• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.437-441
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• 2012

Objective: Health risk appraisal is often utilized to modify individual's health behavior, especially concerning disease prevention, and web-based health risk appraisal services are being provided to the general public in Korea. However, little is known about the psychological effect of the health risk appraisal even though poorly communicated information by the web-based service may result in unintended adverse health outcomes. This study was conducted to explore the psychological effect of health risk appraisal using epidemiological risk factor profile. Methods: We conducted a randomized trial comparing risk factor list type health risk appraisal and risk score type health risk appraisal. We studied 60 women aged 30 years and older who had no cancer. Anxiety level was assessed using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory YZ. Results: The results of multivariate analysis showed that risk status was the independent predictors of increase of state anxiety after health risk appraisal intervention when age, education, health risk appraisal type, numeracy, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and health risk appraisal type by risk status interaction was adjusted. Women who had higher risk status had an odd of having increased anxiety that was about 5 times greater than women who had lower risk status. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that communicating the risk status by individual health risk appraisal service can induce psychological sequelae, especially in women having higher risk status. Hospitals, institutes, or medical schools that are operating or planning to operate the online health risk appraisal service should take side effects such as psychological sequelae into consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2005

Purpose : This study was done for reviewing problems in surveys on youth health risk behaviors in Korea and for looking for strategies to improve surveys of youth health risk behaviors through literature review. Method : This study reviewed foreign and domestic literatures. Results : The main problems were as follows; 1) lack of health risk behavior surveys focused on health behaviors, 2) differences in health risk behaviors surveyed, 3) inconsistency in the measurement on health risk behaviors, 4) lack of representativeness of the sample, using convenient sampling. Conclusions: Several suggestions were made for the future research, including establishment of systems for youth health risk behavior survey nationwide, introduction of internet survey, maintenance of consistency in health risk behaviors surveyed, investigation of relating factors relevant to health risk behaviors, and uses of survey results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 2007

Purpose : Health Risk behaviors are a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Adolescents is a critical transitional period for establishing health behavior for healthy life. The purpose of this study was to describe the types and frequency of the health risk behaviors being performed by middle school students, examine the gender and grade differences of health risk behaviors, and identify the relationship among health risk behaviors. Methods : A total of 1952 early adolescents recruited from 7 middle schools in a district of urban setting completed questionnaires. Youth Risk Behavior Survey-Middle school questionnaires was used to identify the types of health risk behaviors among early adolescents. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Chi-Square test using SAS program . Results : The results showed the frequency for most health risk behaviors and increased with advancing grade level. Males were more likely than females to behaviors related to smoking and violence, whereas females were more likely than males to have suicidal thoughts, be physical inactive and attempt to lose weight. Among health risk behaviors, the relationship of alcohol experience, smoking, and suicide was high. Conclusion : The findings identify a high risk target group among middle school adolescents and suggest that preventive intervention strategies should take into consideration the types with gender and grade, and provided the evidence that one of health risk behaviors may induce the other health risk behaviors.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2013

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between internet addiction and health behaviors & mental health among Korean adolescents. Methods: Data from the 2010 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey was analyzed. Using the Korean Internet Addiction Proneness Scale for Youth-Short Form: Self Report developed by the Korean National Information Society Agency in 2008, subjects were classified into 3 groups for internet addiction including general user, potential-risk group, and high-risk group. The health behaviors and mental health were compared among the groups for internet addiction by gender. Results: There was significantly higher prevalence of internet addiction including potential-risk group and high-risk group in boys(14.1%) than in girls(8.8%). There were significant odds ratios of perceived stress, perceived depression, perceived health and happiness, and satisfaction of sleeping in both genders at potential-risk group and high-risk group compared to general user for the internet addiction. The odds ratios of smoking at high risk group, alcohol drinking at potential risk group, eating breakfast at high risk group, and moderate physical activity at both risk groups among boys were significant. Among girls at both risk group, the odds ratios of smoking, alcohol drinking, and eating breakfast were significant. Conclusions: This study reveals a significant association among internet addiction, and health behaviors, and mental health in Korean adolescents.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2010

In the UK, a person or organisation that creates risk is required to manage and control that risk so that it is reduced 'So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable (SFAIRP).' How the risk is managed is to be determined by those who create the risk. They have a duty to demonstrate that they have taken action to ensure all risk is reduced SFAIRP and must have documentary evidence, for example a risk assessment or safety case, to prove that they manage the risks their activities create. The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not tell organisations how to manage the risks they create but does inspect the quality of risk identification and management. This paper gives a brief overview of where responsibility for occupational health and safety lies in the UK, and how risk should be managed through risk assessment. The focus of the paper is three recent major UK incidents, all involving fatalities, and all of which were wholly avoidable if risks had been properly assessed and managed. The paper concludes with an analysis of the common failings of risk assessments and key actions for improvement.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.45-70
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• 2009

Outbreaks of health risks such as the Influenza A virus (H1N1) are continuing, which highlights the immediacy of risk control strategies to reduce public's fear and protect the safety of the society. Evidence suggests that success for risk management is basically dependent on the public's willingness to adopt health behaviors recommended by experts, and the behavioral intention relies on their risk perception. Understanding of how individuals think of and feel about health risks is thereby important. This article aims to provide insights for future study on health-risk perception. The main streams and recent developments of theorizing and research on health risk perception are reviewed. The issues, such as (1) health risk perception is an important component for shaping relevant health policies as it reflects public trust of the institutions managing health risks, (2) despite this significance, however, few attempts have been made to address the meaning of 'perceiving health risks' in health services research, are shed light on. On the basis on the critical discussion of the contributions and the limitations of the literature, this article finishes with a few of research agendas by three levels of analysis in risk perception research.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study is to clarify the level of health literacy, health risk perception and health behavior of Korean elders and to determine the impact of their health literacy and health risk perception on their health behavior. Methods: A descriptive correlation study was conducted with 188 elders aged 65 or older in senior welfare centers in Busan. Questionnaires were used to measure levels of health literacy, health risk perception, and health behavior. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis test, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression were performed. Results: 43.6% of the subjects had low levels of health literacy. There was a negative relation between health literacy and health risk perception, and between health risk perception and health behavior. There was a positive relation between health literacy and health behavior. Health concern, health literacy affected health behavior. Health literacy independently accounted for 24% of health behavior. Health risk perception didn't affect health behavior. Conclusion: Many of the Korean elders had low levels of health literacy and health literacy was independently associated with health behavior. These findings show that interventions for improving health literacy are necessary to enhance health behavior of the elderly.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.119-129
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to provide basic data for the improvement of healthy habits and development of an oral health promotion program among Korean youth. Therefore, this study investigated adolescent health risk factors, oral health risk factors, and oral disease symptoms. Methods: This study used data from the Korea youth web-based survey, 2016. The subjects selected for the study were 61,086 persons who did not exhibit health risk factors, oral health risk factors, and oral disease symptoms. The statistical analyses were conducted by applying a complex sample analysis technique. Results: Those who drank carbonated beverages at least once a day were 1.15 times more likely to experience oral disease symptoms. The more sweet drinks they drank, the higher the risk of experiencing oral disease symptoms. Subjects who consumed alcohol had a 1.30 times greater risk of experiencing oral disease symptoms while subjects with smoking experience had a 1.13 times greater risk of experiencing oral disease symptoms. Conclusions: As a result, in order to maintain the physical and mental health of Korean adolescents, it is necessary to develop an oral health program for the prevention of unhealthy eating habits and oral diseases.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.90-98
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• 2005

Purpose: To provide basic information for developing a nursing program by examining health risk behavior of students rewriting college entrance examinations. Method: Data were gathered using questionnaires from 804 examinees in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and analyzed with the SAS program using t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe's test, and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: The mean score for health risk behaviors was 17.70 and the highest score for sub-areas of health risk behavior was drinking alcohol while substance use ranked lowest. There were significantly different scores for health risk behavior according to the following general characteristics; frequency of rewriting college entrance examinations, parents' marital status, level of father's education, grades, satisfaction with rewriting of college entrance examinations, parents' health concerns, need for health education and health status. Each behavior had positive or negative correlation with more than one other behavior. A negative correlation was found between health risk behavior and family support and self-esteem, while positive correlations were found between health risk behavior and general stress, studying stress and anxiety. Conclusion: This study suggest that these results be used to developed a prevention program to decrease health risk behaviors by promoting family support and self esteem and decreasing stress and anxiety.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.396-402
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• 2021

Background: Styrene is one of the aromatic compounds used in acetonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) producing petrochemicals, which has an impact on health of workers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the health risks of styrene emitted from the petrochemical industry in Iran. Methods: Air samples were collected based on NIOSH 1501 method. The samples were analyzed by the Varian-cp3800 gas chromatograph. Finally, risk levels of styrene's health effects on employees were assessed by the quantitative method of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the semiquantitative way by the Singapore Occupational Safety and Health Association. Results: Based on the results, the employees had the highest average exposure to styrene vapors (4.06 × 10^-1mg.(kg - day)^-1) in the polybutadiene latex (PBL) unit. Therefore, the most top predictors of cancer and non-cancer risk were 2.3×10^-4 and 7.26 × 10^-1, respectively. Given that the lowest average exposure (1.5 × 10^-2mg.(kg - day)^-1) was in the dryer unit, the prediction showed a moderate risk of cancer (0.8 × 10^-6) and non-cancer (2.3 × 10^-3) for the employees. The EPA method also predicted that there would be a definite cancer risk in 16% and a probable risk in 76% of exposures. However, according to the semiquantitative approach, the rate of risk was at the "low" level for all staff. The results showed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the units in exposure and health risk of styrene (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Given the high risk of styrene's health effects, appropriate control measures are required to reduce the exposure level.