• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.2 s.61
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• pp.323-334
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• 1998

To investigate determinants of health care utilization of the physically disabled over 20 years old in age living in Taegu city, a self-administered questionnaire survey was carried out for 337 disabled persons with chronic illness from April to July, 1997. Health care utilization .ate was 81.9%(69.1% for hospital or clinic and 12.8% for pharmacy). Marital status, job, health concern, and response to illness showed statistically significant relationship with health care utilization(p<0.05). By path analysis, job, economic status, medical security type and response to illness had a significant direct effect on health care utilization(p<0.05), however, health concern and regular source of care had an indirect effect. The reasons of no health utilization were due to economic problem(31.1%), no symptom(18.0%), inconvenience to seek care or no accompanying persons to be helped(14.8%), unseriousness of the severity of the illness(14.8%), too busy to be treated or no free time(8.2%), hopeless prognosis to be treated(6.6%) in order. In conclusion, it is recommended that the program for expanding medicaid, improving socioeconomic status by getting a job and health education to increase the health concern toward physically disabled should be implemented to increase health care utilization rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.9-44
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• 1993

An explorative and descriptive study in order to determine the effect of family structure and other socio-demographic variables on health behavior, belief, locus, and value and utilization of public health service was carried out. Data were collected from 1,653 subjects randomly sampled in three areas, Seoul, Kyunggi province, and Cheju province. From Seoul 849 subjects were selected, 397 subjects Kyunggi, and 407 subjects from Cheju, respectively. Self-reporting questionaires were administered during the period from March to June, 1992. The major findings were as follows: 1) The subjects visited herb-doctor's at irregular intervals mainly to have tonic medicine prepared. They preferred herb-doctor's rather than with doctors at clinics and hospitals. Statistically significant difference was found among the regions studied (p<0.05). 2) The reason for visiting hospitals was primarily for treatment of diseases. They preferred hospital because they felt that the hospitals offer much highly reliable treatment services as well as medical accessibility. For the purpose of hospital utilization, statistically significant differences existed among sex, educational level, family type and region. However, no significance was found among sex, educational level, and region (p<0.05). 3) The subjects utilized general hospitals mainly for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. They preferred general hospitals because of their much better facilities and reliability. Statistical significance was found among sex, educational level, and region (p<0.05). 4) The subjects visited dentist at irregular intervals basis. They visited once half a year or three to four months. their purpose of visit was mainly for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Statistical significance differences were found among educational level, region and economic standard (p<0.05). 5) Whenever their illnesses were mild and the pharmacies was located in nearby they visited to pharmacies. They visited once a month and patient medicines. Statistically significant differences were found among sex, educational level and region (p<0.05). 6) The subjects believed that herb medicine was quite efficacious for treatment of some diseases, particularly by information handed down through time-honored tradition and experience. However, they recognized that the efficacy of folk medicine can vary with type and severity of diseases. Statistical significance was among sex, educational level, region and economic standard (p<0.05). 7) The reason why subjects believed that pray and superstition are effective for treatment of certain type of diseases, particularly in neuropathy, was the belief in God's almighty. Statistically significant differences were found among sex, educational level, regions and economic standard (p<0.05). 8) Most of subjects under same condition preferred western medicine because they believed that it is more scientific and prompts in showing therapeutic effect. Statistical significance was not found in the choice of type of public health service among, regions. But significant differences were found among sex, educational level and region (p<0.05). 9) The subjects looked for pharmacy if they thought the symptom was mild. However, they visited hospitals for chronic disease and general hospitals for emergency treatment. Statistical significances were found among educational level, region and economic standard (p<0.05). 10) Although most of students wanted to have a healthy life as for the component of health standard and value, they think that they are not healthy (p<0.05). As for the health behavior, significant difference was found in the proportion of smoking and drinking between educational level and region (p<0.05). The health locus was affected by educational level, and health behavior was influenced by region, sex and educational level. The utilization of type of public health service was influenced by family type and region, and health belief by region and educational level, and the health values by region and economic standard respectively, most of correlation showed statistical significance. Among them, the highest correlation was seen between locus of control and external/internal locus of control, which is quite obvious. The correlation between health belief and behavior was the next highest, but still low (0.343). All the other variables are low but significant except only a few of those. These findings indicate that health education should be incorporated into the curriculum so as to develop desirable health habit, and ability of self-control in accordance with their growth stages. A systematic and scientific understanding on the herb/folk medicine is needed, and greater reliability of the utilization of public health services are is still required. Health policy for equal distribution of health service throughout the country along the hierarchical health service system and complementary mutual assistance and cooperation among various health organizations are also required.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.24 no.2 s.63
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• pp.65-70
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• 1985

The locational preference of the brown planthopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens ($St{\aa}l$) and the whitebacked plant hopper (WBPH) Sogatella furcifera(Horvath) was studied on rice cultivars IR22 and IR36 as an integral part of subsequent research on insect-fungal pathogen relationships. The BPH was observed to stay consistently on the basal portion while the WBPH showed a general preference for the upper portion regardless of varieties, rice growth stages and insect population density levels. The habitat preference of both species (BPH and WBPH) was found not to be affected by the presence of the other species when both species are present on the same host plant Five rice cultivars with different reactions to BPH biotype 2 were used in the study on BPH-Rhizoctonia solani relationship: IR22 and TN1 (susceptible); Triveni and ASD7 (moderately resistant); and IR42 (resistant). Test plants were inoculated with R. solani (Kuhn) $3{\sim}4$days after insect infestation. Sheath blight disease severity/incidence was significantly higher in the treatment where BPH+R. solani were together than in the treatment with only the pathogen. Symptom expression of the disease in the BPH-pathogen combination was faster and mycelial growth was more profuse inducing the formation of more infection structures. Regardless of varietal reaction to BPH biotype 2, the degree of hopperburn was significantly higher in the combination of the two pests as compared with that of BPH alone. There could be a synergistic relationship between the insect pest and the pathogen indicated by a positive interaction between the two species.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 2024

This study compared the cortical thickness of patients with mood disorders and a control group to assess structural abnormalities. A retrospective study was conducted from September 2020 to August 2022 at the Department of Psychiatry, P Hospital in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do. The study included 44 individuals diagnosed with mood disorders and 59 healthy individuals without any pathological lesions. The 3D-T1 MPRAGE images obtained from magnetic resonance imaging examinations were utilized, and FreeSurfer software was employed to measure cortical thickness. Statistical analysis involved independent samples t-tests to measure the differences in means between the two groups, and Cohen's d test was used to compare the effect sizes of the differences. Furthermore, the correlation between the measured average cortical thickness and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores was analyzed. The research results revealed that patients with mood disorders exhibited decreased cortical thickness compared to the normal control group in both superior frontal regions, both rostral middle frontal regions, both caudal middle frontal regions, both pars opercularis, pars orbitals, pars triangularis regions, both superior temporal regions, both inferior temporal regions, both lateral orbitofrontal regions, both medial orbitofrontal regions, both fusiform regions, both posterior cingulate regions, both isthmus cingulate regions, both superior parietal regions, both inferior parietal regions, both supramarginal regions, left postcentral region, right bank of the superior temporal sulcus region, right middle temporal region, right rostral anterior cingulate region, and right insula region. Among them, regions that showed differences with effect sizes of 0.8 or higher were left fusiform (d=0.82), pars opercularis (d=0.94), superior frontal (d=0.88), right lateral orbitofrontal (d=0.85), and pars orbitalis (d=0.89). Additionally, there was a weak negative correlation between PANSS scores and average cortical thickness in both the left hemisphere (r=-0.234) and right hemisphere (r=-0.230). These findings are expected to be helpful in identifying areas of cortical thickness reduction in patients with mood disorders compared to healthy individuals and understanding the relationship between symptom severity and cortical thickness changes.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.922-931
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• 2000

Background : It has been well known that bronchia1 asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disorder. Recently, sputum induced with hypertonic saline was introduced as a simple and useful nonivasive medium to investigate airway inflammation and symptom severity in patients with asthma. We examined the eosinophil, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), interleukin(IL)-3, IL-5, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating facta (GM-CSF), and nitric oxide (NO) derivatives in induced sputum from patients with bronchia1 asthma in order to determine the role of NO and various inflammatory cytokines as a useful markers of airway inflammation or changes in pulmonary function tests and symptoms. Methods : A total 30 patients with bronchia1 asthma received oral prednisolone 30 mg daily for 2 weeks. Forced expiratory volume in one second ($FEV_1$), total blood eosinophil count and induced sputum eosinophil count, ECP, IL-3, IL-5, GM-CSF, and NO derivatives were determined before and after the administration of prednisolone. Results : Of the 30 patients, 13 (43.3%) were male and 17 (56.7%) were female. The mean age of patients was 41.8 years (range 19-64 years). Two patients could not produce sputum at the second study and 3 could not be followed up after their first visit. Two weeks after the prednisolone administration, there was a significant increase in $FEV_1$ (% of predicted value) from 78.1$\pm$20.6 % to 90.3$\pm$ 18.3 % (P<0.001). The eosinophil percentages in induced sputum were significantly decreased after treatment with prednisolone, with values of 56.1$\pm$27.2 % versus 29.6$\pm$21.3 % (P<0.001), and ECP were $134.5\pm68.1\;{\mu}g/L$ versus $41.5\pm42.4\;{\mu}g/L$ (P<0.001) respectively. After the prednisolone treatments, the eotaxin concentration also showed a decreasing tendency from 26.7$\pm$12.8 pg/ml to 21.7$\pm$8.7 pg/ml. There was a decreasing tendency but no significant differences in total blood eosinophil count (425.7$\pm$265.9 vs 287.7$\pm$294.7) and in the concentration of NO derivatives ($70.4\pm44.6{\mu}mol/L$ vs $91.5\pm48.3\;{\mu}mol/L$) after the prednisolone treatments. IL-3, IL-5, GM-CSF were undetectable in the sputum of most subjects either before the prednisolone treatments or after the treatments. Before the prednisolone treatments, a significant inverse correlation was observed between FEV1 and sputum ECP (r=-D.364, P<0.05) and there was a significant correlation between sputum eosinophils and eotaxin (r=0.369, P<0.05) Conclusion : The eotaxin and ECP concentration in induced sputum may be used as markers of airway inflammation after treatments in bronchia1 asthma. In addition, the measurement of sputum eosinophil percent ages is believed to be a simple method displaying the degree of airway inflammation and airway obstruction before and after the prednisolone treatment in bronchia1 asthma. However, unlike exhaled NO, the examination of NO derivatives with Griess reaction in induced sputum is considered an ineffective marker of changing airway inflammation and obstructing symptoms.