• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.289-299
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• 2007

Objectives : To investigate the related factors on musculoskeletal symptoms among Korean female workers. Methods : A total of 1,875 female workers (1,002 office workers and 873 blue-collar workers) was analyzed. They were randomly selected among female workers by cluster sampling and interviewed by well trained interviewer, who filled out a structured questionnaire on the musculoskeletal symptoms. Other factors such as general and occupational characteristics including workplace location, employment condition, work duration, and working condition were also investigated. Results : Current smokers and drinkers were significantly more common in blue-collar workers than in office workers. Those working full time were significantly more common in blue-collar workers than in office workers. Those working over 8 hours per day were also popular in office workers than in blue-collar workers. Subjective musculoskeletal symptoms were significantly higher in the type of work including excessive repetitive work, work using awkward stretching hand upwards, work using repetitive wrist movements, static work using awkward hand posture, and heavy manual lifting and handling works. The mean score of the symptoms were significantly higher in blue-collar than in office workers. The significantly different working factors between two groups were work duration, employment condition and daily work hours. Conclusion : We suggest that the type of work including awkward and repetitive works as well as job type may be one of the most important factors related to musculoskeletal symptoms of female workers in the workplace. Preventive strategy will be needed to prevent the negative impact on health status of working women in the workplace.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.804-811
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• 2008

Purpose : Childhood obesity is a problem that places a child at great risk for becoming an obese adult. To prevent obesity, it is important to focus on early life risk factors that may contribute to childhood obesity. The aim of this study is to find obesity-causing infantile risk factors in preschool children. Methods : A total of 223 children aged 3 to 5 years old from Busan were the subjects of this study. We calculated their body mass index (BMI) and classified them into two groups (normal weight and overweight/obese children). Information regarding parental weight and height, mother's educational level and employment status, birth weight, feeding patterns, start time of weaning, duration of night feeding, and fosterer was obtained by using questionnaires. Results : There were 68 (30.5%) overweight/obese children and 155 (69.5%) normal weight children. Overweight/obese children were significantly associated with formula milk feeding, rapid weight gain during the first 6 months, and maternal obesity (P<0.05). There were no statistical differences in paternal obesity, mothers educational level and employment status, birth weight, start time of weaning, duration of night feeding, and fosterer between the normal and overweight/obese children. Conclusion : Although healthy diet and regular exercise will remain the cornerstones of weight management in obese children, our data supports the view that education about maintaining a normal weight could be introduced much earlier in families with high-risk children.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.135-168
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• 2006

This study reviewed pension reform's overall characteristic and(anticipated) positive negative effect in OECD countries's and then analysed middle-old age's retirement transition and determinants of full/gradual retirement through the $3{\sim}7th$ Korea Labor and Income Panel considering that Korea has been aging society quickly and it is necessary to suggest not only solution of early retirement and working age reduction but also pension reform. As a result of this study, about 1/4 of 50 years and older have been continuing to work through various pathways after retirement and 98% among fully retired older who passed by re-employment step of occupational status including retirement are still searching for jobs. This showed that it is also inappropriate to typical retirement concept itself on the lines of labour market participation in Korea and part-time/temporary work or self-employment have been used by means of alternatives of maintaining works for middle-old ages. However, the duration of changed occupational status of gradual retirees is mostly only $1{\sim}2$ years. Therefore it is necessary to support the gradual retirement to minimize a term of income insecurity and promote the work of the old ages who have will and capacity of work. Most of all, partial pension system which is main program of gradual retirement, should make the rules that beneficiaries are those who age less than pensionable age and benefit levels should be actuarial fairness together with pension system and provide substantial help. But, the introduction of partial pension system is not the only way to solve and needs overall social economic approach. Especially guarantee the increase of quantitative qualitative employment for middle-old ages linking labor market policy and supporting gradual retirement not ought to be abused to force the part time works and early retirement route against their own will.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.764-778
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• 1997

To find the medical insurance utilization of workers when suffering from low back pain, an analysis was made toward the data of medical insurance benefits matched with the general characteristics of 10,183 workers, who were registered continuously from 1993 to 1995 at a medical insurance cooperation for industrial workers. The results were as follows; 1. The period prevalence of the medical insurance utilization for low back pain for 3 years from 1993 to 1995 was calculated as 17.1% for male workers and 19.4% for female workers. Most common cause of utilization was other dorsopathies including the herniation of lumbar discs. 2. The utilization rate increased significantly as the present age and the age joining the company got older(p<0.001). As the duration of employment got longer, the utilization rate of the male showed the tendency to increase and that of the female increased significantly(p<0.05). Among male workers employed at cement and concrete manufacturing companies showed higher utilization rate and among female laborers showed significantly higher utilization rate than clerical workers(p<0.01). 3. Annual utilization rate for low back pain didn't show any difference, but the portion of other dorsopathies among cause of utilization showed the tendency to increase from 1993 to 1995. 4. The mean number of claims for outpatient medical care for low back pain differed significantly by age, working duration, type of industries, income level(p<0.05), and the mean of total visiting days for care of low back pain differed significantly by working duration. In conclusion, considering the fact that the medical insurance utilization for low back pain increased annually and other dorsopathies including the herniation of dorsopathies were increasing, an effective preventive or management program for low back pain toward worker employed at industries were required.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.25 no.3 s.39
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• pp.247-268
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• 1992

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of VDT work on eyes and vision among workers in a TV manufacturing plant. The study subjects consisted of 264 screen workers and 74 non-screen workers who were less than 40 years old male and had no history of opthalmic diseases such as corneal opacities, trauma, keratitis, etc and whose visual acuity on pre-employment health examination by Han's test chart was 1.0 or above. The screen workers were divided into two groups by actual time for screen work in a day : Group I, 60 workers, lesser than 4 hours a day and group II, 204 workers, more than 4 hours a day. From July to October 1992 a questionnaire was administered to all the study subjects for the general charateristics and subjective eye symptoms after which the opthalmologic tests such as visual acuity, spherical equivalent, lacrimal function, ocular pressure, slit lamp test, fundoscopy were conducted by one opthalmologist. The proportion of workers whose present visual acuity was decreased more than 0.15 in comparison with that on the pre-employment health examination by Han's test chart was 20.6% in Group II. 15.0% in Group I and 14.9% in non-screen workers. However, the differences in proportion were not statistically significant. The proportion of workers with decreased visual acuity was not associated with the age, working duration, use of magnifying glass and type of shift work (independent variables) in all of the three groups. However, screen workers working under poor illumination had a higher proportion of persons with decreased visual acuity than those working under adequate illumination (P<0.05) . The proportion of workers whose near vision was decreased was 27.5% in Group II, 18.3% in Group I, and 28.4% in non-screen workers and these differences in proportion were not statistically significant. Changes of near vision were not associated with 4 independent variables in all of the three groups. Six out of seven subjective eye symptoms except tearing were more common in Group I than in non-screen workers and more common in Group II than in Group I (P<0.01). Mean of the total scores for seven subjective symptoms of each worker(2 points for always, 1 point for sometimes, 0 point for never) was not significantly different between workers with decreased visual acuity and workers with no vision change. However, mean of the total scores for Group II was higher than those for the Group I and non-screen workers (P<0.01). Total eye symptom scores were significantly correlated with the grade of screen work, use of magnifying glass, and type of shift work. There was no independent variable which was correlated with the difference in visual acuity between the pre-employment health examination and the present state, the difference between far and near visions, lacrimal function, ocular pressure, and spherical equivalent. Multiple linear regression analysis for the subjective eye symptom scores revealed a positive linear relationship with actual time for screen work and shift work(P<0.01). In this study it was not observed that the VDT work decreased visual acuity but it induces subjective eye symptoms such as eye fatigue, blurred vision, ocular discomfort, etc. Maintenance of adequate illumination in the work place and control of excessive VDT work are recommended to prevent such eye symptoms.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 2014

The clinical practices provide the students with a good opportunity to study the practical experiences in their field through the clinical training education in hospital. Now, in this study, comparing the perceptions of the clinic teachers with those of students at the clinical site. The study was conducted to the students attending universities located in Seoul and who finished the clinical practices in 2013. The questionnaires were distributed to the student and collected from them. The study were conducted to 275 questionnaires with frequency analysis, crosstabs, chi-square test and McNemar test. The major motivation was of the select radiography course was high employment rate(44.0%) and the satisfaction of radiography course was general(53.1%). 51.3% of the study answered 8 weeks current duration of clinical practices is proper. The 3-year course students answered that the period of clinical practices would be proper if it is performed in the winter vacation in their second year in college(47.3%). The 4-year course students answered that the first semester in their third years is proper for clinical practices( 27.7%). The students answered that they felt the lack in their knowledge on the professional field(32.4%) during the clinical practices and some of the practical training is different from the education performed at school(68.4%). Most of answered that they were satisfied with the clinical practices and among them they recognized the importance of the clinical practices ($3.94{\pm}0.89$). After the clinical practices, their desire for getting job as a radiography has changed from 84.1% to 82.9%. The reason why they want the job related to the radiation is because the job is stable (changed from 49.0% to 46.0% after the clinical practice) while the reason why they don't want be a radigrapher because that job is not proper for them (changed from 37.0% to 40.7% after the clinical practice) The effort should be made to enhance the position of radiation professionals through the improved education system to the students, rather giving them education for just employment.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.51-77
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• 2012

This study examines the scale of occurrence of Catastrophic Health Expenditure, and identifies the factors influencing Catastrophic Health Expenditure among disabled elderly households. Catastrophic Health Expenditure is defined by when the households' health care spending out of ability to pay exceeds 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%. This study used the 2008, 2009, and 2010 surveys of the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled(PSED) to explore how gender, age, spouse, the level of education, the degree of disability, the type of disability, disability duration, subjective health status, chronic disease, the number of household members, the proportion of disabled households, the proportion of working households, the proportion of aged households, the type of poverty, household income, net asset, determine Catastrophic Health Expenditure among disabled elderly households. The study examines the frequency of Catastrophic Health Expenditure with 726 households, and conducted the panel logit model. The empirical results show that Catastrophic Health Expenditures are significantly related to age, spouse, the type of disability, subjective health status, chronic disease, the number of households, the proportion of disabled households, the proportion of aged households, the type of poverty. This study showed that the health care safety net in South Korea was insufficient for disabled elderly households and that a policy should be established in ordered to protect disabled elderly households from occurrence of Catastrophic Health Expenditure.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.57-64
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to analyze the current status of life and psychological characteristics of 250 out of school youth in Cheonan city, and to identify the factors affecting the happiness. For statistical analysis, SPSS 21.0 were used, and reliability, mean comparison, correlation and multiple regression analysis were applied. First, adolescents who stopped studying due to family problems was lower in self-esteem than those who did for other reasons. Males was higher in happiness than females, and those who were less than two years of drop-out duration than those with over two years. Second, out of school youth used a day as 7.9 sleeping hours, 3.91 working hours. For the places for daily activities, they stayed at home for 10.73 hours, at working place for 3.66 hours. The future plan was the most for job plan. Third, there was a positive correlation between self-esteem, hope, and happiness of adolescents out of school. Fourth, the relative impact on the happiness of out of school youth ranked in the order of self-esteem, hope, employment plans, and household income level.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.21 no.2 s.24
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• pp.329-339
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• 1988

The study is carried out to investigate the effect of drinking and smoking for the activities of aspartate aminotransferase(AST, or GOT) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT or GPT), from December 25, 1986 to April 30, 1987. The male physical examinees for employment, 900 who had visited to the Taegu Medical Center were subjected. And the positive cases of HBs-Ag, Anti-HBs and skin test for Clonorchis sinensis were excluded. The general characters of drinking and smoking pattern were introduced by interview with questionnaire provided for. In drinking cases, the longer duration was significantly effected the higher rate of abnormality in AST and ALT level. But the amount and the frequency were not. It was not appeared effects by mackgulri which is a Korean traditional wine and small amount of beers. In smoking cases, also same pattern. The age was related in all cases. By the way, when the effect is related the positive results with other factors: HBs-Ag, Anti-HBs, skin test for Clonorchiasis and harmful occupational history, it is higher abnormal rate of AST and ALT in the duplicated cases with two factors or more. Particularly in HBs-Ag positive cases, those who had smoking was the highest in rate of abnormality, and drinking was the follows. In correlation matrix among seven factors; HBs-Ag, age, drinking amount, drinking period, drinking frequency, smoking amount and smoking period, correlation coefficient was significant between the abnormal rate and to with age, drinking period, smoking period, and smoking amount.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.1 s.41
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• pp.147-164
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• 1993

A study has been conducted on developing questionnaires to serve as on site diagnostic tools for the early detection of neuropsychiatric impairment among workers chronically exposed to low-level organic solvents. Two drafts of tentative questionnaires have been developed as follows; several question items were selected from questionnaires which were administered to workers exposed to organic solvents in previous studios and were grouped into each symptom category based on the presence of its association using Guttman scaling method, then these selected items were reviewed by neuropsychiatry specialists. The final draft of the questionnaire (total symptom score=36) was developed by selecting 33 question items which had more than a 0.88 Guttman coefficient of reproducibility in each symptom category from a pilot study in which these tentative questionnaires were administered to workers manufacturing soles. Three plants using organic solvents and one plant never using organic solvents as a control group were selected to test the reliability and validity of the developed questionnaires. The major organic solvent in the workplace environment detected by a personal air sampler and GC/MSD nab toluene. The concentration of toluene in air from the department using organic solvent was statistically different from that of the department never using organic solvent. The concentration of toluene from almost all of the workplace did not exceed the allowable level. There was no statistically significant difference between the concentration of urinary hippuric acid from the workers of the department using organic solvent and that of the department never using it. Total symptom score of the plant never using organic solvents was 9.8 and those of the three plants using organic solvents were 15.6, 14.7, and 13,7 respectively. In order to evaluate the validity of the questionnaires, the workers from two different departments of the plant in which usage of organic solvents are totally dofferemt were compared. The total symptom score was 17.8 for workers of the department using organic solvent and 13.5 for the department never using organic solvent and scores of each symptom group between exposure and non-exposure group also showed statistically significant difference. The finding that total symptom score of the exposure group increased as the duration of employment increased indirectly suggests the usefulness of the developed questionnaire to assess the health effects of chronic exposure to organic solvents. The correlation coefficient, which was calculated to evaluate the test-retest reliability, was 0.581 (p=0.001). The coefficient of Crohnbach which reflects the internal consistency of the questionnaire was 0.91. In conclusion, the reliabilty of the questionnaire was well maintained over the time lapse between the two administrations of the questionnaire and despite the seasonal difference.