• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.547-559
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• 2022

This study is a qualitative study to explore caring of a mentally disabled family using mental rehabilitation facilities. As a result of the analysis, the life of a mentally disabled family appeared in 6 topics and 12 sub-themes. Life before the outbreak was warm and comfortable like an electric stove, and a frustrating and difficult life like a parrot in a cage due to family conflicts. The feeling of looking at the child who is starting to develop symptoms is fear and hopelessness that is hard to see ahead, and a sense of guilt for a child trapped in a disease before blooming his life. Forced hospitalization, and my feelings were torn apart, and my thoughts were confused by opaque recovery and worries about future life. The experience I felt as the disease lasted for a long time and hospitalized and discharged repeatedly feared that the mental illness of the family would be known to the people around me, and found that they struggled to cope with repeated recurrence and worsening symptoms. While using mental rehabilitation facilities, the changed life was comforted in a comfortable shelter, and turned out that there was hope for the future and that there was room to smile. The life expected in the future and the theme of hope turned out to be grateful for small changes and determined to be a warm fence for recovery.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.216-225
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of spirituality on the quality of life in people living with HIV/AIDS. The survey was conducted with 260 people living with HIV/AIDS to analyze the effect of sociodemographic factors, spiritual experience in ordinary life, value and belief, forgiveness, personal religious life, religious/spiritual response skills and the spiritual factor of religious support. As a result of the OLS regression analysis, the income level, seriousness of illness, forgiveness and religious/spiritual response skill were found to have an effect on the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS. This study proved that spiritual factors as well as demographic factors strongly influence the quality of life in people with HIV/AIDS. In summary, the effect of spirituality on the quality of life was discussed and on the basis of the results, it is deemed necessary to emphasize spirituality factors to improve the mental health of people living with HIV/AIDS. The limitations of this study are discussed and future investigations envisaged.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2016

The government of South Korea and its medical personnel must make a way by which health professionals who have escaped from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) can play a positive and practical role in unification and south-north medical unification while south-north authority talks on DPRK public health and medicine manpower development are not going smoothly. Medical personnel escaped from the DPRK have to be recruited for the interviewer of the national examination, to improve the accuracy of national examination interviews. For those medical professionals who have escaped from the DPRK with 6 years' medical college education, but failed the interview on the national examination, we propose here a course of 3.6 months for them to have a right to apply the Korean Medical Licensing Examinations (KMLE). We also propose that medical professionals who have escaped from the DPRK who have graduated from a 6-year medical college in the DPRK and who are medical doctors over the fifth grade or with more than 6 years of experience can be qualified as unification medical doctors and be exempted from the KMLE, getting the right to go directly into an internship and residency. They should be permitted to work in manpower development projects for the health professions. They should also be given opportunities such as to become psychiatrists who treat the mental illness of persons escaped from the DPRK and people from North Korea after unification. Medical students in South Korea should earn college credits on the topic of medical unification and not only students, but all South Korean medical personnel, should prepare for north-south medical unification with an open mind. A way for each medical college to participate in DPRK manpower development for the health professions through a memorandum of understanding between the medical colleges of the south and north.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.579-582
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• 2013

Background: In this study our aim was to determine the rate of smoking in a sample of psychiatric in-patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression and to examine factors related to smoking status and the level of dependence in this population. Materials and Methods: A total of 160 people were included in this descriptive study. 80 were inpatients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression and 80 people without any psychiatric diagnoses were included as a control group. The participants were interviewed face-to face using a semi-structured questionnaire and Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence was used to define smoking habits. Results: The mean age of the participants was $37.24{\pm}12.19$ years ranging from 18 to 81 years, 54.4% of the participants were (n=87) female, and 45.6% cases (n=73) were male. 70% (n=56) of the patients and 55% of the control group were smoking and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Total score of Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence in the patient group was statistically significantly higher than in the control group (p<0.01). Conclusions: In our sample, the frequency of cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence among psychiatric inpatients was high, posing a high risk for smoking related diseases including cancers; therefore there should be counseling on tobacco control and smoking cessation programming targeting this population.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.709-729
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• 1996

This study was done to analyze the trends of research on coping in Korea, to suggest future direction, for research on coping, and ultimately to contribute to an increase in explanation of adaptation. This article reviewed 79 nursing research papers on coping done since 1978 by examining them according to the period of publication or presentation, research design, type of subjects, measurement instruments, research for a degree or not, range of reliability, and association of coping and related variables. The results are as follows : The number of studies on coping increased rapidly from the mid-1980's and decreased slowly from the mid-1990's. The maority of the studies were surveys, comparative studies, or correlational studies. The subects of the 46 studies were healthy people, while those in the remaining studies were patients with a variety of illnesses. Thirth-eight studies on coping were done for master's thesis, three for dissertion, and 38 were not degrees. The Bell and Jalowiec coping scales have not been used since the early 1990's. In contrast, Lazarus and Folkman's W.C.C.L. has been used increasingly since that time. The reliabilities of the coping scale were reported in 37 cases and the Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .71 to .86. All subjects reported using more problem-oriented coping than emotion-oriented coping in short-term or emotion-oriented coping and healthy groups did more long-term coping. It was difficult to describe consistently the relationship between stress and coping according to the type of coping scale or research subjects, but generally moderate relationships were found. This was due to instrumental problems and no consideration of situational context. The subject group who used more short-term coping and less long-term coping reported poorer mental status, and higher scores in burnout and state anxiey than others. That is, the relationship between stress and adaptation increased the power of explanation with intervening the mediating effect of coping. The association of locus of control, mastery, social support, and self-concept with coping showed positive relationships : those of uncertainty and severity in illness with coping showed negativerelationships ; those of state anxiety and depression with short-term coping were positive, and those of self-esteem with long-term coping or problem-oriented coping were negative. There were significant differences in the scores of types of coping according to religion, level of education, and socio-economic status. That is, Presbyterians and Catholics, those with higher education levels and higher socio-economic status used more long-term or problem-oriented coping. On the basis of the above findings the following recommendations are made : 1. There is a need to test the mediating effect of coping variable in order to clarify the concept. 2. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine the patterns of change in coping strategies when stressful events are encountered. 3. It's necessary to develop a reliable and variable measurement tool for coping. 4. There is a need to identify subscales of coping to increase explanation of variance 5. It's necessary to consider personal, situational, and antecedent variables : the characteristics of subject populations, the natures of illness and treatment situations. 6. The power of explanation of studies designed to identify the stress-adaptation process should be increased using the combination model of process-oriented coping and cognitive-structural model.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.143-153
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• 2004

Death of spouse is the most heartbreaking stressful and inevitable tragic life event. In middle aged men who belong to the social middle class and accomplished their occupational success, experiences of spousal bereavement are great shock. The aim of this study was to find out how they overcome their mental and physical pain and to obtain the basic materials to develop suitable nursing care programs for them. The methodological approach of this study is Giorgi's phenomenological analysis meaning unit. This method also makes theme focal meaning, situated structural description and create general structural description grasped by participator's experience through situated structure description. This study performed from November 2002 to May 2004, and participators were four men. Data collected through in-depth personal interviews. which had been tapped and analysed the Giorgi's method. Finally, the five focal meaning below have been abstracted. Theme 1. Physical symptom loss of appetite, fatigue, insomnia. outbreak of illness, weight loss. Theme 2. life of spiritless lack of desire, sense of emptiness, unstableness, prosaic life. wandering. indifference of appearances, avoidance of meeting people. Theme 3. life of retrospction reflection for his wife, yearning, grief, muttering to himself, never-to-be forgotten wife, leading a lonely life. Theme 4. negative emotion reproaching, feeling hurt, marriage of daughter, feeling heavy, getting angry, sexual desire, awareness of his sinfulness. loneliness Theme 5. social support and adjustment getting his wife off his mind, curring favor with children, support and consolation by his daughter-in-law, appreciation for hospice nurse, considering remarriage, taking care of himself, good relation with his children. The result of this study showed that middle aged men bereaved of their wife by cancer need other's concern. And we have to study further to understand their experience. Until now hospice nursing is concentrated on cancer patients But from now we have to provide their families suitable nursing care programs to adjust themselves to social life before and after death of patients.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.730-735
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• 2023

In the past decade, numerous studies have been carried out to quantify aging with the help of artificial intelligence. Using DNA methylation data, various models have been developed; these are commonly called epigenetic clocks. Epigenetic age acceleration is usually associated with disease conditions. Schizophrenia is a mental illness associated with severe mental and physical stress. This disease leads to high mortality and morbidity rates in young people compared with other psychological disorders. In the past, the research community considered this disease to be related to the accelerated aging hypothesis. In the current study, we wanted to investigate the epigenetic age acceleration changes in schizophrenia patients to obtain epigenetic insights into the disease. To measure the epigenetic age acceleration, we used two different DNA methylation clock models, namely, Horvath clock and Epi clock, as these are pan-tissue models. We utilized 450k array data compatible with both clocks. We found a slower epigenetic acceleration in the patients' samples when we used the Epi clock. We further analyzed the differentially methylated CpG sites between the control and cases and performed pathway enrichment analysis. We found that most of the CpGs are involved in neuronal processes.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.973-985
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• 2012

Objectives : The aim of this study is to investigate the possible impact factors on adults' self-reports of dry mouth and to develop strategies to improve oral health education policy. Methods : This study was conducted on a total of 622 self-administered questionnaires adult above 20 and under 65 years of age living in Seoul and Gyeonggi provinces. The final participants consisted of 443 adults without chronic illness, taking medications and wearing dentures. The Hierarchical Multiple Regression model with three stages was used to assess the association for exposure of interest, such as socio-demographics, health-related behavior, mental health and self-reported of dry mouth. Results : The participants reported mean score of dry mouth($6.32{\pm}4.47$), of which 191 were male($6.81{\pm}4.56$) and 252 were female($5.94{\pm}4.37$). Hierarchical Multiple Regression revealed that the score of dry mouth was shown to be significantly higher for the following people: Males, who were employed, unemployed, negative self-perceived general health, perceived stress, and participants who had no experience awareness of distress in two weeks. The explanatory power was 21.9%. The most powerful impact factor regarding to employment was shown to be negatively associated to dry mouth, and self-perceived general health, experiencing awareness of distressful in two weeks was also important factors. Conclusions : Based on these results in order to develop oral health education policy strategies for the prevention and management of dry mouth, there need to be considered for the employee.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.86-94
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• 2021

Objectives : The risk of weight gain is high when using antipsychotic drugs, and the prevalence of obesity in people with mental illness is high. Obesity management in psychiatric patients is important because obesity causes various complications and lowers treatment adherence and quality of life. Methods : In this review, we summarized the management strategies for obesity that can occur when using antipsychotic drugs through a web search. Results : Evaluate obesity-related risk factors and related indicators from the beginning of treatment, and conduct regular monitoring. If an antipsychotic drug is used and obesity is induced, a change to a drug with a low metabolic risk may be attempted. Sufficient interventions are also needed on the need to manage obesity, a healthy diet, and exercises in patients and their families. If weight loss is not achieved and obesity-related complications are associated, the use of anti-obesity drugs may be considered. Pharmacological treatment approaches should be carefully considered. Conclusions : Non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapies can be applied to manage weight gain and obesity caused by the use of antipsychotic drugs. When using anti-obesity drugs, the characteristics of mental disorders, drug safety, and drug interactions should be considered.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.354-361
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate validation of the Recovery Assessment Scale(RAS) for Korean Version using Rasch analysis. This study included 60 patients who had chronic schizophrenia and were aged 18 or older. The data were analysed using a Rasch analysis to investigate whether the persons and items fit, the distribution of item difficulty and the appropriateness of the rating scale. 1 out of 60 subjects were found to not fit. 3 out of 24 items were also found to be misfit. The misfitted items was 'I believe that I can meet my current personal goals','Even when I don't care about myself, other people do. ','Coping with my mental illness is no longer the main focus of my life.'. Of the appropriate items, the most difficult was 'I can handle what happens in my life' and the easiest was 'Something good will eventually happen'. The RAS rating scale was shown to be appropriate for patients who had chronic schizophrenia. The item separation reliability was .70, and the person separation reliability was .94. Further studies are needed to investigate validity and criterion cut-off score for many patients with chronic mental illess.