• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.51-72
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• 2002

This research was conducted to understand and analyze the health-related behaviors of middle school students and get fundamental research data essential to provide efficient student guidance and public health service at school. The interview using Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System(YRBSS). Translation and modification for Korean students of the YRBS. The Korean version of YRBS(Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) that translation and modification for Korean students of the YRBS developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)was used to assessment to health-related behaviors of youth. The interviewees were 1040 enrolled students at middle school in Daegu metropolitan city. YRBSS monitors six categories of priority health behaviors among youth and young adults behaviors that contribute to unintentional and intentional injuries; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use, sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases(STDs)(including human immunodeficiency virus infection); unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical activity. The result shows that over 30% of students rarely or never used safety belt and almost students were rarely or never wore a bicycle helmet. During the 12 months preceding the survey, 21.9% female students had felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for $\geq$ 2weeks in a row that they stopped doing some usually activities 20.5% of male middle school students have ever tried cigarette smoking. 26.2% of male students and 27.2% do female students had had over one drinks of alcohol during their lifetime(lifetime alcohol use). 47% of male students had had over one drinks of alcohol on $\geq$ 1 of the 30 days preceding the survey(current alcohol use). Over one half of female student were thought they were overweight. These results suggest that some risk behaviors be very prevalent in a korean middle school students and priority health-risk behaviors, which contribute to the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among youth and adult, often are establish during middle school age, extend into adulthood, are interrelated. Among both children and adults, the leading causes of death are closely linked to these behaviors. Among adults, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes are the national leading killers. Practicing healthy behaviors, such as eating low-fat, high-fruit-and-vegetable diets, getting regular physical activity, and refraining from tobacco use, would prevent many premature deaths. Because health-related behaviors are usually established in childhood, positive choices need to be promoted before damaging behaviors are initiated or become ingrained.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.30
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• pp.4.1-4.11
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• 2015

Objectives: This survey was designed to conduct the first nationwide dietary exposure assessment on hazardous substances including the intakes of functional food and herbal medicine. In this paper, we introduced the survey design and the results of the dietary exposure status and internal exposure levels of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg). Methods: We selected 4867 subjects of all ages throughout Korea. We conducted a food survey, dietary survey, biomonitoring, and health survey. Results: Pb and Cd were the highest (median value) in the seaweed ($94.2{\mu}g/kg$ for Pb; $594{\mu}g/kg$ for Cd), and Hg was the highest in the fish ($46.4{\mu}g/kg$). The dietary exposure level (median value) of Pb was $0.14{\mu}g/kg$ body weight (bw)/d, $0.18{\mu}g/kg$ bw/d for Cd, and $0.07{\mu}g/kg$ bw/d for Hg. Those with a blood Pb level of less than $5.00{\mu}g/dL$ (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reference value for those 1 to 5 years of age) were 99.0% of all the subjects. Those with a blood Cd level with less than $0.30{\mu}g/L$ (German Federal Environmental Agency, reference value for non-smoking children) were 24.5%. For those with a blood Hg level with less than $5.00{\mu}g/L$ (human biomonitoring I, references value for children and adults, German Federal Environmental Agency) was 81.0 % of all the subjects. Conclusions: The main dietary exposure of heavy metals occurs through food consumed in a large quantity and high frequency. The blood Hg level and dietary exposure level of Hg were both higher than those in the European Union.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.182-190
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• 2015

Objectives: To introduce a protocol of Mobi-kids study which was aimed to examine an association between radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure by mobile phone use and brain tumor risk in children and adolescents. Methods: The Mobi-kids study was a multinational matched case control study using a standardized protocol with the number of subjects targeted about 1,000 cases and 2,000 controls aged 10 to 24. In Mobi-Kids Korea, the source population was restricted to Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi-do province. Eligible cases of primary brain tumor (glioma, meningioma, and others) were diagnosed from January 2012 to June 2015. Eligible controls were appendicitis patients operated during the study period. Two controls were matched on age, gender, and study region for 1 case. Information about pattern and history of mobile phone use and other covariates were obtained by face to face interview by trained interviewer. The Mobi-kids study has been involved in Mobi-expo as a validation study about mobile phone use, XGridmaster to localize tumor in the brain for RF energy calculation, and histological review for validation of diagnosis. Results: The Mobi-kids was the first and largest study in children and adolescents to estimate risk of brain tumor in association with the RF energy absorption in the brain estimated by mobile phone use. Forty-six-cases and 54 controls were collected as of September 2014 in Korea. Conclusions: The meaningful results of the study were expected because of the largest sample size, high validity of EMF exposure assessment as well as the susceptible study populationof children and adolescents.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.219-228
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine the trends of research on the effects of psychosocial intervention related to children with epilepsy. 454 articles were retrieved from databases (Ovid-MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, The Cochrane library, KMbase, and Koreamed), and 7 articles met our criterias. Interventions were classified into four categories: education; counseling; cognitive-behavioral therapy; and physical activity. The target outcomes of the interventions were quite diverse. Each intervention showed some benefits for epilepsy-related health outcomes, but each study had methodological weaknesses, including incomplete information, poorly defined or validated outcome measures, small sample sizes, and design limitations.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2008

Objectives : Fluoridation of drinking water is known to decrease dental caries, particularly in children. However, the effects of fluoridated water on bone over several decades are still in controversy. To assess the risk of hip fracture related to water fluoridation, we evaluated the hip fracture-related hospitalizations of the elderly between a fluoridated city and non-fluoridated cities in Korea. Methods : Cheongju as a fluoridated area and Chungju, Chuncheon, Suwon, Wonju as non-fluoridated areas were chosen for the study. We established a database of hip fracture hospitalization episode based on the claims data submitted to the Health Insurance Review Agency from January 1995 to December 2002. The hip fracture hospitalization episodes that satisfied the conditions were those that occurred in patients over 65 years old, the injuries had a hip fracture code (ICD-9 820, ICD-10 S72) and the patients were hospitalized for at least 7days. A total of 80,558 cases of hip fracture hospitalization episodes were analyzed. Results : The admission rates for hip fracture increased with the age of the men and women in both a fluoridated city and the non-fluoridated cities (p<0.01). The relative risk of hip fracture increased significantly both for men and women as their age increased. However, any difference in the hip fracture admission rates was not consistently observed between the fluoridated city and the non-fluoridated cities. Conclusions : We cannot conclude that fluoridation of drinking water increases the risk of hip fracture in the elderly.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.97-104
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to classify risk groups according to Caries Risk Assessment (CRA) and to investigate the effect of caries prevention program after 1 year of caries prevention intervention program in 6-year-old infants with high caries risk. The subjects were selected based on responses to CRA questionnaires. At the first visit, oral examination, Cariview, bacteria and saliva flow test were performed. The caries risk group was classified accordingly. The subjects were given fluoride application and oral health education every four months and evaluated the same as the first visit after 1 year. As a result of classifying the risk level according to CRA, more than 80% of the subjects were in the high or extreme high risk. The dft index was increased in all risk groups after the intervention. There was a significant difference between the before and after intervention (p<0.05). The Cariview score showed a slight decrease after the intervention in the moderate and high risk groups. As a result of the evaluation of bacteria test, Streptococcus mutans were decreased to ${\geq}10^5CFU/ml$ saliva after intervention in all groups. Lactobacilli were decreased after intervention in high risk and extreme high risk groups. As a result of saliva flow, there was significant difference between caries risk groups before and after intervention (p<0.05). In conclusion, regular caries management has been shown to influence caries risk factors in high-caries risk children. Also, it is necessary to find out periodical dental risk management system which is suitable for domestic situation through the related studies.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.548-554
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• 2020

Objectives: This study is to examine the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials in elementary school classrooms and libraries in Seoul, and to investigate phthalate contamination in indoor dust. Methods: PVC material was identified for building materials and furniture using portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF). Phthalates in dust samples (n=19) were extracted by ultrasonic extraction using cyclohexane and analyzed by GC-MS. Results: Diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), and Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) were found in all collected dust samples (n=19), and diisonyl phthalate (DINP) was detected in all except for one sample (n=18). The concentration of DEHP (median: 2190 mg/kg) and DINP (2960 mg/kg) were higher than other compounds, suggesting that there are many products in the school that used these compounds. When comparing the phthalate concentration in the classroom (n=11) and library dust (n=8), the total concentration in the classroom (median: 10000 mg/kg) was higher than that in the library (8030 mg/kg). DEHP was the dominant compound in the library. The library is relatively more equipped with PVC furniture (n=83) and most floors are also identified as PVC material, suggesting that floors and furniture made of PVC materials are main sources of DEHP contamination. Conclusions: This study is a pilot survey for investigating phthalate contamination in elementary schools. As a result of the survey, phthalate contamination in elementary school was confirmed. However, further study requires risk assessment of children through analysis of phthalate metabolites in children based on sufficient number of samples and information about the site.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2009

In 2008, baby formula containing melamine was found to be responsible for a large outbreak of renal failure in infants in China. A total of 294,000 infants were hospitalized, and at least 6 babies died due to ingestion of the tainted formula. Melamine contains high levels of nitrogen (>60%), which is used as an indicator of protein content. Therefore, high levels of melamine in infant formula were thought to be the result of deliberate contamination m an attempt to increase its apparent protein content. Following inspections by China's national inspection agency, assorted products from at least 22 dairy manufacturers across China were found to have varied levels of melamine (range: 0.096196.61 mg/kg). Melamine co-exposure with cyanuric acid can induce acute melamine-cyanurate crystal nephropathy, which can lead to renal failure at much lower doses than if either compound were ingested alone. However, currently, there are very few data on melamine analogues other than cyanuric acid. At an expert meeting of the WHO and FAO held to review toxicological aspects of melamine and cyanuric acid on December 14, 2008, a new tolerable daily intake (TDI) of melamine was established that could be applied to the entire population, including infants. Therefore, a risk assessment of the various theoretical melamine contamination levels in infant formula and selected representative foods (other than infant formula and sole-source nutrition products) is urgently needed for Korean babies and children up to 7 years of age. Although the undetectable level regulation for infant formula may be low enough to guarantee the safety of babies under the age of 1 year (including premature babies), the melamine standard of 2.5 ppm for foods other than baby formula could be insufficient to protect the 95th percentile population aged 1~2 years because of this demographic's high consumption of milk, yogurt, and soy milk (hazard index = 1.79). Because TDIs are chronic values intended to protect an individual over his/her lifetime, occasional modest ingestion in excess of the TDI is not likely to be a health concern. However, children aged 1~2 years may have renal systems that are comparatively more sensitive to the crystallization of melamine and its analogues. Therefore, governmental jurisdictions may need to practice more prudent management of food items that could raise the melamine exposure for this population.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.262-266
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• 2008

This study was conducted to provide a vitamin $B_{12}$ database for the representative Korean food items and to assess the dietary intake assessment of vitamin $B_{12}$ for Koreans. The vitamin $B_{12}$ content of 106 foods had been determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using column switching method. Rich sources of vitamin $B_{12}$ were meats, milk, and egg ($0.3-3.4\;{\mu}g/100g$). Vegetables and fruits contained vitamin $B_{12}$ below limit of detection (LOD). The major food sources for vitamin $B_{12}$ intake were milk (72.0%), meats (22.3%), egg (3.6%), and fishes & shellfishes (2.1%). Mean vitamin $B_{12}$ intake of Koreans was $3.16\;{\mu}g$/person/day. The proportion of population with intake below estimate average requirement (EAR) and above recommended intake (RI) of vitamin $B_{12}$ was 60.7 and 36.5%, respectively. The vitamin $B_{12}$ intake level of young children with 1-2 years which was 834.6% of RI while the intake level of the older adults 50 years and older was only 70.0% of RI. Also, there were regional differences between urban and rural area. The population with intake below RI was larger than that with intake above RI in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.644-651
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• 2013

Although there has been a significant increase in breast-feeding (BF) rate in Korea, it is plateaued since 2008 and still low compared with that of other countries. Because BF has been related to lower obesity prevalence in many studies and the increase in childhood obesity became evident in Korea, we wondered if a relatively lower BF rate has anything to do with this increase. Therefore, we looked into the relationship between mode & duration of BF during infancy and weight status of toddlers using the data from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008 through 2011. Number of 2-3 year old toddlers with complete information on BF, anthropometry and normal birth weight was 674. While 87% of them were ever-breastfed, 6.2% each of them were either obese or overweight based on the Standard Growth Chart for Korean Children. Not only the obesity prevalence was different among groups of different mode of feeding, but also the mean duration of BF was significantly longer in normal weight group (9.2 mo.) compared with obese group (5.5 mo.). Accordingly, overweight and obesity prevalence of the toddlers breast-fed for 12 months or longer was significantly lower than that of the toddlers breast-fed for less than 12 months (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.32-0.87). This study revealed that both BF and duration of BF affect the childhood obesity and, BF for 12 months or longer should be encouraged more aggressively as one of the main strategies to prevent and/or decrease childhood obesity in Korea.