• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2241-2247
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• 2012

Objective: This qualitative study retrospectively examined the experience and psychological impact of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) among Southern Chinese females with unilateral breast cancer history who underwent BRCA1/2 genetic testing. Limited knowledge is available on this topic especially among Asians; therefore, the aim of this study was to acquire insight from Chinese females' subjective perspectives. Methods: A total of 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews, with 11 female BRCA1/BRCA 2 mutated gene carriers and 1 non-carrier with a history of one-sided breast cancer and genetic testing performed by the Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry, who subsequently underwent CPM, were assessed using thematic analysis and a Stage Conceptual Model. Breast cancer history, procedures conducted, cosmetic satisfaction, pain, body image and sexuality issues, and cancer risk perception were discussed. Retrieval of medical records using a prospective database was also performed. Results: All participants opted for prophylaxis due to their reservations concerning the efficacy of surveillance and worries of recurrent breast cancer risk. Most participants were satisfied with the overall results and their decision. One-fourth expressed different extents of regrets. Psychological relief and decreased breast cancer risk were stated as major benefits. Spouses' reactions and support were crucial for post-surgery sexual satisfaction and long-term adjustment. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that thorough education on cancer risk and realistic expectations of surgery outcomes are crucial for positive adjustment after CPM. Appropriate genetic counseling and pre-and post-surgery psychological counseling were necessary. This study adds valuable contextual insights into the experiences of living with breast cancer fear and the importance of involving spouses when counseling these patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3301-3307
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• 2016

Background: Cancer is a leading cause of death in Korea. To prevent cancer, it is essential to facilitate and promote appropriate cancer screening behavior in the adult population. The aim of this study was to examine health beliefs related to cancer screening intentions using the Health Belief Model (HBM). Materials and Methods: The research participants comprised 275 male health and safety managers at commercial companies in Korea. The self-administered survey explored demographic characteristics, cancer-related factors, beliefs about cancer/cancer screening (BCCS) (vulnerability to cancer, severity of cancer, benefits of screening, and barriers to screening), and cancer screening intention. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with an intention to be screened for cancer. Results: Perceived health status and need for cancer prevention education were major factors associated with BCCS. Poorer health status was associated with greater perceived vulnerability, a perception of fewer benefits, and more barriers (p<0.05). A perceived greater need for cancer prevention education was associated with a higher perceived severity of cancer and more perceived barriers to screening (p<0.05). Marital status, cancer screening experience, and perceived vulnerability to cancer were significant influences on the cancer screening intention (p<0.05). Participants who had undergone cancer screening in the past 2 years were more likely to intend to be screened for cancer than were those who had not been screened; this was true across all degrees of intention and all types of cancer (p<0.01). Hesitant people considered themselves less vulnerable to gastric, lung, and liver cancer than did the poeple who intended to undergo cancer screening (p<0.05). Conclusions: Based on our findings, we recommend that workplace cancer prevention programs attempt to increase awareness about vulnerability to cancer among workers who hesitate to undergo cancer screening.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10841-10846
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• 2015

Background: Smoking is a primary risk factor for cancer development. While most research has focused on smoking cigarettes, the increasing popularity of shisha or water pipe smoking has received less attention. This study measured the prevalence and risk factors for shisha and cigarette smoking and related knowledge. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Participants aged ${\geq}18years$ were selected from restaurants. Data regarding demographic variables, smoking patterns, and knowledge about shisha smoking were collected in local languages. Logistic regression was performed to assess risk factors. Results: Of 239 participants, 61.9 % were male and 99.2% revealed their smoking status. Some 57.4% were smokers: 50.7% only cigarettes, 5.9% only shisha and 42% both. Mean age of starting cigarette smoking was $17.5{\pm}2.4years$ and for shisha smoking $18.7{\pm}2.0years$. In a univariate model, male gender, age 33-52 years and monthly income > MYR 4,000 increased the risk and unemployment and being a student decreased the risk. In a multivariate model, male gender increased the risk of smoking, while being a student decreased the risk, adjusting for age and income. The perception of shisha being less harmful than cigarettes was present in 14.6% and 7.5% had the opinion that shisha is not harmful at all, while 21.7% said that it is less addictive than cigarettes, 39.7% said that shisha did not contain tar and nicotine, 34.3% said that it did not contain carbon monoxide and 24.3% thought that shisha did not cause health problems. Conclusions: Prevalence of shisha and cigarette smoking is high in the general population in Malaysia and knowledge about shisha smoking is relatively low. The findings of our study might have implications for understanding similarities and differences in incidence of shisha and cigarette smoking in other cultural/geographic regions.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.337-346
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• 2015

This study has been conducted for the purpose of elucidating the factors that are affecting the job performances and how this factors have affected the satisfactory of medical record technicians working at general hospitals in south Korea. This study had 428 participants from 60 general hospitals, located in Seoul and 4 different metropolitan cities such as Incheon, Daegu, Gwangju and Daejeon. This study was performed through using the standardized self-administered questionnaires As a result, the job satisfaction had a significant relationship with the participants monthly income, age, position of the job, BMI, satisfactory in performances, consideration of changing the career, having a breakfast regular exercises, and having a perception on socioeconomic status of oneself. Particularly, the hierarchical multiple regression analysis had shown that possessing the appropriate characteristics that are required in that field of career had a high correlation with the job satisfactory. In the future, this study suggests that need of appropriate interventions of work-related characteristics are required in order to improve the job satisfaction of medical record technicians.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.188-194
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• 2017

Objectives: Environmental pollution is a significant global issue. Both objective (scientifically measured) environmental pollution and perceived levels of pollution are important predictors of self-reported health. The purpose of this study was to compare the associations between perceived environmental pollution and health in China, Japan, and South Korea. Methods: Data were obtained from the East Asian Social Survey and the Cross-National Survey Data Sets: Health and Society in East Asia, 2010 (n=7938; China, n=3866; Japan, n=2496; South Korea, n=1576). Results: South Koreans perceived environmental pollution to be the most severe, while Japanese participants perceived environmental pollution to be the least severe. Although the Japanese did not perceive environmental pollution to be very severe, their self-rated physical health was significantly related to perceived environmental pollution, while the analogous relationships were not significant for the Chinese or Korean participants. Better mental health was related to lower levels of perceived air pollution in China, as well as lower levels of perceived all types of pollution in Japan and lower levels of perceived noise pollution in South Korea. Conclusions: Physical and mental health and individual socio-demographic characteristics were associated with levels of perceived environmental pollution, but with different patterns among these three countries.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.117-147
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• 2014

Mentoring programs have proven highly successful in many industries, and therefore there is an increasing demand for such programs in other fields. Therefore, this study proposed to design and operate an LIS student-librarian mentoring program. To accomplish this, mentees were selected from the LIS students at K University, and mentors were selected by mentees from a pool of LIS workers. The mentoring program was then operated for three months, and all participants were surveyed before and after the program. As a result, first, it was revealed that the librarian mentoring program allowed mentees to enhance their understanding of the practical field, and help them to set career paths and goals. Second, participants insisted that six months is a more appropriate mentoring period, 2-3 hours per meeting is proper as a mentoring time, and considered that the information for mentors and mentees must be provided to each other before mentoring. Third, the intention to rejoin a mentoring program in the future was very high in both groups, but they insisted that the financial support, locational support, and providing sufficient information about mentoring program must be considered.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.734-744
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• 2016

Purpose: This study investigated the preference and awareness of consumers residing in the capital area with respect to South and North Korean regional cuisine to provide baseline data for developing effective commercialization strategies. Methods: This survey was conducted among adults over the age of 19 years who were residing in Seoul and Gyeonggi province area, and data analysis was performed using SPSS WIN 18.0. Results: Analysis of the survey participants' preference for South and North Korean regional cuisine showed that Hwanghae province had the highest preference by $4.35{\pm}1.72$ points, whereas Gangwon province had the lowest preference by $3.75{\pm}0.66$ points. Factorial analysis on general characteristics of Korean regional cuisine resulted in 2 factors - 'locality' and 'health'. Cluster analysis showed that participants could be sorted into two clusters by their awareness of Korean regional cuisine - 'the lower cognitive group' and 'the higher cognitive group'. Cluster analysis on the tourism commercialization strategy for Korean regional cuisines showed that 'the higher cognitive group' had significantly higher awareness regarding the following 3 items: 'merchandising strategy', 'popularization strategy' and 'marketing strategy' (p<0.001). Cluster analysis of the world commercialization strategy showed that 'the higher cognitive group' had significantly higher awareness regarding all items of the 'R&D support strategy' and 'Food culture promotion strategy' categories than the 'the lower cognitive group' (p<0.01). Conclusion: Popularization strategies such as value perception based on the well-being concept, and standardization of recipes; merchandising strategies based on storytelling; and food and culture promotional strategies such as Korean cooking classes and food tasting events, were rated as effective commercialization strategies to increase the popularity of Korean regional cuisine.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.209-236
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• 2020

This study describes a set of user experience indicators developed for the evaluation of knowledge and information resource systems. The user experience perspectives had emerged as a new analysis standard in the field of information media and information service research. The study included a survey conducted to verify the derived experience factors and developed them as indicators. The survey data was gathered from 158 participants in the preliminary and 480 participants in the main study. The applied analysis techniques were descriptive statistics, the exploratory factor analysis, the confirmatory factor analysis, the correlation analysis, and the path analysis. The results introduced seven user experience factors, 37 detailed user experience factors, and 105 system perception factors as the final user experience indicators. The developed and verified indicators should measure the degree of user experience perceived by users of the knowledge and information resource system and conduct effective evaluations that reflect correlation rather than a simple comparison of each experience factor.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.63-72
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• 2013

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate difference of the effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation(TENS) with different frequencies in participants having delayed onset muscle soreness(DOMS). Methods : We recruited 36 healthy participants, but 3 of them were dropped out. They were randomly divided into 3groups : 3 Hz TENS(n=11), 100 Hz TENS(n=11) and sham TENS(n=11). DOMS of the both triceps surae muscle induced by repetitive concentric, ecentric exercise. The result measurements were pain perception(visual analogue scale, VAS), mechanical pain threshold(MPT) by pressure algometer, electrical contraction and fatigue by surface electromyography. The measurements were on first visit, before and after treatment except first. This study was prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blinded trial. Results : In 100 Hz TENS group, VAS was significantly decreased during whole session compared with 3 Hz and control group, and after each treatment, too. In 3 Hz TENS group, VAS was significantly decreased during whole session compared with control group, and after 2nd, 3rd treatment, too. In 100 Hz TENS group, MPT increased the most among 3 groups during whole session and after 1st treatment, but there were no statistical significances. Conclusions : Both 3 Hz and 100 Hz TENS improved delayed onset muscle soreness, but 100 Hz TENS group is more effective than 3 Hz TENS group.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2011

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to describe the relationship of mothers' parenting attitude as perceived by the child to self-esteem, and school adjustment of school age children with Tetrology of Fallot (TOF). Methods: In this study a self-administered questionnaire survey was used to collect the data. The participants included 38 children who were registered in a pediatric cardiology clinic in one tertiary medical center. Their ages were between 11 and 15 years. They were diagnosed with TOF, and had no other congenital problems. Data were collected from November 1 to November 30, 2009. After obtaining telephone consent from the mothers and children, questionnaires were mailed to 64 participants and 38 questionnaires were returned. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) WIN 15.0 version. Results: There was a significant correlation between perceived parenting attitude, self-esteem, and school adjustment of children with TOF. Conclusion: Children who perceive their mothers' parenting attitude to be more positive also report higher self-esteem and better school adjustment. These findings are similar to other studies done with healthy school age children. However, parents of children with TOF may require different parenting approaches to foster positive self-esteem and school adjustment.