• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.67-79
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• 2007

The objective of this study is to investigate a perceived discomfort and cause of Korean elderly in various activities such as work and leisure as well as in daily activities. 120 subjects (30 female and 30 male for each age: the young and elderly) participated in the interview type of questionnaire. Each participant answered to 41 items of activities of daily living. The examination of each item was progressed with 3 steps: whether to do the activity or not, degree of activity discomfort, and the reasons or causes of discomfort. Borg's CR10 scale is used to measure the degree of discomfort of daily activities. As a result, there are differences for the proportion of performers between two age groups, except for essential activities such as individual maintenance and housekeeping. The elderly complained about their daily activities more than the young did, and the degree of discomfort of women was significantly larger than that of men with aging. There are seven items, the mean degree of discomfort of which is over three points for the elderly, and they showed significant difference between two age groups. It was the important reason that physical capacities such as muscle strength and suppleness are declined. The results showed the characteristics of Korean elderly in the whole daily activities. These will be used to understand various life styles of them and to propose a field or direction of study related to the aging.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.249-258
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing the musculoskeletal discomfort and the physical region related symptoms. The outcome of the study uses KOSHA Code H-30-2003 which defines possible symptoms into different categories. Symptom I, ll showing the highest occurrence rate in shoulder and neck regions and most of Symptom III, IV come from back region. Analysis of the factors influencing the musculoskeletal discomfort vary in different parts of the body. In the neck region, the discomfort related to rest and the computer keyboard. Gender affects the magnitude of pain in the shoulder region. Wrist pain is related to the chairs being used and back discomfort is influenced by shoulder exercise and the degree of rest taken. Physical fatigue due to work affects all the regions mentioned above. Conclusively, office workers are prone to the musculoskeletal discomfort due to their work environment. To alleviate this problem, the workers need to be educated with proper long-term musculoskeletal related health programs and exercise program containing various stretching methods. In addition, the effort to improve the variables in this study would help to reduce the rate of musculoskeletal discomfort.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.280-287
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• 2017

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Jihwangbaekho-tang on chest discomfort of unknown cause in a 52-year-old male patient diagnosed with Soyangin. Methods Patient had chest discomfort. But, the cause of this symptom was not identified by various cardiac examinations. The patient was treated with Soyangin Jihwangbaekho-tang for 2 weeks on the basis of Sasang Constitutional Medicine and the symptoms were evaluated by GAS(Global Assessment Scale). Results After using Jihwangbaekho-tang, GAS score has been decreased from 7 to 3. Conclusions This case study suggests that chest discomfort, whose cause is unknown, can be treated when using Sasang Constitutional Medicine.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.3 s.75
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• pp.122-126
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• 2006

This study investigated effect of arm posture, wrist motion repetition and external load on perceived discomfort through an experiment. Eleven female college students participated in the experiment, where shoulder, elbow and wrist motion, wrist motion repetition, and external load were used as independent variables. The results showed that only external load had a significant effect on perceived discomfort. The perceived discomfort linearly increased with external load. Based on the results of this and the previous study for males, it was concluded that effect of external load on perceived discomfort was larger than that of other posture and motion repetition related variables. This implies that effect of external load is the most important factor considered in the first place when assessing postural load.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively investigate the effects of external load upper extremity posture on perceived discomfort. An experiment was conducted for measuring discomfort scores depending upon external loads and upper extremity postures, in which the free modules and numeric estimate method of the magnitude estimation was adopted as a tool for obtaining discomfort ratings. The upper extremity postures were controlled by wrist flexion/extension, elbow foexion, shoulder flexion, and shoulder adduction/abduction. The results showed that all experimental variables except shoulder adduction/abduction were significant at ${\alpha}$=0.01 or 0.05. The effect of external load was very much larger than that of upper extremity postures. Therefore, it is recommended that a new posture classification scheme taking effect of external load to into consideration be developed for quantifying postural load.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.9-15
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to quantitatively investigate perceived discomfort of complex shoulder postures with external loads and to propose a preliminary evaluation scheme of shoulder postures. Twelve healthy male adults participated in an experiment to rate their perceived discomfort of shoulder postures. The independent variables were shoulder flexion angle(45, 90 and 150$^{\circ}$), adduction/abduction angle(-30, -10, 0, 30 and 60$^{\circ}$), and external load(0, 1.5 and 3.0kg). The results revealed that the flexion angle, external load and their interaction significantly affected the perceived discomfort(p$<$0.05) but the effect of adduction/abduction angle on the discomfort was not significant(p$>$0.05). The effect of external load was much larger than that of any other factor with explaining about 81% of the total variation of discomfort scores. Based on the experimental results a preliminary scheme was presented to evaluate the stress of shoulder postures with external loads.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2012

This paper proposes a novel discomfort assessment method for truck ingress and egress motions based on the maximum-voluntary-contraction (MVC) ratios of muscles obtained by biomechanical analysis of human musculoskeletal models. In this study, a human motion to enter and exit a truck cabin with different types and heights of footsteps is first measured using an optical motion capture system and load sensors. Next, in a biomechanical analysis system, a human musculoskeletal model with contacting conditions on footsteps and handles is modeled, and then joint torques and muscles forces are calculated by inverse dynamics of the musculoskeletal model with the motion data. Finally, the MVC ratios for the muscles are calculated and their statistical values are used as the measure of discomfort. To ensure the feasibility of our method, subjective discomfort levels have been investigated through the participants' experiments and questionnaires and compared to the results of our method. Comparing to the existing methods based on joint angles or torques, our approach provide a more essential criterion for discomfort because it is based on the muscle contraction by which an active human motion is basically generated.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.25-30
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• 2010

The daylited space can improve visual comfort and occupant's well-being. However discomfort glare from the daylight is a common problem in indoor environments and in general, the window is the main glare sources. Some formulas have been proposed for predicting glare from the daylight, however, they do not consider the effect on glare of the view through a window and some studies proved that they are inadequate in real daylight situation. This research aims to identify the relationship between view and discomfort glare considering the subjective impressions. As a preliminary experiment, this paper sets up the experimental protocol to reveal relationships between views from a window and visual perception in a controlled laboratory experiment. $1.2m{\times}1.2m$ artificial window was developed and $0.9m{\times}0.9m$ view image was placed on the window. Discomfort glare and impression evaluation was carried out under four different views and one blank view as a reference condition. The results showed that the subjects evaluated discomfort glare differently with the views even under the same luminance conditions and tended to feel less glare with distance views compared to near views.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2010

Purpose: This study determined the effect of head and neck massage on anxiety, pain, and discomfort for hysterectomy patients. Methods: Subjects consisted of 48 hysterectomy patients at K hospital. Experimental group (n=23) received head and neck massage at 8 minutes per massage for five times: (at admission, before sleeping on preoperative day, at 4 hours after operation, before sleeping on operation day, before sleeping on the first postoperative day). Control group (n=25) received conventional treatment. As an effectiveness of this intervention, state of anxiety and BP was measured before sleeping on preoperative day. Pain and discomfort were measured before sleeping on the day of surgery and then on the first postoperative day. Data was analyzed descriptive statistics using $x^2$ test, Fisher's exact test, paired t-test, unpaired t-test, repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni multiple comparison. Results: 1. State of anxiety score and BP at post-treatment decreased significantly in the experimental group. 2. Pain score in experimental group was lower than that in control group, with no significant difference; whereas, 3. Discomfort level decreased significantly in the experimental group. Conclusion: Results indicate that head and neck massage could be an effective intervention for reducing preoperative anxiety and postoperative discomfort in hysterectomy patients.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.309-318
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of foot mats on reducing levels of fatigue, discomfort, lower extremity edema and skin temperature in scrub nurses during surgery. Methods: This study employed one group repeated measures design in which 16 scrub nurses (ages 22-38) stood on steel footstools (SF) during scrub as the conventional test and stood on SF with foot mats as the experimental test. Levels of fatigue, discomfort, lower extremity edema and skin temperature were measured before the first surgical hand scrub and right after the first surgery of the day for 3 consecutive days in both tests. Results: The changes in levels of fatigue and discomfort were significantly different between tests (p<.001~.033). Edema, determined by the differences in circumferences of the ankles and calves before and after the surgery was also significantly different between groups (p=.001~.011). However, the change in skin temperature on the foot tops of both feet was not different between tests (p=.351~.467). Conclusion: The results of this study show that using foot mats on top of the steel footstool is effective in reducing the levels of fatigue, discomfort and lower extremity edema in scrub nurses during surgery.