• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.66-74
• /
• 2005

This survey was conducted to assess the consumer perceptions of food-related hazard in 500 housewives from all over Korea. The subjects were selected by stratified random sampling method. The survey was performed using structured questionnaire through telephone interview by skilled interviewers. The results showed that 34.6% of the respondents felt secure and were not concerned about food safety, and 65.4% were concerned about food safety. Logistic regression analysis showed that the increasing concern on food brands, food additives (such as food preservatives and artificial color), and imported foodstuffs indicated the current increasing concern on food safety. Other related factors indicating the increasing concern on food safety were education level and care for children's health. The respondents who cared about food safety expressed a high degree of concern on processed foodstuffs such as commercial boxed lunch (93.3%), imported foods (92.7%), fastfoods (89.9%), processed meat products (88.7%), dining out (85.6%), cannery and frozen foods (83.5%), and instant foods (82.0%). The lowest degree of concern was on rice. All the respondents perceived that residues of chemical substances such as pesticides and food additives, and endocrine disrupters were the most potential food risk factors, followed by food-borne pathogens, and GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). However, these results were not consistent with scientific judgment. Therefore, more education and information were needed for consumers' awareness of facts and myths about food safety. In addition, the results showed that consumers put lower trust in food products information such as food labels, cultivation methods (organic or not), quality labels, and the place of origin. Nevertheless, the respondents expressed their desire to overcome alienation, and recognized the importance of knowing of the origin or the producers of food. They identified that people who need to take extreme precautions on food contamination were the producers, government officials, food companies, consumers, the consumer's association, and marketers, arranged in the order of highest to lowest. They also believed that the production stage of agriculture was the most important step for improving the level of food safety Therefore, the results indicated that there is a need to introduce safety systems in the production of agricultural products, as follows: Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), and Traceability System (75).

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.144-155
• /
• 1997

In December 1990, Occupational Safety and Health Law was amended to reinforce employer's responsibilities on employees' health and safety. Among the amended law it was important to expand the role of an occupational health nurse to the role of an occupational health manager. An occupational health manager should take charge of coordinating periodic health examination and environmental hazard evaluation, providing primary care, monitoring employees' health status, giving the workplace walk-through, selecting safe protection equipment, providing health information, counseling and health education, independently. This position of occupational health nurse is equivalent to the role of doctors or occupational hygienists. In 1991, government made a master plan to prevent occupational disease and injury. Under the plan, Korea Industrial Nursing Association (KINA) was established in 1994 with the purpose of improving health services and upgrading career opportunities for members. Therefore, this study was designed to analyze the transition of occupational health nursing education with the changes of law and policy in Korea between 1991 and 1996. In details, it was to analyze the rate of school providing occupational health nursing practice based lecture, lecture hours, lecture contents in undergraduate curriculum, program contents of graduate school, kinds of continuing education, etc. For this purpose, we conducted survey two times. In February 1991, baseline study was conducted with all nursing programs in Korea (19 BSN programs and 43 nursing departments of junior college). From April to May in 1996, the second survey was conducted with all nursing programs (38 BSN programs and 69 junior colleges). The first response rate was 66.1% and the second was 40.6%. Structured questionnaires were mailed to the deans or the community health nursing faculties. In the case of graduate school, telephone survey was conducted with 10 school of public health or environmental health area. Data from the yearbook of Industrial Safety Training Institute (ISTI), the history of Korea Industrial Health Association, and the journals of KINA were also included in the analysis. As the results, we found that there were remarkable improvement in undergraduate and graduate programs, obligatory as well as voluntary continuing education in terms of occupational health nursing expertise between 1991 and 1996. 1) The number of school providing occupational health nursing practice-based lecture was increased with the rate from 7.3% to 25.6%. The rate of school giving over 15 class-hours was increased from 33.3% to 46.6%. 2) Content areas were composed of introduction of occupational health, occupational epidemiology, industrial hygiene, occupational disease and injury, law and policy, health education, concept of occupational health nursing, role of occupational health nurse, occupational health nursing process, etc. Of content areas, occupational health nursing process was more emphasized with the increased rate from 43.9% to 88.4%. 3) In the case of graduate school, occupational health programs were increased from 4 to 10. One of them has developed occupational health nursing program as an independent course since 1991. 4) The law increased educational hours from 28 hours to 36 hours for introductory course at the time of appointment, and from 14 hours to 24 hours every 2 years for continuing education. Course contents were Occupational safety and health law, introduction of occupational health, health education methodology, planning and evaluation, periodic health exam, occupational disease care, primary care, emergency care, management, industrial environment evaluation, etc. In 1996, Korea Industrial Nursing Association has begun to provide continuing education after Industrial Safety Training Institute. 5) Various educational programs in voluntary base were developed such as monthly seminar, CE articles, annual academic symposium, etc. It was shown that changes of law and policy led rapid growth of occupational health nursing education in various levels. From this trend, it is expected that occupational health nurse expertise be continuously to be enhanced in Korea. Legal and political supports should proceed for the development of occupational health nursing in early stage.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.88-95
• /
• 2004

Purpose: Current treatment for osteoid osteomas is usually surgical excision of the nidus. Various minimal invasive techniques have been reported to overcome the invasiveness of the surgical excision. We treated 22 patients with osteoid osteoma by percutaneous thermoablation of the nidus under computed-tomography guidance. Materials and Methods: Twenty two consecutive patients underwent CT-guided percutaneous radio-frequency thermoablation between April 1999 and May 2004. The mean age was 26.5(7~55) years. In three cases, the diagnosis was confirmed pathologically before the prodedure while the others clinically and radiologically. Computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous RF ablation was performed with general or spinal anesthesia. With an RF electrode, the lesion was heated to 80 or 90 degrees C for 6(3~8) minutes. Clinical success was assessed at a mean of 30(4~62) months after the procedure at out patient clinic or by telephone interview. Results: The procedure was technically successful in all cases except a complication. Patients were discharged on 1.9 days after the procedure and resumed normal activities immediately. All patients but three (86%) remained pain free during follow-up (range 4~62 months). A second thermoablation treatment relieved the recurrent symptoms in 2 patients and the remained had persistent pain without a second prodedure. Conclusion: Percutaneous thermoablation appears to be safe and effective for osteoid osteomas, and is a minimally invasive procedure alternative to surgical resection.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.79-92
• /
• 2008

Purpose: Recommendation for regular Pap test in the past 3 years as a cue to action affects on an increased likelihood of receiving a cervical cancer screening in that period. This study performed to estimate the association with healthcare access, healthcare provider status, and physician recommendation for Pap test in the past 3 years among Korean American women. Method: Korean Health survey was carried out in 2002. These population-based telephone surveys were conducted with Korean American women who resided in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties, California (n=865). We preformed multiple logistic regression analyses to estimate predictors of physician recommendation for Pap test by SAS 8.2. Results: Korean women in two California Counties were 37.9% who received physician recommendation for Pap test in the past 3 years. The predictors on physician recommendation for Pap test in the past 3 years were health insurance coverage, visiting number to doctor in the past year, and healthcare provider status. For healthcare access, no matter who had enrolled in public or private health insurances, the women were more likely to get the recommendation for Pap test from their regular healthcare provider. Particularly, for ethnicity of healthcare provider, the women were more likely to get the recommendation for Pap test from non-Korean female doctors (OR=6.21, 95% CI=2.63, 14.66), Korean male doctors (OR=2.19, 95% CI=1.30, 3.68), and non-Korean male doctors (OR=2.07, 95% CI=1.15, 3.71). Conclusion: (삭제) Effect of healthcare access and healthcare provider status on recommendation for Pap test among Korean American women in two California Counties would contribute to our understanding of developing strategies to promote adherence of Pap test and reduce morbidity and mortality far cervical cancer among Korean American women in the U.S.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.42-65
• /
• 1992

To survey the specialties or sujects of practice displayed by the private practitioners the authors visited 691 clinics in Taegu from April 1 to May 18, 1991, At the same time, a mail questionnaire was administered to ask the number of displayed subjects of practice, and the reasons for displaying the subjects, reasons for not displaying in case of no specialty was displayed, composition of patients, and role as a specialist. The questionnaire was returned by 308(44.6%) practitioners. The distributions of private practitioners by specialty were 13.9% for internal medicine (IM), 11.7% for pediatrics(Ped), 13.0% for obstetrics '||'&'||' gynecology(OBGY), 11.1% for general surgery(GS), 10.0% for family practice(FP), and 5.3% for general practitioner(GP). Ninety percent of the specialists have displayed their specialty in their offices. Among all the private practitioners, 61.9% of them have displayed their subjects of practice and 23.7% have shown telephone number. Among private practitioners who displayed the subjects of practice, 80.6% have signs of 'subjects of practice'. Mean number of the displayed subjects of practice for the all private practitioners is 1.20, and 1.93 for the private practitioners who displayed subjects of practice. FP and GS have displayed their subjects of practice in 91.2% and 87.0% respectively and OBGY have displayed in 32.2%, the lowest percentage among all the soecuaktues. IM specialists displays pediatrics as a major subject of practice in 72.1% the pediatricians display IM in 88.9% the OBGYs display pediatrics in 77.8%, and the GSs display IM in 51.9%. Most commonly displayed subjects of practice are Ped and IM. Sixty-five percent of the private practitioners answered that they don't display their specialties because their clinics are "primary health care facility". The reasons for displaying the subjects of practice and its relevance with their own specialty(45.6%), and the difficulty in clinic management only with the patients for their own specialty(36.9%). The proportion of clinics whose patients of other specialty are than their own specialty accounted less than 10% was 52.8% and that accounted more than 51% was 16.0%. Specially, 51.4% of GS specialists cared more than 51% of patients of other specialty area than their own specialty. Most of the patients of IM, Ped, and OBGY specialists are the patients of their own specialty. However, 56.8% of GS care more of IM patients and only 24.3% of them care mostly GS patients, The respondents to the mail questionnaire who stated that they can not play the role of specialist well are 30.5% and especially 72.9% of the GS specialists state so. The proportion of respondents who do not suffort the private practice of specialists is 71.1%. Among the surgical specialists, 82.7% of them rarely perform operation. The reasons for not performing operation are insufficient insurance fee (76.9%), and risk of operation(58.0%), so as the OBGY specialists. Above finidngs suggest that most of the specialists, especially surgeons, in the private practice can not play their role as a specialist. It is necessary to develop a policy that facilitates the production of practice and the retention of the specialists in the hospitals.s.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.128-136
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the home-based cancer patient management project of public health centers throughout the country. The results of the investigation is employed to identify obstacles to the execution of the program and, finally, to develop an efficient management program of home-based cancer patients. Methods: Data on the home-based cancer patient management project were collected and analyzed through visiting interviews or telephone interviews with 225 public health centers throughout the country for six months from July to December, 2006. Results: Obstacles to the present execution of the home-based cancer patient management project were identified. Some of them are : (1) patients' low trust in cancer patient management by local health centers, (2) absence of programs customized to local communities, (3) lack of personnel and vehicles for home-based cancer patient management, (4) lack of education program for personnel in charge of home-based cancer patient management, (5) problems in public health doctors, weak connection to private medical institutions, (6) absence of medical institutions and hospice facilities for cancer patients, and (7) non-standardized volunteer workers, so on. Considering all these problems, some effective management methods are proposed. The basic concept is to keep the autonomy and variety of the local helath centers. And based on this concept, three models of (1) public health center controlled model, (2) medical institutions and hospice facilities-entrusted model and (3) medical institutions and hospice facilities-cooperative model are developed. Conclusion: By adopting an adequate model among proposed three models, the public health centers are expected to achieve an efficient utilization of material resources and manpower. In addition, by inventing their own programs that are proper for the local societies, they can improve the home-based cancer patient management.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.167-178
• /
• 2007

Purpose : The necessity of professional non-MD genetic counselor has been recently emphasized in a medical field. By conducting a national survey on the demands for generic counseling and professional non-MD generic counselor, we can make a long-term master plan to execute the educational program for professional genetic counselors and indeed promote genetic counseling in Korean health care service in a systemic manner. Methods : The survey has been conducted from September 3rd to October 4th of 2007 in a way of e-mail, telephone interview, fax, and direct contacts. It's targets were senior researchers and professors in medical and non-medical institutions, policy makers, research institutions or foundations. The survey questions consist of 16 questionnaires. Results : As a result of survey, 102 of 650 people responded. 80% of respondents indicated that genetic counseling is needed as a health care service and 34% among them considered it as "the most needed". In addition, 77% of the respondents showed that, it is necessary to have a professional non-MD genetic counselor with a master degree or higher in the field of medical genetics and among them 29% thought it as "the most necessary". A 77% of respondents considered that the cost of genetic counseling should be covered by health insurance and among them, 29% answered "strongly agreed". A 56% of respondents chose the answer of "They have a plan to hire the professional non-MD genetic counselor" in their institution, and among them 71% selected "within 5 years" in terms of when to hire. Also, they tend to expect the role of the professional non-MD genetic counselor to be not only "genetic counselor" (60%), but also "researcher" (42%), "educator" (18%) and "clinical laboratory coordinator" (19%). Conclusion : The 102 of 650 people responded to the survey. Based upon the nationwide survey over the needs on genetic counseling in health care service and demands on the professional non-MD genetic counselor, systematic educational program for the genetic counseling, with reimbursement coverage for counseling service by health insurance should be emphasized in development of a master plan.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.89-99
• /
• 2016

Objectives: This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the prevalence and factors relating to handwashing with soap among Korean adults. Methods: Study subjects consist of 755 adults who have been contacted in September 2013 via telephone surveys. The data collected has been analyzed using descriptive statistics, a chi-square test and a logistic regression analysis. A primary purpose is to understand the prevalence of handwashing with soap more than 8 times daily and for 30 seconds per wash among adults. Independent variables include socioeconomic levels, the participants' perception and knowledge of handwashing and their educational experiences relating to handwashing. Results: The overall percentile of people who wash their hands with soap 8 time per day for 30 seconds or more per wash was 16.0%, which is 121 people out of 755 study subjects. In univariate analysis, age, education levels, monthly average income, handwashing habits, perceptions relate to the importance of handwashing, self-assessment of handwashing, environment of public toilet, and the completion of handwashing education shows significant result. Significant differences also appear (p<0.05) in logistic regression analysis on binary variables. There is a strong correlation between daily frequency of handwashing and willingness to wash hands while outside. For example, people who wash their hands very often while outside are 2.24 times (95% C.I. 1.29-3.87) more likely to practice handwashing with soap 8 times per day for 30 seconds or more per wash than those people who only intermittently wash their hands while outside. Furthermore, people with general unwillingness to wash their hands while outside are 4.61 times (95% C.I. 1.22-3.28) less likely to practice handwashing with soap 8 times per day for 30 seconds or more per wash than those with general willingness. Conclusions: This study has been carried out to identify the decision factors in practicing handwashing with soap for Korean adults. In univariate analysis, age, education level, monthly average income, handwashing habits, handwashing self-assessment, public toilet environment, completion of handwashing education and so forth have been identified to be the decision factors. This study result shows that the overall level of cleanliness of public toilet perceives to be poor and it suggests that the environment of public toilet needs to be enhanced. As the handwashing habits and handwashing-self assessment have been identified to be the significant decision factors for handwashing, there search and approach in these factors need to be developed further.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.102-110
• /
• 2011

The study aims to provide future implications for planning nature trails called Dullegil in the national park located in the city in Korea as new visiting culture for sustainability of environment and use. The telephone survey used quota sampling with 300 Seoulite ages from 20 to 69 by area, gender, and age, which was conducted to find out the perception on a Dullegil in Bukhansan National Park. The result shows more than 65% of Seoulite go climbing and aiming the mountain top as a general visitor behavior. The intention to use Dullegil was very high at 58%, which forecasts the use of Dullegil as a substitute for a trail to the intensified mountain top. However, the effectiveness of Dullegil to divert intensive use could be limited as the major group of climbers showed relatively low intention to use Dullegil as an alternative. As for the management direction, majority favors balanced management between use and conservation, even if conservation was preferred to use. Most important guiding principle for building Dullegil was conservation of environment, the planning direction should be oriented to conserve the ecological environment of Bukhansan, and to enjoy its value. Facilities for visitor safety was most needed. Most preferable time and length were 1~3 hours and 11~20km, each. This study has a limitation as the site was limited to Bukhansan and potential demand for use was analyzed with the sample of Seoulite only. To come up with the results generally applicable, more detailed future researches by the visitor segmentation, use behavior, and demand are needed.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.153-169
• /
• 2011

Today using Internet environment is considered absolutely essential for establishing corporate marketing strategy. Companies have promoted their products and services through various ways of on-line marketing activities such as providing gifts and points to customers in exchange for participating in events, which is based on customers' membership data. Since companies can use these membership data to enhance their marketing efforts through various data analysis, appropriate website membership management may play an important role in increasing the effectiveness of on-line marketing campaign. Despite the growing interests in proper membership management, however, there have been difficulties in identifying inappropriate members who can weaken on-line marketing effectiveness. In on-line environment, customers tend to not reveal themselves clearly compared to off-line market. Customers who have malicious intent are able to create duplicate IDs by using others' names illegally or faking login information during joining membership. Since the duplicate members are likely to intercept gifts and points that should be sent to appropriate customers who deserve them, this can result in ineffective marketing efforts. Considering that the number of website members and its related marketing costs are significantly increasing, it is necessary for companies to find efficient ways to screen and exclude unfavorable troublemakers who are duplicate members. With this motivation, this study proposes an approach for managing duplicate membership based on the social network analysis and verifies its effectiveness using membership data gathered from real websites. A social network is a social structure made up of actors called nodes, which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency. Social networks represent the relationship between the nodes and show the direction and strength of the relationship. Various analytical techniques have been proposed based on the social relationships, such as centrality analysis, structural holes analysis, structural equivalents analysis, and so on. Component analysis, one of the social network analysis techniques, deals with the sub-networks that form meaningful information in the group connection. We propose a method for managing duplicate memberships using component analysis. The procedure is as follows. First step is to identify membership attributes that will be used for analyzing relationship patterns among memberships. Membership attributes include ID, telephone number, address, posting time, IP address, and so on. Second step is to compose social matrices based on the identified membership attributes and aggregate the values of each social matrix into a combined social matrix. The combined social matrix represents how strong pairs of nodes are connected together. When a pair of nodes is strongly connected, we expect that those nodes are likely to be duplicate memberships. The combined social matrix is transformed into a binary matrix with '0' or '1' of cell values using a relationship criterion that determines whether the membership is duplicate or not. Third step is to conduct a component analysis for the combined social matrix in order to identify component nodes and isolated nodes. Fourth, identify the number of real memberships and calculate the reliability of website membership based on the component analysis results. The proposed procedure was applied to three real websites operated by a pharmaceutical company. The empirical results showed that the proposed method was superior to the traditional database approach using simple address comparison. In conclusion, this study is expected to shed some light on how social network analysis can enhance a reliable on-line marketing performance by efficiently and effectively identifying duplicate memberships of websites.