• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-70
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• 2016

Objectives: It has been well documented that people on the lower socioeconomic position are significantly more likely to smoke cigarettes. The purposes of this study were (a) to identify a potential difference of socioeconomic factors, and (b) to compare a smoking rate, one of the most representative health behavior between people with/without disabilities after the controlling socioeconomic factors. Methods: The Korea Panel Survey of Employment for People of Disabilities (2012) and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (2012) were employed for calculating the smoking rates of persons with/without disabilities. Results: The results demonstrated that the socioeconomic position indicators (education, occupation and household equivalent income) of persons with disabilities were lower than persons without disabilities. The smoking rates of the persons with/without disabilities were 35.9% and 19.0% respectively before propensity score matching. After propensity score matching with the socioeconomic factors, however, ATT of people with disabilities was 0.201 which is lower than ATT of people without disabilities (0.227). Conclusions: Our findings indicated that the socioeconomic level of persons with disabilities is important to improve the smoking rates and health level regardless of their disabilities.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.138-152
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• 2005

Purposes: The purposes of this study are to investigate the definition, components, prevalence, and associated factors of metabolic syndrome and suggest the management strategies for workers. Method: This study was conducted by literature review. Results: Metabolic syndrome by the NCEP-ATP III is the clustering of three or more of five conditions: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low levels of HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high glucose(blood sugar). The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome by modified NCEP-ATP III in South Korean workers was about 20 to 25%. Metabolic syndrome is caused by many associated factors, namely, age, family history, socioeconomic status, job strain, shift work, psychosocial distress, bad health behaviprs and so on. Conclusions: To prevent metabolic syndrome at worksites, multifactorial risk factor assessments and preventive approaches are required. Socioeconomic factors such as education, working status should be nationally importantly considered for the health inequality of workers. Occupational health nurse, at first, can start weight control, smoking cessation program. stress management, the improvement of work environment. Next stage, early diagnosis and treatment for metabolic risk group can be performed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2023

The labor environment in Korea has changed and problems related to employment types are treated as important issues. Especially, the ratio of irregular workers has not only increased relatively, but the labor conditions in Korea also have worsened in the current years. Studies have reported an association between temporary workers and the prevalence of diseases. However, there is insufficient research on chronic disease and employment types. Methods: The current study examines the prevalence rate of diseases and health behavior by categorizing employment types among Korean adults. Data were obtained from the 2016-2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Totally, the data of 2,366 workers (1,239 regular and 1,127 irregular) were analyzed in the study. The types of employment were classified by a questionnaire querying about working conditions. The results showed that irregular workers earned less than regular workers and had a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. We propose that if discrimination related to working conditions were relieved, irregular workers would be able to invest more time to exercise and doing check-ups regularly. In addition, individual nutrition consultations considering the knowledge and personal environmental factors of each individual are necessary for the improved health of all workers.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.483-493
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• 2015

Industrialization and urbanization have caused health inequality between rural areas and cities. Health care in rural area is insufficient comparing to urban areas. This study examined the effects of social capital, Health Information, and medical communication factors on Health status in rural community using structural equation modeling. First, social capital has an effect on medical communication with physicians and medical communication impacts on health status. Second, health information orientation has an impact on health behavior and Internet health information. Lastly, health information orientation influenced by Internet health information as a mediator affects health status. As a whole, this study contributes to theoretical explanation about determinants of health status in communities by examining structural path of the effects of social factors and communication factors on health status in rural area.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.23-31
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• 2015

Objectives: The contribution of health behavior is high in the mortality variation. Mortality variation can be decreased through the policies and programs for improving health behavior. We investigated that health behaviors effected with standardized mortality in community. Methods: We examined the distribution of health determinant factors and correlation analyzed between factors and performed multiple linear regression. Data were collected from 2012 Community Health Survey in 253 communities, annual regional statistics, and statistics from Statistics Korea. Results: This study defined that the variation of standardized mortality and there are exist inequality level of health determinant factors in 253 communities. This study showed that the higher standardized mortality explained through health behavior factors of the current smoking rate, walking exercise rate and diagnosis of hypertension or diabetes rate after adjusted other factors(adjusted $R^2=0.709$, p<0.001). Conclusions: Smoking, walking exercise and diagnosis chronic disease affecting on the regional variation of standardized mortality. These factors can be improved by the local residents themselves.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2000

We have witnessed several kinds of new discourses and practices in health and medicine since the 1970s, such as popular concerns with alternative or complementary medicine, inordinate attention to the promotion of 'healthy' living, rapid resurrection of traditional medicine and ecological management of health. Four structural and situational factors are discussed to underlie these new trends：(i) as 'crisis' in health care of the 1970s was translated into health care reform of the 1980s backed up by neo-liberal political philosophy, the state responsibility for nation's health is being transferred to the individual ；(ii) it resulted from the limits of biomedical paradigm in dealing with chronic diseases；(iii) medico-scientific knowledge of disease is transformed into the subjective discourses and technologies of health in postmodern society ； and (iv) it is deeply associated with the considerable increase in environmental risk perception of health and disease. There are some inherent countervailing forces in these new discourses and practices. First, while they derive from lifestyle-oriented behavioral change, medicalization of life and death is still consolidated in the new trends. Second, inasmuch as new tides are reliant upon science, they. are likely to be remote from techne that means not the practical application of theoretical knowing but a special form of practical knowing. Third, as new discourses and activities accomplished＇in the name of health＇increasingly occupy important strategies in forming the self-identity, they serve as moral apparatus which involves prescriptions about how we should live our lives and conduct our bodies, both individually and collectively. Therefore, two points are suggested to consider seriously whether these streams will succeed in improving the‘healthy’living of all the people. Instead of limiting tile perspective to medicine, healing and health care, a new matrix that interweave welfare, ecology and labor along with them is timely needed for enhancing the health for all. In addition, as the World Health Report fm strongly shows, inequality in health heavily depends upon socio-economic development of a society, and it is not the richest countries that have the best health status, but those that have the smallest income differences between rich and poor.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.173-186
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• 2005

This paper develops the argument that the 'Healthy Cities Approach' extends beyond the boundaries of officially designated Healthy Cities and suggests that signs of it are evident much more widely in efforts to promote health in the United Kingdom and in national policy. It draws on examples from Leeds, a major city in the north of England. In particular, it suggests that efforts to improve population health need to focus on the wider determinants and that this requires a collaborative response involving a range of different sectors and the participation of the community. Inequality is recognised as a major issue and the need to identify areas of deprivation and direct resources towards these is emphasised. Childhood poverty is referred to and the importance of breaking cycles of deprivation. The role of the school is seen as important in contributing to health generally and the compatibility between Healthy Cities and Health Promoting Schools is noted. Not only can Health Promoting Schools improve the health of young people themselves they can also develop the skills, awareness and motivation to improve the health of the community. Using child pedestrian injury as an example, the paper argues that problems and their cause should not be conceived narrowly. The Healthy Cities movement has taught us that the response, if it is to be effective, should focus on the wider determinants and be adapted to local circumstances. Instead of simply attempting to change behaviour through traditional health education we need to ensure that the environment is healthy in itself and supports healthy behaviour. To achieve this we need to develop awareness, skills and motivation among policy makers, professionals and the community The 'New Health' education is proposed as a term to distinguish the type of health education which addresses these issues from more traditional forms.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2019

Income distribution is a major concern in economic theory. In regional economics, it is often of interest to compare income distributions in different regions. Traditional methods often compare the income inequality of different regions by assuming parametric forms of the income distributions, or using summary statistics like the Gini coefficient. In this paper, we propose a nonparametric procedure to test for heterogeneity in income distributions among different regions, and a K-means clustering procedure for clustering income distributions based on energy distance. In simulation studies, it is shown that the energy distance based method has competitive results with other common methods in hypothesis testing, and the energy distance based clustering method performs well in the clustering problem. The proposed approaches are applied in analyzing data from China Health and Nutrition Survey 2011. The results indicate that there are significant differences among income distributions of the 12 provinces in the dataset. After applying a 4-means clustering algorithm, we obtained the clustering results of the income distributions in the 12 provinces.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2006

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the relationship between regional material deprivation and the standardized mortality ratios(SMRs) of community residents aged 15-64 in Korea. Methods: SMRs were investigated using the registered death data from 1995 to 2000 that was obtained from the Korean National Statistics Office with the denominators being drawn from the 1995 to 2000 census. Material deprivation was measured using the Townsend score that was calculated from the 1995 to 2000 census. The relationship between the regional material deprivation and the SMRs of the community residents aged 15-64 was investigated by using ANOVA, Spearman's rank correlation analysis and Pearson's correlation analysis. The trends in mortality inequality were investigated using the concentration index. Results: On the ANOVA, the SMRs of the men and women residents in the least deprived areas were the smallest and those in the most deprived areas were the largest. Spearman's rank correlation analysis, Pearson's correlation analysis and the concentration index revealed that significant positive relationships exist between the regional material deprivation and the SMRs of the community residents aged 15-64. Conclusions: This study suggests that there are mortality inequalities among the communities in Korea and part of this difference is due to the material deprivation of the community. Strategies aimed at reducing mortality inequalities among the communities will be needed to address economic inequalities. Further studies are needed to explore the mechanisms of how the regional deprivation influences on health and how the other factors of the community influence on the health of the community residents.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.220-227
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• 2020

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess how different social determinants of health (SDoH) may be related to variability in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rates in cities and towns in Massachusetts (MA). Methods: Data about the total number of cases, tests, and rates of COVID-19 as of June 10, 2020 were obtained for cities and towns in MA. The data on COVID-19 were matched with data on various SDoH variables at the city and town level from the American Community Survey. These variables included information about income, poverty, employment, renting, and insurance coverage. We compared COVID-19 rates according to these SDoH variables. Results: There were clear gradients in the rates of COVID-19 according to SDoH variables. Communities with more poverty, lower income, lower insurance coverage, more unemployment, and a higher percentage of the workforce employed in essential services, including healthcare, had higher rates of COVID-19. Most of these differences were not accounted for by different rates of testing in these cities and towns. Conclusions: SDoH variables may explain some of the variability in the risk of COVID-19 across cities and towns in MA. Data about SDoH should be part of the standard surveillance for COVID-19. Efforts should be made to address social factors that may be putting communities at an elevated risk.