• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.899-910
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the rates of perceived stress of elderly people over 65 years old and to confirm the influence of stress on general health and oral health status. Methods: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey for 2014, 1,472 people over 65 years of age were selected as final subjects. Stress was used as an independent variable and dependent variables were included physical health (perceived health status), mental health (depression), and oral health (perceived oral health status). The following confounding variables were adjusted for the current study: demographic characteristics (gender, age, education level, house income) and health - related characteristics (drinking, smoking, exercise, frequency of tooth brushing, using oral care product, dental exam, comorbidity, restrict activity). Complex sampling analysis was applied and logistic regression was performed to determine the effects of stress on physical health, mental health and oral health status. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% Confidence Interval, 95% CI) were calculated. Results: Logistic regression indicated that stress was significantly associated with low physical health (OR=2.18, 95%CI: 1.49-3.20), low mental health (OR=8.68, 95%CI: 4.98-15.11), low oral health (OR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.06-2.21) after adjusting for confounding variables. Conclusions: The perceived stress of the elderly was found to be related to the general health and oral health status. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate stress as a predictor of health risk for the health promotion of the elderly on multidisciplinary assessment and continuous evaluation. In addition, health support policies should be provided to achieve good health status for elderly.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.105-121
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• 2011

Objectives: This paper presents the framework and protocol design for a construction industry risk management toolbox. The construction industry needs a comprehensive, systematic approach to assess and control occupational risks. These risks span several professional health and safety disciplines, emphasized by multiple international occupational research agenda projects including: falls, electrocution, noise, silica, welding fumes, and musculoskeletal disorders. Yet, the International Social Security Association says, "whereas progress has been made in safety and health, the construction industry is still a high risk sector." Methods: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ about 80% of the world's construction workers. In recent years a strategy for qualitative occupational risk management, known as Control Banding (CB) has gained international attention as a simplified approach for reducing work-related risks. CB groups hazards into stratified risk 'bands', identifying commensurate controls to reduce the level of risk and promote worker health and safety. We review these qualitative solutions-based approaches and identify strengths and weaknesses toward designing a simplified CB 'toolbox' approach for use by SMEs in construction trades. Results: This toolbox design proposal includes international input on multidisciplinary approaches for performing a qualitative risk assessment determining a risk 'band' for a given project. Risk bands are used to identify the appropriate level of training to oversee construction work, leading to commensurate and appropriate control methods to perform the work safely. Conclusion: The Construction Toolbox presents a review-generated format to harness multiple solutions-based national programs and publications for controlling construction-related risks with simplified approaches across the occupational safety, health and hygiene professions.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 2015

Background: While attention has been paid to physical risks in the work environment and the promotion of individual employee health, mental health protection and promotion have received much less focus. Psychosocial risk management has not yet been fully incorporated in such efforts. This paper presents good practices in promoting mental health in the workplace in line with World Health Organization (WHO) guidance by identifying barriers, opportunities, and the way forward in this area. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 experts who were selected on the basis of their knowledge and expertise in relation to good practice identified tools. Interviewees were asked to evaluate the approaches on the basis of the WHO model for healthy workplaces. Results: The examples of good practice for Workplace Mental Health Promotion (WMHP) are in line with the principles and the five keys of the WHO model. They support the third objective of the WHO comprehensive mental health action plan 2013-2020 for multisectoral implementation of WMHP strategies. Examples of good practice include the engagement of all stakeholders and representatives, science-driven practice, dissemination of good practice, continual improvement, and evaluation. Actions to inform policies/legislation, promote education on psychosocial risks, and provide better evidence were suggested for higher WMHP success. Conclusion: The study identified commonalities in good practice approaches in different countries and stressed the importance of a strong policy and enforcement framework as well as organizational responsibility for WMHP. For progress to be achieved in this area, a holistic and multidisciplinary approach was unanimously suggested as a way to successful implementation.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.193-201
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• 2019

Background and Objective: Since the introduction of hospital pharmacy residency programs in 1983, hospital pharmacists in South Korea have been expected to expand their roles. However, their services and the outcomes have not been fully understood. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of Korean hospital pharmacist-provided interventions with regard to intervention type, intervention consequences, and target patient groups. Methods: A literature search of the following databases was performed: Embase, PubMed, Medline, KoreaMed, RISS, KMbase, KISS, NDSL, and KISTI. The search words were "hospital pharmacist", "clinical pharmacist", and "Korea". Articles reporting clinical or economic outcome measures that resulted from hospital pharmacist interventions were considered. Numeric measures for the acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations were subjected to meta-analysis. Results: Of the 1,683 articles searched, 44 met the inclusion selection criteria. Most articles were published after 2000 (81.8%) and focused on clinical outcomes. Economic outcomes had been published since 2011. The interventions were classified as patient education, multidisciplinary team work, medication assessment, and guideline development. The outcome measures were physicians' prescription changes, clinical outcomes, patient adherence, economic outcomes, and quality of life. The acceptance rate was 80.5% (p < 0.005). Conclusion: Studies on pharmacist interventions have increased and showed increased patient health benefits and reduced medical costs at Korean hospital sites. Because pharmacists' professional competency would be recognized if the economic outcomes of their work were confirmed and justified, studies on their clinical performance should also include their economic impact.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.195-201
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• 2022

The core of the Fourth Industrial revolution, the topic of the 21st century, lies in the convergence of various technologies that are developing to the cutting edge. Therefore, convergence education is essential to solve problems from various perspectives. Above all, in order to solve the complex problem arising from the contact point between humans and technology in the future society, it was considered that insight through a humanities and artistic approach was necessary. Now, universities are trying to run a multidisciplinary comprehensive design to adapt to the new digital environment. In this study, an operation case of an engineering comprehensive design subject incorporating art operated by a researcher was described. The researcher presented an art convergence curriculum in a comprehensive design subject by applying 1. problem recognition and definition, 2. idea derivation and evaluation, 3. project development, 4. presentation, and demonstration process operation methods. Through this study, it is meaningful that it presented a method of operating art convergence in engineering comprehensive design subjects by allowing students to attempt an artistic aesthetic and emotional approach to project development.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.25-41
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigated trends of nursing research on life-sustaining treatment in South Korea. Methods: The period for data search was set from January 2018 to December 2020. The major search terms used were advance directives and life-sustaining treatment. Of the 492 records identified in the initial search, 461 articles were excluded for various reasons. A total of 31 records were included in the final qualitative analysis. Results: Sixteen studies had nursing students as study subjects, while nine studies had nurses as study subjects. The majority of the studies employed cross-sectional descriptive surveys as their research design. The major themes that emerged from the studies were as follows: attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, knowledge of and attitudes toward advance directives, perceptions of a good death, and nurses' attitude toward life support care. Most of the studies reviewed concluded that attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment significantly impacted both knowledge of and attitudes toward advance directives and perceptions of a good death. Conclusion: To date, Korea still lacks extensive nursing research concerning life support care. Further research is needed to provide systematic education for nursing ethics and life support care, as well as the introduction of a specialist course. Furthermore, a multidisciplinary approach is necessary to provide diverse support systems and policy measures. In particular, since nurses are directly responsible for providing life support care, nurses' roles should be expanded in accordance with the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.255-259
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• 2022

The new social reality emerging amid the global rise of communication links and integration processes acutely emphasizes the problems of communication in large and small social systems. The method of their communication becomes one of the keys to ensuring global security. It has become the mission of humanitarian education to prepare the younger generations for life in a changing world with no image of the future and increasing uncertainty. In psychological and pedagogical research, there is a growing scientific interest in the problems of interaction of the individual with the social environment. The mental trace of a person's practice in society shapes the experience of social interaction, which constitutes simultaneously the source, tool, and condition for the emergence and development of personality. The study outlines the methodological foundations for the study of individual experiences of social interaction. A hypothesis about the productivity of the functional matrix method is tested. Materials for the training of specialists in the humanities include interdisciplinary approaches to the study and transformation of the experience of social interaction and systematic methodology for the study of complex objects. Fundamental to the study is the systematic-dialectical method, and the matrix method is employed as the instrumental-technological method. The paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary overview of scientific literature concerning the essential characteristics and functions of social interaction and the respective experience. The overview points to the fragmented nature of scientific understanding of the elements of experience outside its integrity and systemic properties. Based on the formula "personality interacts with the social environment", the study presents an algorithm for the application of a systematic methodology for the study of complex objects, which made it possible to identify the system parameters of experience at three levels of cognition and develop the reference structural and functional matrices for the didactic system of its pedagogical enrichment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.70-77
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• 2023

Gas has replaced coal or petroleum as primary fuel because of its convenience. However, gas has risk of fire, explosion, or poisoning. To reduce gas-related accidents, many strategic projects have been being carried based on 'Gas Safety Management Basic Plans' on a domestic scale. In spite of those projects, the gas-related accident rate did not decrease over past decades. Thus, this study was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of ongoing projects, and to find out ways to make improvements. Conventional statistical analyses on accident data published by gas-related institutions were not useful to determine meaningful attributes to predict future. Whereas, accident case analyses adopted in the present study discovered differences in the type of people and their unsafe acts for each gas type. Meanwhile, the overall average priority of projects was not high in the aspect of System Safety Precedence. If the current trend is maintained, with sigmoid functions, it can be estimated that mean annual accident rate will decrease by only 2.0% in the next two decades. To improve the current trend, the present study made conclusions as followings: (1) safety projects should be designed with careful consideration of accident traits including gas type, unsafe acts, and persons involved and (2) alternative strategies should include system considerations such as minimum hazard design and safety devices prior to mere education or training. To summarize briefly, the present state related with gas accidents highlights the necessity of a system-based multidisciplinary approach.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.394-401
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• 2023

Background: Pregnancy is associated with a number of physical, emotional, and biological changes that can exacerbate maternal psychological disturbances, such as body image concerns and depression. Sleep disturbances during pregnancy can also have adverse impacts. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, sleep disturbances, and body image concerns among pregnant women. The study also examined the relationship between these factors and pregnancy-related variables, such as bad obstetric history and whether the pregnancies were unplanned. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 146 pregnant patients was conducted at a tertiary care center over 15 months. The patients were administered the Beck Depression Inventory, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Body Image Concern Inventory questionnaires. Contingency tables, Fisher exact test, and Spearman correlation were used to identify underlying relationships. Results: The prevalence of depression was 22.6%. Although body image disturbance was noted in only 2.7% of patients, 46.6% had poor sleep quality. Poor sleep was associated with primigravida status. Bad obstetric history and unplanned pregnancy were associated with depression. Depression was found to be significantly correlated with body image disturbances and poor sleep quality. Conclusion: Psychiatric disorders were prevalent during pregnancy. This study highlights the importance of screening for depression in pregnant patients. Counselling and caregiver education can be useful for mitigating psychological disturbances. Management of pregnancies by multidisciplinary teams that include psychiatrists could be immensely useful in improving the pregnancy experiences of patients.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2023

Environmental crises caused by climate change and human-induced disturbances have become urgent challenges to the sustainability of human beings. These issues can be addressed based on a data-driven understanding and forecasting of ecosystem responses to environmental changes. In this study, we introduce a long-term ecological monitoring system in Korean Long-Term Ecological Research (KLTER), and a plan for the Korean Ecological Observatory Network (KEON). KLTER has been conducted since 2004 and has yielded valuable scientific results. However, the KLTER approach has limitations in data integration and coordinated observations. To overcome these limitations, we developed a KEON plan focused on multidisciplinary monitoring of the physiochemical, meteorological, and biological components of ecosystems to deepen process-based understanding of ecosystem functions and detect changes. KEON aims to answer nationwide and long-term ecological questions by using a standardized monitoring approach. We are preparing three types of observatories: two supersites depending on the climate-vegetation zones, three local sites depending on the ecosystem types, and two mobile deployment platforms to act on urgent ecological issues. The main observation topics were species diversity, population dynamics, biogeochemistry (carbon, methane, and water cycles), phenology, and remote sensing. We believe that KEON can address environmental challenges and play an important role in ecological observations through partnerships with international observatories.