• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.722-728
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• 2004

Purpose: This study was designed to determine the predictors of postpartum depression. Method: One hundred-sixty one women within one year after delivery from one public health center located in the northern area of Seoul were used in this study. The instruments were a survey of general characteristics, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, recent life events index, perceived social support from family, Quality of marriage index, parenting stress index, and Rosenberg's self-esteem inventory. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and logistic regression. Result: The average item score of the EPDS was 6.67. 12.4% of respondents, who scored above a threshold 12, were likely to be suffering from a depression of varying severity. The fitness of the model for explaining postpartum depression from six variables, plan for pregnancy, family support, quality of marital relation, perceived social support, life events, childcare stress, and self-esteem, was statistically significant and the predictive power of these variables was 90.9%. The significant predictors of postpartum depression were family support and child care stress. Conclusion: Further research is needed to identify the prevalence rate of postpartum depression using more reliable sampling methods from a large general population. Nursing interventions need to be developed for promoting family support and reducing childcare stress.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2018

Health technology assessment (HTA) is defined as multidisciplinary policy analysis to look into the medical, economic, social, and ethical implications of the development, distribution, and use of health technology. Following the recent changes in the social environment, there are increasing needs to improve Korea's healthcare environment by, inter alia, assessing health technologies in an organized, timely manner in accordance with the government's strategies to ensure that citizens' medical expenses are kept at a stable level. Dedicated to HTA and research, the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA) analyzes and provides grounds on the clinical safety, efficacy, and economic feasibility of health technologies. HTA offers the most suitable grounds for decision making not only by healthcare professionals but also by policy makers and citizens as seen in a case in 2009 where research revealed that glucosamine lacked preventive and treatment effects for osteoarthritis and glucosamine was subsequently excluded from the National Health Insurance's benefit list to stop the insurance scheme from suffering financial losses and citizens from paying unnecessary medical expenses. For the development of HTA in Korea, the NECA will continue exerting itself to accomplish its mission of providing policy support by health technology reassessment, promoting the establishment and use of big data and HTA platforms for public interest, and developing a new value-based HTA system.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-28
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• 2019

Dengue infection is becoming a serious global health threat. Public awareness is a pre-requisite for the successful implementation of dengue prevention programs. The main purpose of this study was to investigate dengue-related information needs and seeking behavior of the general public in Singapore. Some areas covered by this study were: importance of dengue-related information needs, preferred channels for seeking information, and respondents' perceptions of using dengue-related information. A questionnaire was used for data collection and 152 individuals participated in this study. Data analysis showed that the most sought after information concerned: dengue-related medicines, primary symptoms of dengue infection, and different possible treatments. The popular channels for seeking information were: websites of hospitals and other health agencies, the social media, television, and newspapers. Medical staff, such as doctors and nurses, were trusted for providing accurate information. Although credibility of social media was considered low, respondents were using it due to its easy accessibility. The findings of this study will be useful to government health departments in Singapore as well as in other countries suffering from dengue, hospitals, and public welfare agencies involved in public health awareness campaigns.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.87-94
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• 2019

Our study builds up a theoretical model to explain how individual compassion in organizations affects the macro concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A theoretical framework conceptualizes whereby individual compassions in work organizations responding to others' suffering generate positive or negative organizational identity, which impact their CSR activities. That is, we proposes that authentic compassion will develop positive organizational identity and then leads to proactive CSR, while pseudo compassion will trigger negative organizational identity and in turn results in reactive CSR. This study aims to explain the antecedents of firms' CSR in terms of individual compassion in organizations, interacted with the dynamics of organizational identity.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.286-293
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• 2022

Background: The death rate of workers due to industrial accidents in South Korea (3.61 persons in 2017) is higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average (2.43) and the fifth highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. Although the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed, the socioeconomic aspects of Korean society, the number of Koreans suffering accidents and the number of deaths in 2020 have increased. It is necessary to take measures to prevent accidents and make comprehensive efforts to return to work. This study proposes research questions about the effect of workers' positive perception on whether to work after accidents and the impact of the experience of rehabilitation services on the return to work. Methods: This research performed a panel logistic regression analysis using data on workers' compensation insurance in Korea for two years (2018-2019). Results: This research finds that workers' positive perceptions of workability and life satisfaction contributed affirmatively to their re-employment. Several factors related to employment (e.g., work period, the number of job qualifications) also positively affect their return to work. However, the experience of rehabilitation services did not have a significant effect on re-employment. The variables of their health conditions (e.g., disability grade, feelings of health problems, age) negatively influenced their return to jobs. Conclusion: These results suggest the importance of workers' mental recovery and the need to innovate rehabilitation services for their employment. Positive thinking and self-rehabilitation could be critical for workers, parallel with social welfare policies.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.48
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• pp.361-389
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• 2017

This essay examines 'precarity politics' by Judith Butler, a well-known gender theorist and queer philosopher, in Notes Towards a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015) focused on concepts as unchosen cohabitation of Hannah Arendt and unwilled proximity of Emmanuel Levinas. Butler's precarity politics is the condition of our dispossessed political beings with fundamental vulnerability and interdependency that cannot choose with whom we will live on this Earth. Butler's political ethics is twofold: on one hand, she examines significance of 'action'' the most significant vita activa in the public area, and 'plurality'' the condition-not only the necessary condition but the possible condition-for a political life suggested by Hannah Arendt in Human Condition; on the other hand, Butler reflects upon global precarity based on a diasporic precarious life in the social world towards freedom and equality. Unchosen cohabitation of plural humans on Earth, and global pervasion of precarity, that indicates "politically induced condition in which certain populations suffer from failing social and economic networks of support and become differentially exposed to injury, violence, and death," so called "differential distribution of precariousness," are practical possibilities of ethical and equal cohabitation of different ethnic groups in the social world. Ethical obligations or ethical demand to respond to others' suffering in distance and proximity originated from precarity politics, mentioned in Precarious Life, Parting Ways, and Frames of War, could be non-foundational joint of plural people living together globally. We should presume the 'reversibility' of distance and proximity in others' suffering, based on responsiveness and responsibility of others, if we want to stay attuned to the pain of others we never chose to live together. That is the significance of Butler's 'precarity politics' with 'ethical obligation' to accept 'unchosen plurality' of living population on Earth, and 'reversibility between of distance and proximity,' in her 'new plural and embodied body politics' or 'new corporeal ontology', through human primary vulnerability, fundamental interdependency, being exposed and responsive to suffering of others.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.48
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• pp.150-178
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• 2002

The elderly have higher potential for contracting chronic diseases and suffering from development of a complication. Also, the extended old age period leads the elderly to demand more medical services. All those facts indicate that the elderly need more medical services than any other age groups. Consequently, medical care for the elderly with chronic diseases causes high costs burden. However, there is few studies researching the financial burden of chronic illness of the elderly. This study aimed to 1) understand how much the elderly with chronic diseases pay for medical expenses; 2) find out some specific factors related to health care financial burden; 3) suggest the alternative policies to decrease excessive financial burden of caring for the elderly with chronic illness. National Health and Nutrition Survey, which was surveyed by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 1998, was used in this study. 4,707 persons with chronic diseases out of 5385 persons over age 60 were selectively sampled. Using SPSSWIN, correlation analysis, T-test, ANOVA and Regression were used as statistical methods in this study. Stepwise multiple regression was employed to analyze the data with a ratio of health care expenditure to income(financial burden) as a dependent variable. Out of Korean old people, 87% had the chronic diseases and their health care financial burden rate showed the average of 17.9%, which meaned they expended almost 20% income to buy medical services. The variables having a great influence on financial burden were monthly income, activity, limitation and single household of an old person. The excessive financial burden was experienced by people who had more than 4 activity limitations(37.1%) and were in the lowest Income level(32.6%), and single household of an old person(31.4%). The new policies should be considered to 1) reduce the financial burden in these groups and to develop the sliced medical cost system considering the characteristics of chronic illness and income level; and 2) develop the medical management system to care for the elderly with chronic illness.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.141-150
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify relationship among the depression, social support and quality of sleep in elderly insomnia patients. A total of 143 patients with insomnia diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria. Quality of sleep, depression, and social support were measured using a self structured questionnaire and participant's medical records were reviewed for obtaining their clinical information. Quality of sleep was positively associated with depression(r=.255, p<.05), and negative correlation with social support(r=-.270, p<.001). The significant factors for quality of sleep were information support(${\beta}=-0.406$, p<.05) and affectionate support(${\beta}=-0.525$, p<.05). These factors explained 13.2% of the variance in quality of sleep. The elderly patients suffering the insomnia need the nursing interventions considering information support and affectionate support in order to improve sleep quality.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2016

With big data analysis, companies use the customized marketing strategy based on customer's information. However, because of the concerns about privacy issue and identity theft, people start erasing their personal information or changing the privacy settings on social network site. Facebook, the most used social networking site, has the feature called 'Likes' which can be used as a tool to predict user's demographic profiles, such as sex and age range. To make accurate analysis model for the study, 'Likes' data has been processed by using Gaussian RBF and nFactors for dimensionality reduction. With random Forest and 5-fold cross-validation, the result shows that sex has 75% and age has 97.85% accuracy rate. From this study, we expect to provide an useful guideline for companies and marketers who are suffering to collect customers' data.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.23
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• pp.183-224
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• 2008

This study is a phenomenological study on the experience of mothers of sexually abused children. The participants were 6 mothers whose children were sexually abused. The data was then analyzed according to Colaizzi's method. 253 sentences and phrases, 65 formulating meanings that were general, metaphysical, 27 theme, 13 theme clusters, 5 categories based on interview were selected. The following are the findings of study. 1. Shock : Perplexity, Confusion 2. Coping ; Settlement 3. Mental anguish: Anger, Anxiety, Suffering, Isolation 4. Conquest: Stabilization, Acceptance, Consolation, Change 5. Scar: Extant of anxiety, Concern The results show that the experience of the mother of sexually abused children changed over a period of time and they were willing to protect their children and resolve the issues within society. This research contributed to an understanding of the experience of mothers of sexually abused children, using phenomenological research method without the resource of previous study. This study suggests that social welfare services is needed for sexually abused children and their mothers.