• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 1999

Medication non-compliance among the elderly results in medical problems and substantial cost to the health care system. This study investigate predicted variable related to the medication task ability among elderly. This study was done in the selected 4 villages in Kimchun County of Kyungbuk Province from July to August, 1996. The subject was the resident that 202 adults above 60 years of age. The questionnaire of interview included medication task ability, socio-demographic data, COOP/WONCA chart, family ABGAR score. BDI(Beck depression inventory), ADL(activities of daily living), IADL(instrumental activities of daily living), and MMSE-K(minimental state examination-Korean version). The results were as followed : 1. Approximately 49% of study population was taking drug medication currently. We found that 93% of study population was successful at the medication task all alone, 6% was failure at the medication task all alone, so need help partly or completely. 2. Significant variables between group of medication task ability were age, educational attainment, IADL, and MMSE-K in univariate analysis. And significant correlated variables with medication task ability were ADL, IADL, MMSE-K, and BDI in correlation analysis. 3. Major predictors to medication task ability on multiple logistic regression were IADL and sex finally. Findings suggest that IADL is related to medication task ability than other test battery of health status, so IADL could be used to necessary for medication management and add information to conventional methods of assessing mental status.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.127-133
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• 2018

Purpose: For 3 consecutive years from 2012-2014, we analyzed the causative factors for why the Jeju Island had the highest obesity prevalences of school children among the 15 provinces in Korea. Methods: From our analysis of 28,026 elementary school children with obesity or normal weight in the 15 provinces, we analyzed 12 factors related to eating habits, exercise habits, lifestyle, and mental health. The differences between the obese and normal weight children were researched. Finally, Jeju was compared with Seoul, which has the lowest obesity prevalence in school age children. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi square test of PASW Statistics ver. 18.0. Results: Compared to the normal weight group, the obese group had significantly higher rates of consuming soft drinks (p<0.001), fast food intake (p=0.019), skipping breakfast (p<0.001), insufficient sleep (p<0.001), bullying experiences (p=0.001) and runaway impulses (p=0.012). Compared to Seoul, Jeju Island had significantly higher rates of Ramen intake (3.4% vs. 5.4%, p=0.021) and meat intake (46.0% vs. 52.9%, p=0.003). On the other hand, Jeju Island was significantly lower than was Seoul in their fruit intake (83.4% vs. 67.1%, p<0.001), vegetable intake (71.4% vs. 64.2%, p=0.001), and intense physical activity (63.4% vs. 47.7%, p<0.001). Meanwhile, insufficient sleep (15.4% vs. 9.6%, p<0.001) and runaway impulses (5.6% vs. 3.3%, p=0.027) in children were significantly lower in Jeju Island than in Seoul. Conclusion: The results of the obesity factor analysis of elementary school students in Jeju Island can be used as useful educational material for lowering the obesity prevalence in Jeju community.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.95-101
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• 2012

Objectives : This work aimed to reveal the relations between Health-related Quality of Life and Body mass index, age, gender in Sasang Constitution. Methods : 1108 subjects who visited Korean medicine hospital in Jeonju for regular health examination surveyed SF-12. Their Sasang constitution were diagnosed by 1 Sasang constitution medicine specialist. ANOVA (Analysis of variance) was carried out to compare SF-12 sub scales differences among each constitutions. Regression analysis was performed to reveal effects in changes of BMI, age, and gender to SF-12 sub scales. Results : TE type gets more BMI, has more physical limits, even those of SE and SY type are not limited by these reasons. Contrary, SE type feels more vitality when they get higher BMI. SE type women have low mental health status than that of SE type men, though they don't have any specific disease. Conclusions : This is the first work of analysis between quality of life and Sasang Constitution's BMI, age, and gender. To reveal factors which affect quality of life in each Sasang constitutions, more rigorous works are required.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.51
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• pp.119-140
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• 2002

The main premise of this study is that family involvement which is based on professional-family collaborative partnership is very important for successful treatment and rehabilitation of the mentally ill. Accordingly, this study aims to find out factors which are related to family involvement in therapeutic process. This study conducted the survey with 275 service providers(i.e. mental health professionals) and with 124 service consumers(i.e. family members) in order to discover in what extent do related factors affect on the family involvement. The major findings of the study are; 1) From the service providers standpoint, using multiple regression, job characteristics, perception of family culpability, frequency of contact with family, functioning of their organization affect significantly on the family involvement by 33.0% of explanatory power. Using a step-wise multiple regression, the most powerful influenced factors on family involvement are frequency of contact with family, type of agency, type of profession, and their career. 2) From the service consumers standpoint, using multiple regression, socioeconomic level, attitudes of professionals, optimistic perception of prognosis, functioning of their family, diagnosis affect significantly on the family involvement by 40.9% of explanatory power. Using a step-wise multiple regression, the most powerful influenced factors on family involvement are economic level, attitudes of professionals, optimistic perception of prognosis, educational level. In conclusion, family accessibility to the therapeutic system must be allowed and further, politically encouraged by the related legislation. Also this study recommends clinician to use an empowerment model for the families with the mentally ill.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.1
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• pp.82-90
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• 2021

In this study, the validity of the forest therapy process, in which forest activities using forest therapy factors lead to immunity promotion and health promotion, was analyzed theoretically and qualitatively to refine and systemize the forest therapy concept. Research and analysis data were collected from the websites of institutions related to forest therapy; 33 theses and 33 original research articles from 2000 to March 2020 were searched for forest therapy key words, as well as the prize winning work of the 2016 forest therapy experience essay. A word cloud was generated by frequency of nouns and adjectives and from the key words in the web pages, theses, articles, and the forest therapy experience essay. Through interpretation of word frequency, the systemic flow of forest therapy was defined. The results suggest that the source of forest therapy's power was a positive experience of the forest and an improved attitude toward nature as well as forest therapeutic factors. The therapeutic effect is maximized through the forest healing program, leading to physical and mental resilience and resistance; consequently, health and immunity are promoted. From this study, forest therapy is proposed as "a health promotion activity for the psychological, physical, and spiritual resilience of the subjects through various environmental factors of the forest, positive experiences, and attitudes toward the forest."

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.506-515
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with the levels of depression of the elderly (living in urban areas). Interviews were performed during the period from July 1, 2015 to August 31, 2015 of 386 elderly people in urban areas. The mean score of depressive symptoms was significantly higher in the subjects of higher age, lower educational level, living alone, having a lower monthly income, relying on government subsidy for their living expenses, having a chronic illness, lower state of subjective health, without regular exercise, poorer subjective sleeping time, lower frequency of going out, irregular eating habits, depending on some level of help for their ADL and IADL, and having lower self-esteem and social support. The depressive symptoms showed a meaningful positive correlation with ADL and IADL and a negative correlation with self-esteem and social support. On multiple regression analysis, the meaningful variables related to their depressive symptoms were their education, monthly income, subjective health status, ADL, self-esteem, and social support. Also, according to the variables was 54.1% of depressive symptoms. Therefore, it is considered that the practice of physical and mental health care, as well as social support, is required to reduce the level of depression in the elderly.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.306-314
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• 2022

Background: Due to the rapid aging of the South Korean population, neurological diseases such as dementia are increasing. Many studies have reported that the incidence of dementia is associated with environmental factors along with age. Objectives: This study analyzed the association between cognitive function and ten heavy metals in the body: arsenic, aluminum, chromium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, iron, copper, zinc, and lead. Methods: From 2018 to 2019, a total of 120 participants who suffered from cognitive impairment were recruited for this study. Blood and urine samples were collected and analyzed for heavy metal concentrations using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Demographic information was obtained through face-to-face questionnaires completed by a trained investigator. Cognitive function was evaluated with the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Korean version of the Boston Name Waiting Test. The associations between cognitive function scores and heavy metal concentrations were analyzed using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The average age of the 120 participants was 72.7 years, and 69.2% were female. The mean of the MMSE-K and K-BNT scores were 22.9 and 37.9, respectively. The geometric mean of aluminum (Al) was 8.42 ㎍/L. MMSE-K was associated with iron (Fe), but the significance was removed in the logistic regression based on 24 points. K-BNT was significantly associated with aluminum and the odds ratio for K-BNT above 38 decreased by 45% as the aluminum concentration increased. Conclusions: The association between aluminum and the K-BNT score indicated that aluminum is associated with language-related cognitive decline. Based on this result, further study will be conducted by considering co-exposure effects of heavy metals including aluminum.

• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.99-121
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• 2016

Objectives: The major purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships of parent-child relationship and self-differentiation with interpersonal competence among college students. Specifically, this study also attempted to find the differences of three major variables according to participant's general characteristics, to investigate the correlations among variables and to analyze the effects of related variables on interpersonal competence. Method: The participants were 388 college students in Jeollabuk-do province. The data were collected by self-administered questionnaire method. Results: First, there were significant differences in the level of interpersonal competence according to gender and the monthly family income. Second, correlational analyses results indicated that college students' interpersonal competence was positively related with parent-child relationship and self-differentiation, and the latter two variables were also positively correlated. Finally, the results of multiple regression analyses reported that interpersonal competence was influenced by intimacy with mother, I-position, and emotional cutoff, showing that I-position was the most influential variable. In addition, I-position was also found to be the powerful variable affecting all sub-factors of interpersonal competence. Conclusions: This study suggests the importance of providing education and/or counseling services focusing on strengthening the relationship with their parents and on increasing self-differentiation level for college students' greater interpersonal competence, which are considered as critical indices of their mental health and psychological well-being.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2000

Background and Objectives : Quality of life(QOL) is a construct representing physical, mental and social well-being. QOL has been used as a device for measuring the severity of health-related condition and treatment outcomes. As the social welfare system develops, the attention to QOL increases as well. The aims of this study was to examine whether the patients with voice disorder perceived significantly more the effects of voice disorder on QOL than nonpatient group did and if any, identify the sociodemographic risk factors influencing QOL of patients. Materials and Methods : This study asked 113 adults with voice disorders who were enrolled in Voice Clinic in the Department of Otolaryngology, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital between lune 1998 and January 1999 and 111 nonpatients to complete a questionnaire designed to elicit information about the effete of voice disorders on quality of lift. The questionnaire included items concerning sociodemographic areas, voice symptoms, job, effects of voice disorders on QOL domains(work, social, psychological, physical, and communication areas), potential risk factors to exposures, familial and medical history of voice disorders. Results : The sociodemographic characteristics of the patient group are as follows : (1) 75.2% of total patient group were female and the rest were male. (2) Age of total patient group ranged from 20 to 65 years. Hoarseness was the most commonly reported complaints, followed by complaints of high note difficulties during singing and voice fatigue. The patient group perceived effects of voice disorders on the areas of work, social, psychological, physical and communication more adversely than the comparison group did (p＜0.05). QOL impairments were evaluated as a function of age, gender, education, and income, controlling other independent effects. The results were that (1) age was significantly associated with work problems and (2) gender and income were significantly associated with psychological problems. Conclusions : The findings indicated that the patients with voice disorders would perceive markedly adverse effect on all QOL domains, that is, work, social, psychological, physical, communicational areas. Therefore, the results of study suggest that lurker investigations about the nature of voice disorders, the prevention, treatment, and coping strategies are needed in the future.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.74-100
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• 1989

Inspite of the lots of studies on the harmfulness of cigarette smoking to the body published by many researchers since 1950, cigarette smoking people are increasing in number especially, cigarette smoking by young and women causes a serious problem. Examining the physiological motives of youth shows that, impulse which the youth want to immitate the adults, alluring curiousity, and defiant physiology of escaping from the norm of traditional groups which has been banned are cooperated well compoundly. As the period of the youth is the one which they accumulate knowledge and charactor by learning as well as the period of growth mentally, and physically they should be rightly educated about smoking before they addicted to smoking and it is desirable for us to make the youth to understand how harmfully the smoking is to effect to their growth and mental soundness simply not as a social norm which they should not smoke. The main motive of this study on the attitude of smoking by the youth is to give basic materials related on this field. For this study, 647 questionnaires were used as studying material which were able to analyze among 720 questionnaires of 2 classes of each grade of 3 high schools among the high schools of boys, girls and co-educated in Seoul from Oct. 21, 1988 through Oct. 26, 1988. Study Instrument are graded in Likert's 5 point from 40 questions which are 20 questions m affirmations and 20 questions in negations after analyzing the factors on 60 simple sentence questions which the students showed in preliminary studies. And these are systemized to be measured from 1 point which means they think smoking IS very bad to 5points which means they think smoking is really good. In these collected materials, technical statistics of frequency. percentage, average, standard deviation are used for general character and smoking attitude, $X^2-test$ for examinning Independant variables of physical. emotional, ethical and other areas pearson's coefficient of correlation for related direction and degree" and step­regression analysis for the degree of relative contribution of all variables which effect smoking attitude. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The smoking attitude of high school boys and girls showed average of 1.78 in physical area, 2.63 in emotional area, 2.61 in ethical area, 2.29 in other area respectively in a negative attitude generally also the negative attitude are expressed most strongly in physical area. I've can also say by this results that smoking is harmful to their health and further more it can be judged that this proves the youth in the period of preparation be adults have a strong curiousity in the emotional, ethical and other areas. 2. The most influential variables in each field as related factors effecting smoking attitude of the student can be explained from 13.2 in physical area the lowest experienced variables to 25.2 in emotional area the highest of degree of smoking experience. The fact that the more the smoking experienced students are increasing in number the higher tendency which accept the' smoking tells as the importance of health education about the population of latest student's smoking as important variables shown equally in each area. Those of grade, age, numbers of smoking people in house are showed meaningful in pure interrelation. Those related to the acceptance of teacher's smoking, sex, mothors education are shown meaningful in opposite interrelations. This means that the' increasing number' of smoking people in grade age, the number of smoker in family have a affirmative attitude. And people who are not interested in teacher's smoking wants to quit it, and whose mother's education is higher have a negative attitude. 3. The most negatively answered questions of the smoking attitude In physical, emotional, ethical and other areas are as belows; Firstly too much smoking is harmful to our health is 1.12 point. Secondly smoking have a ill-effect on pregnancy and embryo is 1.13 point. Thirdly smoking is harmful· to our health is 1.27 point. Fourthly smoking in crowed area with the people such as In a bus or subway should be prohibited is 1.27point. Fifthly smoking can ruin lungs is 1.31 point. And the most affirmatively answered questions are also as below; Firstly we showed smoke depending on time and place is 3.96 points. Secondly smoking is just habit is 3.83 points. Thirdly smoking people seem to be unable and deplorable is 3.69 point. Fourthly smoking should be prohibited by law is 3.56 points. Fifthly high school student's smoking is immitation of adults is 3.52 points.