• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.235-241
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• 2011

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarrettes) were recently introduced and advertised as a smoking cession device in South Korea. As the social norm to quit smoking has gained hold in the country, the number of e-cigarette users is growing rapidly. This phenomenon should be urgently considered, because of the lack of research that has been conducted to examine the safety of e-cigarettes and its efficacy as a smoking cessation aid. This paper raises several public health concerns on e-cigarettes in South Korea. Uncertain regulations of the government on e-cigarettes are contributing to an increase of e-cigarette users and allowing the e-cigarette industry to circumvent existing regulations. The aggressive marketing activity of this industry is also a core factor that is responsible for the rapid increase of e-cigarette use, in particular among the youth. Following the enforcement of tobacco control, some cigarette smokers may be encouraged to purchase e-cigarettes in order to circumvent the regulations, even though the dual use of e-cigarette and cigarette may be more harmful. Until there is clear evidence of the e-cigarette’s safety, it is recommended that the industry’s marketing and promotional activities be banned and closely monitored, and public campaigns be initiated to educate the public regarding e-cigarettes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3587-3590
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• 2015

In spite of limited data regarding the safety or effectiveness of electronic cigarette introduced into the market as a healthier alternative to tobacco smoking, its popularity has increased enormously. E-cigarettes have penetrated the market rapidly owing to the elaborate marketing network and attractive marketing strategies. Stated advantages include the claim that they help quit smoking and produce less exposure than conventional smoking. The list of disadvantages is even more elaborate. While the majority of the studies supporting health claims and efficacy for quitting smoking are not scientifically sound, they are also challenged by studies providing contradictory results. Owing to the limited evidence on the potential advantages and disadvantages of e-cigarettes, the debate on their safety continues.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.64-70
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the raise of cigarette prices by KRW 2,000 at the beginning of 2015 on the change in smoking behavior among male office workers, and to analyze the correlation of various factors including their work behaviors and socio-economic factors with their smoking rate. Methods: In this research, a follow-up observation panel was constituted with 420 smokers as targets from among male office workers at a bank located in Daegu, South Korea. A cross-analysis and ANOVA analysis were carried out in order to examine whether changes in smoking status, amount of smoking, stop-smoking motivation, and reasons for smoking cessation failure after the passage of time since the cigarette price hike were statistically significant. The level of statistical significance was P < 0.05. Results: After the cigarette price hike, among the 420 smokers who were the target of the panel the rate of smoking cessation declined at the time-point of the survey to 15.5%, 12.4%, 8.5%, and 5.7% after one month, three months, six months, and 12 months, respectively. As a result of a follow-up observation of 65 smokers who stopped smoking immediately after the price hike, the actual non-smoking rate declined to 15.5%, 8.3%, 4.4%, and 3.1% after one month, three months, six months, and 12 months, respectively. One (1) year after the cigarette price hike, the non-smoking rate among the 420 smokers reached as low as 3.1% (13 persons). The most important reason for the failure of the attempts to quit smoking was stress for more than 60% of the smokers who attempted to stop. Conclusions: It seems that a powerful anti-smoking policy by the state targeting the nation's workers is necessary. For companies, mediation for workers' job stress can become a strategy for the success of non-smoking attempts. The government seems to require a practical policy to reduce the smoking rate by actively carrying out social, economic, and scientific research to come up with a reduction method for the cigarette hazard, an effective price hike policy, and other non-price policies.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.281-288
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• 2018

Cigarette warning pictures are one of the most effective smoking cessation policies, and this is an effective way to promote smoking cessation by conveying the risk of smoking through pictures. However, the recent advertisement of new cigarettes in retail stores has potentially increased tobacco purchase intention by weakening the effect of the warning picture. Therefore, this study examined the problems of the new cigarette advertisement method by analyzing the effect of this method on cigarette warning pictures. For this purpose, 275 men and women were surveyed nationwide, and this study compared the cognitive and emotional effects, and purchase intentions of the new cigarette advertisements with existing advertisement methods through MANCOVA. The results show that the new cigarette advertising method affects the emotions, cognitions, and purchase intentions related to the cigarette warning pictures and have adverse effects on the original purpose of the cigarette warning pictures. This implies that regulatory standards and institutional arrangements are necessary for effective new cigarette advertising.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.346-352
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate the quality of sleep of university students according to smoking behavior and to generate basic data for use in development of smoking prevention and smoking policies for university students and young adults in their 20s. The quality of sleep of 291 college students was measured based on smoking behavior and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire from May 29, 2017 to June 3, 2017. Multiple logistic regression analysis with step-wise analysis revealed that the quality of OR increased from 2.542 to 2.820 times as the grade increased, and that OR was 3.126 times higher than that of non-smokers and stop-smokers. The quality of sleep worsened with OR=12.388 times. Among general smokers, 72.4% of the students had poor sleep quality, but 82.6% of the students who did not have good sleep quality of electronic-cigarette or tobacco smokers had electronic-cigarette or tobacco worse than regular tobacco.Based on these findings, quitting smoking is essential to improve quality of sleep, but this can be difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to develop legal regulations and policies at the national level. Moreover, a system or service that can manage phased smoking cessation is needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.579-582
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• 2013

Background: In this study our aim was to determine the rate of smoking in a sample of psychiatric in-patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression and to examine factors related to smoking status and the level of dependence in this population. Materials and Methods: A total of 160 people were included in this descriptive study. 80 were inpatients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression and 80 people without any psychiatric diagnoses were included as a control group. The participants were interviewed face-to face using a semi-structured questionnaire and Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence was used to define smoking habits. Results: The mean age of the participants was $37.24{\pm}12.19$ years ranging from 18 to 81 years, 54.4% of the participants were (n=87) female, and 45.6% cases (n=73) were male. 70% (n=56) of the patients and 55% of the control group were smoking and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Total score of Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence in the patient group was statistically significantly higher than in the control group (p<0.01). Conclusions: In our sample, the frequency of cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence among psychiatric inpatients was high, posing a high risk for smoking related diseases including cancers; therefore there should be counseling on tobacco control and smoking cessation programming targeting this population.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5195-5199
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• 2012

Objectives: Global cancer statistical data show that India has one of the highest incidence rates of oral cancer worldwide. Early detection is extremely important as it results in lower morbidity and death rates. The present study was undertaken to assess awareness of oral cancer and knowledge of its early signs and risk factors in the general public of the semi-urban Gorakhpur area of Uttar Pradesh (India). It was also intended to educate the same population for early detection by increasing their ability to recognize signs and risk factors. Method: A questionnaire-based household survey was conducted over a period of one month in different parts of Gorakhpur district, a region where tobacco use is apparently very high. A total of 2,093 persons participated in the survey. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software to assess and associate oral cancer awareness with the prevalence, and abstract risk factors, as well as other confounding variables. Results: The general awareness, knowledge of signs and risk factors of oral cancer were found to be proportionate to the literacy level with the highest rate of awareness being among high school and graduates and lowest among illiterates. It was also observed that on most of these dimensions the younger age groups (<30 years) were significantly more knowledgeable. Conclusion: Overall, the awareness of oral cancer in the high-risk population of Gorakhpur was not satisfactory, pointing to a need for further dissemination of information on this issue and its associated risks. This is especially important for the youngsters, as this may possibly help them keep away from the deleterious habit of tobacco indulgence in any form. If necessary risk factor cessation counselling should be provided.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.451-461
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• 2018

This study investigated changes in the youth smoking rate and smoking cessation rates before and after a cigarette price increase in 2015. Specifically, the changes in smoking rate, smoking cessation attempt rate, selection rate and amount of smoking were investigated using primary data pertaining to Korean Youth Risk Behavior obtained from a web-based survey of youth general characteristics, mental health, subjective grade, drinking and smoking related characteristics before and after a cigarette price increase. To accomplish this, 800 middle school and high school students in 9th (2013), 10th (2014), 11th (2015) were surveyed. The current youth smoking rate was slightly decreased from 9.7% in 2013 to 9.2% in 2014, while the smoking rate in 2015 decreased significantly by 15.2% after the cigarette price increased to 7.8%. These results confirmed that increasing cigarette price is very effective at decreasing youth smoking rate, providing motivation to stop smoking and preventing smoking. The prevention of smoking and inducement to stop smoking during adolescence is very important because the majority of teenage smokers continue smoking into their adulthood. In addition to expanding a completely non-smoking area and a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship should be urgently sought, and the effect can be maximized when the WHO FCTC faithfully implements the already-founded treaty.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.552-561
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing lifetime smoking and current smoking among adolescents in South Korea. Methods: Hierarchical logistic regression was conducted based on complex sample analysis using statistics from the 10th (2014) Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. The study sample comprised 72,060 adolescents aged 12 to 18. Results: The significant factors influencing adolescent lifetime smoking were female gender, older age, higher stress, higher weekly allowance, lower economic status, living apart from parents, parental smoking, sibling smoking, peer smoking, observation of school personnel smoking, and coed school compared to boys' school. The significant factors influencing adolescent current smoking were female gender, older age, higher stress, higher weekly allowance, both higher and lower economic status compared to middle economic status, living apart from parents, parental smoking, sibling smoking, peer smoking, observation of school personnel smoking, and coed school compared to boys' school. Conclusion: Factors identified in this study need to be considered in programs directed at prevention of adolescent smoking and smoking cessation programs, as well as policies.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.82-90
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• 2008

Recent shortening of hospitalization has partly led to the transition of health care services from hospitals to communities in cardiovascular (CVD) care. Home healthcare nursing is an alternative modality of care for chronically ill CVD patients. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been redefined as a "secondary prevention center", consisting of: patient assessment; nutritional counseling; blood pressure and diabetes management; tobacco cessation; psychosocial management; and physical activity counseling. Improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a major goal of the CR that integrates physical, psychological and social dimensions of care. The review of evidence on effects of CR on HRQOL may allow home healthcare nurses to provide better comprehensive care for CVD patients. There is evidence on beneficial effects of CR on HRQOL in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) as well as patients with chronic heart failure. Specifically, home-based CR, which is more cost-effective than hospital-based CR, has been reported to produce comparable improvements in HRQOL with hospital-based CR in MI patients. In conclusion, a newly-designed, home-based CR may be required to be applied to Korean home healthcare nursing system for improving HRQOL.