• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.821-832
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate bathing habits and behaviors, and to find out consumers' needs for washcloth, which in this case refers to Korean exfoliating cloth for bathing purpose. Subjects of this study were females of 20s to 50s living in urban area. Four hundred and twenty-six (426) women were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, factor analysis, correlation analysis, MDS. The results of this study are briefly summarized as follows: The most popular bathing type was shower (84.9%). Personal hygiene was one of the commonest purpose of bathing, and other purposes included health maintenance, stress alleviation, and beauty in order. Dimensions of consumer needs for washcloth were extracted from factor analysis as following properties: tactile, tough, aesthetic, constructive, and hygienic. The preference for washcloth type was related to skin type. "Non-skin damage property" was the most important parameter to choose washcloth and the other parameters included massage effect, tactile property, foaming property, and easy-to-use property.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.368-379
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• 2002

This study investigated the correlations among the health consciousness, nutrition knowledge, dietary habits and nutrition attitudes of school teachers. The subjects of this study were 75 male and 152 female leachers in elementary and middle schools in Masan city. The survey was conducted by using a questionnaire. Even though the average body mass index (BMI) and the obesity index were normal in both male and female subjects, 33.3% of the male subjects were overweight/obese, while 18.5% of the female subjects were underweight, according to the obesity index. The food components of most concern during mealtime were (in order of importance) salt, MSG and cholesterol by male subjects, and salt, fat and MSG by female subjects. The subjects considered self-relaxation as the most important factor in maintaining optimal health status, followed by resting, bathing or use ova sauna, moderation in diet, exercise, decreasing alcohol intake, and no smoking. Newspapers/magazines and TV/radio were the primary sources of nutrition and health information of the subjects. As the degree of health consciousness increased, scores of the dietary habits and nutrition attitudes increased. Nutrition knowledge scores and nutrition altitudes scores increased with subjects'increased level of perception of the importance of acquiring nutrition knowledge and nutrition information. There was a highly significant correlation between the degree of health consciousness and dietary habit score (${\gamma}$ : 0.3, p<0.001). The degree of health consciousness was also significantly correlated (${\gamma}$=0.6, p<0.001) with nutrition attitudes scores. But the correlation between the degree of health consciousness and nutrition knowledge was not statistically significant. The degree of the perception of the importance of nutrition knowledge showed a positive correlation with nutrition attitude (${\gamma}$:0.4, p<0.001) and dietary habit (${\gamma}$:0.3, p<0.001). The degree of perception about the importance of nutrition knowledge and nutrition information was positively correlated with nutrition knowledge (${\gamma}$:0.2, p<0.001) and nutrition attitudes (${\gamma}$:0.3, p<0.001).

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.36-49
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• 1973

This study was carried out for the objectives to collect the basic informations on the health behaviors of the elementary school children in an urban area in Korea. Seven hundred students were drawn to fill in the designed questionnaire which carries variety of Questions on health re-lated behaviors in general, eating habits, disease history, mental health, and sex education. Questionnaire were filled in by their parents. Major findings are as follows: ① 55.7% had habits of washing the hands before eating whereas 59.8% trashing their hands after toilet. The others had no idea of washing hands before eating and after toilet. ② 26,5% had habits of brushing the teeth twice a day 54.7% only once in the morning, and 2.6% once only in the evening. Thus, the idea of prevention from decayed teeth seems to be lacking among the school children. ③ Bathing habits were also inquired to get 40.3% of bathing more than once a week, 43.1% once every two weeks, and the rest of 16.6% once every one to three months. ④ 41.7% keep the regular bedding time whereas 58.3% irregular. Physical exercises were con-ducted by 76.6% on the ground while 23.5% did not practice any physical exercises at all. Of those physical exercises, rope skipping occupied 37.5%, and the other 66.9% consisted of 14 different kinds of individual type physical exercises such as gymnastic exercise. The main reasons for not enjoying exercises were different by sex; boys largely complained the inadequacy and lack of gymnastic facilities and girls felt in short of friends who could join the exercises. ⑤ 31.9% of the school children had been taking not much of food while 28.3% had unbalanced diets. Of these unbalanced diets, meat occupied 33.2% to be the priority to have an order of the following items such as vegetables, bread or noodle, and fishes as next to each. For eating habits, 88.5% take simple snack such as bread (38.4%, cookies, fruits, and candies in order. 25.8% of the children were provided such snacks or their parents regularly. Breakfast was sufficiently taken by 45.0% whereas 8.4% had never sufficiently. As to the lunch, 63.6% had sufficiently while 16.8% insufficiently. 70.6% take breakfast with all family members together and 30.4% separately. Correlation of sufficient taking of breakfast and eating together of tile family member's seems to be significant when we compare 72.5% of sufficient takers who enjoy breakfast together with the family members with 55.6% of insufficient takers who enjoy it with the family. This finding allows the investigator to point out the importance of table circumstances for children's eating. ⑥ The most common disease was catching a cold (38.8%), and the second was stomach trouble to be followed by the frequency of car sickness, headache, and skin infection. Doctors are consulted only by 23.9% when they are sick whereas 59.7% resorted to the drug stores. The lower the educational attainment of the parents, the lower the rate of visiting clinics. ⑦ 36.7% of their parents pointed out the problems of personality guidance as the most difficult thing at home 71.3% of their parents worried about and unsatisfied with their children's personality traits. Of these complains of the parents, impatience stood at the top to be tabulated at 24.1%, and 21.1% indicated narrow-mindedness. In line with this primary socialization at home, the most crucial problem seems to be related with the lack or recognition of the parents'own role when we find only 43.1% of the parents understood the importance of their own role for the home education of children; the latter group attributed tile responsibility of personality formation to the children themselves. ⑧ As to the sex educational aspects, 30.9% of children have ever asked about the physiology of reproduction or sexual matters to their parents, of those parents only 17.0% could give the constructive responses to the inquiries of the children. In companies on with these data, 25.6% recognized their own role in sex education for their own children while the large segments of the parents (51.1%) attributed the responsibility of sex education to tile low level of 38.3% who recognized the importance of sex education in the school curriculum and 25.1% of the parents insisted to wait until they get to know naturally about sex. 38.1% of the parents said they had some knowledge on sex from books while 16.9% through mass media. The next groups had common senses of sex from their own parents, school friends and other sources.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.149-163
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• 2005

Family has emerged as a key concept for health, and it has been identified as one of the most important conditions. The relationship between health habit and its management is different depending on family. The odd pair family, mostly rural lower income class, worry to have poor health because of no spouse and small family size. One thousand eight hundred and seventy(1870) subjects were collected in 9 provinces through the sampling of Probability Proportional to Size (PPS). Questionnaire method was conducted on health checking, bath states, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and the prevalence of farmer's health related problems. The main results were as follows: 1) The characteristics of odd pair families are that the head of household is female(77% ), the size of family is small(1.76 persons), the education level is low(7.5 years for male, 3.1 years for female) and the age group is old (male: 89.78 year old, female: 73.69 year old). 2) For the odd pair family, the frequency of health checking is quite low with one or two times per year(l0.2%) and the rate of no-health checking is much higher(35.8%) .3) Bathing utility is not available 29.6% of the odd pair family and only cold water is supplied at home for the 11.5 % of them. However, for the paired family, 9.8 % of them has no bathing utility and the rate of the family supplied with only cold water is just 7.9%. 4) The bathing frequency score of odd pair family is l.74points for male and 1.25 points for female. 5) The rate of smoking habits for odd pair family is 68.5 % and specially it is 7.6% for female, which is higher comparing with that of pair family. 6) The smoking frequency score of odd pair family is 1.57 points. 7) Alcohol drinking frequency score of odd pair family is 1.79 points for male, and 3.24points for female. 8) Farmers' syndrome(FS) revealed 38.7% of odd pair family and it is lower than that of pair family(57.3%). Special pain of FS was huckle bone and muscle(28.4%) and articular pain(24.l %). The pain rate of huckle bone and muscle(43.l %) and articular pain(33.5%) were higher in a year in odd pair family were lower than those of pair family: farming machine caused accidents(6.5%) and pesticide poisoning(5.7%). l0) The odd pair family use more frequently medical clinic or public health center for the treatment of FS(74.7%) and pesticide poisoning(62.5%) than the pair family for FS(69.0%) and for pesticide poisoning(.53.6%). The score of FS treatment is 5.70 points for odd pair family and it is not significantly different from 5.62 points of the paired family. The result of pesticide poisoning treatment score is as same as that of FS.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.139-157
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• 2005

In rural area, as the source of family income is related with the agriculture works, the living condition of non-farming family used to be lower except some family groups with a little higher income. In order to find out the improvement in rural life, data about the health behavior and diet habits of non-farming family were observed. This study evaluated the health behavior and diet habits of non-farming families by comparing them with those of the farming families in rural area. The survey was made by trained interviewers and a total of 1,870 subjects from 9 provinces were questioned to collect the data through sampling probability proportional to size. The non-farming families were $29.6\%$ of the total and they were with no spouse($38\%$), low number of family members(2.86), and aged husband(66.8 years) or wife(58.5 years). $83.1\%$ of the non farming families were having breakfast however, $95.1\%$ of the farming families were doing it. And the number of side dishes in non farming families was low(1-2 kinds: $17.7\%$). Out of non farming families, $47.3\%$ took no nutritional supplements and out of the farming families it was 40.8 $\%$ With regard to having snacks, $22\%$ of non-farmers had snacks daily and it was greater than that of farmers($16.6\%$). But the ratio of non-snack taking of the non-farmers($29.6\%$) was higher than that of farmers($24.5\%$). The sorts of snacks also varied and for farmers it used to be fruit and noodles and for non-farmers it was bread and milk. Instant foods were often selected by $35.6\%$ of non-farmers. Dining out with a frequency of once per month was reported in $23.2\%$ of non-farming families, but $47.6\%$ of them did not dine out at all. In case of food production for family consumption, small portion of non-farmers cultivated pepper($13.3\%$), Korean cabbage ($16.2\%$), and sesame($6.2\%$) but almost all of the farmers cultivated such crops. However, non-farmers produced soybean sprouts($0.7\%$), soybean curd($0.2\%$), and eggs($7.2\%$) and it was compared with the fact that farmers produced soybean sprouts($9.7\%$), soybean curd ($4.6\%$), and eggs($5.1\%$). Non-farmers stocked the fermented foods: Doenjang ($57.8\%$), Kochujang ($56.1\%$), Kanjang ($53.6\%$), Kimchi ($77.9\%$) and Jangajji ($37.2\%$), and this ratios were smaller than those of farmers: Doenjang ($93.6\%$), Kochujang ($92.9\%$), Kanjang ($87.9\%$), Kimchi ($97.7\%$) and Jangajji ($66.7\%$). As to health behavior of the subjects, non-farmers had less medical examinations and bathing than farmers did. Non-farmers and their wives used public bath facilities more often and it may be due to the low condition of bathing facilities. And the ratio of daily alcohol consumption was $15\%$ and it was higher than that of the farmers. Most of the spouse of the farmers did not drink($78\%$), but the wives of the non-farmers were drinking more frequently. More farmers smoked than non-farmers and $45\%$ of male farmers were smokers.

• Korean Journal of Rural Living Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 1999

To investigate the status of farmers health management for health promotion, and for checking the effect of village health care center during 1 year, 746 subjects were selected with cluster method in 8 provinces of Korea. The most frequent group was 40th of age (39%) : elementary school graduates (32%) The self-conscious of health status tested with CMI (Cornell Medical Index) questionnaire, the subjects in the village of health care center had lower health status than those of conventional village. The farmers living in the village with health care center had longer agricultural work (p＜0.05) and more frequency of spraying pesticides in the fields. The subjects of living the village of health care center were frequently exercise (34%) with health appliance use methods (30%), but the duration time of exercise was similar, Dietary habits and agricultural work condition were similar between two groups. For the fatigue recovery, steeping and bathing were most favorite methods, but exercise was lowest. It was significantly different between 2 groups the fatigue recovering methods, the subjects of village with health care center were more doing exercise (p＜0.01), less sleeping (p＜0.01) than those of conventional village. The working condition of self-estimated of farmers was not good, only 8.7% was thought pleasant condition. Of the various health factors, exercise, nutrition, and working situation would be more important. Considering on farmers exercise, it was very weak point for health management. The foundation and leading of the Farmers health care center was encouraged to farmers. For more effective operations, the experts education, easy and funny exercise program, and health promotion committee for administrators would be needed. The better systemic and continuous exercise programs should develop for associating livelihood. Funding for this project provided by the ministry of health and welfare of Korea.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.11 no.1_2
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• pp.19-29
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• 1996

Human exposure to volatile compounds in tap water can occur from inhalation and dermal absorption as well as direct ingestion. The relative contribution to total human exposure from these pathways has been considered to be important especially for VOC's (volatile organic compounds). In an attempt to reduce the uncertainty of the risk assessment, it has been suggested that the exposure assessment process could be significantly improved by adopting Monte-Carlo simulation. However, there is no actual data in Korea for each exposure parameter to determine the level of exposure, and the distributional pattern. Therefore, we surveyed water use patterns and behavior related to multi-route exposure to VOC's in household tap water in Korea, and compared these values to the those in western countries. In the first survey, we calculated daily water intake using data from a sample of 1322 persons of several cities in Korea. In the second survey, we obtained questionnaire data on exposure time for showering, bathing and household activities, and tap water intake from 851households in Korea. In the last survey, we measured the exposure parameters (exposure time, water use rate etc.) related to showers, baths, toilets, dish washing, washing and cooking, and tap water intake was surveyed. Also, the subjects were measured their body weight, height and tidal volume, etc. A diary, a flow meter and a measuring cup were used to measure these values as precisely as possible. Average daily water intake was ranged 0.79-1.71 L/day for adults in three surveys. Tap water intake measured by log-sheet during one week in third survey was 1.26 (average), 1.98 L/day (90 percentlie), respectively. These results were comparable with results from EPA (1.4, 2L/day). The average amount of water used by housewives in the third survey was 515.0 $\pm$ 564.6L/day. In usual activity, the amount of water used in the bathroom, the laundry and the kitchen was 140.0 $\pm$ 538.9, 148.0 $\pm$ 174.5, 229.3 $\pm$ 205.4 L/day, respectively. Exposure parameters such as water intake rate, exposure duration, body weight, inhalation rates in surveyed data of Korean people differed from those published from western countries. This could be attributed to variations in lifestyle, dietary habits and physiological characteristics.