• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.361-370
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• 2016

Objective:The aim of this study is to evaluate contributions of individual finger forces associated with various levels of submaximal voluntary contraction tasks. Background: Although many researches for individual finger force have been conducted, most of the studies mainly focus on the maximal voluntary contraction. However, Information concerning individual finger forces during submaximal voluntary contraction is also very important for developing biomechanical models and for designing hand tools, work equipment, hand prostheses and robotic hands. Due to these reasons, studies on the contribution of individual finger force in submaximal grip force exertions should be fully considered. Method: A total of 60 healthy adults without any musculoskeletal disorders in the upper arms participated in this study. The young group (mean: 23.7 yrs) consisted of 30 healthy adults (15 males and 15 females), and the elderly group (mean: 75.2 yrs) was also composed of 30 participants (15 males and 15 females). A multi-Finger Force Measurement (MFFM) System developed by Kim and Kong (2008) was applied in order to measure total grip strength and individual finger forces. The participants were asked to exert a grip force attempting to minimize the difference between the target force and their exerted force for eight different target forces (5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, and 75% MVCs). These target forces based on the maximum voluntary contraction, which were obtained from each participant, were randomly assigned in this study. Results: The contributions of middle and ring fingers to the total grip force represented an increasing trend as the target force level increased. On the other hand, the contributions of index and little fingers showed a decreasing trend as the target force level increased. In particular, Index finger exerted the largest contribution to the total grip force, followed by middle, ring and little fingers in the case of the smallest target force level (5% MVC), whereas middle finger showed the largest contribution, followed by ring, index and little fingers at the largest target force levels (65 and 75% MVCs). Conclusion: Each individual finger showed a different contribution pattern to the grip force exertion. As the target force level increase from 5 to 75% MVC, the contributions of middle and ring fingers showed an increasing trend, whereas the contributions of index and little fingers represented a decreasing trend in this study. Application: The results of this study can be useful information when designing robotic hands, hand tools and work equipment. Such information would be also useful when abnormal hand functions are evaluated.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.259-268
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• 1984

The Korean government launched the medicaid program for the poor people as a wing of the social development and welfare programs beginning in 1977 when the fourth 5-year national economic development program started. The charts of the medicaid recipients who visited Jonglo-Gu Health Center for the period from 1981 to 1983 were reviewed and analysed. Major findings from the analysis are as follows. 1. The medicaid recipients occupied 5.19% in 1981, 2.90% in 1982 and 2.00% among the total residents of Jonglo district in 1983, respectively. 2. The mean number of physician visits per person year of medicaid recipients who visited the Jonglo-Gu Health Center was 4.73 in 1981, 4.90 in 1982 and 4.41 in 1983, respectively. 3. The consultation/referral rate at the Jonglo-Gu Health Center was 2.65% in 1981, 1.77% in 1982 and 2.18% in 1983 while the rate at the department of family practice, Seoul National University Hospital was 3.18% in 1983. 4. Classifying into 17 major categories, the pattern of diseases of the poor outpatients who visited the Hallym College Medical Center both in 1981 and 1982 showed a statistically similar pattern of the 5,169 medicaid patients who visited the Jonglo-Gu Health Center in 1981 and 401 patients in 1983. 5. Classifying into 17 major categories, the disease of outpatient visits at the department of family practice, Seoul National University Hospital from 1st May, 1983 to 31s1 Oct., 1983 revealed statistically significant similarity with both the 5,169 medicaid patients in 1981 and the 401 patients sampled in 1983. 6. Classifying into 17 major categories, the diseases of community diagnosis at the Ihwa Dong, Jonglo-Gu also showed a statistically significant similarity with the 5,169 medicaid patients who visited the Jonglo-Gu Health Center in 1981. 7. Classifying into 17 major categories, the diseases of 5,169 medicaid patients at Jonglo-Gu Health Center in 1981 showed a statistically significant similar distribution with that of the 401 sampled medicaid patients at this center in 1983. 8. Among the medicaid patients who utilized the Jonglo-Gu Health Center in 1983, 401 sampled patients who are practicable routine urinalysis composed of 131 indigent group and 270 low-income group. The sample composed of 127 males and 274 females. There were more old patients than the young ones among the 401 sampled patients. 9. Age-adjusted prevalence rate of the hypertension computed by the direct method using estimated of midyear population of 1980 year as the standard is the highest in the Yonsei area and the lowest in the Shindongmyun. Furthermore age-adjusted prevalence rate was higher for males than that of females. 10. The group of hypertension patients using routine urinalysis profile composed of pyuria, hematuria, proteinuria and glycosuria is the most statistical significant, the pyuria alone is very significant, hematuria is significant and proteinuria is also significant.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.155-168
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• 1982

What is attempted here is to find out an optimum method for the design of physical environments that could save human energy expenditures and safely perform household duties. There are, if any, very little amount of research done in this area. This is particulary so when the work relates to the designing of household storage facilities in the light of the energy metabolism of human body. The first step to this study, therefore, is to find out the ways by which we can determine the energy metabolism of human body accurately. To measure the volume and the concentration of human respiration continuously and automatically, a new apparatus is selected here. This includes the recording system with the Wright Respirometer and the Expired Gas Analyzer as well as the computer system to multiply volume by concentration of human respiration and to integrate them for a given time. Then, the author experimented on the reliability of this apparatus and came to the conclusion that this apparatus satisfied our need to research the energy metabolism of human body. Next, the general plan and procedures to experiment with this apparatus have been determined as follows: 1) subjects are three young and sound females. Their physical characteristics are shown in Table 1 and most approximates the standard characteristics of Japanese females, 2) height of open shelves is selected in such away as to correspond to the respective height of each subject(see Table 2), 3) utensils to be stored are box shaped object, which weight is 0.5kg, 1.0kg, 2.0kg or 3.0kg, 4) working motions are given while one or two hands as to place utensil on each shelf from the standard working board, 85 cm in height and then to place back it on the board from the shelf and repeated in constant velocity as 10 times per a minute, 5) each posture of motion is chosen by each subject in free, 6) procedures of measurement of human energy metabolism ard shown at(6), 1, Section 3 as specific methods for using this apparatus. Findings of this study are as follows: 1. Human energy expenditures for storing utensils on shelves by each subject are shown in quantity more accurately than in any other studies, under varying conditions about height of shelves, load of utensils and working motion with one hand and two hands (see Fig. 8~13 and Table 3). 2. Experimental formulae of human energy expenditure for that work are shown as formula (8), (9) and (10), to generalize results of 1. and to apply those for working motion under given conditions. 3. As results of analysis on gained data, we are able to show the standard model of human energy expenditures for storing untensils on shelves by the standard Japanese female (see Table 7 and Fig. 14).

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.374-385
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• 2008

A study has been performed to provide the basic information about the current dietary habits, health related behaviors, and body indices and to bring forward the importance of this information to the people's attention based upon the relation between employee's life patterns and health conditions in their daily lives. Three hundred and five department store workers were examined from August 2006 to September 2006. With the average BMI values $23.9{\pm}2.2$ for males and $20.0{\pm}1.9$ for females, both gender groups were in normal, but 62.2% of the males were overweight and 15.4% of the females were under-weight. Regarding dietary and health related factors on how they perceive themselves, as normal were 204 (66.9%) the most and bad and very bad were respectively 43 (14.1%) and 5 (1.6%). Half of the subjects (43.2%) perceived sleeping hours to be insufficient, and 64.4% of them need to exercise regularly. As problems related to eating habits, they reported irregular meal times, overeating, preference of hot and spicy food, skipping meal, unbalanced meals. Regarding weight control they have attempted were the most (73.0%), after weight reduction, 51.2% of the subjects had side effects, such as gastrointestinal troubles, anemia, dizziness, sense of fatigue, constipation, physiological disorder, and diarrhea, etc. In the food habit score, it was shown that overall average score of the subjects was $62.63{\pm}9.86$ which is lower than other studies. Female ($62.76{\pm}10.15$) had better score than male ($61.67{\pm}8.06$). While the item with the highest point was eat all three meals of the day, that was the lowest point, exercise every day. The food habit score of the younger group had lower than older group, and also they preferred sweet foods to other group. The results suggest that nutrition education for workers at specific working fields needs to be more focused on the improvement of dietary habits and health status of workers.

• The Journal of Korea CHUNA Manual Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.129-140
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• 2003

Objectives : This study researched into clinical statistics for patients recieved oriental medicine treatments In the Um-sung Gun Dae-so Myun health care center during eight months from May 1 2002 to December 31 2002. The number of object was 246 cases of 234 persons. Results & Conclusions : Analyzing these 234 persons, the rate of males to females was 1 to 2.1. As for the distribution of age, the age of 61 to 70 occupied 44.02 % and the age of 61 to 90 occupied 76.5 % ih the Whole patients. Therefore female was very highly more than male and patients were for the most part, old ages (61 years old and over) Musculoskeletal disease of 202 cases occupied 82.13 %, were the highest rate. At the duration of disease 1 year to 5 years occupied 26.92 %, was the highest. The Grade II was the most of the sign of patients at first visit, it occupied 47.86 %, The Fair(+) and over effect of treatments occupied 96.84 %, the failure(-) Of effect treatments occupied 3.16 %. As for the duration of treatment, the case of 2 times to 5 times visit occupied 38.03 %, was the highest. By medication of treatment, O-juk-san(五積山) occupied 35.10 %, was the highest rate. The average 8.67 persons treated with oriental medicine a day, the average 1.36 person received the first medical examination a day.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.502-513
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• 2018

Objectives: Stress hormone (cortisol) can be used to analyze psychological and physiological changes and healing effects before and after in blood and saliva. Here it is applied to scientifically validate the effects of the healthy forest experience in Deogyusan Mountain National Park. Methods: A healthy forest experience program was provided to college students (males and females) at Deogyusan National Park. Stress, hormones (cortisol), blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation and stress, anxiety, and depression were measured. This study was designed to objectively analyze the effects of stress hormones before and after. Results: Depression, stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with the forest experience program in Deogyusan National Park were very high in reliability in terms of Cronbach's Alpha: depression scored 0.910, stress 0.558, anxiety 0.934, program satisfaction 0.826, and program effectiveness 0.894. Conclusions: In this study, we utilized the Healthy Forest Experience Program and the 'Health and Medical Center Health Record Book' of the Health Forest Experience Program (Ministry of Environment's Environmental Education Certification Program). In the future, we will seek ways to utilize saliva since it is easier to collect than blood samples and apply the stress hormone cortisol as a saliva authentication program. In addition, by implementing ecological welfare programs in which nature and human beings coexist through systematic preservation and restoration, the national park management can utilize ecological, scenic and cultural services wisely. We expect to be able to provide exploration and welfare services.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.49-60
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• 2008

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate correlation of the phlegm-retained fluid, namely Damum(痰飮) and dark circles under eyes. Methods: 2 males and 11 females aged 26-60 years were participated in this study. They were asked the intensity of 29 symptoms related with Damum(痰飮) including dark circle with the questionnaire published by the Journal of the Korea Institute of Oriental Medical Diagnostics. Three skin researchers including OMD graded the dark circles by inspection. We took the pictures around eyes by Facial Stage (Moritex, Japan) and analyzed the skin color by Image-Pro Plus (Media Cybernetics, USA). Results: There was statistically significant correlation between Damum(痰飮) and dark circles measured by self, inspectors and image analysis. Conclusions: In the Oriental Medicine, It is reported that the shadows under eyes are the sign of the retention of fluid, Damum(痰飮). In our study, that shadows, namely dark circles, has correlation with the symptoms of Damum(痰飮). Especially, the correlation between inspected grade and image analysis was very high. According to the above results, it is proved that dark circles under eyes are important diagnostic sign of Damum(痰飮).

• Journal of The Korean Dental Society of Anesthesiology
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• v.2 no.2 s.3
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• pp.101-106
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• 2002

Background: The management of the behavior of handicapped children when providing required dental care is often a problem, whether in the dental office or in a hospital setting. Because of the high incidence of poor cooperation, many of these patients are scheduled for dental care under general anesthesia with preoperative medical assessment. The purpose of this study was to carry out a clinico-statistical survey on dental treatment for handicapped children under general anesthesia. Methods: After approval from the institutional review board, the medical records of 64 handicapped children between 1997 and 2002 were reviewed to determine the patient profiles, anesthesia management, and complications. The charts of these patients, who underwent dental examination, scaling and prophylaxis, and restoration and extraction of teeth under general anesthesia, were reviewed. Results: The mean age was 12.8 years old, and males (53%) predominated females (47%). Twenty-four patients had mental retardation, twelve had autism, six had cerebral palsy, 4 had behavior disorder, others had heart disease, convulsive disorder, etc. Sixty-two had intravenous thiopental with neuromuscular blocker, 2 had intravenous ketamine induction. Nasotracheal intubation was uneventful in 55 patients, nine had orotracheal intubation because of difficult visualization of the larynx. Twenty-one patients experienced postoperative complications in the recovery room, including epistaxis, nasal obstruction, vomiting, airway obstruction, respiratory depression. Conclusions: General anesthesia is a very effective way of completing the dental treatments for disabled children. We emphasize the need to train anesthesiologists in the care of disabled patients.

• Survey Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.65-90
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to develope an appropriate method of the household projection in Korea. Given the data constraints, the headship rate method is selected. This method is known to be responsive to changes in demographic factors related to household formation. To project future headship rates, the method of net transition rates based on the average of two-census intervals was adopted for household heads ages 35 and over, while the log-linear formula was employed for those aged under 35. The future headship rate of Korean males shows a one-peak pattern with plateau, whereas that of Korean females marks a two-peak pattern. For a better projection of household in the future, one-person households should be treated more carefully, because they are mostly either young adults or the elderly whose activities of household formation and dissolution are very hard to forecast.

• Survey Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.143-172
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• 2011

The relationship between body weight and body image, an objective and subjective measure of body shape, respectively, has long been a recurrent concern in the area of medical sociology and health-related studies. This concern stems from the argument and findings in the literature indicating that the two are not necessarily likely to be strongly correlated due mostly to the fact that one's own idea or conception about his/her body shape could be pretty different from one's actual shape. This study tries to empirically address the two issues based on the analysis of a national sample survey data in Korea: to what extent body weight and body image are correlated with or deviated from each other, on the one hand, and what factors help to account for the relationship between the two, on the other. The latest(2010) national sample data of KGSS(Korean General Social Survey) is used to evaluate the issues. Results of data analysis demonstrate that body weight and image have a moderate amount of correlation, and that the correlation tends to vary to a large extent depending on a few major socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Most important, the risk factor analysis attempted in this study could identify several salient risk factors, which include gender, age, chronic diseases, smoking, physical exercises, and medical checkup. To be precise, those who may be best characterized as particularly risky to weight gains are females, who are in their 20's, who have chronic diseases, non-smokers, who exercise regularly, and who conduct medical checkups on a regular basis. To extrapolate, the findings suggest that the most typically risky kinds of individuals in Korea are "young women who care very much for their health." The findings are interpreted and discussed with suggesting a recommendation for further studies.