• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.166-176
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• 2010

Purpose: The study was done to examine the effects of cognition-behavior integrated breast cancer prevention education, in which a breast model with interchangeable nodules was utilized, on the self-competency of nursing students in performing breast cancer education. Methods: A nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design was used. A traditional lecture intervention was provided for 49 3rd year college of nursing students (control group) while the integrated breast cancer prevention education was given to 47 3rd year students in the same college one year later (experimental group). The integrated breast cancer prevention education was developed by the research team to strengthen the competency of cognitive and behavioral components in education on breast cancer. Results: Effects of the intervention were found to be significant through all study variables: knowledge about breast cancer (t=7.79, p <.001), breast cancer risk awareness (t=2.05, p <.05), self-competency of breast self-exam (t=8.27, p <.001), and intention to teach breast self-exam (t=3.87, p <.001). Conclusion: The integrated breast cancer prevention education was useful to improve not only knowledge about breast cancer but competency in performing breast examination for nursing students who acquired technical skills from various simulation nodules. As the program helped the students to be prepared as confident educators, future application of the module is recommended for academic curricula.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2022

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychological well-being (PWB) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in workers of a multinational company. Methods: Employees (aged ≥18 years) were recruited from Latin American, North American, New Zealand, and European sites of a multinational company operative during all the pandemic period. The self-reported Psychological General Well-Being Index was used to assess the global PWB and the effects on six subdomains: anxiety, depressed mood, positive well-being, self-control, general health, and vitality. The influencing role of age, gender, geographical location, COVID-19 epidemiology, and restrictive measures adopted to control the pandemic was explored. Results: A total of 1335 workers completed the survey. The aggregate median PWB global score was in a positive range, with significantly better outcomes detected in the Mexican and Colombian Latin American sites compared with the other worldwide countries (p < 0.001). Among the European locations, a significantly higher PWB score was determined in Spain compared with the German and French sites (p < 0.05). Comparable geographical trends were demonstrated for all the PWB subdomains. Male workers had a significantly better PWB compared with females (p < 0.05), whereas a negative correlation emerged with aging (p = 0.01). COVID-19 epidemiology and pandemic control measures had no clear effects on PWB. Conclusion: Monitoring PWB and the impact of individual and pandemic-related variables may be helpful to clarify the mental health effects of pandemic, define targeted psychological-supporting measures, also in the workplace, to face such a complex situation in a more constructive way.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.138-150
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• 2022

Background: Epidemiology is a fundamental study of public health, including environmental health, since the features and causes of diseases discovered through epidemiology provide crucial information for developing successful disease prevention strategies. Objectives: This paper tried to define the role and function of epidemiologic research in the field of environmental health, summarize examples of epidemiological studies with regard to selected environmental health events in South Korea, and address important issues that should be considered when conducting epidemiological research in the future. Methods: Epidemiological studies of selected environmental health events were reviewed and summarized in terms of their contribution to environmental health in South Korea. Based on the information, important issues were suggested for future epidemiological studies in environmental health. Results: The role and function of epidemiologic research in the field of environmental health includes the systematic description of the health effects caused by environmental exposure, verification of the causal relationship between environmental exposure and health effects, and provision of background data for conducting prevention strategies and developing policies. A number of epidemiological studies have contributed to characterizing and assessing the environmental risks involved in a series of environmental health events in South Korea. Conclusions: Important issues for future epidemiological studies may include health effects from chronic low-level environmental exposure, application of analytical epidemiology to elucidate causal relationships, use of exposure/disease/susceptibility biomarkers, accurate reconstruction of past exposure status, cohort recruitment and long-term follow-up, and in-advance surveillance of diseases with environmental causes.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.313-335
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to examine the association between participation in volunteer activities and self-esteem among adolescents. This study used data from the wave3-5(2005-2007) of Korean Youth Panel Study(KYPS). This study analyzed data of 3,449 second grade middle school students cohort. Fixed effects model using Proc GLM procedure in SAS was adopted to examine association between participation in volunteer activities and self-esteem among study participants. The results show that life satisfaction, appearance stress, relationship with parents, relationship with siblings, grades, relationship with teachers, and relationship with friends were significantly associated with self-esteem. Volunteer activities participation was associated with increased level of self-esteem.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.580-590
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• 2003

Purpose: The study investigates the degree of maternal self-esteem, postpartal depression, and family function in mothers of normal and of low birth-weight infants. Method: A retrospective cohort design was applied to compare the variables of interest between a group of 73 mothers with normal birth weight infants and a group of 45 mothers with low birth-weight infants, using the maternal self-report inventory(MSRV), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale(EPDS) and Family APGAR(FAPGAR). Result: The total mean score was 82.57 for MSRV, 8.45 for EPDS, and 6.83 for FAPGAR with no differences between two groups. A positive correlation was found between MSRV and FAPGAR, while a negative correlations between MSRV and EPDS, and FAPGAR and EPDS. Regardless of the direction of the relationship, the degrees of the correlations were stronger in low birth-weight mothers group than in normal group. Conclusion: No differences in MSRV, EPDS and FAPGAR between the normal and the low birth-weight group considered as beneficial effects of the follow-up management which low birth-weight group was engaged in. This suggested the early intervention(follow-up) for the family with risk factor(low birth-weight) could reduce negative outcomes such as the impaired maternal self-esteem and family function, and the occurrence of postpartal depression, retrospectively.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.71-88
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cost-effectiveness of four medications for treating and preventing osteoporosis -HRT therapy(conjugated equine estrogen 0.625mg for 25 days and medroxyprogesterone acetate 5mg for 01112 days), Alendronate(10mg and 5mg), Active Vitamin D(Calcitriol), and Calcium. Total costs include the direct medical cost -examination fee, consultation fee, prescription fee, fee for preparing medications, and the price of pharmaceuticals- and the indirect cost of patients such as traffic expenses and time cost. In addition, the costs of monitoring in adverse reactions are added. The effects of four medications are expressed as BMD(Bone Mineral Density) percent change measured by DEXA(Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) in lumbar spine(L2-L4) and femoral neck site. A mixed model based on meta analysis provides the estimates of effectiveness, which are then appled to the hypothetical cohort consisting of postmenopausal women at the age of 50-59. HRT therapy is the most cost-effective medication at 172,433.64 won (lumbar spine site) and 546,328.28 won (femoral neck site) per BMD percent change for osteoporosis. Alendronate 10mg is more cost-effective than Alendronate 5mg as 345,971.23 won and 378,441.63 won per lumbar BMD percent change at 0.991ｇ/$cm^2$, respectively. Alendronate 10mg is more cost-effective than Alendronate 5mg as 1,329,257.89 won and 1,467,291.23 won per femoral neck BMD percent change at 0.834ｇ/$cm^2$, respectively.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.160-165
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• 2016

Over the past decade, the detection of gene-gene interactions has become more and more popular in the field of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). The goal of the GWAS is to identify genetic susceptibility to complex diseases by assaying and analyzing hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms. However, such tests are computationally demanding and methodologically challenging. Recently, a simple but powerful method, named "BOolean Operation-based Screening and Testing" (BOOST), was proposed for genome-wide gene-gene interaction analyses. BOOST was designed with a Boolean representation of genotype data and is approximately equivalent to the log-linear model. It is extremely fast, and genome-wide gene-gene interaction analyses can be completed within a few hours. However, BOOST can not adjust for covariate effects, and its type-1 error control is not correct. Thus, we considered two-step approaches for gene-gene interaction analyses. First, we selected gene-gene interactions with BOOST and applied logistic regression with covariate adjustments to select gene-gene interactions. We applied the two-step approach to type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the Korea Association Resource (KARE) cohort and identified some promising pairs of single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with T2D.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.475-483
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• 1990

An assessment of Kuwait's commercial fish stocks: hamoor (Epinephelus tauvina), zobaidy (Pampus argenteus), nakroor (Pomadasys argenteus) and sheiry (Lethrinus nebulosus), was conducted using length-frequency data, mean growth and mortality estimates obtained during 1981$\~$1988. The length-cohort analysis indicated that increases in fishing effort would not lead to long-term gains in yield of the stocks at the current estimate of natural mortality rate (M). At high M which was assumed arbitrarily, some benefit in yield could be obtained, especially for hamoor and sheiry. At low M, the yield of all stocks decreased with increased fishing effort. Increases in fishing effort resulted in significant dec-line in spawning stock size for all the stocks. Yield-per-recruit analysis indicated that, un-der low M assumption, a higher yield can be obtained for zobaidy and nakroor by reducing fishing effort. At moderate M, decreases in fishing effort brought gains in yield per recruit of the stocks, but it was not substantial compared with the present level of M. At high M, most of the stocks reached the maximum yield-per-recruit. Overall, increased fishing effort either will not be associated with large long-term gains in yield or, in some stocks, might cause a decline from the present level.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.136-148
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• 2016

Purpose: Patterns of traditional medicine (TM) utilization vary depending on culture, historical significance, and regulations. We seek to understand how socio-demographic factors are related to TM use in Korea. Methods: The longitudinal cohort survey data of the Korea Health Panel (2008-2012) were used for the analysis. Information on TM included questions on 4 types of TM therapies used in South Korea (e.g., acupuncture, moxibustion and cupping, herbal therapies, and massage using hand). To adjust clustering across multiple observations per individual, individual random effects were used in the multivariate analysis. All analyses were performed using Stata 11.0. Results: A majority of Koreans (60%) used WM only during a year, and few people used TM only. Among TM users, most (93%) used it along with WM and 8% used TM only. Our regression analysis showed that female, age 34-64, low-educated, and sicker people were more likely to use TM. Conclusion: This study provides evidence on the relationship between TM utilization and socio-demographic factors.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 1991

Air pollution is directly and indirectly associated with the toxicology through the increase of mortality, the decrease of oviposition rate, and the decline of insect population, as well as the disruption of equilibria with higher or lower trophic levels. To investigate intrinsic decrease rates, oviposition period, and emerging rates of pupae of house fly under air pollution stresses, healthy individuals of Musca domestica L. were collected in the field, cultured in the laboratory for 2 $\sim$ 3 generations, and artificially exposed to $O_3 (4 ppm) in automatically controlled air pollutant fumigation chambers. Results from this study are summarized as follows: 1. Survivorship curves of both control group and exposed groups of healthy house fly to 4 ppm $O_3$ have linearly or stair-like decreasing trends of revers S-shape. 2. For cohorts exposed to 4 ppm of $O_3$, intrinsic decrease rate of cohort exposed for 2 hours significantly increases compared to that of control group, slight increases were observed for those exposed for 4 hours and 8 hours, which shows no distinct relationships between exposure period and intrinsic decrease rate. 3. While the numbers of pupae of exposed cohorts increase with the increase of exposure period, emerging rate shows a distinct decrease. 4. The relationships between emerging rate (E) of pupae and the exposure period (T) for cohorts exposed to 4 ppm of $O_3$ are expressed with the equation, E (%)=21.027 - 7.942 ln (T).