• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.87-100
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• 2011

Objectives: This study aimed to identify factors associated with smoking relapse. Methods: The study sample was recruited among subjects who were enrolled in the smoking cessation clinic of a public health center and had succeeded in quitting smoking for at least six months. A total of 159 male subjects were followed via mail survey one year later. The independent variables in the analyses were socio-demographic characteristics, smoking history and behavior, receipt of smoking cessation aids, health behaviors and components of the health belief model (HBM). The dependent variable was smoking relapse assessed one year after quitting. Ordered logit regressions were used to identify factors associated with smoking relapse. Results: The relapse rate of the ex-smokers in our sample was 25.8%, and the occasional smoking rate was 17.0%. Univariate analyses revealed that only factors related to the HBM, such as perceived susceptibility to diseases (p<0.01), perceived severity of diseases (p<0.01), perceived health benefits of not smoking (p<0.01), perceived barriers to quitting smoking due to increasing stress and difficulty in social life (p<0.01), and self-efficacy (p<0.01) were associated with the likelihood of relapse for ex-smokers. Ordered logit analyses yielded two significant factors affecting the likelihood of relapse, the perceived barriers to quitting smoking and self-efficacy. Conclusions: Our results indicate that higher levels of barriers to quitting smoking and lower levels of self-efficacy were significantly related to risk of smoking relapse. These findings may be useful for identifying those at highest risk for relapse and choosing the optimal strategies for prevention of relapse for ex-smokers.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.269-289
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• 1999

This study was conducted to examine the relationship among health concern, health practice and ADL of elderly staying at home in a rural community and their affecting factors. Data were collected through direct interviews made with 480 old people aged more than sixty-five from November 15, 1998 to December 20, 1998. Out of 189 male and 291 female, the high-level group that showed high health concern accounted for 44.4%, the medium-level group for 13.1%, and the low-level group for 42.5%, in the health practice, the high-level group accounted for 3.8%, the medium-level group for 18.8%, and the low-level group for 77.5%. In the self-rated health status, the high-level group accounted for 29.0%, the medium-level group for 31.0%, and the low-level group for 40.0%, and in the ADL, the high ADL group accounted for 91.5%, and the low-level ADL group for 8.5%. The result of the chi-square test showed that for male, there was a significant relation between the health concern and the health practice index score. In the relation between the health practice index score and the self-rated health status, there was significant positive relationship between health practice index and self-rated health status, and in the relation between the health practice Index score and the ADL, old people with higher health practices showed good ADL(but not significant). Old people with good ADL also showed good self-rated health status. In the multiple regression analysis where the health practice was used as a dependent variable, the health concern was added to the sociodemographic variables as an independent variables, a formula was formed for male old people only and ones with high concern in health showed good health practice. In the multiple logistic regression analysis where the sociodemographic variables to which the health practices was added were used as an independent variable and the ADL as a dependent variable, the ADL appeared to be not good if for male old people the living costs were born by their sons and daughters and as for female old people their ages increased, but it was good if old people had sources of health information such as hospitals or health centers. The self-rated health status was worse, for male old people, if they had short living costs or diseases and for female old people, if they had spouses, living costs born by their sons and daughters or diseases, but it was better, for male old people, if they had periodical gatherings or carried out health practices a lot, and for female old people, if they had sources of health information such as hospitals or health centers or carried out health practices a lot. In view of the results stated above, the higher the old people had health concern, the more they carried out health practices, and the more they carried out health practices, the better they had ADL and self-rated health status that served as the level of health. Further, the better ADL, the better self-rated health status.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.43-51
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• 2015

Stresses from desolate urban environments cause illnesses and worsen health conditions of urban residents, while natural environments have a positive influence on human. Natural healing programs such as forest therapy and horticultural therapy can be differentiated by the characteristic of activity space. However, previous studies of healing programs have focused on either forest therapy or horticulture therapy and there is a limit to comprehending the effects of adopting and connecting various healing programs. This study compares and analyzes the physiological and psychological effects of forest therapy and horticultural therapy to identify the effects and differences by types of healing programs. The before and after effects of horticultural therapy and forest therapy are measured by experiment and survey for 5 days with 5 subjects in each program. For physiological reaction, blood pressure, pulse, and cortisol levels are measured and the profile of moods states(POMS) is used to measure psychological reaction. Collected data are analyzed with the analysis of variance(ANOVA) and Paired-Sample T-test in SPSS 18.0. The results of this study are as follows: 1) forest therapy and horticultural therapy show positive effects in physiological and physiological aspects, 2) forest therapy is more effective than horticultural therapy in physiological relaxation and stress mitigation, 3) horticultural therapy has a tendency to alleviate depression more effectively than forest therapy. In conclusion, this study contributes to providing fundamental information for the development of healing programs and design guidelines for healing spaces through identifying the characteristics of each healing program.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.863-870
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• 2012

Rhodopsin, a dim light photoreceptor, has been regarded as one of the model systems for the structural and functional study of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Constitutively active mutant GPCRs leading to the activation of heterotrimeric GDP/GTP-binding protein signaling in the absence of ligand binding are of interest for the study of the activation mechanism in GPCRs. The present study focused on the opsin mutant E134Q/M257Y, which showed a moderate level of constitutive activity and the formation of two distinct rhodopsin chromophores with absorption maxima of 500 nm and 380 nm, depending on the presence of an inverse agonist, 11-cis-retinal, and an agonist, all-trans-retinal, respectively. Reconstitution of the mutant rhodopsin upon incubation with different ratios of 11-cis-retinal and the all-trans-retinal, as well as upon sequential binding of the two retinals, indicated its preferential binding to 11-cis-retinal. The thermal stability of the 11-cis-retinal-bound form of the E134Q/M257Y mutant was lower than that of the mutants containing a single replacement but higher than that of the all-trans-retinal-bound forms. The mutant also showed a lower stability in its opsin state as compared with that of the wild-type opsin but had little effects on the binding affinity to 11-cis-retinal. Information obtained in this study will be helpful for analyzing the structural changes associated with the activation of rhodopsin and GPCRs.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.345-351
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• 2009

The aim of this study is understanding the relationship between degree of knowledge and actual condition on oral health care to raise people's attention on oral health care and to develop a oral health care program and respondents are 121 diabetes patients. The conclusion of this study is as follows; 1. In terms of degree of Knowledge, women have better knowledge on dental healthcare than men. People aged between 20 and 50 have relatively good knowledge and the longer patients fight against diabetes the more they know about oral healthcare. 2. In actual oral healthcare condition, only 21.5% of patients use rolling method. Patients who have good knowledge have relatively high frequency of dental treatment. Most patients see dentists for their oral healthcare consultation. 3. All the respondent group hesitate to have dental treatment because of expensive cost. Surprisingly. most patients with good knowledge answers that diabetes has nothing to do with dental disease. 4. In terms of degree of knowledge and having oral healthcare program, diabetes patients who are having programs has better knowledge. 5. Respondent group which has middle level of knowledge in oral healthcare give high marks on oral healthcare but does not show statistical significance.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.219-225
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• 2012

This study is analyzed the implementation of medical aid for patients over 65 years of age who are among the discharged from hospitals with the capacity of over 100 beds. I have analyzed it with the data from an in-depth study of injury surveillance of discharged patients from hospitals done in a national project in 2004. After analyzing the results of the data from the beginning of this national project to the data collected in 2008, I could get the results that the rate of discharged patients over 65 years of age increased every year. Among them, the rate of discharged women was higher than that of the men, and the rate of deaths while at the hospital for patients over 65 years of age was higher than that of patients less than 65 years of age. The rate of operations done on patients over 65 was lower than that of patients under 65 years of age. The results of a diagnosis of popular symptoms showed that the rate of the diagnosis of cerebral infraction and structure of the heart at the circulatory organ was higher. In addition, the rate of the diagnosis of lung cancer, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive lung disease was higher, as well as the rates of gastric cancer, diabetes, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer. The results showed that the operation of the nerve system or cardiovascular system were higher. Therefore, according to this result, we should prioritize and allocate resources to the elderly people when setting up a management policy. And also, we should promote healthcare for elderly people after considering the characteristics of the implementation of medical aid in preparation of a super-aged society.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.153-162
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• 2018

The technology of mobile healthcare is steadily growing, but acceptance of consumers is sluggish. Various studies related to mobile healthcare have been conducted, but studies on the characteristics of prisoners are lacking. Therefore, in this study, we examined the effect of diffusion factors of mobile health care on the intention to use, and examined the moderating effect of innovation propensity. The results show that the relative advantage, compatibility, observability, and usefulness of mobile health care affect the intention to use. In addition, the innovation propensity has a moderating effect on the influence of complexity, trialability, and usafulness on intention to use. This study suggests that the use of the concept of innovation propensity has been confirmed as a major control variable in the relationship between innovation diffusion factors and utilization intention. In addition, it suggests that consumers' innovation tendency is a factor to be taken into consideration for suppliers of mobile healthcare.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.185-194
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• 2014

One in every 10 persons suffer from chronic gastritis in Korea. Endoscopy is most commonly used to diagnose the chronic gastritis. Endoscopic diagnosis is precise but it is accompanied with pain and high cost. According to pulse diagnosis in Traditional East Asian Medicine, health problems in stomach can be diagnosed with radial pulse signals in 'Guan' location in the right wrist, which are non-invasive and cost-effective. In this study, we developed a classification model of chronic gastritis using pulse signals in right 'Guan' location. We used both linear discrimination method and logistic regression model with respect to pulse features obtained with a peak-valley detection algorithm and a Gaussian model. As a result, we obtained sensitivity ranged between 77%~89% and specificity ranged between 72%~83% depending on classification models and feature extraction methods, and the average classification rates were approximately 80%, irrespective of the models. Specifically, the Gaussian model were featured by superior sensitivities (89.1% and 87.5%) while the peak-valley detection method showed superior specificities (82.8% and 81.3%), and the average classification rate (sensitivity + specificity) of the Gaussian model was 80.9% which was 1.2% ahead of the peak-valley method. In conclusion, we obtained a reliable classification model for the chronic gastritis based on the radial pulse feature extraction algorithms, where the Gaussian model was featured by outperformed sensitivity and the peak-valley method was featured by outperformed specificity.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2015

Purpose: Predicting life expectancy of terminally ill cancer patients is very important. In many studies, ferritin is detected at higher levels in the sera of cancer patients, and higher ferritin level correlates with aggressiveness of disease and poor outcomes of patients. This study evaluated a prognostic role of serum ferritin levels in terminally ill cancer patients. Methods: This study enrolled 65 terminally ill cancer patients from March through June 2012. We assessed routine laboratory findings including serum ferritin levels as well as demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients. To examine the association between serum ferritin levels and patient's characteristics, we used Spearman's correlation analysis, Wilcoxon's rank sum test or Kruskal-Wallis test, as appropriately. For multivariate analysis, Cox's proportional hazard regression model was used to evaluate significance of serum ferritin levels as a prognostic factor. Results: A negative correlation between serum ferritin levels and survival time was found. After adjusting for sex, age, performance status, creatinine levels and white blood cell counts, serum ferritin levels were significantly associated with survival time. Conclusion: Even at the very end of life of terminal cancer patients, serum ferritin levels were an independent prognostic factor for survival.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.425-436
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• 2015

This study is to investigate how the expenditures for hypertension is affected by socioeconomic, health care resources, and health behavior factors with a special emphasis on geographic variations and to provide the data about regional management for hypertension. To analyze, we combined a unique data set including key indicators from Medical Service Usage Statistics 2012 by Region by National Health Insurance Corporation, Annual Community Health Survey 2012 by Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government organizations at the 247 small administrative districts. We found that the average expenditures of hypertension in 249 small districts is 62,000 won and coefficient of variation is 30.0. Major factors of differences in hypertension expenditure is population density, marital status, household income, number of hospital per 100 thousand, medical expenses outside the jurisdiction, drinking rate, moderate and over-intensity physical activity, and hypertension diagnosis rate. The results of decision tree was that there were significant differences between regions in hypertension diagnosis rate, household income, marital status, number of hospital per 100 thousand, obesity rate, drinking rate. This study concluded that determinants of geographic variations in hypertension spending are not only health resources and socioepidemic characteristics but health behaviors.