• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8607-8612
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer patients experience a variety of altered appearance - such as loss or disfigurement of breasts, discolored skin, and hair loss - which result in psychological distress that affect their quality of life. This study aims to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic status on the altered appearance distress, body image, and quality of life among Korean breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at advocacy events held at 16 different hospitals in Korea. Subjects were eligible to participate if they were 18 years of age or older, had a histologically confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer, had no evidence of recurrence or metastasis, and had no psychological problems at the time of the survey. Employment status, marital status, education, and income were assessed for patient socioeconomic status. Altered appearance distress was measured using the NCI's cancer treatment side effects scale; body image and quality of life were measured by the EORTC QLC-C30 and BR23. Means and standard deviations of each outcome were compared by socioeconomic status and multivariate linear regression models for evaluating the association between socioeconomic status and altered appearance distress, body image, and quality of life. Results: A total of 126 breast cancer patients participated in the study; the mean age of participants was 47.7 (SD=8.4). Of the total, 83.2% were married, 85.6% received more than high school education, 35.2% were employed, and 41% had more than $3000 in monthly household income. About 46% had mastectomy, and over 30% were receiving either chemotherapy or radiation therapy at the time of the survey. With fully adjusted models, the employed patients had significantly higher altered appearance distress (1.80 vs 1.48; p<0.05) and poorer body image (36.63 vs 51.69; p<0.05) compared to the patients who were unemployed. Higher education (10.58, standard error (SE)=7.63) and family income (12.88, SE=5.08) was positively associated with better body image after adjusting for age, disease stage at diagnosis, current treatment status, and breast surgery type. Similarly, patients who were married and who had higher education had better quality of life were statistically significant in the multivariate models. Conclusions: Socioeconomic status is significantly associated with altered appearance distress, body image, and quality of life in Korean women with breast cancer. Patients who suffer from altered appearance distress or lower body image are much more likely to experience psychosocial, physical, and functional problems than women who do not, therefore health care providers should be aware of the changes and distresses that these breast cancer patients go through and provide specific information and psychosocial support to socioeconomically more vulnerable patients.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.909-936
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• 2013

This study investigated definition of care farming in which advanced countries in agricultural industry such as Netherlands and Belgium increase their interest and investment, and established a strategy for settlement and development of care farming industry in Korea. For achieving purpose of the study, literature review was implemented to analyze policy, system, related law, workforce of advanced countries in care farming, and experts' conference which consists of 9 representatives such as professors, researchers in areas of agriculture, health, education, horticulture, animal-assisted therapy was implemented. Also survey was conducted targeting 165 people of practitioners in care farming industry. For the result, the concept of care farming in Korea was defined as 'Industry and activity which promotes psychological social physical cognitive health of every Korean people by utilizing agricultural resources(plants, livestock, rural environment, rural culture) or related activity and output', and the purpose, resources, targets of care farming was determined by the definition.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-help program on patients with chronic arthritis. This study was performed from 13th of August to 29th of October 2002. 30 arthritis patients with an average age of 56 years were participated in the self-help program. At the completion of 6 weeks, 23 patients completed both pretest and posttest, overall dropout rate was 23%. Outcome measures were status of daily living, self-care activities, flexibility, grip strength and depression. Data were analysed by percentage, paired t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient. There were statistically significant in self-care activities, flexibility, grip strength after the self-help program. However no significant differences were found in daily living and depression. There were significant relationships between daily living and depression. There were significant relationships between right flexibility & left flexibility and right and left grip strength. In conclusion self-help program was proved to be an effective nursing intervention to increase the self-care activities, flexibility and grip strength. These results of this study suggested that the follow-up program after the self-help program should be run to help the physical psychological wellbeing of arthritis patients.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2020

Purpose: High-quality nursing care must be provided for women with infertility, and their nursing needs must be identified. Although scales have been developed to assess infertility-related stress, quality of life, and psychosocial status, there is a lack of scales that assess the nursing needs of women with infertility. The purpose of this study was to develop a needs assessment scale for nursing care in women with infertility and to verify its reliability and validity. Methods: The 250 subjects in this study were women with infertility recruited from four hospitals. The scale was developed following the framework of DeVellis, through a literature review, in-depth interviews, development of preliminary items, verification of content validity, development of secondary items, verification of construct validity, and extraction of the final items. Date were analyzed using item analysis, factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Cronbach's alpha. Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha, and validity was evaluated using item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and criterion validity. Results: The final version of the nursing needs assessment scale for woman with infertility consisted of 18 items. Four factors (physical and psychological nursing needs, needs for information regarding treatment, needs for infertility-related understanding and concern, and supportive needs) explained 66.0% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha was .92 for the overall instrument and ranged from .88 to .91 for the subscales. Conclusion: These results suggest that this needs assessment scale for nursing care in women with infertility demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability and contained items suitable for assessing the level of nursing care needed by women with infertility.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.439-452
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• 2000

This study sought to figure out women's needs during early postpartum for developing adequate nursing intervention toward postpartal women's healthy adaptation. A convenience sample of 89 women who are in the early postpartal period and admitted in a university hospital located in Seoul, Korea was studied from July 1, 1999 to August 13. 1999. 1. The age group of 26-30 years was 52.8% and the level of education above high school 91%. 67.6% of women had no job, 62.9% had experienced one time of delivery, and 52.8% had no experience of abortion. 2. 31.5% of women received prenatal education, 44.9% only postpartal education. 77.5% of women planned breast-feeding, and 53.9% of women had an experience of breast-feeding during hospital stay. For the feeling of confidence related to the self-care, 27% only expressed 'yes. I have' and 59.5% 'just a little bit'. For the feeling of confidence related to the baby rearing, 29.2% only expressed 'yes. I have' and 60.7% 'just a little bit'. 3. The rate of postpartal women's mother as a preferred non-professional care giver was the highest, 75.3%. The rate of the style of Sanhujori highly preferred and planned at this time was at postpartal women's maiden home or her home with mother, 58.4%, 47.7% respectively. It shows that women still wish to have traditional Sanhuiori at home. 4. The mean of nursing need of postpartal women was 4.25% and it means that universally the degree of nursing need during postpartum is still high. General nursing need (4.29) was higher than that of traditional Sanhujori (4.09), however, the need of Sanhujori is still high. 5. Specifically, the degree of nursing need according to the category of needs was 'educational need for baby rearing,' 4.43; 'emotional-psychological care', 4.41; 'environmental care,' 4.31; 'self-care,' 4.14; and 'physical care,' 3.85 in rank. The educational need core of the specific method about Sanhuiori (4.35) was second to the highest among 15 items of self-care. 6. The related factors to the degree of nursing need were age to physical care; educational level, plan of breast feeding and experience of breast feeding during hospital stay to emotional-psychological care; and the feeling of confidence in baby rearing to environmental care. 7. There was highly positive correlation between the degree of traditional Sanhujori need and general care need(r=.77). This result strongly reflects that there is a necessity of professional care givers' capability to consider the integrative care reflecting the socio-cultural need for women's healthy adaptation during postpartum. It provides a challenge to the professional care givers to research further on the effects of Sanhuiori on the health status, health recovery after abortion or delivery from the various aspects through the cross-sectional and longitudinal research for the refinement of the reality of Sanhuiori not only as cultural phenomenon but as an inseparable factor influencing on women's postpartal healthy adaptation and for the appropriateness of intervention and quality of care for desirable health outcome.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.111-119
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• 2018

This study was conducted to evaluate the converge effects of the Be Happy and Strong (BeHaS) exercise program on female elders living alone, using a nonequivalent control-group pretest-posttest design. The BeHaS exercise program was conducted twice each week for 4 weeks (total 8 sessions). The outcome measures included pain, shoulder flexibility, grip strength, depression, and suicidal ideation. Independent t-test, Chi-squre test, paired t-tests and ANCOVA were used for the statistical data analysis. A statistically significant improvement emerged in pain (t=4.044, p=.000) and right and left shoulder flexibility (t=2.192, p=.038 and t=2.568, p=.016) 4 weeks later. In a group comparison, a statistically significant difference arose in changed scores of suicidal ideation (F=7.32, p=.010) between groups. The BeHaS exercise program may effectively improve the physical and psychological health of female elders living alone.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.249-271
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• 2012

This research examines the degree and the patterns of living arrangement transitions and analyzes the factors affecting transitions in living arrangement among elders in Korea. Data came from four-wave panel study of Hallym Aging Research Institute. The first wave was conducted in 2003, and each successive wave occurred exactly 2 years after. Respondents who were aged 60 and over, and had at least one living child were selected for this research. The baseline consisted of 1,907 respondents(2003), then became 985 for the fourth transition interval (2009). A total of 825 who participated both in 2003 and 2009 were used. Binomial logit regression analyses were used to analyze the effects of demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, physical health, cognitive function, psychological well-being, and cultural attitudes toward elder care on transitions in living arrangements. Results show that 29.82% of the elders made transitions in living arrangements from 2003 to 2009, indicating remarkably unstable living situation over this time period. The ratio of living alone is increased from 17.6% to 19.6%, in contrast with decreased ratio of living with married children from 30.5% to 25.2%, and that of living with unmarried children from 19.9% to 13.7%. Factors affecting transitions in living arrangement were different according to types of living arrangement. Elders living with married children were more likely to be older, widowed and to have higher level of psychological well-being and more traditional attitude toward elder care. Elders living alone were more likely to be women, widowed, and to have more chronic diseases and lower level of psychological well-being.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.411-422
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• 2015

Objectives: This study investigated the socioeconomic factors that affect quality of life (QL) in healthy adults and to study the relationship between QL and health-related habits and food intake. Methods: Subjects consisted of 1,154 healthy adults without any known disease, aged 19 to 65 years from the 2013 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. We used SPSS statistical program version 20.0 for data analysis. Results: The average age and QL score of the study population were 36.7 years and 0.99 points, respectively. Males had a significantly higher QL score than the females (p < 0.001), and employed subjects and those employed in permanent positions had significantly higher scores as compared respectively with unemployed subjects and those employed in temporary positions (p < 0.001, p < 0.05). The group that responded "almost every day" to the "frequency of binge drinking" and "frequency of disruption of daily life due to drinking" had significantly lower QL scores as compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Further, the scores were significantly higher for individuals who practiced "intense physical activities" and "walking" (p < 0.001). The groups that responded that they were "very stressed" showed significantly lower QL scores in comparison to the other groups (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in QL scores according to anthropometric or biochemical indices. When subjects were divided into two groups based on average QL scores, the frequency of intake of "barbecued beef" was significantly higher while the frequency of intake of "fried eggs or rolled omelet," and "soy milk" was significantly lower in the high QL group. Conclusions: Based on these findings, it is evident that in healthy adults without any known underlying illnesses, psychological factors such as economic activity, occupational environment, and stress are considered to have a greater impact on their QL than are nutrient intake, blood biochemical indices, and anthropometric status.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.331-338
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• 2020

This study examined factors affecting the stages of exercise behavior among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The analysis was based on data collected from 238 patients who enrolled at the medical center of D university. The participants showed 5 stages of exercise behavior: pre-contemplation 23.9%, contemplation 23.0%, preparation 33.2%, action 5.0%, and maintenance 29.0%. There were statistically significant differences in perceived barriers of exercise, exercise self-efficacy, and perceived health status according to the stage of exercise behavior of the subjects. It was found that among the barriers to exercise, physical and cognitive psychological factors significantly influenced the stages of exercise behavior. Also, exercise self-efficacy significantly affected the stages of exercise behavior. Thus, for rheumatoid arthritis patients to practice and maintain proper exercise behavior, the nursing staff should continue to assess and reduce the barriers to exercise. Exercise programs should enhance self-efficacy to achieve long-term exercise behavior.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.359-371
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• 1997

Stress is recognized as a major predisposing and/ or precipitating factor in long-lastig intractable chronic pain, such as temporomandibular disorders, headache, and other psychophysiological disorders. So it is necessary to detect physical and psychological changes induced by stress as soon as possible for positive treatment outcome. This study was performed to investigate the occurrence rate of stress symptoms according to anatomic region, type of symptom, and other personal and social factors. 859 subjects from general population answered the stress symptom questionnaire devised by the author and composed of 50 items. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed statistically with SPSS program and the results obtained were as follows : 1. Oral symptom which showed the highest frequency rate of 38.8% was vesicular lesion of the lip and cheek. The other symptoms with more 20% occurrence rate were ulcerative leion of lip and cheek, toothache, paresthesia of teeth, eruption of tongue, tongue coating and taste change in descending order. 2. In extraoral symptoms, ？데 disturbance was the item which showed the highest frequency rate of 62.0%, and the items for stiffness of suboccipital region and neck, headache, facial swelling, furuncle of face were answered more than 45% of the subjects whereas only 14.0% of the subjucts complained jaw pain under stress. 3. The better one who thought his or her health status was, the fewer items were answered and the difference of symptom frequency by dwelling place and by having hobby were shown in extraoral symptoms only. 4. For relief of stress symptoms, 79.2% of the subjects replied only to take a rest whereas not more than 13, 5% of the subjects visited dental clinic. Correlationship between symptom sites were very high.