• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2019

Objectives : Loneliness is associated with negative mental and physical health. However, little is known about the risk factors of loneliness in the Korean elderly living alone. The aim of this study was to examine sociodemographic and social network related risks for loneliness among the elderly living alone. Methods : This is a cross-sectional study that enrolled 1,091 subjects who are the community-residing elderly living alone. Sociodemographic status, medical condition, cognition, mood disorder and levels of loneliness were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and a specific semi-structured interview conducted by a trained nurse. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data regarding sociodemographic variable and loneliness. Univariate and Multivariate regression analyses were applied to examine factors associated with loneliness. Results : The mean score of loneliness was 3.8 (SD=1.7). No family contact (standardized β=0.115, p<0.001), no religious attendance (standardized β=0.057, p=0.028), no gathering with friends (standardized β=0.088, p=0.001) and high score of Short for of Geriatric Depression Scale (standardized β=0.502, p<0.001) were significantly associated with high loneliness in the elderly living alone. Conclusions : Family function, social network and depressive mood could be significant risk factors for high loneliness in the elderly living alone. Public health promotion efforts to reduce loneliness should focus on improving family function, social network and decreasing depression.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.317-324
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• 2006

Objectives: This study was conducted to estimate the unbiased smoking prevalence and its standard errors among adolescents in a large city in Korea, by design-based analysis. Methods: All the students in Daegu city were stratified by grade, gender and region, and then schools as primary sampling units (PSU) were selected by probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling. One or two classes were sampled randomly from each grade, from 5th grade in elementary schools to the 3rd grade in high schools. The students anonymously completed a standardized self-administered questionnaire from October to December 2004. The total number of respondents was 8,480 in the final analysis, excluding the third graders in the general high schools because of incomplete sampling. The sampling weight was calculated for each student after post-stratification adjustment, with adjustment being made for the missing cases. The data were analyzed with Stata 8.0 with consideration of PSU, weighting and the strata variables. Results: The smoking prevalence (%) and standard errors for male students from the fifth grade in elementary schools to the second grade in high schools were $0.93{\pm}0.47,\;1.83{\pm}0.74,\;3.16{\pm}1.00,\;5.12{\pm}1.02,\;10.86{\pm}1.13,\;15.63{\pm}2.44\;and\;17.96{\pm}2.67$, and those for the female students were $0.28{\pm}0.28,\;1.17{\pm}0.73,\;3.13{\pm}0.60,\;1.45{\pm}0.58,\;3.94{\pm}0.92,\;8.75{\pm}1.86\;and\;10.04{\pm}1.70$, sequentially. Conclusions: The smoking prevalence from this study was much higher than those from the other conventional studies conducted in Korea. The point estimates and standard errors from the design-based analysis were different from those of the model-based analysis. These findings suggest the importance of design-based analysis to estimate unbiased prevalence and standard errors in complex survey data and this method is recommended to apply to future surveys for determining the smoking prevalence for specific population.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.91-117
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• 2022

The number of depressed patients in Korea and around the world is rapidly increasing every year. However, most of the mentally ill patients are not aware that they are suffering from the disease, so adequate treatment is not being performed. If depressive symptoms are neglected, it can lead to suicide, anxiety, and other psychological problems. Therefore, early detection and treatment of depression are very important in improving mental health. To improve this problem, this study presented a deep learning-based depression tendency model using Korean social media text. After collecting data from Naver KonwledgeiN, Naver Blog, Hidoc, and Twitter, DSM-5 major depressive disorder diagnosis criteria were used to classify and annotate classes according to the number of depressive symptoms. Afterwards, TF-IDF analysis and simultaneous word analysis were performed to examine the characteristics of each class of the corpus constructed. In addition, word embedding, dictionary-based sentiment analysis, and LDA topic modeling were performed to generate a depression tendency classification model using various text features. Through this, the embedded text, sentiment score, and topic number for each document were calculated and used as text features. As a result, it was confirmed that the highest accuracy rate of 83.28% was achieved when the depression tendency was classified based on the KorBERT algorithm by combining both the emotional score and the topic of the document with the embedded text. This study establishes a classification model for Korean depression trends with improved performance using various text features, and detects potential depressive patients early among Korean online community users, enabling rapid treatment and prevention, thereby enabling the mental health of Korean society. It is significant in that it can help in promotion.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.205-216
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• 2016

Objectives: We compared the difference of lipid, insulin resistance and metabolic markers based on HCV RNA in Korean adults.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 222 subjects visited the health promotion center of Pusan nationaluniversity hospital from 2004 to 2007. Subjects were anti-HCV antibody positive and were performed RT-PCR for HCV RNA. The HCV RNA (+) group were 85 subjects, HCV RNA (-) control group were 115 subjects, and the HCV RNA (-) but past positive group were 22 subjects. We performed anthropometry, anti-HCV, RT-PCR, plasma concentrations of insulin, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and triglyceride.Results: BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride, HDL cholesterol, insulin resistance such as HOMA-IR and QUICKI were not significantly different between HCV RNA positive and negative groups. The serum total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol level were significantly lower in the HCV RNA positive group than in the negative group ($186.24{\pm}37.63$ vs $197.22{\pm}37.23$ mg/dl, p=0.041, $111.66{\pm}34.06$ vs $121.38{\pm}35.50$ mg/dl, p=0.042). After adjusting age and sex, high total cholesterol (${\geq}200mg/dl$) (adjusted OR=0.51, 95%CI 0.28-0.94, p=0.03) and high LDL cholesterol (${\geq}130mg/dl$) (adjusted OR=0.46, 95%CI 0.24~0.87, p=0.02) were inversely associated with being HCV RNA positive (p<0.05). Conclusion: The serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol level were significantly lower in HCV RNA (+) group than in HCV RNA (-) group, but not in HCV RNA (-) but past positive group. Prospective cohort studies are needed to clarify the relationship between HCV RNA and metabolic markers.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.103-117
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aims to reveal the relationship between social relations and physical activity in the young-old and old-old elderly. Methods: Data from 2020 National survey of Older Koreans were used, and a total of 10,097 subjects over the age of 65 were included in analysis. The dependent variable was physical activity, and the independent variables were social relations barrier and motivational factors. x²-test and binary logistic regression were performed for data analysis. Results: The physical activity rate in the elderly were 40.8% in the young-old and 29.2% in the old-old. The socio-demographic characteristics affecting physical activity were the young-old elderly were sex, residential area, employment status and household income, and the old-old elderly were sex, age, residential area, education level and household income. The social relations barrier factors affecting physical activity were the young-old elderly were number of close friends, family care, exercise information search and video viewing, and the old-old elderly were household type, number of close friends, participation in exercise education, exercise information search and video viewing. The social relations motivational factors affecting physical activity were the young-old elderly were call with children/relative/friend, participation in sports activity, access time from home to parks, and the old-old elderly were call with children/relative/friend, participation in sports activity, satisfaction with green spaces. Conclusions: It was found that social relations barrier and motivational factors of the elderly are important factors to consider when developing physical activity promotion strategy, and there are also difference between the age of the elderly.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 1995

One of the biggest problems of Nursing Education in Korea is the division among nursing education programs of the last 3 and 4 years. To solve this problem, Nursing community must do variable trials to achieve the unity of a 4-year educational program. With this, we need to observe the phenomena and reality of the present 4-year nursing educational program that we have. The object of this study is to analyse and discuss that we have. The object of this study is to analyse and discuss the problems and future strategies of 4-year Nursing Baccalaureate program. 1. Problems as nursing department in Medical School. 1) Many 4-year nursing baccalaureate programs are operating under the medical school as nursing department. So the academic development in nursing department is unprogressive and is not approved as unique discipline. 2) The operating system between nursing and medical department are different even though they are in the same school. 3) Inequality between nursing and medical department : In many case, the nursing professor can not attend administraion committees to discuss the medical school's operation because of many differences between nursing and medical organization. 4) Weakness of the leadership and the student activities in nursing student : The nursing student involvement is usually passive because of the difference of curriculum, less number than medical students and the difference between 4-year and 6-year education program. 5) There is the obscurity of the relationship between department of nursing and other departments in whole university. 2. Problems in nursing itself 1) We need to reconstruct nursing discipline. We must change from the disease centered model to health centered model and life cycle centered model so that we can be distinguished from medicine. We also must change from hospital centered nursing to all population centered nursing, 2) The improvement of curriculum ; When the independent framework of nursing discipline become established, we need to improve the curriculum. 3) The education of clinical practice ; Most nursing school programs are divided into professors who are lecturing the theory and clinical teachers who are teaching the nursing technique in the clinic. So, what is needed in nursing discipline is that the professors have a dual position. In America, The professor is required to be a clinical specialist and to have his or her clinic so that the professor become a good role model, teach the clinical practice effectively, and give the student the practice field. 4) To extend fields of nursing : At first, the school nurse must become the school health educator, a real teacher. The nurse must establish and operate a childern's wellbeing center or nursery school, a disabled people's house or senile's wellbeing center, a mental health center, and a health promotion clinic for healthy people. 5) The name 'nursing department' need to be considered. When the focus is to be changed from the disease model to health improvement model, we take into consideration change 'nursing college', 'nursing department' and 'nursing profession' to 'health science college' or 'health wellbeing college'. 6) We must have highly qualified academic students. Each Nursing educational faculties must have the high qualified students through the development of nursing educational program and the increment of scholarship. The Korean Nurses Association and The Korean Clinical Nurses Association need to make an endeavor for the improvement of work condition and payment of clinical nurses of hospitals who consist of 70% of all nursing manpower. 3. Improvement Strategy 1) All nursing educational program must be changed 4-year program gradually. 2) Nursing department need to try to become nursing college. 3) We need to study many researches for improvement of the problem in nursing discipline and nursing education. We need more interdisciplinary researches, and we need to be granted for that research. 4) We need to have many seminars and workshops thoughout the whole country to expand a sense of nursing education. 5) Drawing up a policies plan for the nursing educational improvement : The Korean Nurses Association, The Korean Academic Nursing Association, Korea Nursing College and department President's Committee, and Korea Academic Society of Nursing Education must try for the development of nursing educational improvement and ask for government frame the policy to develop nursing education.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.19-49
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• 2000

This study was conducted to help staff members of health centers manage personnel by examining the staff members' recognition level of organization structure of health centers, their motivation, their job satisfaction level and its related factors. Data were collected from 471 staff members of 14 health centers from March 3, 1999 to April 30, 1999. The results of this study are summarized as follows. In recognition levels of organization structure of health centers, the recognition level of necessity of discretion right was highest(3.55 points on the base of 5 points), while the recognition level of the location of decision making right was lowest(2.77 points). The general recognition of organization structure of health centers was 3.06 points, the suitability of division of duties was 3.05 points, and the optimum of manpower and budget was 2.93 points. The staff members' general recognition level of the organization structure appeared significantly higher in case of the groups of small and medium sized cities, above fifties, below high school graduate, above the sixth grade, public service experience of above 20 years, service period of below 2 years at present post, and average monthly salary of one million, eight hundred and ten thousand won. In the recognition level of the location of decision making right, the groups of big cities, male, the married, above the sixth grade, health and administration posts, average monthly salary of one million, three hundred and ten thousand won to one million, and eight hundred thousand won were significantly higher than the other groups. The recognition level of necessity of discretion right was higher in case of the groups of the twenties, the unmarried, above college graduate, nursing post, public service experience of below 5 years, service period of below 2 years at present post, and average monthly salary of below eight hundred thousand won. In the recognition level of suitability of division of duties, the groups of small and medium sized cities, the married, medical technicians, public service experience of above 20 years, and service period of below 4 years at present post were significantly higher than the other groups. In the staff members' recognition levels of organization management, the recognition level of opinion response when making decision was highest(2.92 points). The recognition level of rationality of the target amount establishment method was 2.88 points and the recognition level of personnel management was 2.63 points. The recognition level of personnel management was significantly higher in case of the groups of small and medium sized cities, the forties, above the sixth grade, medical technicians, public service experience of above 20 years, service period of below 2 years at present post, and average monthly salary of above one million, eight hundred and ten thousand won. In the recognition level of opinion response when making decision, the groups of small and medium sized cities, female, the eighth grade, health and administration posts, and service period of below 2 years at present post were higher than the other groups. The recognition level of rationality of the target amount establishment method was significantly higher in case of the groups of above fifties, below high school graduate, above the sixth grade, medical service post, and public service experience of 15 to 20 years. The factors significantly influencing sanitation were sex, education level, the period of public service experience, general recognition of organization structure, recognition of necessity of discretion right, recognition of suitability of division of duties, and recognition of opinion response when making decision. The factors which significantly influenced motivation were marital status, grade, recognition of the location of decision making right, recognition of necessity of discretion right, recognition of division of duties, recognition of opinion response when making decision, and sanitation. Sex, education level, recognition of suitability of division of duties, recognition of the target amount establishment method, and motivation influenced job satisfaction significantly. The factors significantly influencing organization culture were age, the period of public service experience, service period at present post, recognition of optimum of manpower and budget, recognition of suitability of division of duties, recognition of opinion response when making decision, and recognition of rationality of the target amount establishment method. In the coming days, the staff members' job satisfaction level must be increased through motivation and efficient conduct of duty must be accomplished through rational organization structure and management. Moreover, change of the staff members' consciousness and administrative system which are suitable for local autonomy system have to be established with increase of local residents' consciousness level and education level. Forming organization culture by reformative idea which fits the new era, public health service by the Community Health Act and health education service by the Health Promotion Act must be carried out efficiently. In doing so, financial support of central government and active efforts and concerns of local governments have to be devoted in order to get public health service in which peculiarity of the community is considered to be pursued well.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.5-24
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to develop a parenting intervention program and determine the efficacy of the program with low-birth weight infants and their mothers. Nine dyads for the experimental group and twelve dyads for the control group discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a University Hospital in Seoul were recruited for the study. For the intervention group, programmed education and support which focused on the maternal sensitivity of the infant's behavior. rearing environment. motherinfant interaction and infant care were given to each subject. Individual counseling and home visits were provided at discharge, one week after discharge. and one and three months of corrected age in every infant. Structured questionaires were administered and feeding interactions were videotaped and coded by a blinded certified observer. A Quasi-experimental design was conducted for this study. Postpartum depression, maternal self esteem. infant care burden, HOME. mother-infant interaction, and infant development were measured. Results were in favor of the intervention versus the control group. On the Beck depression inventory, intervention mothers showed decreasing trends in depressive symptom vs control mothers although, there were statistically no significant differences between the two groups at each time. The mean score of experimental group was 11.55(mild depression state) at discharge and became 8,6(normal state) at 1 month of corrected age. On the other hand, the mean score of the control group was 13.92(mild depression state) at discharge and became 14.0. Maternal self esteem in both groups improved over time. Infant care burden in both groups was also shown to increase over time. There was a significant difference between the two groups in HOME(p=.0340) at 3 months of corrected age. HOME scores of the experimental group and the control's were 31.10 and 25.58, respectively. Mothers' emotional and language responses were significantly high in the intervention group compared with the control group(p=.0155). Intervention group (53.33) showed a significantly high quality of motherinfant interaction compared with the in control group (42.80)(p =.0340). Intervention group mothers appeared have a better quality of mother-infant interaction behaviors. On the other hand, there was no statistical difference in the infant part between groups. Intervention group infants had higher trends in a general developmental quotient: although, there was no statistical difference between groups. The general developmental quotient of intervention infants was 102.56 and control's was 91.28. However, the developmental quotient of the domain of 'individuality-sociality' was higher in the intervention group infants compared with the control's(p=.0155). The concerns identified by parents revealed two domains of an infants' health management -knowledge and skills in caregiving of lowbirthweight-infants, characteristics of lowbirthweight infants, identifying a developmental milestone, coping with emergency situations and relaxation strategies of mothers from the infant care burden. Interview data with the mothers of low-birth weight infants can be used to develop intervention program contents. Limited intervention time and frequency due to time and cost limitations of this study should be modified. The intervention should be continuously implemented when low-birth weight infants become three years old. An NNNS demonstration appeared to be a very effective intervention for the mothers to improve the quality of mother-infant interactions. Therefore intervening in the mothers of low-birth weight infants as early after delivery as possible is desirable. This study has shown that home visit interventions are worthwhile for mothers only beyond the approach as an essential factor in ability of facilitating a growth fostering environment. In conclusion. the intervention program of this study was very effective in enhancing the parenting for the mothers of low-birth weight infants, resulting in health promotion of low-birth weight infants. The home-visit outreach intervention program of this study will contribute to the health delivery system in this country where there is a lack of continuous follow-up programs for low-birth weight infants after discharge from NICU, if it is activated as part of the home visit programs in community health systems.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.121-129
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• 2002

Osteoporosis, the typical metabolic bone disease of the elderly, is characterized by a reduction in bone mineral density (BMD) and increased fracture risk. Genetic and environmental factors are known to play a key role in bone metabolism, and diet is also considered to be one of the important factors. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among the factors affecting BMD, including stature, body weight, age, time period since onset of menopause, and biochemical markers of bone turnover in postmenopausal women. Seventy-eight postmenopausal women who visited health promotion center for health examinations volunteered to participate in this study and they were divided into two groups according to the time period since onset of menopause : women with a time period since onset of menopause of less than 5 years (Group 1) and women with a time period since onset of menopause of 5 years or more (Group 2). The demographic characteristics and dietary intake were surveyed using a questionnaire. BMDs of the lumbar spine and femoral neck of subjects were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Serum levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D and parathyroid hormone (PTH), known to be indicators of bone related hormone status, were anlyzed. Serum samples were measured for calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and osteocalcin as bone formation indicators, and urine was analysed for deoxypyridinoline, creatinine, calcium, and sodium as bone resorption indicators. The results are as follow : The mean BMDs of the lumbar spin and femoral neck were $1.02 \pm 0.02 g/cm^2 and 0.81 \pm 0.02 g/cm^2 respectively, and the BMD level of Group 2 was significantly lower than tat of Group 1 (p<0.01, p<0.05, respectively). The mean daily intake of energy was 1838 $\pm$ 55 kcal. When nutrient intake was compared with the recommended dietary allowances (RDA) of the subjects, only calcium, vitamin A and riboflavin intake showed means lower than the RDA. The nutrient intake did not show any significant differences between Group 1 and 2 Serum and urine levels of biochemical markers of bone turnover did not show any significant differences between Group 1 and 2, and all were within the normal range. However, the PTH and deoxypyridinoline levels showed a tendency to be higher, and the osteocalcin level to be lower in Group 2 than in Group 1. Although age and years after menopause (YAM) showed negative correlations with lumbar spine bone mineral density (LBMD) (r= -0.38, p<0.001, and r= -0.26, p< 0.05, respectively), no correlation was found with femoral neck bone mineral density (NBMD). While height, body weight and body mass index (BMI) showed a positive correlation with LBMD (r= 0.32, p<0.001, r= 0.38, p<0.001, r= 0.22, p= 0.05, respectively), only body weight and BMI showed a positive correlation with NBMD (r= 0.30, p<0.01, and r= 0.27, p<0.05, respectivley). There was no significant corealtion between BMDs and the nutrient intake of subjects, except in the case of carbohydrates (r= 0.22, p<0.05). Also, serum and urine levels of bone turnover markers showed no significant correlation with nutrient intake. On the other hand, serum osteocalcin had a positive correlation with vitamin C intake (r= 0.22, p= 0.05), and urine deoxypyridinolin showed a negative correlation with niacin intake (r= -0.22, p= 0.05). Urinary na was negatively correlated with protein intake(r= -0.23, p= 0.05). The results suggested that it is difficult to prevent the decrease in bone mass among postmenopausal women eating the usual Korean diet. However, the BMDs of the lumbar spine and femoral neck were positively related to body weight ad BMI in postmenopausal women. Therefore, this study confirmed that one of the most effective ways to minimize bone loss in postmenopausal women would be to maintain an adequate body weight with balanced nutrient intake and activity in the pre-and postmenopausal periods.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.206-225
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• 2012

General status of pediatric dentistry in Korea is to conduct vigorous academic activities and specialized medical care centering the Korean Association of Pediatric Dentistry (KAPD) that has about 1,000 pediatric dentists as members, pediatric dentistry departments of 11 Colleges of Dentistry, numbers of pediatric dentistry training institutions and private clinics specialized in children. From 1996, the accredited pediatric dentists were produced by the KAPD and from 2008, the state began to produce the accredited pediatric dentists. Since then, doctors with expertise in pediatric care had opened private clinics in addition to the university hospitals, it became the basis of a momentum to deepen the specialty of pediatric dentistry. The Dentistry community of Korea is going through rapid and profound changes recently, and the underlying reasons for such changes can be classified largely into a few categories: (1) Decreasing population and structural changes in population (2) Increase in numbers of dentists, (3) Changes in the pattern of dental diseases and (4) Changes in medical environment. In Korea, the children population in the age range of 0 ~ 14 years old had been decreased by 2 million in 2010 compared to that of 2000 due to reduction of birth rate. The current population of children in the age range of 0 ~ 4 years old in 2010 takes up 16.2% of the total population, but it is estimated that such percentage would decrease to 8.0% by 2050. Such percentage is largely behind the estimated mean global population of 19.6% by 2050. On the other hand, the number of dentists had been largely increased from 18,000 in 2000 to 25,000 in 2010. And it is estimated that the number will be increased to 41,000 by 2030. In addition, the specialized personnel of Pediatric dentistry had been shown as increased by 2.5 times during past 10 years. For the changes in the pattern of dental diseases, including dental caries, each df rate of 5 years old children and 12 years old children had been decreased by 21.9% and 16.7% respectively in 2010 compared to 2000. Each df Index also had been decreased by 2.5 teeth and 1.2 teeth respectively. The medical expenditure of Korea is less than that of OECD and more specifically, the expenditure from the National Health Plan is less than OECD but the expenditure covered by households is larger than OECD. These facts indicate that it is considered as requiring the coverage of the national health plan to be reinforced more in the future and as such reinforcement needs continuous promotion. In medical examination pattern of Pediatric dentistry, the preventive and corrective treatment were increased whereas the restorative treatment was decreased. It is considered that such change is caused from decrease of dental caries from activation of the prevention project at national level. For the restorative treatment, the restorations in use of dental amalgam, pre-existing gold crowning and endodontic treatment had been decreased in their proportion while the restorative treatment in use of composite resin had been increased. It is considered that such changes is caused by the change of demands from patients and family or guardians as they desired more aesthetic improvement along with socio-economic growth of Korean society. Due to such changes in dentistry, the pediatric dentistry in Korea also attempts to have changes in the patterns of medical examination as follows; It tends to implement early stage treatment through early diagnosis utilizing various diagnostic tools such as FOTI or QLF. The early stage dental caries so called white spot had been included in the subjects for dental care or management and in order to do so, the medical care guidelines essentially accompanied with remineralization treatment as well as minimally invasive treatment is being generalized gradually. Also, centering the Pediatric dentists, the importance of caries risk assessment is being recognized, in addition that the management of dental caries is being changed from surgical approach to internal medicinal approach. Recently, efforts began to emerge in order to increase the target patients to be managed by dentists and to expand the application scope of Pediatric dentistry along with through such changes. The interest and activities of Pediatric dentists which had been limited to the medical examination room so far, is now being expanded externally, as they put efforts for participating in the preventive policy making process of the community or the state, and to support the political theories. And also opinions are being collected into the direction that the future- oriented strategic political tasks shall be selected and researches as well as presentations on the theoretical rationale of such tasks at the association level.