• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.44-54
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• 2023

Purpose: Uncertainty and restrictions on daily life have increased fear, stress, and depression during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Depression is the most common mental health problem in pregnant women. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of fear and stress related to COVID-19 experienced by pregnant women, as well as their levels of depression, and to examine the factors associated with depression during pregnancy. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, correlational study conducted among 153 pregnant women who visited a maternity hospital in Busan, South Korea. A self-reported questionnaire was used for data collection from December 18, 2021 to March 8, 2022. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. Results: Pregnant women experienced a moderate level of fear related to COVID-19, with an average score of 21.55±4.90. The average score for depression during pregnancy was 14.86±11.10, with 50.3% of the participants experiencing depression (≥13). The factors associated with depression during pregnancy were fear of COVID-19, contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19, being in the third trimester of pregnancy, high stress levels due to difficulties experienced from social distancing measures, and unintended pregnancy. These five statistically significant factors explained 35.0% of variance in depression during pregnancy. Conclusion: Considering the prevalence of depression in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to develop interventions to reduce anxiety by providing correct information and alleviating the stress of social distancing.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.44-53
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• 2023

Objectives : This study was conducted to reveal the relationship between multiple factors of traditional Korean Medicine diagnosis and consider the further probabilities of treating people with physical and mental problems not defined as diseases, which is called 'Mibyeong' in traditional Korean Medicine. Methods : 40 healthy participants were included in the observational clinical trial. The participants were asked to complete health questionnaires (e.g. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Stress Response Inventory) and they went through a traditional diagnosis process, including four stages of diagnosis (looking, listening/smelling, inquiring, and pulse taking), by a Korean Medicine doctor. Both the Korean Medicine doctor and an artery tonometry device performed the pulse diagnosis. Results : Although all participants were healthy people with no history of disease, more than half of participants had a problem related with severe level of fatigue (n=19), sleep disturbance (n=26) and stress (n=27) status according to the related questionnaires. Participants diagnosed with phlegm syndrome by the Korean Medicine doctor showed significantly greater score in phlegm pattern questionnaires than participants who were not. However, there was little agreement between the doctor's pulse diagnosis and radial artery tonometry results. Conclusions : We conducted a pulse diagnosis and measured health-related information along with the traditional Korean Medicine diagnose procedure, including four stages of diagnosis, and we found a linkage between diagnosis of phlegm and the phlegm pattern questionnaire score. The results suggest that a number of healthy participants, with no disease diagnosed, have Mibyoung symptoms which need further clinical management. Thus, we suggest that Mibyoung management programs based on qualified diagnosis tools and traditional Korean medicine diagnosis procedures be developed, and that future research using various diagnostic tools be carried out on a large population.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.482-491
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• 2007

This study was carried out to find out differences about meal conditions and food preference between non-obese and obese elementary school children. Ten children(non-obese 5 and obese 5) from each of the nationwide 192 schools were surveyed by self-developed questionnaire. Total of 1,767 questionnaires(815 from non-obese and 952 from obese children) were collected and data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 program. The results of the comparative analysis were summarized as follows. There was not significantly different in height between non-obese $group(151.0{\pm}12.5cm)$ and obese $group(151.2{\pm}12.3cm)$. But BMI was significant difference between non-obese $group(18.0{\pm}2.2cm)$ and obese $group(27.3{\pm}3.2cm)$. Economical status was not significantly different between 2 groups. But educational level of parents and mother’ job were significant differences between 2 groups. Only 2/3 of the subjects reported to have breakfast at regular basas, regularity of having breakfast was not significantly different between 2 groups. Also regularity of having lunch during vacation was not significantly different between 2 groups. But Reasons of skipping breakfast and lunch were significantly different between 2 groups. Regularity of having dinner, reasons of skipping dinner, intake amount in dinner, and frequency of having snacks were significantly different between 2 groups. But the time required for lunch and dinner were under 20 minutes of 60-80% of the subjects, and were not significantly different between 2 groups. Non-obese group have liked fast foods, fruits & juices, sweets, and cakes & cookies than obese group. Obese group have liked meat & meat products and ramyeon, but they have not eaten those foods frequently because of anxiety about being more fatty. These findings suggested that nutrition education programs include different strategy according to obesity and obese prevention program is needed for non-obese school children.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.165-186
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• 2011

Relative effects of single-parent family(single-mother vs. single-father) and interparental conflict(high vs. low) on children's mental health(depression, anxiety, emotional regulation, self-seteem, level of distress and satisfaction with life) was examined for the sample of elementary school students of the Korea Youth Panel Survey. The major findings of the study were as follows; (1) parental conflict has had more damaging effects on children's mental health than those of single-parent families. (2) Parents in high conflict families had most negative parenting behaviors. (3) Controlled for other variables including parenting behaviors, parental conflict had no longer negative effects on children's mental health Implications of results for theory, research, and policy are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.415-433
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• 2012

This study was conducted in order to explain the effect of driving behavior determinants such as drivers' personality and attitude that may induce risky driving behavior and to develop a valid method for discriminating risky drivers using the determinants. In the results of surveying 534 adult drivers, 5 driving behavior determinants (avoidance of problems, benefit/stimulus seeking, interpersonal anxiety, interpersonal anger, and aggression) were found to have a statistically significant effect on drivers' various risky driving behaviors. Using these factors, drivers were grouped according to risk levels (normal drivers, unintentionally risky drivers, and intentionally risky drivers). This result suggests that drivers' dangerous behavior level can be predicted using psychological factors such as their personality and attitude. Accordingly, if the driving behavior determinant model and the base score system used in this study are improved through further research, they are expected to be useful in predicting drivers' recklessness in advance, identifying problems, and providing differentiated safe driving education services based on the results.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.317-324
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• 2023

Background: COVID-19 pandemic represented a unique stressful event that affected the physical health and psychological well-being (PWB) of individuals and communities. Monitoring PWB is essential not only to clarify the burden on mental health effects but also to define targeted psychological-supporting measures. This cross-sectional study evaluated the PWB of Italian firefighters during the pandemic. Methods: Firefighters recruited during the pandemic period filled out a self-administered questionnaire, the Psychological General Well-Being Index, during the health surveillance medical examination. This tool is usually used to assess the global PWB and explores six subdomains: anxiety, depressed mood, positive well-being, self-control, general health, and vitality. The influencing roles of age, gender, working activities, COVID-19, and pandemic restrictive measures were also explored. Results: A total of 742 firefighters completed the survey. The aggregate median PWB global score was in the 'no distress"" range (94.3 ± 10.3), which was higher than that observed in studies conducted using the same tool in the Italian general population during the same pandemic period. Similar findings were observed in the specific subdomains, thus suggesting that the investigated population was in good PWB condition. Interestingly, significantly better outcomes were detected in the younger firefighters. Conclusion: Our data showed a satisfactory PWB situation in firefighters that could be related to different professional factors such as work organization and mental and physical training. In particular, our results would suggest the hypothesis that in firefighters, maintaining a minimum/moderate level of physical activity (consisting of even just going to work) might have a profoundly positive impact on psychological health and well-being.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2024

This study was to conducted on the general public living in the Busan area to determine their knowledge and awareness of radiation. A questionnaire written in Google Form was distributed, and 193 questionnaires were analyzed. Independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to verify differences in variables according to the characteristics of the study subjects. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to confirm the correlation between variables. As a result of the study, firstly, The knowledge and awareness of radiation and confidence level of radiological information were found to be high among men and unmarried group. Second, as a result of analysis according to occupation, it was found that students had a positive perception of radiation. Third, the Internet and TV are the most commonly used channels for obtaining information about radiation. Lastly, the thing that has the greatest impact on the awareness of radiation is the reliability of the obtained radiation information. In order to relieve excessive anxiety about radiation and to gain a proper understanding of radiation, the reliability of information about radiation is important. Therefore, it is believed that active efforts are needed to provide accurate information about radiation by utilizing media that are widely used by citizens.

• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.122-136
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• 2023

Depression is a prevalent global problem since ages, predominately treated with SSRI. Cipralex, is an antidepressant of the SSRIs class used as a remedy for mood, depression and anxiety. Silymarin (SIL), a natural free radical scavenging, has an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This hypothesis evaluates, for the first time, the role of cipralex on the structure of the endocrine and exocrine components of the pancreas and assess the beneficial effects of SIL on these changes. Forty-five rats were divided into control, cipralex, and cipralex plus SIL groups. During sacrifice, all rats and pancreases were weighed and the ratio of pancreatic weight (PW) to rat weight (RW) was calculated, blood samples were collected to estimate fasting glucose, insulin and amylase levels, the specimens were prepared for histological, immunohistochemical (inducible nitric oxide synthase [iNOS], tumour necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-α], caspase 3, proliferating cell nuclear antigen [PCNA], and anti-insulin antibody), and morphometrical studies. Cipralex group exhibited marked destruction of the pancreatic architecture of the exocrine and endocrine parts, with a dense collagen fiber deposition. Also, there is highly significant decrease (P<0.001) of PW/RT ratio, insulin, and amylase levels, the number and diameter of islets of Langerhans, the number of PCNA positive immunoreactive cells, and the number of insulin positive β-cells. Furthermore, a highly significant increase of glucose level, iNOS, TNF-α, and caspase-3 positive immunoreactive cells in the islets of Langerhans and acinar cells were observed. SIL improves the pancreatic histological architecture, weight loss, biochemical, and immunohistochemical analyses. Administering SIL is advantageous in managing cipralex induced pancreatic injury via its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-apoptotic qualities.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2022

This text is an attempt to understand the psychological meaning of panic attacks occurring in the young people in their early twenties who play music. A panic attack is a type of anxiety neurosis known to occur primarily in their twenties and is characterized by extreme fear and terror accompanied by various symptoms in the autonomic nervous system. Situations with occurring panic attacks were examined in three cases combined with panic attacks and mood swings, suicidal ideation, and self-mutilating behaviors, and the psychological meaning of panic attacks was reviewed for each case. In the first case, panic attacks make one think or reflect with consciousness for someone who wants to remain unconscious. In the second case, for one who hesitates to move forward in life and finds oneself in conflict, panic attacks open the inner mind and allow one to come in touch with one's deeper mind, thereby opening possibilities to transcend the conflict. In the third case, one experience the instinct and impulse of desiring to realize the unconsciousness as panic attacks and thereafter consciously realize the impulse as well. Their panic attacks, which all seem to have different meanings, are likely a powerful approach of the unconsciousness to urge a renewal from the consciousness level of the youth period.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.142-150
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• 2024

Objective: Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) is a disorder characterized by impaired ovarian function. Sleep disorders are disruptions of the circadian rhythm, which appears to be closely linked to reproductive systems. This study aimed to investigate the impact of poor sleep quality on the ovarian reserve of childbearing-age women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in China from June 2021 to March 2023. In total, 102 participants diagnosed with chronic insomnia disorder were included in the study. Questionnaires were administered to assess participants' menstrual patterns, insomnia severity, anxiety, and depression. The anti-Müllerian hormone level and the basal antral follicle count were measured for ovarian reserve evaluation. Correlation analysis and ordinal logistic regression analysis were conducted. Results: The women with insomnia presented high percentages of hypomenorrhea, premenstrual syndrome, and dysmenorrhea (78.4%, 74.5%, and 46.1%, respectively). Severe sleep disorder in the past month was identified as an independent risk factor for hypomenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome (odds ratio [OR], 2.64 and OR, 2.688; p<0.05). The prevalence of DOR among women with insomnia (33.3%) was significantly higher than the average reported in previous studies for young women. Insomnia duration exceeding 1 year was determined to be an independent risk factor for DOR in women aged 36 to 40 years (OR, 4.5; p=0.033). Conclusion: This study highlights the association between sleep disorders and menstrual problems. Prolonged poor sleep quality in women aged 36 to 40 years was identified as a significant risk factor for DOR. We should pay more attention to improving sleep quality in order to maintain normal ovarian function.