• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.213-216
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• 2004

This work was based on the hypotheses that fingernail clippings can be used as a biomarker for the subchronic exposure to fluoride. This study was conducted to prove the hypotheses and fingernail clippings were collected form 120 preschool children aged $3{\sim}6$ residing in Jumunjin(community water fluoridation area) and Kangnung(non-fluoridation area). The acid-diffusible fluoride in the fingernail clipping was isolated by the acid-diffusion technique and measured with a fluoride electrode. The mean fingernail fluoride as the children's living area were 4.49ug/g(SD 2.43) to Jumunjin and 2.68ug/g(SD 1.13) to Kangnung. As would be expected, the fluoride concentration in fingernail clippings were significantly different between the two geographical groups(p<0.001) determined by t-test.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.1 s.88
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• pp.77-88
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• 2006

This study were conducted to investigate the microbial contamination level in 5 tomato farms in Western Gyeongnam. A total of 130 samples was examined for sanitary indicator bacteria, such as aerobic plate count (APC), coliforms, and Escherchia coli, and pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes. APC and coliform count ranged $0\~6.62\;and\;0\~4.52 log_{10}\;CFU/(ml,\;g,\;100\;cm^2,\;hand)$, respectively, and $32.5\%$ were contaminated with E. coli. Especially, most of the samples from employees are high as above $4.0\;log_{10}\;CFU/(ml,\;g,\;100\;cm^2,\;hand)$ in APC. S. aureus, detected at $10.7\%$, was found in employees' hands, irrigation water, and hydroponic solution. whereas E. coli $O157:H7$, Salmonella spp, and L. monocytogenes were not detected. These results will provide fundamental microbiological information for introduction of good agricultural practice (GAP)system in tomato farms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.140-143
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• 2003

This research was to determine and compare the inactivation of total coliform as the indicator organism with chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone for drinking water treatment. The inactivation of total coliform was experimentally analyzed for the dose of disinfectant, contact time, pH, Temperature and DOC. The experiments for the characterization of inactivation were performed in a series of batch processes with the total coliform as a general indicator organism based on chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone as disinfectants. The nearly 2.4, 3.0, 3.9 log inactivation of total coliform killed by injecting 1mg/L at 5 minutes for chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone. For the inactivation of 99.9%, Disinfectants required were 1.70, 1.00 and 0.60 mg/L for chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone, respectively. The bactericidal effects of disinfectants were decreased as the pH increased in the range of pH 6-9. The influence of pH change on the killing effect of chlorine dioxide was not strong, but that on ozone and free chlorine was sensitive. The bactericidal effects of the disinfectants were increased as the temperature increase. The activation energies were 36,053, 29,822, 24,906 J/mol of chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone for coliforms. The inactivation effects were shown in the lowest order of chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.26-45
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• 2005

The purposes of this study were to Identify the .level of measurement on quality Indicators and evaluate the existing indicators in order to determine the priority of quality indicators' application in Korean general hospitals. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire. The subjects were quality managers working at general hospital having over 300 beds. The criteria were relevance, reliability, precision, impact, application, and preference to evaluate quality indicators. According to these six criteria, each indicator was evaluated on a five point scale(5: excellent, 1: poor). The response rate was $40.4\%$. The hospitals have monitored the average of 3.8 indicators(median 4). The indicators such as return to operating room, unplanned readmission, cancellation of booked operations, death, hospital infection, cesarean section rate, volume per disease or procedure, readmission, re-operation, blood transfusion, and post-procedural complications were frequently measured. The top ten quality indicators in the evaluation by its relevance, validity, reliability, impact, preference and application were decubitus ulcer, clean wound infection, fall, unplanned return to operation room, transfusion reactions, foreign body left In during procedure, unplanned readmission, wound infection after contaminated surgery, postoperative hemorrhage/hematoma, and cesarean section rate in order. The high priority quality indicators frequently measured could be used as primary national indicators. Standardized guidelines about monitoring indicators and the utilization will preliminarily be needed to compare and reuse the data for various purposes and improve the quality of care continuously.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2005

Objectives : Job insecurity, such as non-standard work, is reported to have an adverse impact on health, regardless of health behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between non-standard employment and health in Korea. Methods : We analyzed a representative weighted sample, which consisted of 2,112 men and 1,237 women, aged 15-64, from the 1998 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Non-standard employment included part-time permanent, short time temporary and daily workers. Self-reported health was used as a health indicator. Results : This study indicated that women were more likely to report poorer health than men with standard jobs. Of all employees, 20.3% were female manual workers. After adjusting for potential confounders, such as age, education, equivalent income, marital, social and self-reported economic status and health behavior factors, nonstandard employment was found to be significantly associated with poor health among female manual workers (OR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.24 to 2.79). No significant association was found in other working groups Conclusions : Among female manual workers, nonstandard employees reported significantly poorer health compared with standard workers. This result raises concern as there are increasing numbers of non-standard workers, particularly females.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.384-401
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• 2016

The vegetation assessment indicator has been developed recently as a biological part of the integrated assessment system for river environment to improve the efficiency of river restoration projects. This study carried out to test the vegetation assessment indicator and to reset its grade criteria on experimental streams. We classified and mapped vegetation communities at the level of physiognomic-floristic composition by each assessment unit. A total of 204 sampling quadrats were set up on the 68 assessment units at 5 experimental streams. By analyzing the vegetation data collected, we examined the appropriate numbers of sampling quadrats, the criteria of vegetation index score, classification of vegetation community, and grade criteria for vegetation assessment. The developed vegetation assessment indicator composed with the vegetation complexity index (VCI), the vegetation diversity index (VDI), and the vegetation naturalness index (VNI) was proved to reflect the current conditions of the streams sufficiently. The contribution of vegetation naturalness index to grading by vegetation assessment indicator was larger, but three indexes were closely correlated to each other. Also there was more clearer discrimination of grading with the application of adjusted criteria of vegetation assessment indicator and the standardized classification of vegetation community, but the stream segment type did not influence the vegetation assessment grade significantly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.181-189
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the trend of overseas school health indicators and to investigate indicators comparable internationally. Methods: Using the key words, school, health, indicators and policy through formal literature and web sites, the resources were used after the completeness of resources such as the presence of author, year published and place, and reproducibility was evaluated. Results: In overseas, the interest of school health indicators has increased gradually since 1960. Quality indicators as well as quantitative indicators are important as the good school health indicators. The overseas school health indicators have been very comprehensive, not only including students, but also including the expanded population such as school personnel, parents, family and community, process and outcomes, policies, social and cultural environment. The trend of school health research is from traditional issue-based to indicatorbased which makes comprehensive interpretation including development of school health service and life satisfaction. Among internationally comparable indicators, Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) and Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) were chiefly for students' health and behavior level, and the School Health Service Survey (SHS) was for school health service personnel and policy. Conclusion: Characteristics of overseas school health indicators were expanded population, and comprehensive and internationally comparable indicators. Therefore, Korea school health indicators need to be comprehensive using expanded population and qualitative indicators, and consider standardized indicators comparable internationally.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.87-119
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• 1999

The main purpose of this research is to measure and analyze how productive the health centers are and how much inputs(or outputs) in the inefficient health centers should be decreased(or increased) for efficiency. The evaluation of the performance of health centers gives a strong incentive to improve resource allocation in regional health planning. It has been, however, implemented very rarely until now. In this regard, this paper measures the performance of the health centers with a single indicator for multiple-outputs in terms of productivity(technical efficiency), based on Data Envelopment method. The 20 Kyungnam health centers which provide clinic services and specific primary health care services were analyzed. The results show that 50.0% of 20 health centers were productive with respective to overall technical efficiency, 65.0% were productive for pure technical efficiency, and 50.0% for scale efficiency. The inefficient group includes Geoje, Mahsan, Miryang, Sahchun, Tongyoung, Gosung, Nahmhae, Euryang, Hahmahn, Hahbchun health centers. The worst case was identified as Tongyoung health center which represented a 47.5% efficiency, compared with productive health centers. The empirical results for input-output analysis indicates that the low-productive health centers have excessive manpower in administration department, producing low outputs in clinical services and vaccination program. These findings imply that a systemic evaluation of the performance of the Korean health centers and the subsequent structural reform are strongly required.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.29-47
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• 2005

Objectives: Individuals' self-reported unmet needs are an important indicator of heath care of their society. Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Cycle 1.2, we examine unmet needs for mental health care in Canada and discuss its implications to health education. Results: The most frequently reported reason for unmet needs was barriers to acceptability issues, which stem primarily from lack of knowledge of mental health, negative attitudes towards mental disorder, and mistrust of mental health professionals. Unmet needs for mental health care appeared an especially serious issue among the young. Also, individuals who reported unmet needs tended to have some ill health behavior such as illicit drug use that could be their coping mechanism. On the other hand, emotional and informational support factors have shown an important mitigating effect on unmet needs. Conclusions: These findings of unmet needs pose a major challenge to health education. To effectively address unmet mental health care needs, it is recommended that the focus of relevant policies and programs should be on enhancing a multi-level mental health education strategy including efforts on individual, environmental and professional level education.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.150-159
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was aimed to identify gender-based health inequality and explore impacting factors on health inequality in one province in Korea. Methods: This was an explanatory study using the secondary data on Chungnam province from the Fifth Community Health Survey from August 16 to Oct 31, 2012. Variables included in this analysis were education level, poverty, marital status, and residential community for socio-cultural characteristics and subjective health status as an indicator of health inequality. Data were analyzed by ${\chi}^2$-test, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression. Results: There were gender inequalities and disparities in health, and these inequalities were greater in woman than in man (${\chi}^2$=161.8, p<.001). The impacting factors were education level, poverty, marital status, and residential community, which was accounted for 22.6% of variances of health inequality. Among these variables, gender showed the largest influence in health inequalities. Conclusion: To solve health inequalities, it should be considered gender differences based on social determinants of health. It is necessary to develop long term project based on these results and the social determinants model of World Health Organization.