• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제57권1호
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• pp.28-36
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• 2024

Objectives: This study investigated the impact of socioeconomic factors and sexual orientation-related attributes on the rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination and infection among men who have sex with men (MSM). Methods: A web-based survey, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, was conducted among paying members of the leading online portal for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer and questioning (LGBTQ+) community in Korea. The study participants were MSM living in Korea (n=942). COVID-19 vaccination and infection were considered dependent variables, while sexual orientation-related characteristics and adherence to non-pharmacological intervention (NPI) practices served as primary independent variables. To ensure analytical precision, nested logistic regression analyses were employed. These were further refined by dividing respondents into 4 categories based on sexual orientation and disclosure (or "coming-out") status. Results: Among MSM, no definitive association was found between COVID-19 vaccination status and factors such as socioeconomic or sexual orientation-related attributes (with the latter including human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] status, sexual orientation, and disclosure experience). However, key determinants influencing COVID-19 infection were identified. Notably, people living with HIV (PLWH) exhibited a statistically significant predisposition towards COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, greater adherence to NPI practices among MSM corresponded to a lower likelihood of COVID-19 infection. Conclusions: This study underscores the high susceptibility to COVID-19 among PLWH within the LGBTQ+ community relative to their healthy MSM counterparts. Consequently, it is crucial to advocate for tailored preventive strategies, including robust NPIs, to protect these at-risk groups. Such measures are essential in reducing the disparities that may emerge in a post-COVID-19 environment.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.94-102
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• 2024

연구배경: 현행 간호인력정책이 간호사의 불균형 분포를 심화시킨다는 논란이 지속되고 있으나, 이를 확인한 연구는 매우 드물다. 이에 본 연구는 간호정책과 관련된 변수를 포함하여 지역수준에서 임상간호사 분포에 영향을 미치는 요인을 규명하고자 하였다. 방법: 2020년 기준 250개 시군구의 총 225,462명의 임상간호사 분포를 대상으로 분석하였다. 2020년 시군구별 국가통계자료를 수집하여 회귀분석을 실시하였다. 결과: 임상간호사 분포에 영향을 미치는 요인은 연간 입원일수, 간호간병통합서비스 병상 수, 공공보건의료기관 수, 상급종합병원 수, 종합병원 수 등으로 나타났다. 비수도권 지역에서는 간호학과 졸업생 수와 간호1, 2등급 기관 수도 임상간호사 분포에 영향을 미쳤다. 결론: 간호사 불균형 분포가 심화되지 않도록 간호간병통합서비스 병상의 확대 지역을 신중하게 결정해야 한다. 또한 간호사가 부족한 비수도권 지역을 중심으로 간호학과 학생을 늘리고, 비수도권 간호사의 임금과 근무환경을 우선적으로 개선해야 한다.

• 농촌의학ㆍ지역보건
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• 제40권2호
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• pp.72-79
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• 2015

본 연구는 HIV병 사망자 중 HIV병과 결핵이 동반사망한 분율을 조사하고 그 관련 요인을 분석하였다. 2002년부터 2010년까지 사이에 HIV병 사망자는 모두 774명으로 결핵이 동반사망한 분율은 10.1%로 나타났다. 그런데 이러한 분율은 2005년부터 2007년 사이에 16.3%까지 치솟았지만 2008년부터 2010년 사이에는 4%까지 감소하는 경향을 보였다. 또한 HIV-결핵 동반사망 분율은 젊은 계층에서 더 높았고 배우자가 있는 그룹과 교육을 잘 받은 그룹에서는 유의하게 낮은 경향을 보였다. 이처럼 활동성이 높은 젊은층에서 HIV-결핵 동반사망 분율이 높고 사회경제적 안정계층에서 HIV-결핵 동반사망 분율이 낮은 것은 비슷한 해외 연구에서도 유사하게 나타나고 있어 HIV-결핵 동반사망의 예방 가능성을 시사한다. 한국은 다행히 점차 HIV-결핵 동반사망 분율이 낮아지고 있어 HIV감염자에 대한 결핵 예방사업의 효과가 나타나고 있음을 시사하고 이후 이러한 지표의 지속적인 모니터링이 필요함을 보여주고 있다.

• 한국학교ㆍ지역보건교육학회지
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• 제1권2호
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• pp.49-71
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to serve as a basis for school health care of better quality, by making a comparative analysis of the health care satisfaction and attitude of elementary school students in consideration of their general characteristics and the presence or absence of nurse teacher. The subjects in this study were 919 selected six graders in 16 elementary schools in the city of Tongduchun, Koyang and Euijungbu, Yangju-kun and Yeunchun-kun. A survey was conducted with questionnaire designed for measurement of health care satisfaction and attitude. As a result of analyzing the data collected from June 1 through 15, 2000, the conclusions were as follows. 1) As for the general characteristics of the students investigated, the subjects included 513 boys(55.8%) and 406 girls(44.2%). The schools where 390(42.4%) students attended were located in municipal area, and the schools where 529(57.6%) students attended were located in kun area. 608(66.2%) students had a nurse teacher at their schools, while 311(33.8%) students had no nurse teacher. 498(54.2%) had an experience to use the health room this year, but 421(45.8%) had no such an experience. Their mean school life satisfaction was scored $3.42{\pm}.71$, above the average. And their health condition was rated $3.81{\pm}.87$, which implied they tended to be in good health. 2) The mean satisfaction at the health room operation was scored $3.33{\pm}.71$, above the medium level. What they were most satisfied with($4.02{\pm}1.08$) was, among the health room facilities, that there were beds. But they expressed the least satisfaction($2.83{\pm}1.17$) at the location of health room. The presence or absence of nurse teacher made a significant difference to their satisfactionat health room operation, because the students in schools with nurse teacher showed greater satisfaction($3.42{\pm}.72$) than the others in schools with no nurse teacher did($3.15{\pm}.66$). 3) Concerning their attitude to use the health room in case of disease or accident occurrence, a lot of students in schools with a nurse teacher, who had ever suffered from indigestion, headache or traumatic injury, used the health room. In schools with no nurse teacher, there was a tendency to talk to their class teachers(p<.001). The recognition of the necessity for health counseling was generally on a medium level. The counselor whom they wanted to discuss health problem with was family or friend in the largest cases. Few students discussed with class teachers in case there was a nurse teacher in school. Instead, some of them discussed with friend, family or nurse teacher, and there was a significant difference between them(p<.001). 4) The mean satisfaction at health, sanitation and environmental management was rated $3.20{\pm}.90$, above the average. The classroom lighting gave them the best satisfaction with $3.67{\pm}1.07$, but the satisfaction at toilet cleanness and disinfection was not good with $2.83{\pm}1.19$. By the presence or absence of nurse teacher, those who had a nurse teacher expressed better satisfaction at water supply facilities including hot water than the others who had no nurse teacher did(p<.001). But no significant difference was observed in the other items. 5) The health education satisfaction was rated $3.19{\pm}.99$, which was on a medium level. By item, the mean satisfaction level was $3.36{\pm}1.19$ at nurse teacher's explanation about treatment, $3.13{\pm}1.15$ at the frequency of health education, and $3.08{\pm}1.16$ at the explanation on the cause of disease. By the presence or absence of nurse teacher, the students with nurse teacher showed significantly better satisfaction at every factor0(p<.001). 6) Regarding health education attitude, their recognition of the need for school health education was scored $3.89{\pm}.96$. Those who had a nurse teacher felt it more necessary($3.96{\pm}.92$), yet the others who had no nurse teacher felt its necessity a little less($3.74{\pm}1.01$). The most preferred thing for them to learn in health education was first aid, followed by sex education, obesity prevention, safety accident prevention in school and outdoors, smoking-related health, good use of leisure time, and environmental pollution cause in the order named. According to the presence or absence of nurse teacher, there was a significant difference in sex education(p<.01), but no significant disparities were found in the other factors. The most preferred person who would offer health education was a lecturer from the outside(45.8%) and nurse teacher(45.4%). Their preference for class teacher as a person in charge of health education was just 8.8%. But the presence or absence of nurse teacher didn't produce any differences to their preference for a person in charge of health education.

• 유통과학연구
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.89-98
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• 2016

Purpose - This article tackles risk communication issues and aims to address the characteristics of MERS risk information distribution in South Korea, and secondly to examine the communicative behavior of the public health authority in terms of the quality of communication strategies. Thirdly, the study attempts to figure out the risk communication to cope with MERS through the applications of SMCRE model in chronological order. We employ the social amplification of risk framework for analyzing the emergent public response as one of the main approaches. Research Design, Data and Methodology - The main framework of this study is theoretically based on the social amplification of risk, which describes signals about risk transmitted and processed by individuals and social groups. The model also reflects the interactions between social groups and institutes about disaster-related risk issues, which are potential amplifiers or attenuators of communication signals. S-M-C-R-E Model is methodologically employed to examine the social amplification for MERS risk information in each period, which we defined operationally. The proposed methodology allows the assessment of effectiveness and ineffectiveness on risk communication to be conceptualized as a countermeasure against disasters. The paper focuses on exploring how social risk amplification can be applied and organized in each stage. Results - The SMCRE model describes the exchange of risk information and is also applied to all forms of communication between stakeholders including public health authority, local government and media. Each factor of risk communication includes source, message, channel, receiver and effect. The results support that the effective risk communication involves not only the improved reliability of public health authority as a key factor of risk communication, but also a close cooperation and good collaboration with local governments. It does not seem to be possible that the government-initiated risk communication based on controllability and management cope effectively with infectious disease in early stage. The results of this study imply that the shared risks between local, regional and national authorities can enhance risk communication system. Conclusions - The study supports that the disparities in how disaster-related risk information is interpreted and coded, have made effective risk communication and public sense-making impeded. Our findings support a more communicative discussion about the role of risk information sharing between governments for the improvement of emergency management and underline the importance of social elements in the risk communication, such as relationship and trust building. Findings suggest that trust building between stakeholders could be added to help explain the processes of social amplification and attenuation of risk. It would be recommended that the continuous risk communication with all the involved stakeholders will be able to help national health promotion policy to be improved regarding emergency management. Furthermore, risk communication has to be a scientific approach for the communication pertaining to potentially sensitive or controversial situations with public concerns and low public trust.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제28권6호
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• pp.491-502
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• 2020

Sex/gender disparity has been shown in the incidence and prognosis of many types of diseases, probably due to differences in genes, physiological conditions such as hormones, and lifestyle between the sexes. The mortality and survival rates of many cancers, especially liver cancer, differ between men and women. Due to the pronounced sex/gender disparity, considering sex/gender may be necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer. By analyzing research articles through a PubMed literature search, the present review identified 12 genes which showed practical relevance to cancer and sex disparities. Among the 12 sex-specific genes, 7 genes (BAP1, CTNNB1, FOXA1, GSTO1, GSTP1, IL6, and SRPK1) showed sex-biased function in liver cancer. Here we summarized previous findings of cancer molecular signature including our own analysis, and showed that sex-biased molecular signature CTNNB1^High, IL6^High, RHOA^High and GLIPR1^Low may serve as a female-specific index for prediction and evaluation of OS in liver cancer patients. This review suggests a potential implication of sex-biased molecular signature in liver cancer, providing a useful information on diagnosis and prediction of disease progression based on gender.

• STI Policy Review
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.105-145
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• 2015

Science, technology and innovation (STI) is crucially important to eradicating poverty, and making advances in various areas such as agriculture, health, environment, transport, industry, and telecommunications. Therefore, it is vital to the overall socioeconomic development of nations. The indispensable role of STI in the competitive globalized economy led to several attempts to measure national STI capacities. The present study outlines STI capacity around three sets of capabilities: technological capabilities, social capabilities, and common capabilities. The Global Science, Technology and Innovation Capacity (GSTIC) index was developed to provide current evidence on the national STI capacities of the countries, and to improve the composite indicators used for such purposes. The GSTIC ranks a large number of countries (167) on the basis of their STI capacities and categories them into four groups: i.e. leaders, dynamic adopters, slow adopters, and laggards. For more meaningful assessment of the STI capacities of nations, it captures the achievement gaps of individual countries with the highest achiever. The study also provides ranking and achievement gaps of nations in the nine GSTIC pillars: technology creation, R&D capacity, R&D performance, technology absorption, diffusion of old technologies, diffusion of recent innovations, exposure to foreign technology, human capital, and enabling factors. A more detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses in different pillars of STI capacity of ten selected countries is also provided. The results show that there are significant disparities among nations in STI capacity and its various aspects, and developing countries have much to catch-up with the developed nations. However, different countries may adopt different strategies according to their strengths and weaknesses. Useful insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the national STI capacities of different countries are provided in the study.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.362-370
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• 2020

Objectives: Despite greater access to training positions and the presence of more women in emergency medicine, it has remained a men-dominated field. This study aims to identify the key issues causing the gender gap in Korea and establish measures to overcome them. Methods: Using the annual statistical reports of the National Emergency Medical Center and data published on the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine website, cases that listed the current status and positions of members in its organization and its committees were analyzed. Secondary analysis was conducted using data from the 2015 Korean Society of Emergency Survey that included physicians' demographics, academic ranking, years of experience, clinical work hours, training and board certification, core faculty status, position, and salaries. Results: As of September 2019, women account for only 12.7% of the total number of emergency physicians (EP) in Korea; of 119 chair/vice-chair academic positions, women represented only 9.2%. Women EP were more often assistant professors and fellowship-trained, with fewer in core faculty. However, they worked the same numbers of clinical hours as their men counterparts. The median annual salary of women EP was less than that of men EP after adjusting for academic hospital rank, clinical hours, and core faculty status. Conclusions: A gender gap still exists among Korean EP, and women earn less than men regardless of their rank, clinical hours, or training. Future studies should evaluate more data and develop system-wide practices to eliminate gender disparities.

• 사상체질의학회지
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.24-39
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• 2018

Introduction The purpose of this study was to systematically review previous studies on Sasang type-specific pathophysiological symptoms in urination and defecation. Methods Peer-reviewed articles on type-specific pathophysiological symptoms of urination and defecation published until September 2016 were extracted from domestic and international six databases. Clinical characteristics from thirteen extracted articles were categorized into three urination domains of appearance of urine, capacity of bladder and urinary discomfort, and three defecation domains of irritability of bowel movement, functional constipation and discomfort from irregularity. Results As for the urination, Tae-Eum type showed dark color with foam, however So-Eum type had frequent urination and sensitivity to dysuria but no nocturia and residual urine sense. As for the defecation, So-Yang type showed frequent urgency and constipation, however So-Eum type reported loose stool. So-Yang type showed varied level of health status depending on defecation irregularity. There were disparities with rectal tenesmus among Sasang types. Discussion Six domains of urination and defecation related type-specific pathophysiological clinical symptoms were provided in this study. This study would contribute to the standardized clinical measures of Sasang typology in the near future.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.547-553
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• 2015

BACKGROUNDS/OBJECTIVES: The effects of malnutrition on growth of toddlers and preschoolers by socioeconomic status are not well known. This study aimed to examine the effects of dietary intake on growth outcomes in toddlers and preschoolers by household income level. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The study population was a total of 1,687 children aged 1 to 5 years that participated in the KNHANES from 2009 to 2011. Growth of children was assessed by height for age (HFA) and weight for height (WFH). Children were classified into three groups according to children's HFA and WFH compared to the $10^{th}$ and $90^{th}$ percentiles of the 2007 Korean Children and Adolescent Growth Standard. Average monthly household income was divided into quartile groups. Dietary intake data were obtained by using the one day 24-hr recall method. Risks of inadequate intake of nutrients and unfavorable growth were estimated by using a multiple logistic regression model adjusted for sex, age, region, and energy intake. RESULTS: The low HFA group (<$10^{th}$ percentile) had significantly lower intakes of energy, carbohydrate, and thiamin as compared with the high group (${\geq}90^{th}$ percentile). For WFH status, vitamin C intake was lower in the low group than in the high group. Household income level was related to WFH status but not HFA. Children from lower income households were more likely to have high WFH than those from higher income households (P for trend = 0.038). Household income status was also significantly related with risk of inadequate intake of micronutrients such as thiamin (P for trend = 0.032) and vitamin C (P for trend = 0.002), showing higher odds of inadequate intakes in children from lower income households. CONCLUSIONS: Children from lower income households were prone to be overweight and to have inadequate intakes of micronutrients such as thiamin and vitamin C. To reduce nutritional and health disparities, collective action in the public sector is required from early life.