• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of unintentional-injury and to identify factors related to the high incidence of unintentional-injury in the community in order to provide useful data for the development of prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing unintentional-injury incidence. Methods: This study utilized data obtained from cross-sectional national surveys conducted for the 2001 National Health and Nutrition Survey targeting 37,769 individuals aged between 0 and 99 years old, which was performed using a face-to-face interview method. Demographic characteristics, unintentional-injury experience, types of injury, and attributes of health behavior were included in the study instruments. Results: About 1.3% of the subjects had experienced unintentional injury that required hospitalization at least once during the past year. Age older than 40 years, male gender, lower education, lower income, and blue collar workers were all significantly and positively associated with increased risk of unintentional-injury. Among the health behavior variables, sleeping less than 6 hours, drunk driving, and binge drinking were significantly associated with unintentional injury, while traffic accidents and falls/slips constituted 80% of all unintentional injuries. Conclusion: Public health efforts to reduce unintentional injuries should target high-risk populations such as males, those with low income and education levels, and binge drinkers.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2023

Background: Injury is one of the major health problems in South Korea. Few studies have evaluated both intentional and unintentional injury when investigating the association between exposure to air pollutants and injury. Objectives: We aimed to explore the association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and years of life lost (YLLs) due to injury. Methods: Data on daily YLLs for 2002~2019 were obtained from the the Death Statistics Database of the Korean National Statistical Office. This study estimated short-term exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <10 ㎛ (PM₁₀), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 ㎛ (PM_2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O₃). This time series study was conducted using a generalized additive model (GAM) assuming a Gaussian distribution. We also evaluated a delayed effect of ambient air pollution by constructing a lag structure up to seven days. The best-fitting lag was selected based on smallest generalized cross validation (GCV) value. To explore effect modification by intentionality of injury (i.e., intentional injury [self-harm, assault] and unintentional injury), we conducted stratified subgroup analyses. Additionally, we stratified unintentional injury by mechanism (traffic accident, fall, etc.). Results: During the study period, the average daily YLLs due to injury was 307.5 years. In the intentional injury, YLLs due to self-harm and assault showed positive association with air pollutants. In the unintentional injury, YLLs due to fall, electric current, fire and poisoning showed positive association with air pollutants, whereas YLLs due to traffic accident, mechanical force and drowning/submersion showed negative associations with air pollutants. Conclusions: Injury is recognized as preventable, and effective strategies to create a safe society are important. Therefore, we need to establish strategies to prevent injury and consider air pollutants in this regard.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.265-271
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• 2008

Objectives: This study was conducted to estimate the cumulative incidence rate (CIR) of unintentional injuries in Korean daily life and to describe the pattern of unintentional injuries. Methods: The study population was the people who used the National Health Insurance because of injuries (ICD code: S00$\sim$T98) during 2006. The stratified sample according to gender, age and the severity of injury (NISS, New Injury Severity Score) was randomly selected. The questions on the questionnaire were developed as a reference for an international classification tool (ICECI, International Classification of External Causes of Injury). The questions included the locations of injury, the mechanisms of injury and the results of injury. Moreover, we used age, gender, region and income variables for analysis. Results: The CIR of unintentional injuries that occurred in daily life for 1 year per 100,000 persons was 17,606, and the CIR of severe injuries was 286. Many injuries were occurred at home (29.6%), public places (19.0%), school (13.7%) and near home (12.0%). The major mechanisms of injuries were slipping (48.8%), contact (14.0%), physical over-exertion (13.8%), and fall (6.6%). Infants and old aged people were vulnerable to injuries, and those who lived rural area and who were in a low income level were vulnerable too. Conclusions: We signified the risk groups and risk settings of unintentional injuries in Korean daily life. These results could contribute to establishing strategies for injury prevention and implementing these strategies.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.337-345
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aims at identifying individual- and school-level factors associated with unintentional injuries to Korean adolescents at school by applying multilevel modeling. Methods: From the database of the eleventh Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS), the researchers selected 68,043 adolescents from the $7^{th}$ to the $12^{th}$ grades. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$ test for prevalence and multilevel modeling for related factors of unintentional injuries at school. Results: About 22.9 percent of the adolescents had treatment experiences for unintentional injuries at school in the past 12 months. At the individual level, the significant factors associated with unintentional injuries at school included gender, grade, academic achievement, current smoking, alcohol consumption, frequency of high caffeine intake, depression, and relief of fatigue after sleep. At the group level, the significant factors included number of physical education per week and safety education. Conclusion: School based injury prevention programs should be sensitive to both individual- and school-level factors associated with unintentional injury at school among Korean adolescents.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-29
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• 2024

Purpose: This scoping review aimed to synthesize the characteristics and effects of interventions designed to prevent unintentional home injuries in older adults in Korea. Methods: The review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute protocol. A literature search was performed for studies published between 2001 and 2022 in the DBPia, RISS, KMBase, and NDSL databases. A total of 1,620 studies were identified, and 27 studies were included in the final analysis. Data were analyzed for characteristics of the literature, intervention-related unintentional injury mechanisms, and safety areas. Results: Most selected studies utilized a quasi-experimental design and targeted elderly women. In terms of injury mechanisms, 21 of 27 studies focused on falls, 2 on fire/disaster, 3 on drugs, and 1 on food. The most common preventive intervention for falls was exercise, and its effectiveness was verified using physical safety variables. Interventions in the fire/disaster, drug, and food domains were all educational, and changes in knowledge, behavior, and attitude were verified. Conclusion: This study confirmed the effectiveness of interventions for preventing unintentional injuries in the homes of community-dwelling older adults. These findings can serve as a foundation for developing and implementing unintentional injury prevention interventions at home for community-dwelling older adults. Multidisciplinary research is needed to address multifaceted safety issues by considering the home environment and injury risk factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.139-147
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• 2020

Purpose: The study aimed to identify factors affecting unintentional injuries at school focusing on violent experiences in adolescents. Methods: The study used the raw data of the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2019). A total of 60,040 students were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics, χ2 test, and multiple logistic regression were performed, using SPSS version 25.0. General characteristics, gender, school, academic achievement, living with family, socioeconomic status, vigorous physical activity, perceived stress, sleep satisfaction, high caffeine drinking, risky alcohol drinking, smoking, sexual experience, drug use, and safety education, were adjusted for and the relationship between unintentional injuries and violence was analyzed. Results: The results showed 2.4% of the adolescents had experienced violence and 24.7% had suffered unintentional injuries. Violent experiences had a significant effect on unintentional injuries among adolescents. Injuries were 1.93 times higher among adolescents who had experienced violence. Gender, school levels, high-intensity physical activity, stress, sleep satisfaction, high caffeine drinks, dangerous drinking, drug use, and safety education were associated with unintentional injuries among adolescents. Conclusion: Adolescents at high risk of suffering violence and injuries should be identified and assessed preemptively. In addition, it is necessary to implement systematic school health-centered safety education programs in order to prevent violence and injuries.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.122-128
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to describe the characteristics of patients with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Methods: We retrospectively surveyed data from the Emergency Department based Injury In-depth Surveillance of 20 hospitals (2011-2014). We included patients whose mechanism of injury was acute CO poisoning caused by inhalation of gases from charcoal or briquettes. We surveyed the annual frequency, gender, age, result of emergency treatment, rate of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, result of admission, association with alcohol, and place of accident. We also surveyed the cause and experience of past suicide attempts by intentional poisoning. Results: A total of 3,405 patients were included (2,015 (59.2%) and 1,390 (40.8%) males and females, respectively) with a mean age of $39.83{\pm}18.51$ year old. The results revealed that the annual frequency of CO poisoning had increased and the frequency of unintentional CO poisoning was higher than that of intentional CO poisoning in January, February and December. The mean age of intentional CO poisoning was younger than that of unintentional CO poisoning ($38.41{\pm}13.03$ vs $40.95{\pm}21.83$) (p<0.001). The rates of discharge against medical advice (DAMA), ICU care and alcohol association for intentional CO poisoning were higher than for unintentional CO poisoning (36.4% vs 14.0%, 17.8% vs 4.7%, 45.2% vs 5.6%) (p<0.001). The most common place of CO poisoning was in one's residence. Conclusion: The annual frequency of total CO poisoning has increased, and unintentional CO poisoning showed seasonal variation. DAMA, ICU care, and alcohol association of intentional CO poisoning were higher than those of unintentional CO poisoning.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.99-107
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• 2001

Injury has now replaced disease as the biggest single cause of death in children after their first birthday. Each month one child dies from preventable, unintentional injury and the medical cost of these injury is increasing remarkably. It is necessary to develop injury prevention system to manage, evaluate and analysis the information about accident. This resource manual developed as a result of literature review of child care safety project which is based on the Kidsafe Tasmanian Division in Australia and the other resources. The purposes of this study is to; 1. Develop model to enable services to focus on injury prevention 2. Develop standardized child care injury report form 3. Develop home safety checklist 4. Development of injury prevention policies The suggestions to develop injury prevention policies : 1. detail analysis of injury occurrence 2. investigation of known intervention and their effectiveness 3. analysis of policy environment 4. development of policy on implementation of intervention 5. develop protocol and materials to develop an injury prevention focus 6. increase knowledge and awareness among staff and parents of where injuries were occurring and develop.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.116-123
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• 2018

Purpose: The social environment of easy access to medicines and arbitrary personal decisions leading to overdose aggravate unintentional medicine poisoning. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of patients who visited emergency departments with unintentional medicine poisoning and reasons for poisoning based on age group. Methods: We retrospectively collected patients who experienced unintentional medicine poisoning based on data from the national injury surveillance system between 2013 and 2016. Subjects were classified into three groups based on age (0-14 years, 15-64 years, and ${\geq}65\;years$). We identified sex, insurance, time of poisoning, place, alcohol co-ingestion, hospitalization, death, and reason for poisoning in each age group. Results: A total of 27,472 patients visited an emergency department with poisoning during the study period; 1,958 patients who experienced unintentional poisoning were enrolled in this study. Respiratory medicine was the most frequent medicine in those younger than 15 years of age, and sedatives and antipsychotic drugs were the most common in patients older than 15 years of age. In total, 35.1% of patients older than 65 years were hospitalized. The most common reasons for poisoning were careless storage of medicine in those younger than 15 years of age and overdose due to arbitrary decisions in those older than 15 years of age. Conclusion: Unintentional medicine poisoning has distinct characteristics based on age group, and strategies to prevent poisoning should be approached differently based on age.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.7-21
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• 2014

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the effects of school-based education programmes to prevent unintentional injuries in 7~19 years old. Methods: To perform a systematic literature survey, the researchers searched three databases - MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE and THE COCHRANE LIBRARY - for literature relevant to 'safety accidents in school' (published up to October 2013). The term 'school-based unintentional injuries' was used to sort out studies on injuries. This study adopted a pretest-posttest comparative design and the participants were children and adolescents aged 7 to 19 years. Results: The search yielded 9,553 records, of which eight studies were included in the review. The eight studies examined the effect of school-based education programmes to prevent unintentional injuries. The research revealed that education programmes had a significant impact on knowledge improvement and behavior change. Although two studies of the total eight showed a difference in attitude scores between the experimental group and the control group, the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Despite the changes in education and public policy, trauma-related injuries continue to result in an unacceptably high morbidity and mortality, particularly among young people. More effective school health programs, policies and programmatic interventions are needed to reduce safety accidents and improve health among youth.