• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2771-2776
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• 2013

Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) issues are of importance in relatives of women with breast cancer (BC)as caregivers in neglecting their own needs due to care of a patient and also as women regarding the potential risk of themselves developing BC. The objectives in the present study were to compare the QoL of female relatives of women in treatment for breast cancer. To date, no study had examined multi-dimensional QoL in accompanying people as compared them into two groups of female relatives whose first degree and second degree. Methods: QoL of female relatives was assessed using the Quality of Life-Family Version (QOL-FV) scale. Relationships between socio-demographic characteristics and QoL scores were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and Crosstabs tests. Results: The mean age of the female relatives was 37.6 years, and nearly 48% had a university education. It was found that first degree relatives had worse QoL in all domains except physical wellbeing than second degree relatives. Conclusion: This study showed that being female relatives of BC, especially first-degree, affect QoL negatively. Health care providers are of an important role in the stage of information related to genetic influence of BC.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2003

In this study, we employed an arithmetic process (AP) approach to resolve gearbox maintenance problems. The approach is realistic and direct in modelling the characteristics of a deteriorating system such as a gearbox since a decreasing AP can model a gearbox's successive operating times and an increasing AP can model the corresponding consecutive repair times. First of all, two test statistics were used to check whether the process is arithmetic or not. Next, model parameters of the AP were estimated using the simple linear regression method. Finally, the optimal replacement policy based on minimising the long-run average cost per day was determined for each type of gearbox.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.218-219
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• 2021

The identification of human remains can be performed visually through families and next-of-kin, but it is not advisable to rely only on visual recognition; instead, it is preferable to conduct a forensic comparison of antemortem and postmortem data for primary identifiers (fingerprints, DNA, and dental data). A dental autopsy is particularly valuable in the identification process of skeletonized, carbonized, saponified, and fragmented human remains. The principal challenge in the identification process is the search and collection of antemortem data. To this end, all dental information held on a missing person can represent a precious source of individualizing information that families should share with the police or investigating agencies after reporting a disappearance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.2 s.53
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• pp.227-238
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• 1996

This study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the official death registry in rural area. The base data used for the study was 379 deaths registered during the period of 1993 and 1994 in 4 rural townships of Chonnam province. The interview survey for cause-of-death was performed on the next of kin and/or neighbor. Additional medical informations were collected from hospitals and medical insurance associations for the purpose of verification. The underlying cause-of-death of 278 cases presumed by the survey was compared to the cause on official death registry. There was a prominent disagreement of cause-of-death between the survey data and the registry data(agreement rate: $38.9\sim44.6%$, according to disease classification method). These results may be caused by extremely low rates of physicians' certification, which were mostly confined to the poisoning and injury. Symptoms, signs, and ill defined conditions on death registry could be classified into circulatory disease(32.3%), neoplasm(21.2%), digestive disease(7.1%), injury and poisoning(7.1%) and so on. These results suggest that careful attention and verification be required on utilization of death registry data in rural area.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1069-1072
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• 2015

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in many communities worldwide. This population based study was conducted to assess determinants of colorectal mortality in Iranian patients. Materials and Methods: A cohort of 1,127 cases of confirmed colorectal cancer registered in a population based registry covering 10 referral hospital in Tehran, Iran, were followed for five years. Information about tumor characteristics, smoking status and family history were collected at base line and survival status were followed every six months by contacting patient or next of kin (if patients died during the follow-up). The cause of death for each case was validated by verbal autopsy and referring to patient medical records at the time of death. The data were analyzed by Stata software using univariate and multivariate analysis (Cox regression). In building the model a p value of less than 5% was considered as significant. Results: The age at diagnosis was $53.5{\pm}14$ years. Sixty one percent were male. Colorectal mortality among the patients was 96.9 person-years among men and 83 person-years among women. Seventy five percent of patients lived for 2.72 years, 50% for 5.83, and 25% for 13 years after the diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The age at diagnosis was significantly different between men and women (p<0.03). Higher tumor grade predicted higher death rate; the adjusted hazard ratios were 1.79 (95%CI, 0.88-3.61), 2.16 (95%CI, 1.07-4.37), and 3.1 (95%CI, 1.51-6.34) for grades II, III, and IV respectively when they were compared with grade I as reference. Ethnicity, marital status, family history of cancer, and smoking were related to survival with different degrees of magnitude. Conclusions: Among many factors related to survival among the colorectal patients, tumor grade and smoking showed the highest magnitudes of association.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.473-481
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• 2021

Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the significant reasons for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Ginsenosides, natural molecules extracted from Panax ginseng, have been demonstrated to exert essential neuroprotective functions, which can ascribe to its anti-oxidative effect, enhancing central metabolism and improving mitochondrial function. However, a comprehensive analysis of cellular mitochondrial bioenergetics after ginsenoside treatment under Aβ-oxidative stress is missing. Methods: The antioxidant activities of ginsenoside Rb₁, Rd, Re, Rg₁ were compared by measuring the cell survival and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. Next, the protective effects of ginsenosides of mitochondrial bioenergetics were examined by measuring oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in PC12 cells under Aβ-oxidative stress with an extracellular flux analyzer. Meanwhile, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and mitochondrial dynamics were evaluated by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Results: Ginsenoside Rg₁ possessed the strongest anti-oxidative property, and which therefore provided the best protective function to PC12 cells under the Aβ oxidative stress by increasing ATP production to 3 folds, spare capacity to 2 folds, maximal respiration to 2 folds and non-mitochondrial respiration to 1.5 folds, as compared to Aβ cell model. Furthermore, ginsenoside Rg1 enhanced MMP and mitochondrial interconnectivity, and simultaneously reduced mitochondrial circularity. Conclusion: In the present study, these results demonstrated that ginsenoside Rg₁ could be the best natural compound, as compared with other ginsenosides, by modulating the OCR of cultured PC12 cells during oxidative phosphorylation, in regulating MMP and in improving mitochondria dynamics under Aβ-induced oxidative stress.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2020

Objectives: Dehospitalization of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia can be difficult because of complex factors such as chronic symptoms and low family and social support. The aim of this study was to identify factors related to dehospitalization and readmission of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia. Methods: This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of patients discharged from a psychiatric hospital in Yongin, South Korea, from February 1, 2016, to July 31, 2017. Patients who were hospitalized for over 3 months were divided into two groups: readmission (n=47) and dehospitalization (n=55). Differences in sociodemographic and clinical factors were analyzed between the two groups. Results: Regarding sociodemographic characteristics, female sex, familylessness, discharge to nursing homes, and discharge after symptom improvement were more prevalent in the dehospitalization group, whereas male sex, having a sibling as next of kin, and discharge because of other problems were more prevalent in the readmission group. Among clinical characteristics, hospital stay was longer in the readmission group. Conclusion: In this study, patients without a family showed a tendency to not be readmitted when they were discharged to nursing homes after symptom improvement. Expansion of social welfare support may encourage dehospitalization of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.43-53
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• 2020

A service involves a human interaction between a consumer (customer) and a provider (service worker). In particular, services in today's intangible economy are understood as creative activities that exercise human capital as related goods. Since most service activities are human activities, not objects, they depend on direct interaction between users and service workers, and funeral services are understood as human activities provided by service providers to service targets (deceased, families, condolences). In other words, the funeral service is a service for the deceased, survivors, and condolences in a special situation of death, and can be viewed as a human activity that is exerted by the integration of the interactions between service workers, survivors, and condolences. Functions of funeral services expand for convenience of consumers through the smooth provision of funeral supplies and a variety of complex interpersonal services so that the deceased can perform solemn funeral ceremonies. In this study, the concept and role of funeral services were studied in order to find the direction of funeral services centering for next of kin(families) and condolences, who are the subjects of services from a service-oriented logic perspective. In order to derive meaningful results of people-centered funeral services, funeral services and funeral supplies are classified from the perspective of dynamic resources, guarantees consumers a wide range of funeral choice, and customer dissatisfaction and improvement requests are handled transparently. It suggested a possible plan. Now, in order to improve the quality of life, it is necessary to make efforts to improve the quality of funeral services that improve the quality of death.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2002

Objectives : To evaluate the accuracy of the registered cause of death in a county and its related factors. Methods : The data used in this study was based on 504 cases, in a county of Chonnam province, registered between January and December 1998. Study subjects consisted of 388 of the 504 cases, and their causes of death were established by an interview survey of the next of kin or neighbor and medical record surveys. We compared the registered cause of death with the confirmed cause of death, determined by surveys and medical records, and evaluated the factors associated with the accuracy of the registered cause of death. Results : 62.6% of the deaths were concordant with 19 Chapters classification of cause of death. external causes of mortality, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory system showed the good agreement between the registered cause of death and the confirmed cause of death. The factors relating to the accuracy of the registered cause of death were the doctors' diagnosis for the cause of death (adjusted Odds Ratio: 2.67, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.21-5.89) and the grade of the public officials in charge of the death registry (adjusted Odds Ratio: 0.30, 95% CI=0.12-0.78). Conclusions : The accuracy of the registered cause of death was not high. It could be improved by using the doctors' diagnosis for death and improving the job specification for public officials who deal with death registration.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.147-196
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• 2023

Advances in brain science have made it possible to stimulate the brain to treat brain disorder or to connect directly between the neuron activity and an external devices. Non-invasive neurotechnologies already exist, but invasive neurotechnologies can provide more precise stimulation or measure brainwaves more precisely. Nowadays deep brain stimulation (DBS) is recognized as an accepted treatment for Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. In addition DBS has shown a certain positive effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease and depression. Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are in the clinical stage but help patients in vegetative state can communicate or support rehabilitation for nerve-damaged people. The issue is that the people who need these invasive neurotechnologies are those whose capacity to consent is impaired or who are unable to communicate due to disease or nerve damage, while DBS and BCI operations are highly invasive and require informed consent of patients. Especially in areas where neurotechnology is still in clinical trials, the risks are greater and the benefits are uncertain, so more explanation should be provided to let patients make an informed decision. If the patient is under guardianship, the guardian is able to substitute for the patient's consent, if necessary with the authorization of court. If the patient is not under guardianship and the patient's capacity to consent is impaired or he is unable to express the consent, korean healthcare institution tend to rely on the patient's near relative guardian(de facto guardian) to give consent. But the concept of a de facto guardian is not provided by our civil law system. In the long run, it would be more appropriate to provide that a patient's spouse or next of kin may be authorized to give consent for the patient, if he or she is neither under guardianship nor appointed enduring power of attorney. If the patient was not properly informed of the risks involved in the neurosurgery, he or she may be entitled to compensation of intangible damages. If there is a causal relation between the malpractice and the side effects, the patient may also be able to recover damages for those side effects. In addition, both BCI and DBS involve the implantation of electrodes or microchips in the brain, which are controlled by an external devices. Since implantable medical devices are subject to product liability laws, the patient may be able to sue the manufacturer for damages if the defect caused the adverse effects. Recently, Korea's medical device regulation mandated liability insurance system for implantable medical devices to strengthen consumer protection.