• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2022

Objectives: Suicide is the major public mental health concerns all over the world. The comparison of suicide attempters and suicide completers could be the fundamental evidence for the suicide prevention. The aim of this study is to explore the differences between suicide attempters and suicide completers in terms of the stressors, suicide methods, and psychiatric diagnosis. Methods: Two types of secondary data were collected for the analyses. Data of the suicide attempters (n = 680) were gathered by intensive reviewing the medical records of Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Data of suicide completers (n = 11,722) were collected by the psychological autopsy data which were gathered by Korean Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Suicidal methods, psychiatric disorders and stressors before suicidal attempt were compared between suicide attempter and completers. Results: Suicide completers were older and male predominant compared to suicidal attempt. Hanging or gas intoxication were more commonly used in the suicide completion, while wrist cutting or drug intoxication were more common in suicide attempters. All types of stressors were found to be high in suicide completers than suicide attempters. However, the proportion of economic and physical stress were greater in suicide completers, while the proportion of family stress were greater in suicide attempters. According to the recorded diagnoses, the rates of depressive disorders, sleep-wake disorders, substance-related disorders were higher in suicide completers, while the rates of anxiety disorders and trauma- and stressor-related disorders, bipolar and related disorders and somatic symptom disorders were higher in suicide attempters. However, after controlling the gender and age, there were no significant differences in diagnosis between suicide attempters and suicide completers. Conclusion: These findings implicate that suicide attempters and completers differed in suicide methods and type of stress. The results suggests that economic stressors, physical illness might raise the risk of suicide completion.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.137-143
• /
• 2023

This study was conducted to analyze factors affecting the length of stay in children with injuries by determining relationships between length of stay and characteristics of children(aged 0 to 12) with injuries. 7,804 patients aged 0 to 12 who participated in the Korea Nation Hospital Discharge In-Depth Injury Surveys, got a diagnosis of sequelae of injuries and of other consequences of external causes(S00-T98), and were discharged between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020 were investigated. A frequency analysis, independent samples t-test, and ANOVA were performed. Also, to identify factors affecting the length of stay, a regression analysis was performed. The average length of stay for the patients investigated in this study was 5.5 days. The length of stay for school-age children(aged 7 to 12) and children who had either public or private coverage was higher than that for preschoolers(aged 0 to 6) and children who didn't have public or private coverage, respectively. The length of stay for children admitted to a hospital in a rural area(Jeolla-do or Gyeongsang-do) was higher than that for children admitted to a hospital in a metropolitan area and the length of stay for children admitted to a hospital that had 100-299 hospital beds was relatively long. However, children who first visited a hospital for outpatient care stayed relatively short in hospital and children who had been burned or injured in traffic crashes stayed relatively long in hospital. Children who got a secondary diagnosis and had a principal procedure or who died after being discharged were in hospital for a long time. The findings of this study shall be useful, as they identified characteristics related to the length of stay for Korean children with injuries and factors that determine the length of stay for those children by analyzing the national dataset, or more specifically, the data from the Korea National Hospital Discharge In-Depth Injury Surveys. The risk of child injuries can be easily reduced by taking actions to prevent them and providing safety education programs. The present study has provided essential baseline data for the provision of aggressive care for child injuries and the establishment of a range of policies for child injury prevention.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.57-74
• /
• 1971

The present investigation has been done to observe the ecological habits of field mice to protect the rice from damages during the growing season in paddy-field and during the storge period. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. Of 155 mice captured in the period of April-November 1970, which belong to four genera (Apodemus, Cricetulus, Rattus, and Micromys), 148 mice(95%) were found as striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius coreae). The population density of striped field mouse was revealed by the present study as 55/ha, which is quite a low level compared with that in Japan of 900/ha. 2. The age distribution of the mice as judged by their body weight was found mainly composed of adult and the sex ratio was found to be 1.8 as determined with 147 individuals. The nest was found to be occupied by an adult and was composed of at least three openings and more than one food storage tunnels. The mice usually keep hulled rice rather than unhulled one in storage tunnel. The weight of food found in a nest was about 50 grams on an average. 3. The mice show a most active behaviour 1-2 hours after the sunset, around midnight, and an hour before the sunrise, but they are active even in daytime in order for searching for food and for breeding. 4. The ratio (%) of damage appeared in high stem of sweet corn in August was 30 ~ 40 percent, whereas that in low stem was 80 ~ 90 percent. The weight of spoiled grains in paddy-field was 11, 400gm/0.4ha and this gives an estimate of 349, 695 for whole country. 5. The female striped field mouse weighs average of about 30 grams and gives birth to average of 4.8 younglings which wean away from female mouse three weeks after delivery. 6. The natural enemies to the mice are found to be carnivores (weasel, cat, mountain cat, fox, raccoon, and otter), raptatores(eagle, owl, kete, buzzard), and snakes. Two kinds of field rats(Rattus norvegicus, Cricetulus tritor) are also the predator to the mice. 7. The feeding preference of striped field mice follows in decreasing order of sweet corn, soybean, sweet potatoes, chestnut, and wheat. The mice do not have a preference for barley, millet, rough millet, red bean, and green bean. 8. The starvation experiment, in which water alone was supplied, revealed that the mice in good physical and nutritional conditions survived for 71 ~ 79 hours, whereas those in worse conditions survived for only 32 ~ 39 hours.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.1155-1167
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of falls, fear of falling, perceived health status, and number of disease according to cognitive function in community-dwelling the elderly women. This study utilized a descriptive survey design. Data were collected for six months with 311 elderly women who visited in public health center at S city. After obtaining Institutional Review Board(IRB) approval, a face-to-face, and private interview was conducted with each participant who was eligible and agreed to participate in this study by trained graduate-level nursing students. The questionnaires consisted of MoCA-K, K-MMSE, Fall Efficacy Scale, PHS scale. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS/WIN 17.0 program, which was used descriptive statistics, Chi-Square test and t-test, Correlation. The major findings of this study were as follows; 1) The average age of the subjects was 71.68±5.13 and cognitive function score was 22.14±4.32. approximately 35% of participants had fallen within one year. 2) there were significant differences in perceived health status according to cognitive function. 3) fear of fall and cognitive function, perceived health status and cognitive function were significant correlation. In conclusion, this study will contribute to establish strategies for preventing fall. Interventions for fall prevention and fear of fall enhancement should be developed with the consideration of the level of cognitive function in the elderly. Reducing the fear of falling through the comprehensive nursing intervention will ultimately improve the quality of life in the elderly.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.259-275
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to check if group art therapy is effective in improving self esteem and self integrity of rural elderly women. Study subjects are forty seven rural elderly women in A-city who have participated in producing specialized products in their rural area. They are divided into experimental group (EG, n=25) who wish to participate in the group art therapy program, a part of the A-city sponsored program named 'Making the Rural Elderly Happy', to improve and enhance the elderly's self esteem and self integrity, and control group (CG, n=22) with no wish to participate. However, only forty four elderly women are selected as the final study subjects for data analysis, due to those who either missed the program session more than once or died of old age during the program period. The group art therapy program was given from March 16 to May 18 of 2010, every Tuesday between 1pm through 3pm for a total of 12 sessions, with the help of two college student assistants in the region and one staff member for the city program. SPSS WIN version 12.0 is adopted to evaluate and analyze the effects of the therapy program, independent t-test for equivalence check of pretests, and frequency check for general characteristics of each group. The study results are obtained by the mean and standard deviation to grasp the changes between pretest and post-test on both groups, together with ANCOVA to evaluate effects of the therapy program with the pre-test as covariant. The results are as follows. First, self esteem of EG is significantly improved than that of CG after intervention of group art therapy. Second, self integrity is significantly higher in EG than CG after the group art therapy intervention. Therefore, it can be claimed that group art therapy is effective in improving and enhancing self esteem and self integrity of the rural elderly women.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.1429-1444
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of elderly people's difficulties in emotional regulation on their quality of life and to suggest possible ways of improving their emotional regulation. The subjects in this study were 345 senior citizens who participated in community education programs and used senior centers. A survey was conducted in person, and the instrument used to check their difficulties in emotional regulation was Gratz & Roemer(2004)'s inventory that was rearranged to serve the purpose of this study. When a factor analysis was carried out, their emotional regulation difficulties were categorized into five factors, which were respectively named troubles in emotional response handling, difficulties in accurate emotional awareness, difficulties in emotional coping, and difficulties in emotional reception. The findings of the study were as follows: First, the senior citizens were different from one another in emotional regulation difficulties according to their personal characteristics involving gender, income, financial state, hospitalization experience over the past three months, and presence or absence of disease. Second, their quality of life significantly varied with gender, age, presence or absence of spouse, form of residence, education, income, financial state, hospitalization experience and presence or absence of disease. Third, as a result of investigating the influence of their emotional regulation difficulties on the overall quality of life, a better quality of life was found among those who were male and who had an income and suffered from fewer diseases. And a lower quality of life was found among the senior citizens who faced difficulties in emotional response handling, who had difficulties in emotional control and who lagged behind in terms of emotional coping. Accordingly, the emotional regulation difficulties of the senior citizens could be said to be closely linked to their quality of life. Given the findings of the study, in which way elderly people could be helped to improve their emotional regulation in consideration of their own personal characteristics was discussed, and how to classify their emotional regulation difficulties from various angles to relieve them of the troubles was suggested.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.27-36
• /
• 2019

Today, the Korean wave headed by K-pop is newly named as 'New Korean Wave' in that it has been extended to United States, Europe and Russia. K-POP, the main player of the new Korean wave, has been successful in SNS marketing channels. Furthermore, the content of K-pop has attracted the attention of the global audience. The media and public attention on the Korean Wave is meaningful because it is not merely a cultural export. It also makes Korean people feel national pride, seeing the mental influence of its culture on other regions. Moreover, the development of the cultural industry in our society, which is different from industrial or material development, is a proof that Korean society is at the center of globalization. Until the 20th century, Korean culture had been rather receptive than dominant. In other words, it was focused more on acceptance of other cultures than active creation or outflow of its own. Now, however, K-POP is not anymore copying Western culture. It is creating its own unique characters, which makes K-pop very competitive. Korean culture has been formed for a long time in Korea's unique historical background. Korean popular culture also has to establish a solid foothold in world markets through its distinctive and traditional feature. The positive consumer response to Korean pop culture will create the added value of Korean contents and their derivatives, which will heighten Korea's national image also. In other words, if traditional art and K-POP are converged and equipped with our own unique and highly artistic culture, they will take the lead in the global cultural art market. In this study, we will recognize the possibility, growth and development of K-pop culture and analyze the cases of combining K-pop and Korean traditional art. First, we have to blend traditional art and other various genres to create diverse contents, and we have to actively utilize media channels. Second, we must improve people's awareness of the copyrights of traditional art. Also, we have to mitigate the copyrights of creative dance to expand the disclosure of contents which can be utilized. Third, we have to learn about traditional arts from younger age. Fourth, we will expand traditional arts to the whole of Korean cultural policies, which can enhance the nation's cultural value and create economic benefits. These four are expected to be effective ways to preserve the identity of traditional art and at the same time, globalize Korean culture.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.431-446
• /
• 2012

The objective of this study is to introduce the theory of Gerotranscendence and the ninth stage of Erikson & Erikson(1997)'s psycho-social development theory in order to enable the academic Korean field to have a more positive and fresher point of view on aging. In order to meet this objective, this study will first take a look at Erikson's 9th stage expansion theory on human development. Then we will study Gerotranscendence as the most representing phenomena among the 9 stage theory so that the Korean Gerontology field can utilize it for future plans. The definition of Gerotranscendence was first introduced by Tornstam(1994) and has been applied as Erikson & Erikson's 9 stage theory ever since. Gerotranscendence can be described as an individual that has entered his golden years after middle age, which transforms one's point of view on life from a materialistic and logical one to a more universal and transcending one. Gerotranscendence is a voluntary and overcoming process of oneself that is displayed in many seniors which leads to a lesser focus on oneself in the eyes of the society, but increases the inter-relational bonding between past and future generations. The following is a summary of the theorhetical evaluation on Gerotranscendence which was analyzed in this study. First, this study introduces the Gerotranscendence theory, which is recognized as the most representative phenomena among Erikson's 9th stage theory that has hence expanded the application of Gerontology theories in the academic field of Gerontology. Second, this study has provided a new point of view towards the elderly in the practical field of senior citizen social welfare. With this understanding, practical levels of services from various points of view can be provided to acknowledge the needs of the elderly. Third, a much wider field of research can be exchanged and provided along with other fields of studies by applying and extending this Gerotranscendence theory in Korea. It would also be especially beneficial to exchange researches within related fields of study such as psychology, sociology, nursing science, family science and the study of religion. Not to mention also lending support to hospitals for the elderly(nursing homes) and institutions related to senior welfare, or practical fields where there is an active exchange of research using Gerotranscendence theory.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.197-205
• /
• 2019

This study was to compare arterial stiffness and hemodynamic responses between male smokers and non-smokers. This study also investigates the influences of smoking before exercise on arterial stiffness and hemodynamic responses. 24 male subjects of age 20-29 without history of cardiorespiratory disease were divided into smokers and non-smokers. Smokers had more than 5 years of smoking experience. In order to evaluate the effects of pre-exercise smoking, smokers were tested twice, once with a cigarette before the exercise and the other once without one. Data was collected from bio-impedance analysis, SphygmoCor XCEL, graded exercise test, and fitness test. Main results of this study are as follows: First, there are differences between smokers and non-smokers in cardiorespiratory and hemodynamic response functions, as shown by maximal oxygen consumption, exercise duration, and heart rate. Second, the although the arterial stiffness between smokers and non-smokers showed statistically significant differences in the speed of the pulse wave velocity and augmentation index, smoker had a faster rate. It shows that smoking behavior has a negative impact on the cardiovascular system. Third, pre-exercise smoking behavior does have an impact on cardiorespiratory and hemodynamic response functions, as shown by exercise duration and heart rate. Lastly, arterial stiffness between smokers and non-smokers showed statistically not significant in the speed of the pulse wave velocity and augmentation index. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Brachial systolic pressure, a component of pulse wave analysis, on the other hand, was significantly dependent on pre-exercise smoking behavior. Subjects who participated in this study are college students in early 20s. Given their relatively short history of smoking, it is possible that their smoking habits are not severe enough to develop into cardiorespiratory or cardiovascular diseases. But Smokers showed lower levels of cardiopulmonary functions, as maximal oxygen consumption and exercise duration than nonsmokers.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
• /
• v.13 no.7
• /
• pp.361-373
• /
• 2019

Falls are a threat to the physical health of the elderly as well as to their overall quality of life. The purpose of this study was to identify which type of exercise is effective for improving the balance of the elderly, and to obtain the basic data for developing the falls prevention exercise intervention program for the elderly. We compared to the differential effects between rhythmic step exercise and core muscle strengthening exercise in terms of functional balance test and self-reported balance test. Women older than 65 years and under 80 years of age were assigned to one of the step exercise group(21), core muscle exercise group(20), and control group(21), and for 8 weeks, twice per week, 20-30 minutes of exercise were treated. All participants performed one foot static balance test with open and closed eyes. And they responded to self-reported balance test, such as Fall Efficacy Scale(FES) and Activities-specific Balance Confidence(ABC) Scale. The results of statistical analysis are summarized as follows. First, rhythmic stepping exercise was more effective in improving functional balance than core muscle strengthening exercise. In particular, the effect of step exercise was obvious in the one-foot static balance test with open eyes. Second, the self-reported balance test showed better step exercise than core muscle exercise. Specifically, rhythmic step exercise was more effective in enhancing fall efficacy than core muscle exercise. In conclusion, the rhythmic step exercise was more effective in improving the balance ability of the elderly than the core muscle exercise. The rhythmic step exercise is more related to the lower extremity muscles, and especially since the rhythmic step exercise is performed in various ground changes, it seems to have a high similarity to the fall occurrence situation. For future research, we recommended the development of task-oriented ankle proprioceptive exercise intervention program and exercise equipment based on the specific motion situation in which the fall accident occurs in the elderly.