• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.63-79
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• 2009

While previous epidemiological studies on temporomandibular disorders (TMD) have been based on a given health center or population sample, no study has been performed on general population of Korea, especially concerning about treatment pattern such as clinician’s specialty involved in TMD treatment, types and amount of prescription medication and cost. This study aimed to investigate magnitude of health visits and treatment patterns for Korean patients with TMD through the computerized database of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRAS). Inclusion criteria were all patients registered on the HIRAS database over 3 years' period from 2003 to 2005 and the medical records of patients with TMD as a main diagnosis were extracted. Information collected was as follows; distribution related to gender, age and region and type of hospital the patients visited, treatment duration, clinicians' specialty involved in treatment, cost, types of prescription medication and surgical treatment. The results of this study indicated that 0.15% of the population yearly sought TMD treatment, presenting with increase of incidence over the three years. Most of TMD patients were women (99.8%) and the biggest age group was second and third decades and decreased with age. Seoul and Kyeonggi province presented with higher incidence of TMD compared to the other regions of Korea, which seems to be related with magnitude of population. 56% of TMD patients visited primary care sector and the numbers of treatment visits was the highest in dental clinic (38.4%), followed by orthopedics (28%) and ENT (13.6%) clinics in order. Duration of prescription medication was the longest for anti-inflammatory analgesics, followed by antipsychotic drugs and muscle relaxants. Inpatient care related to TMD was primarily performed in dental hospital compared to medical hospital. Medical database of HIRAS provided comprehensive and vast information on epidemiologic characteristics and treatment patterns for patients seeking TMD treatment, which can be more reliable data to expect medical demand for TMD in condition that accurate diagnosis and standardized treatment is delivered in clinical settings.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2011

Objectives: The Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) has been used to help identify patients at high risk of having sleep apnea in primary care. But it has not been validated in a sleep clinic for Korean patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the BQ as a screening tool for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) for Korean patients in a sleep clinic. Methods: The BQ was prospectively applied to 121 subjects with OSA suspicion who visited to our sleep clinic. All subjects performed overnight polysomnography. OSA was defined as an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ${\geq}5$. We investigated the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the BQ according to severity by AHI. Results: In 121 subjects, 73.6% were males, with a mean age of $48.8{\pm}13.0$ years. Twenty-five (20.6%) patients did not have OSA (AHI<5), 30 (25%) patients had mild OSA ($AHI{\geq}5$ and <15), 26 (21.4%) had moderate ($AHI{\geq}15$ and <30), and 40 (33%) had severe OSA ($AHI{\geq}30$). The BQ identified 69.4% of the patients as being at high risk for having OSA. The sensitivity and specificity of the BQ were 71.9% and 40%, for $AHI{\geq}5$, 75.8% and 38.2% for $AHI{\geq}15$, 77.5% and 34.6% for $AHI{\geq}30$, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values of the BQ were 82.1% and 27.0% for $AHI{\geq}5$, respectively. Positive and negative likelihood ratios were 1.2 and 0.7, and the overall diagnostic accuracy of the BQ was 65.3%, using an AHI cut-off of 5. Conclusion: Due to modest sensitivity and low specificity, the BQ does not seem to be an appropriate tool for identifying patients with obstructive sleep apnea in a sleep clinic population.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2001

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) is a moderately prevalent disorder. Even though much progress has been made in the diagnosis of this disorder, the cost-effectiveness of nocturnal polysomnography is undertermined and physicians and patients are still hesitant to undergo this procedure. The authors wanted to see the validity of chin press/tongue curl maneuver in estimating the severity of OSA which is easy to measure and was originally proposed by Simmons etc. by looking at the correlations between this score and the conventional respiratory disturbance indices. Methods: Forty-three sleep-related breathing disorder patients (28 OSA patients and 15 upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) patients) who underwent investigation for posssible OSA were studied. Two conventional indices of OSA (apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) and oxygen saturation dip rate (SaO2 dips)), four other sleep variables (lowest SaO2, % of time with SaO2<90% (%SaO2 <90), % of sleep stage 1, mean length of SaO2 dips) and the score of Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) were compared with the chin press score (CPS) which was newly revised by the author and ranges from 0 to 6. Results: The age of subjects was $45.95{\pm}12.47$ (range 14-76) and their average BMI was $25.98{\pm}3.61$ (range 19.65-37.64). There were no significant differences in age, sex and BMI except repiratory disturbance indices and ESS (p<0.05) between OSA and UARS group. Grouped median CPS of the all subjects was 4.14 (range 1-6). There was a remarkable relationship between CPS and diagnosis category (Likelihood Ratio $X^2$ test; $X^2$=17.41, df=5, p=0.004) and measures of association (Somers' $d=0.65{\pm}0.12$, t=4.83, p=0.000) indicated that CPS increased when the diagnosis changed from UARS to OSA. Spearman's rank correlations between CPS and SaO2 dips (R=0.83), between CPS and AHI (R=0.77) were good (p<0.001). Other variables except mean length of SaO2 dips showed good correlations with CPS as well (p<0.05). Regression analysis indicated that when CPS is 3 there is a provability of 0.35 to have AHI of less than 5. Conclusion: Chin press scores that can be measured easily is well correlation with the conventional sleep apnea indices. They may therefore provide a useful guide in diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea synrome.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2024

Objectives: Presenteeism is known to be a much more economically damaging social cost than disease rest while going to work despite physical pain. Since COVID-19, social discussions on the sickness benefit have been taking place as a countermeasure against presenteeism, and in particular, farmers and fishermen do not have an institutional mechanism for livelihood support when a disease other than work occurs. This study attempted to examine the relationship between agricultural, fishing, and forestry workers and presenteeism using the 6th Korean Work Conditions Survey. Methods: From October 2020 to January 2021, data from the 6th working conditions survey conducted on 17 cities and provinces in Korea were used, and a total of 34,981 people were studied. Control variables were gender, age, self-health assessment, education level, night work, shift work, monthly income, occupation, working hours per week, and employment status. Results: As a result of the analysis, farmers and fishermen showed the characteristics of the self-employed and the elderly, and as a result of the regression analysis, when farmers and fishermen analyzed the relationship with presenteeism tendency compared to other industry workers, farmers and fishermen increased by 23% compared to other industry groups. Conclusion: This study is significant in that it has representation by utilizing the 6th working conditions survey and objectively suggests the need for a sickness benefit for farmers and fishermen who may be overlooked in the sickness benefit.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.81-101
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• 2012

A franchise system develops competitive products for a franchise store through the system established by the franchise head office. Therefore, it has advantages of expanding the marketing effect since the risk of failure is reduced for a founder and the franchise head office supports the overall sales, advertisement and promotional activities. Also, a franchise store has advantages of fulfilling necessary facilities and tools on advantageous terms, reducing expenses by purchasing in bulk, and getting a supply of products with stable qualities. However, aside from such advantages, franchise head offices are forcing franchise stores to make unnecessary investments in equipments and remodel the interior. Also, franchise business operators are being made to share the cost of marketing and multiple franchise stores are being approved within the same business district, and franchise business operators are suffering damages. Therefore, cases of shutting down a franchise store or not renewing the contract are frequent. From the position of a franchise head office, profits that are generated from franchise fees, interior remodeling fees and supplying facilities and materials will increase as the number of new franchise stores increases. However, franchise stores are faced with difficulties due to excessive competitions between similar types of businesses and the overlapping of business districts that come from increases in the number of stores, and they eventually end up shutting down. Therefore, in order for a franchise business operator and franchise head office to grow and develop continuously, opening new stores is important, but successfully renewing the contract by maintaining a relationship with an existing franchise business operator is desirable. In this aspect, a study that examines the elements that can affect the relationship between a franchise business operator and franchise head office is believed to be important for the development of the franchise industry and creating safe jobs for the public. With an emphasis on the relationship between a franchise head office and franchise store, this study attempted to examine the effect of characteristics of a franchise head office and franchise business operator on the bilateral relationship such as the faith and immersion, and wished to review the effects of such faith and immersion on the satisfaction of a franchise store, including an intention of renewing the contract. In particular, in the current situation of great uncertainties in the market, this study also wished to examine how uncertain market elements will affect the relationship between the characteristics of a franchise head office and franchise business operator, and the faith and immersion. The study revealed that among the characteristics of a franchise head office, the standardization management of a franchise head office hinders a franchise store's faith and immersion in a franchise head office. Also, a franchise head office's support was shown to increase a franchise store's faith and immersion. However, it was revealed that a franchise head office's regulation and incentive policies for a franchise store do not affect a franchise store's faith and immersion. Among characteristics of a franchise business operator, a franchise store's healthy financial status and entrepreneur spirits were shown to enhance the faith and immersion in a franchise head office. However, it was shown that excellent business abilities of a franchise business operator actually reduce the immersion for a franchise head office. Also, the faith and immersion in a franchise head office were shown to enhance the intention of renewing the contract by increasing the satisfaction for a franchise head office. In addition, it was originally believed that the effects of a franchise business operator's characteristics on the faith and immersion in a franchise head office will vary depending on the market uncertainty, but the effect of a franchise business operator's characteristics depending on the recognition of uncertainties was shown to be insignificant. Such findings show that instead of making a franchise store pay for equipment investments and marketing and obtaining profits by force, a franchise head office should actively support a franchise store so that a franchise store's business activities can be conducted well, which will bring profits to a franchise store and ultimately to a franchise head office. This is a more desirable direction for the development of both parties. Implications of such findings are summarized as follows. First, it was shown that a franchise head office's standardization management actually reduces a franchise store's faith and immersion. Therefore, it is believed that instead of conducting standardization managements for regulating and managing franchise stores, measures should be developed so that franchise stores can actually participate voluntarily. For this, a head office should put in efforts to develop and provide standardized manuals, and make sure that a self-review system takes root. Second, a franchise head office's incentives did not have significant effects on the faith and immersion, but the support was shown to be effective. Therefore, it can be seen that instead of taking post-measures for a franchise store, taking pre-measures of actively supporting is more effective in maintaining a franchise store. Third, among characteristics of a franchise head office, it was shown that a franchise store's healthy financial status increased the faith and immersion in a franchise head office. Therefore, when selecting a franchise business operator, instead of thoughtlessly opening up franchise stores for the profit of a head office, it is believed that reviewing a franchise business operator's financial firepower and credit status is necessary. As for academic implications, previous studies examined the relationship by focusing on the characteristics of a franchise head office and franchise store, but this study focused on the characteristics of a franchise business operator. Therefore, this study dealt with the importance of a franchise business operator's competence, and is significant because it revealed the fact that a franchise business operator's excellent commercialization ability can become an element that hinders the immersion in a franchise head office. It was originally believed that a franchise store's characteristics will have different effects on the faith and immersion depending on the market uncertainty, but it was shown that the effect of a franchise store's characteristics depending on the recognition of uncertainties was insignificant, and that is the limitation of this study.