• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2021

Purpose : This study examined the factors related to sexual intercourse among adolescents in South Korea. Methods : The study sample was comprised of 65,528 middle and high school students aged 12 to 18 years in 2016. For this study, using the data from the 12th Korea youth risk behavior web-based survey, a chi-squared test, and hierarchical logistic regression analysis we reconducted with the SPSS 22.0 program considering personal, family, school, and regional characteristics. Results : The proportion of adolescents who had sexual intercourse was 6.0 % of boys and 2.7 % of girls, and 6.3 % of high school students and 2.4 % of middle school students. The statistically significant related factors of sexual intercourse were gender, grade, attempted suicide, ever drinking, ever smoking, habitual or purposeful drug use, weekly allowance, and coed school in the final model 4. Adolescents with suicide attempts had 2.49 times more sexual intercourse than adolescents with no experience of suicide attempts. Compared to adolescents without alcohol, smoking, and habitual drug use, those who have experienced alcohol, smoking, habitual or purposeful drug use were 2.22 times, 3.76 times, and 3.39 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse, respectively. Adolescents with a weekly allowance of more than 100,000 won per week and adolescents in coed schools were 2.84 times and 1.40 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse, respectively. Conclusion : Multi-level interventions should be considered in school sexual education programs while considering the substantiality of sex education and the actual adolescents' needs. In addition, sexual health interventions in cyberspace for high-risk groups may be needed to consider the emotional and mental characteristics, given the factors related to sexual intercourse in adolescents.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2012

Objectives : To examine emotional and psychological characteristics associated with suicide attempts in depressed patients. Methods : A sample of 37 inpatients diagnosed with major depressive disorder or depressive disorder NOS was divided into two groups : lifetime suicide attempters(N=15 ; 40.54%), non-attempters(N=22 ; 59.46%). Beck Depression Scale(BDI), Beck Anxiety Scale(BAI), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale(HARS), and MMPI-2 were used to evaluate symptoms severity and psychological characteristics. Results : Suicide attempters scored higher on the BDI though there were no group differences on the HDRS and on the both anxiety scales. Also they showed higher scores on the F, Fb, Pa, RC1, DEP, HEA, PK, AAS among MMPI-2 subscales. Our findings suggest that suicide attempters among depressed patients undergo more severe subjective distress and difficulties in adjustment than non-attempters. Also they were more hostile to others and showed lower trust. Lastly, they showed more somatic complaints and substance related problems. Conclusion : The present study showed that suicide attempters among depressed patients have distinct emotional and psychological characteristics. MMPI-2 would be helpful to assess suicidal risk of depressed patients.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.103-116
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• 2011

Objective: The study analyzed degrees of participation in physical activities, demographic and sociological characteristics of middle and high school students, and the relations to mental health related factors, based on "Korea youth risk behavior web-based survey." Therefore, the study can be used as preliminary data for establishing mental health promotion plans for youth and setting contents and directions of health education. Methods: The study analyzed the data, collecting from 75,066 middle and high school students, regarding their demographic and sociological characteristics, mental health, and relations to physical activities by using SPSS Win 15.0. Results: 19.1% of the students answered they had seriously contemplated suicide during the past 12 months, and 43.2% said they are usually under enormous pressure. 55.3% answered that academic achievements and the pressure from future paths are major factors of their stress. The students showed noteworthy differences in whether they think about suicide depending on whether the students live with their father or mother. The study found that the students whose parents' levels of education are low, or their academic records are low, or economic conditions are poor are more likely to think about suicide. The students tend to think more about killing themselves if they spend more time sitting to study than being engaged in physical activities, or spend little time walking. And they are more likely to think about committing suicide if they spend little time exercising, or are not engaged in physical activities on the playground or a gym in PE classes.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to find out the suicide ideation of high school students in urban and rural areas, and especially to research the relationship between suicide ideation, and general characteristics, characteristics of school life, and empirical characteristics of suicide. Methods: This research targeted four urban and four rural high schools in two cities. The study subjects were 1,114 students in urban area and 968 students in rural area, total 2,082 students. The survey was conducted from July 1, 2009 to July 31, 2009. For statistical analysis, chi-square test, t-test and ANOVA were used for investigating related factors with suicide ideation in urban and rural areas, respectively, with multiple logistic regression for multivariate analysis. Results: The results showed that 38.8% of respondents had suicide ideation within 1 year. The percentage of female students (44.8%) was significantly higher than that of male students (33.4%). However, there was no significant difference between urban (38.0%) and rural area (39.9%). The significant influencing factors on suicide ideation in multiple logistic regression were gender [female student OR(odds ratio)=1.80 (95% CI 1.31-2.47) compared with male student] and grade [second year OR=1.40 (95% CI 0.98-2.00), third year OR=2.15 (95% CI 1.49-3.12) compared with first year] in urban area. Those in rural area were gender [female student OR(odds ratio)=2.71 (95% CI 1.23-2.38) compared with male student], economic deterioration [yes OR=1.81 (95% CI 1.24-2.64) compared with no], and grade [second year OR=2.80 (95% CI 1.82-4.32), third year OR=3.84 (95% CI 2.52-5.87) compared with first year]. Conclusions: This study showed about 40% of high school students had suicide ideation within 1 year. A suicide prevention program may be implemented considering factors related with suicide ideation identified in this study.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 2024

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate individual- and community-level factors on suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among Korean adults. Methods : This study was conducted on 225,965 adults collected through data from the 2021 Community Health Survey and the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS). The general characteristics, suicidal behavior (e.g., suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts), and community-level characteristics of the study subjects were analyzed using frequency (%) and mean (standard deviation). The effects on individual- and community-level factors on suicidal ideation and suicide attempts was analyzed using multilevel logistic regression models. Results : The community-level factor associated with suicidal ideation was unmet health care (Odds Ratio [OR]=1.053, 95% CI=1.035-1.071), and the community-level factor associated with suicide attempt was the aging rate (OR=1.015, 95% CI=1.001-1.030). Regarding health-related variables, the individual-level factors associated with suicidal ideation were stress status (OR=9.388, 95% CI=8.629-10.213), depressive experience in the past year (OR=6.737, 95% CI=6.454-7.032), and the predominantly individual-level factors associated with suicide attempt were also stress status (OR=5.213, 95% CI=3.699-7.347), and depressive experience in the last one year (OR=13.433, 95% CI: 11.247-16.044). Conclusions : We confirmed individual-level and community-level factors influencing suicidal ideation and suicide attempt. Through these findings, we need to establish suicide prevention policies, considering managing individual-level factors such as stress and depression as well as community-level factors such as unmet health care.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.308-317
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• 2017

This study aims to determine the current status of experiences of suicidal attempts of Korean women and to evaluate related factors and provide basic sources for distinguishing high risk group. The primary data of the 6th period of national health and nutrition survey by KCDC, between 2013 and 2015,wereutilized in this study.Women were selected;general characteristics, psychological characteristics, and relevant information of daily activities were collected. The collected data wereanalyzed by applying the complex sample analysis method,using the SPSS 20.0 program with an application of weighted values. The resultsof this study revealed that 1% of the study population had previously attempted suicide; the suicidal attempts in subjects with prior psychological counselling within 1 year was 5.25 times higher than those without prior counselling.Subjectswith too much stress were 14.92 times more likely to attempt suicide than those without stress. Moreover, subjects with higher-intensity work in daily lives was 4.85 times more likely to attempt suicide than those with less intense work. In addition, subjects who sat for longer period of time was 3.76 times more likely to attempt suicide. All of these were statistically significant. Therefore, these subjects should be considered as high risk for suicidal attempt.In order to prevent female suicide, guidelines that considers the psychological health status and daily activities are required. In addition, it is necessary to approach this issuewith individualized prevention programs as part of social policies.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 2015

This study is aimed to analyse the causes and characteristics of suicide in jeonbuk region using psychological autopsy. Psychological autopsy is a technique to get comprehensive analysis on suicidal death by collecting data from interviewing suicide victim's family, relatives, and friends added with additional data of police report, hospital records, and suicide victim's lifetime records for objective evidence. For the data from 42 cases(male 24, female 18) of suicides that occurred between May 2013 and April 2014 with agreement for psychological autopsy, we analyzed a survey that recorded by interviewers who had a consultation based on half-structured psychological interview panel. As the result, out of 42 cases, 30(71%) had previous suicidal attempts and 21(50%) had a family history of suicides. Psychiatric disorders(38%) was the most common cause of suicide followed by interpersonal problems(31%). Among psychiatric problems, depressive disorder was the most common. many suicide victims had previously received psychiatric treatments but discontinued the therapy later on. The results showed that suicide is strongly related to mental disorders and psychiatric therapy should be continued until full recovery. Preventive efforts should focus on persons who have a history of previous suicidal attempts and have a family history of suicide. Implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research are advanced.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.104-111
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• 2021

Objectives: Adolescent suicide is a serious national issue in Korea. Recently, life satisfaction has been recognized as a major factor related to this issue. The main purpose of this study was to identify the domains of life satisfaction that affect suicidal behavior in adolescence. Methods: Data were collected from eight middle schools in Incheon, Korea. A total of 1297 students answered questions regarding their demographic characteristics, happiness, self-related life satisfaction domains (appearance, leisure time, physical health, and mental health), depressive symptoms, and suicidal behavior. Results: In the Spearman correlation analysis, female sex, perceived socioeconomic status (SES), happiness, and all four self-related satisfaction scores showed significant correlations with depression and suicidality. Multivariate regression analysis suggested that suicidality was significantly affected by perceived SES, satisfaction with appearance, mental health satisfaction, and depression. Finally, depression was identified as a partial mediator of the association between mental health satisfaction and suicidality, and a complete mediator of the association between female sex and suicidality. Conclusion: Perceived SES, satisfaction with appearance, and mental health satisfaction significantly affected students' suicidality, with or without the effect of depression. Health authorities, educators, and family members must be aware of this to identify adolescents at suicide risk earlier.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.135-144
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• 2018

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to identify the differences of demographic and clinical characteristics between child-adolescents who received medical inpatient care and non-hospitalized adolescents after suicide attempts. Methods : The study included 35 child-adolescents who were hospitalized (Admission group) and 114 child-adolescents who were not hospitalized (Non-Admission group) as a result of a suicide attempt from 2009 to 2015. We compared sociodemographic, clinical, and suicide attempt-related characteristics through a chi-square test and logistic regression analysis to evaluate the differences between the two groups. Results : Child-adolescents of this study most commonly attempted suicide by poisoning, and for motivation of interpersonal problems. Admission group had significantly fewer attempts through injury by sharp objects (${\chi}^2=4.374$, p=0.037) and attempted suicide with a higher chance of actually dying when compared to Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (t=1.981, p=0.049). In addition, Admission group had relatively common motivation for academic problems (${\chi}^2=12.082$, p=0.001) and less motivation for interpersonal difficulties. (${\chi}^2=9.869$, p=0.002) Psychiatric diagnosis at the time of visiting the emergency department showed higher rates of depression in the admission group than Non-Admission group (${\chi}^2=8.649$, p=0.003). The results of logistic regression showed that depression affects hospitalization (OR=2.783, 95% CI 1.092-7.089, p=0.032). Conclusions : This study is meaningful in that it revealed the social and clinical characteristics of all child-adolescents who were hospitalized at a university hospital after attempting suicide. This study identified differences in motivation, methods, and psychiatric diagnosis of hospitalized adolescents and those who were not. Therefore, the results may help adolescent suicide attempters to get a discriminatory approach based on their admission.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.8728-8737
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• 2015

The purpose of this study compared the clinical features of suicidal attempters who visit in the past and present of an emergency medical center, used as a basic data for clinical severity and suicide prevention research of future patients. The author conducted a retrospective analysis of the changed characteristics of suicidal attempters who visit an emergency medical center of Wonkwang University Hospital between from January $1^{st}$, 1998 to December $31^{th}$, 1998 and from August $1^{st}$, 2013 to July $31^{th}$, 2015. Factors related to increased occurrence was changed from male(1.1:1) in 1998 to female(1.3:1) in 2013-2015, from age of $2^{nd}$, $3^{rd}$, and above $6^{th}$ decade in 1998 to $3^{rd}-5^{th}$ decade in 2013-2015. Poisoning was the most common method of suicidal attempt(90.8%;1998, 72.7%;2013-2015), Mortality rate was changed from 16.9%(male 23.1%, female 10.0%) in 1998 to 13.8%(male 18.1%, female 10.5%) in 2013-2015. Among the suicidal attempters(total=516), 37 patients has recurred. But consultant of neuropsychiatric department was 48.3%, All suicidal attempters in future were necessarily neuropsychiatric consultant and continuously follow-up because all patients had recurrent suicide attempt, psychologic disorder, suicide rates are higher than in the general population.