• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.52
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• pp.5-32
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• 2003

This paper examines the labor entry of conditional welfare recipients. This paper focuses on two questions. First, what is the percentage of conditional welfare recipients who have labor entry? Second, what are the predictors in the labor entry and the duration to the entry? Using Data about 917 welfare recipients who participated in the self-sufficiency programs of the Offices for Secure Employment in Seoul, this paper attempts to answer the above questions. Logistic regression analysis and survival analysis are adopted to identify variables predicting labor entry of conditional welfare recipients. This paper also utilizes a multiple imputation method to deal with the limitation of data by the missing values in some variables. The major findings are as follows: about 43.8% of the conditional welfare recipients have successful labor entry; and in the labor entry and the duration to the entry, gender, household, information and referral services for employment, health and willingness for self-sufficiency are the predictors that are statistically significant. Among these variables, health and willingness for self-sufficiency are more noticeable; it is recognized that programs to care for health of welfare recipients who want to have the labor entry and counseling programs to strengthen welfare recipients' willingness for labor entry are very important for them to be successful in the labor entry. This paper provides a basic knowledge about realities of the conditional welfare recipients' labor entry, identifies research areas for further research, and develops policy implications for their self-sufficiency.

• Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.614-627
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• 2018

Purpose: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease that responds to medications to varying degrees. Cluster analyses have identified several phenotypes and variables related to fixed airway obstruction; however, few longitudinal studies of lung function have been performed on adult asthmatics. We investigated clinical, demographic, and inflammatory factors related to persistent airflow limitation based on lung function trajectories over 1 year. Methods: Serial post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume (FEV) 1% values were obtained from 1,679 asthmatics who were followed up every 3 months for 1 year. First, a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using Ward's method to generate a dendrogram for the optimum number of clusters using the complete post-FEV1 sets from 448 subjects. Then, a trajectory cluster analysis of serial post-FEV1 sets was performed using the k-means clustering for the longitudinal data trajectory method. Next, trajectory clustering for the serial post-FEV1 sets of a total of 1,679 asthmatics was performed after imputation of missing post-FEV1 values using regression methods. Results: Trajectories 1 and 2 were associated with normal lung function during the study period, and trajectory 3 was associated with a reversal to normal of the moderately decreased baseline FEV1 within 3 months. Trajectories 4 and 5 were associated with severe asthma with a marked reduction in baseline FEV1. However, the FEV1 associated with trajectory 4 was increased at 3 months, whereas the FEV1 associated with trajectory 5 was persistently disturbed over 1 year. Compared with trajectory 4, trajectory 5 was associated with older asthmatics with less atopy, a lower immunoglobulin E (IgE) level, sputum neutrophilia and higher dosages of oral steroids. In contrast, trajectory 4 was associated with higher sputum and blood eosinophil counts and more frequent exacerbations. Conclusions: Trajectory clustering analysis of FEV1 identified 5 distinct types, representing well-preserved to severely decreased FEV1. Persistent airflow obstruction may be related to non-atopy, a low IgE level, and older age accompanied by neutrophilic inflammation and low baseline FEV1 levels.