• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.233-241
• /
• 2009

Purpose: Alcohol is a major risk factor for injuries, but little is known about the relationship between chronic drinking pattern and injuries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of alcohol-related injuries and the differences in the characteristics of the injuries between Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) categories. Methods: Among a representative sample of the third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 7,697 adults answered questions about injuries, drinking patterns, and socioeconomic status. Incidences of alcohol-related injuries and of non-alcohol-related injuries were calculated, and the relative ratio of injuries between AUDIT categories was analyzed. Results: The incidences of all injuries and alcohol-related injuries were 69.2 and 6.8 per 1000 person-year. After adjustment, the incidences of non-alcohol-related injuries showed no differences between AUDIT categories. But the adjusted relative ratios (RRs) of alcohol-related injuries were 3.73 (95% CI: 1.54~8.99) and 7.70 (95% CI: 3.61~16.44) for risk drinkers and for alcohol-dependent drinkers respectively. No specific body part could be identified as being frequently injured in cases of risk drinkers and alcohol-dependent drinkers. In contrast, the adjusted RRs of fractures, bruises, and open wounds were 1.76 (95% CI: 1.03~3.02), 1.73 (95% CI: 1.15~2.61), and 1.85 (95% CI: 1.17~2.93) for alcohol-dependent drinkers. Assaults occurred 4.66 times more frequently in alcohol-dependent drinkers. Conclusion: Alcohol-related injuries occur more frequently as the person becomes more dependent on alcohol. Fractures, Bruises, open wounds, and assaults occur more frequently in alcohol-dependent drinker. This study suggests that efforts should be carried out in the ED to screen and treat alcohol-use disorders associated with patients injured after drinking.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.342-348
• /
• 2014

Background: Due to lack of regular and systematic evaluation tool, Korea's tobacco control policy has not been examined its overall process of implementation including efficiency and adequacy of the policies. This study developed policy monitoring and evaluation model to assess policy implementation and effectiveness of tobacco control in Korea. Methods: Based on World Health Organization operational manual for assessment, MPOWER (monitor tobacco use and prevention policies, protect from tobacco smoke, offer help to quit tobacco use, warn about the dangers of tobacco, enforce bans on tobacco advertising promotion and sponsorship, and raise taxes on tobacco) related policies were reviewed by rating policy efforts, programme management, people (human resources and their development), provision of organization, provision of fund and partnerships (range, 0 to 5). Results: As a result of the experts' assessment, overall Korean tobacco control policies scored 2.61 points, which is poor. In relation to each 'MPOWER' policies, 'W' scored the highest points (2.93), followed by 'O' (2.91), 'M' (2.87), 'P' (2.86), and 'E' (2.23). 'R' scored the lowest points of 1.87, meaning government efforts in tobacco price policy is insufficient. Conclusion: This study concludes that Korean tobacco control policy should strengthen tax and price measures, while programme infrastructure, people, and funds for policy enforcement should be secured. Furthermore, rather than focusing on one specific measure, a balanced approach reflecting various aspects of tobacco controls should be considered in order to decrease smoking rates and prevent smoking initiation.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.146-161
• /
• 1995

This study is an effort to bring our attention to social dependence on alcohol, focusing on previous studies of drinking behaviors. Although drinking behavior and problems must be understood in a biopsychosocial framework, a certain aspect is often ignored in alcohol research. A few attention has been paid to social aspect of alcohol abuse or dependence. Social processes of drinking behavior deserve to have same attention as other aspects, psychological and physical aspects of the behavior. Literature show that the interdependence among group members exists to regulate individual's drinking behavior. Such social interactions tend to control drinking level for individual in terms of amounts, frequency, and preference. The drinking level tends to be dependent on desires for heavy drinkers, ignoring variabilities of individual's sensitivity to alcohol. However, such a heavy-oriented tendency in drinking behavior may have different patterns which are function of normative orientation of alcohol. negotiation among group members, and ethnoreligious characteristics. Perspectives from conflict tradition and symbolic interactionism are welcomed to illuminate multi-dimentional aspects of social dependence. Policy implication were discussed from public health perspective.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.59-72
• /
• 2012

Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the trajectory of depressive symptoms among aged 20 years adults and examine the direct and indirect pathway linking socioeconomic status(education attainment, household income, occupation), alcohol use and depressive symptoms. It particularly focused on whether alcohol use would mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms. Methods: This study analysed 13,763 households of Korean Welfare Panel Study 1st, 2nd, 3rd data using Latent Growth Curve Modeling. Results: The results showed that study participants tend to decrease depressive symptoms with years. Similar to the findings of the previous studies, education attainment and household income among the socioeconomic status factors effected directly depressive symptoms and indirectly by mediating alcohol volume controlling sex and age. Conclusions: Based on findings of this study, the policy and practical implications were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2016

Objectives: This study sought to explore the relationships between drinking problems and alcohol's harm to others with the moderating effects of alcohol expectancies on these relationships after controlling for demographic characteristics. Methods: Participants for this study were 1,859 men and women. We performed hierarchical regression analyses with sets of predictors (1) demographic characteristics, (2) drinking problems and alcohol expectancies, and (3) interaction terms between drinking problems and alcohol expectancies. Results: After controlling for demographic characteristics, drinking problems and alcohol expectancies had the significant effects on alcohol's harm to others in both men and women. However, the interactions between drinking problems and negative alcohol expectancy showed the significant impacts on alcohol's harm to others among men. When men had higher levels of negative alcohol expectancy, drinking problems showed stronger effects on alcohol's harm to others. Conclusions: As a result, findings from the study highlight the importance of more sophisticated public policy to prevent and to intervene drinking problems and to support those around drinkers and drinkers themselves.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.58-67
• /
• 2019

Background: In this study, we aimed to investigate the drinking behaviors and drinking-related problems of college students in South Korea to produce national alcohol statistics. Methods: We carefully examined the questionnaires and previous research developed in the previous research project and selected questions that reflect the special environment and culture of college students. In order to stratify a nationally representative sample of college students, the distribution of students around the country were found through the educational statistics database of the Korea Educational Development Institute. Based on this information, we conducted a survey in collaboration with Gallup (Korea) to survey and analyze the drinking behaviors of 5,024 Korean students. Results: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017, for Korean college students. A total of 5,024 students were recruited and analyzed. The monthly drinking rate was 78.0% for male students and 72.9% for female students. The high-risk drinking rate was 23.3% for male students and 17.2% for female students. The most popular category for number of drinks per drinking session was 'more than 10 glasses' per drinking session for both male (44.1%) and female (32.8%). On the alcohol use disorders identification test, the greatest proportion of male students were in the high-risk drinking category (score 8 to 15) 43.8%, followed by the 'low-risk drinking' (score 0 to 7) in 43.6%, 'alcohol abuse' (score 16 to 19) 7.2%, and 'alcohol dependence' (greater than 20) 5.4% categories, respectively. For female students, the greatest proportion of female students were in the 'low-risk drinking' in 49.6%, followed by 'high-risk drinking' 37.1%, 'alcohol abuse' 8.4%, and 'alcohol dependence' 4.9% categories, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the drinking behavior of Korean college students was excessive. Overall, it was found that the college population has a greater high-risk drinking behaviors than general adult population. Furthermore, these problem drinking behaviors were prominent among female college students. Results from the present study suggest that it is necessary to monitor the drinking behavior of college students with constant interest and to prepare policies and strategies suitable for these circumstances.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.39-45
• /
• 2006

Objectives: This study estimated the burden of disease especially caused by psychiatric disorders in Korea by using DALY, a composite indicator that was recently developed by the Global Burden of Disease study group. Methods: First, 11 of the major psychiatric disorders in Korea were selected based on the ICD-10. Second, the burden of disease due to premature death was estimated by using YLLs (years of life lost due to premature death). Third, for the calculation of the YLD (years lived with disability), the following parameters were estimated in the formula: the incidence rate, the prevalence rate and the disability weight of each psychiatric disorder. Last, we estimated the DALY of the psychiatric disorders by adding the YLLs and YLDs. Results: The burden of psychiatric disorder per 100,000 people was attributed mainly to unipolar major depression (1,278 person-years), schizophrenia (638 person-years) and alcohol use disorder (287 person-years). For males, schizophrenia (596 person-years) and alcohol use disorder (491 person-years) caused the highest burden. For females, unipolar major depression (1,749 person-years) and schizophrenia (680 person-years) cause the highest burden. As analyzed by gender and age group, alcohol use disorder causes a higher burden than schizophrenia in men aged 40 years and older. For females, unipolar major depression causes the highest burden in all age groups. Conclusions: We found that each of the psychiatric disorders that cause the highest burden is different according to gender and age group. This study's results can provide a rational basis to plan a national health policy regarding the burden of disease caused by psychiatric disorders.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of job-related characteristics on alcohol consumption among female workers. The Data was collected from a sample of 1,000 female workers by a stratified proportional quota sampling method derived from those who were working in Seoul. Drinking behavior pattern includes total amount of pure alcohol consumed during the last month (AC) measured by graduated quantity-frequency. Job-related characteristics (JRC) were measured by job-related stress, work characteristics, and organizational structure including length of working hours, number of times dining out together with workers per year, number of staff to supervise, employment status, occupational category, and proportion of female workers to male counterpart. Confounding variables include sociodemogrphic and socio-cultural attitudes toward alcohol expectancy, subjective norm of drinking, and gender-role attitude. Hierarchical multiple regression models show that the variability of AC was accounted for by some JRC including number of times dining together and employment status, with confounding variables held constant. However, the relationship between AC and JRC varied across occupational categories. Some implications were discussed in terms of health policy for female workers and further study for female drinking behavior.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.186-198
• /
• 2009

Purpose: To identify relationship between the life styles and optimistic bias about colorectal cancer (CRC) of adults. Methods: The participants were 338 adults who live in Seoul. The measurements were consisted optimistic bias about CRC and life styles. The life styles were included smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary habits, and CRC screening. Results: 30.5% of the participants regarded their possibility of CRC to be less than others, while 69.5% viewed their likelihood of CRC as at least the same as others. The optimistic bias about CRC was associated with alcohol consumption and dietary habits, but not with smoking and CRC screening. Conclusion: It is difficult to relate optimistic bias about CRC with life style since CRC inspection and alcohol consumption are negatively related with optimistic bias while displaying a positive relation in other aspects. Since the relationship between optimistic bias and life style can change, promotion of a healthy life style as part of a health program could be influential in lessening CRC.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.11 no.11
• /
• pp.585-593
• /
• 2013

This study was to explore demographic, psycho-social and clinical characteristics and the influencing factors on alcohol use of person with severe mental illness in the community. Cross-sectional descriptive design was used to recruit a convenience sample of 176 participants from four community mental health centers in Korea. The collected data were analyzed using t-tests, $x^2$-test, and logistic regression. Depending on the alcohol use (AUDIT-K), participants were divided into the problem alcohol use group (n=54, 30.7%) and normal group (n=122, 69.3%). The problem alcohol use group was significantly more smoking, anxiety, stress, suicidal thought, and had a lower age of onset, phase of rehabilitation, self-efficacy, and others' support. In logistic regression analysis, factors influencing on alcohol use were smoking, age of onset, phase of rehabilitation and others' support. The findings may provide useful information to develop strategies for prevent from alcohol induced the problems in this populations.