• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.61-70
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• 2021

Purpose: The study aims at identifying patient-related and environmental factors associated with an increased risk of falling and, therefore, both caregivers and designers can be aware of fall risk factors and can contribute to prevent inpatient falls in their own areas of expertise. Methods: A case-control study has been conducted, utilizing patient data and physical environmental data in the unit of General Medicine in the United States. The case-control study investigated data about patients who had suffered falls as well as patients with similar characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and diagnosis) who did not suffer falls. Results: The study identified both patient-related and physical environmental factors associated with inpatient falls. Morse fall risk score, patient visibility, and patient accessibilityB were identified as significant predictors to inpatient falls, when controlling for other significant variables. Implications: The findings of the study can provide implications to both caregivers and healthcare and hospital environment designers. Caregivers should give special attention to patients with high Morse Fall Risk Scores to prevent inpatient falls. Designers also need to examine and to fine-tune the unit layout of inpatient care units to maximize each patient room's patient visibility from the rest of the unit and patient accessibilityB from working areas of nurses.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide data about the risk factors related to falls among elderly patients with dementia using meta-analysis. Methods: Key words used for search through electronic database (CINAHL, PubMed, Ovid-MEDLINE, RISS, KISS, DBPIA, National Assembly Library) included 'dementia', 'Alzheimer', 'fall'. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis and 'R' version 3.2.2 was used to analyze the correlated effect size. Results: Study results showed that risk factors related to falls were identified as the demographic (age, gender, education), dementia-related (disease duration, cognition), physical (body mass index, walking, balance, activity of daily living, use of walking aids, number of medications including psychotropic drugs, musculoskeletal problems, parkinsonism, comorbidity), psychological (neuropsychiatric symptom, depression), environmental (Physical environment), and fall-related (fall history, high risk group of fall) factors. The effect size of risk factors such as high risk group of fall (r=.35), use of walking aids (r=.33), depression (r=.31), psychotropic drugs (r=.27), Musculoskeletal problems (r=.25) were higher than the other risk factors. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, strategies to improve elderly patient's depression, intensive care for high risk group of fall, and adequate training with walking aids are needed for prevention of falls in elderly patients with dementia.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.93-103
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the factors that increase fall risk in the residential environment and the perceived fall risk among community-dwelling elderly through comparisons between fallers and non-fallers. Methods: The subjects were 95 community-dwelling elderly aged 65 years and over residing in the metropolitan city of Ulsan. A structured questionnaire consisting of items on sociodemographics and health- and fall-related characteristics was used and data were collected from July to August 2015. The data were analyzed with the SPSS/WIN program. Results: Among recent fallers, 38.9% had diagnosed diseases when the fall occurred, 56.87% were fearful of a recurrent fall, and 86.5% stated that they were increasing their carefulness but that had led to a decrease in activity. There were significant differences between elders who had fallen at least once and elders who had no falls in age, health status, depression, the experience of falling, fear of falling, diseases, and medications. Conclusion: The results indicate a need to assess risk factors to identify older adults with a high risk for falling and the need to develop multifactorial intervention programs that consider both environmental and perceived risk factors as well as physical risk factors to reduce and prevent falls among the elderly.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.363-373
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• 2017

In the present study, adaptability of cyber-physical system (CPS) for risk management of $CO_2$ storage site is examined and the subagging regression (SBR) method is proposed as a key component of the cyber-twin to estimate the risk due to potential $CO_2$ leakage. For these purposes, $CO_2$ concentration data monitored from a controlled $CO_2$ release field experiment is employed to validate the potentialities of the SBR method. From the validation study, it is found that the SBR method has robust estimation capability by showing minimal influence from anomalous measurements, and makes stable and sound predictions for the forthcoming $CO_2$ concentration trend. In addition, the method is found to be well suited as a tool of operational risk assessment based on real-time monitoring data due to the computational efficiency. The overall results suggest that the SBR method has potential to be an important component comprising the cyber twin of CPS for risk management of $CO_2$ storage site.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.298-307
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• 2023

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze the recent trends in patients with work-related musculoskeletal disorders in South Korea and to check the major results by reviewing the literature on the risk factors and prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases related to work. Methods: Industrial disaster data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor from 2012 to 2021 were used, and the literature was reviewed regarding risk factors for musculoskeletal diseases related to work using PubMed and RISS. Results: The trend of patients with work-related musculoskeletal disorders has increased overall since 2017 after declining until 2016, with a particularly notable increase in the average annual number of patients with physical burden work. The average annual rate per ten thousand people for patients with body burden work, non-accidental lower back pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome among work-related diseases was high in the mining industry. The average annual rate per ten thousand people for patients with accidental lower back pain was the highest in the fishing industry. Within the manufacturing field, it was the highest in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry. As a result of the literature review, the search rate for work-related musculoskeletal disease papers in unstructured work was high. In addition, physical stress factors were high among risk factors, and pain areas showed a high rate for the waist. Conclusion: Even after the institutional implementation of a hazard investigation system related to musculoskeletal diseases is implemented, the number of patients with occupational musculoskeletal disorders continues to increase. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct regular surveys and implement effective improvement activities for vulnerable industries or occupations.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.107-111
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• 2008

Water quality contamination issues are of critical concern to human health, whilst pesticide release generated from irrigated land should be considered for protecting natural habitats and human health. This paper suggests new method for evaluation and analysis using the GIS technique based on integrated spatial modeling framework. The pesticide use on irrigated land is a subset of the larger spectrum of industrial chemicals used in modern society. The behavior of a pesticide is affected by the natural affinity of the chemical for one of four environmental compartments; solid matter, liquid, gaseous form, and biota. However, the major movements are a physical transport over the ground surface by rainfall-runoff and irrigation-runoff. The irrigated water carries out with the transporting sediments and makes contaminated water by pesticide. This paper focuses on risk impact identification and assessment using GIS technique. Also, generated data on pesticide residues on farmland and surface water through GIS simulation will be reflected to environmental research programs. Finally, this study indicates that GIS application is a beneficial tool for spatial pesticide impact analysis as well as environmental risk assessment.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.497-507
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• 2011

This research studied human health risk assessment of benzene from industrial complexes of Chungcheong Province (Seosan industrial complex) and Jeonla Province (Iksan industrial complex and Yeosoo industrial complex). The residents near the industrial complexes areas can be often exposed to volatile organic compounds (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylenes) through a number of exposure pathways, including inhalation of the organic pollutant via various environmental matrices (air, water and soil), contaminated water, and soil intake. Benzene is well known to be a common carcinogenic and toxic compound that is produced from industrial and oil refinery complexes. In this study, a number of samples from water, air, and soil were taken from the residential settings and public school zones located near the industrial complex sites. Based on the carcinogenic risk assessment, the risk estimates were slightly above $10{\times}10^{-6}$ at all three industrial sites. According to deterministic risk assessment, inhalation was the most important route. The distribution of benzene in the environment would be dependent on vapor pressure, and the physical property influencing the extent of the potential risks. Non-carcinogenic risk assessment of benzene shows that the values of Hazard Index(HI) were much lower than 1.0 at all industrial complexes. Therefore, benzene was not a cause of concern in terms of non-carcinogenic risk posed to the residents near the sites. When compared to probabilistic risk assessment, the CTE(central tendency exposure) cancer risk values of deterministic risk assessment were close to the mean values predicted by the probabilistic risk assessment. The RME(reasonable maximum exposure) values fell within the range of 95% to 99.9% estimated by the probabilistic risk assessment. Since the values of carcinogenic risk assessment were higher than $10{\times}10^{-6}$, further detailed monitoring and refined risk assessment for benzene may be warranted to estimate more reliable and potential inhalation risks to receptors near the industrial complexes.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.595-607
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• 2002

The objectives of this study were to identify the phenomena of school health nursing at schools in Korea and to contribute to building a school health domain of International Classification for Nursing Practice. A retrospective method was used in this study to develop ICNP during the period from July to October 200l. The procedure of the study involved choosing nursing phenomena using preliminary terms from the reports on the field of school health nursing practice documented by nursing students in 10 different nursing colleges. The detail procedures of the study were as follows. 1) Choosing nursing phenomena by using preliminary terms 2) Choosing the characteristics of school health nursing practice from the selected nursing phenomena 3) In order to make a consensus regarding the appropriate characteristics of phenomena. 15 study group members re-categorized the nursing phenomena through 5 times of cyber meetings and 3 times of formal meetings. 4) To verify each characteristic, 5 community nursing faculties and 25 school health nurses participated in the procedure to give scores on nursing characteristics. 5) Classification of the definite nursing phenomena and characteristics. Following the 5 step procedures, school health nursing phenomena were categorized into human and environmental domains. Human domains were classified into human behavioral and functional domains. Environmental domains were classified into physical and psychosocial domains. The essential characteristics of each phenomena were selected when it obtains the mean score of 3.0 or over at the related characteristics. The human behavioral domain consisted of 7 phenomena including risk for spinal disorder, inadequate dietary habit, inadequate weight control, smoking and substance abuse, inadequate stress management, inadequate sex related coping strategies and inadequate accident management. The human functional domain consisted of 6 phenomena including inadequate eye care and visual management, risk for respiratory disorder, inadequate dental health care, inappropriate infectious disease control, risk for gastrointestinal disorder, and lack of sexual identity. The physical environmental domain consisted of 6 phenomena including risk for incident at inside classroom, risk for incident at outside classroom, risk for incident around school, risk for exposure to hazardous facilities around school. inadequate garbage and disposal management, and inadequate physical environment for learning. The psychosocial domain included impaired social interaction at school. Each phenomenon was composed of 2 to 8 characteristics and all phenomena will include a total number of 85 characteristics. The phenomena of school health nursing in Korea partially confirmed school health architecture of ICNP. Further study on verification of school health nursing phenomena in Korea needs to be done to support the findings of this study through review of literature on nursing classifications or field studies.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.189-198
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• 2021

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of biomechanical variables on gait according to indoor and outdoor environmental conditions in elderly women at risk of falling. Method: 26 elderly women aged 70 years or older, and consisted of 13 elderly people with a walking speed of less 1.0 m/s and 13 people in the fall risk group as normal groups. Depending on the purpose of the study, physical examination and psychological questionnaire were prepared, and then walking was performed in an indoor/outdoor environment, and the gait pattern, muscle activity, and plantar pressure results were compared and analyzed in the elderly females through a 2 group × 2 environment 2-way repeted ANOVA analysis. Results: The gait variable showed an interaction effect the cadence. The muscle variables showed interaction effects in the rectus femoris and tibialis anterior muscles, and the interaction effects of the plantar pressure variables were confirmed in the forefoot and midfoot of the contact area, and the midfoot of the mean pressure. Conclusion: These results indicate that both groups are exposed to falls risk when gait in an outdoor environment, but the fall risk group has a higher risk of falls in both the gait pattern, muscle activity, and plantar pressure variables. The results of this study are considered to be helpful as basic data and development of exercise programs to prevent falls.

• Architectural research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 2009

Recently, intensive urban redevelopment concentrated on new towns has reduced the number of settled population, and weakened various functions such as commercial, culture, education and welfare in old towns, and made the stagnation and declination of the entire or some parts of old towns. Urban regeneration project means renewing cities' functions in terms of physical, environmental, social, cultural, industrial and economic aspects or revitalizing the existing functions through improvement project in the entire or part of a city, which is now drawing keen attention from the public. However, urban regeneration project is huge in scale, needs long construction period and various complex facilities, and also characterized by complicated relations with many stakeholders. Due to such characteristics, there are many risks in the project. Therefore, systematic risk management is absolutely necessary to efficiently manage various risk factors inherent in urban regeneration project. The purpose of this research proposes a basic model to establish risk management plan and work process in order to help project participants to perform risk management more systematically and rationally in the development phase of urban regeneration project.