrease in cytotoxicity and the capability to form a biofilm.