• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.523-529
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Commensality, eating together with others, is a major representation of human sociality. In recent time, environments around commensality have changed significantly due to rapid social changes, and the decline of commensality is perceived as a serious concern in many modern societies. This study employs a cross-cultural analysis of university students in two East Asian countries, and examines cross-cultural variations of perceptions and actual practices of commensality and solo-eating. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The analysis was drawn from a free-list survey and a self-administrative questionnaires of university students in urban Korea and Japan. The free-listing survey was conducted with a small cohort to explore common images and meanings of commensality and solo-eating. The self-administrative questionnaire was developed based on the result of the free-list survey, and conducted with a larger cohort to examine reasons and problems of practices and associated behaviors and food intake. RESULTS: We found that Korean subjects tended to show stronger associations between solo-eating and negative emotions while the Japanese subjects expressed mixed emotions towards the practice of solo-eating. In the questionnaire, more Korean students reported they prefer commensality and tend to eat more quantities when they eat commensally. In contrast, more Japanese reported that they do not have preference on commensality and there is no notable difference in food quantities when they eat commensally and alone. Compared to the general Korean cohort finding, more proportion of overweight and obese groups of Korean subjects reported that they tend to eat more when they are alone than normal and underweight groups. This difference was not found in the overweight Japanese subjects. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed cross-cultural variations of perceptions and practices of commensality and solo-eating in a non-western setting.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.103-121
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the entire world population in many ways. This study aimed to analyze the patterns of changes in eating, food purchasing and preparation, physical activity, and subjective health after COVID-19 outbreak by various sociodemographic factors and to understand the factors associated with changes in subjective health. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A cross-sectional survey using a representative sample from Seoul was used for the analysis. The data collection was conducted from September to October 2020. A total of 3,833 citizens aged more than 18 years old participated in the Seoul Food Survey. Descriptive statistics and generalized ordinal logistic regression models were used to understand the changes in health behaviors, health indicators, and subjective general health by various socioeconomic status. RESULTS: It was shown that the changes in household income, food expenditure, food consumption and physical activities differed significantly by age, education, occupation, income, weight, and food security status. Low-income and food-insecure households were affected more severely by the pandemic. Older age, household food insecurity, income reduction, increased home cooking and frequency of having instant foods, decreased physical activity and weight gain were significant factors explaining worse perceived health during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that focusing on older populations and low-income families with food insecurity should be prioritized during infectious disease outbreaks. In addition, the role of physical activities and instant food consumption in explaining perceived health should be investigated further in this prolonged battle with the pandemic situation.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.609-623
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• 2022

As human life and welfare become more valued in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, the role and mission of human ecology are expanding. Therefore, a career exploration and education program for high school students covering all the academic fields of human ecology may be necessary. To investigate what would be needed to develop such a program, a focus group interview (FGI) targeting experts within the same field and a survey targeting high school students were conducted. As a result of the FGI, a total of 3 categories and 7 subcategories were identified. The three categories included "human ecology and high school education," "human ecology and career choices," and "education program development and management in human ecology." The results of the high schoolers' survey showed that they had a moderate level of awareness about careers related to human ecology majors, but their interests and known information about human ecology programs in universities were low. Within the sub-content of each major, the contents with the highest educational needs were fashion product management, nutrition by disease, housing market analysis, personal financial management, and children's rights and welfare. If a career exploration and education program is implemented in the future, the most preferred type is a mentoring program by professors, students, and graduates in the field of human ecology. In conclusion, it is necessary to develop and implement an integrative education program about human ecology majors based on the educational needs of high school students.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.257-273
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• 2023

Conducting face-to-face surveys is difficult and cost prohibitive, necessitating a new attempt to build a probability-based panel in South Korea. Since 99.9% of adult Koreans own a mobile phone, mobile phone numbers provide a viable sampling frame. Random digit dialing (RDD) surveys were conducted August-December 2021. Of the 288,056 valid phone numbers dialed, 13,655 respondents between the ages of 19 and 69 completed a phone survey. These respondents were later invited by text message to join a panel; 3,202 of these (23.4% or 1.2% based on the number initially contacted) joined the panel. When compared to official government statistics like resident registration data, the census, or the Social Survey, this new probability-based panel can be said to be representative of the Korean population on the basis of age, gender, location, marital status, and household size after weighting is applied. However, even after weighting, panel members are more educated than the general population, white-collar workers and self-employed people are overrepresented, and blue-collar workers are underrepresented. As of February 2023, this panel has grown to 10,471 participants with plans to continue to invite more panel members in the same way. Based on the comparisons in this paper, we can regard this panel as a cost-effective, probability-based panel that may be used for various kinds of public opinion research, by researchers both within and outside of Korea. As we continue to refine and grow this panel, we hope it will become more widely used by researchers as well as provide a model for those building similar panels in other countries.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.17-26
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify policy implications for the construction of public health facilities in the field of international cooperation, by examining the case of establishing a health care delivery system using a public health center in a rural area of Paraguay. Methods: Firstly, to map the capacity of the 20 public health centers that were studied, we used the WHO Capacity Mapping tool to select and analyze relevant items. Secondly, to assess the utilization of public health centers, we conducted a direct visit survey and analyzed the results using the M-survey tool. Results: The floor plan of each public health center, the structure of the health center, the size of the population served by each health center, the number of monthly visitors, medical human resources, and the budget were classified by health center for comparative analysis. In addition, by utilizing the M-survey tool, we analyzed the general characteristics of the respondents, their perceptions of the purpose and accessibility of public health centers, their satisfaction with using public health centers, and the level of demand for public health centers to play a role in promoting community health. Implications: The results of this study suggest that access to public health facilities for residents in the research area was improved. By classifying public health centers into two types, these centers can perform the functions and roles of primary health facilities. A patient request and evacuation system was established in the research area. Finally, a network, such as a social prescribing program, is needed so that public health centers can function as a "setting" for community members to live together.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.218-224
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• 2024

Purpose: Sleeping disorders were reported in many patients who took vaccines during previous pandemics. We aim to investigate the relationship between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and the incidence of narcolepsy symptoms in the Jordanian population. Materials and Methods: We used a descriptive, cross-sectional, online self-administered survey conducted between December 2022 and May 2023. The survey targeted males and females above the age of 18 years who took any type of COVID-19 vaccine, had no chronic diseases, and had no sleep disorders prior to taking the vaccine. The survey was distributed via social media platforms. Results: A total of 873 participants were included in this study, consisting of 44.4% males and 55.6% females, with the majority being in the 18-29 age group. Most participants (79.8%) received two vaccine doses, with the Pfizer vaccine being the most common. Nearly half of the participants reported excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations were reported by a notable proportion of participants, but no significant differences were found among the vaccine types. Sleep attacks and fragmented nighttime sleep were associated with the number of vaccine doses received, suggesting a possible influence of the dose count on these symptoms. The presence of excessive daytime sleepiness, sudden loss of muscle tone, sleep paralysis, and hypnagogic hallucinations showed no significant association with the number of doses taken. Conclusion: We hypothesize a possible link between COVID-19 vaccination and the emergence of narcolepsy symptoms in Jordanian individuals. Additional investigations and continuous monitoring to determine the extent of the risk and uncover potential mechanisms behind this connection should be performed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.250-260
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• 2017

This study analyzed the impacts of programming characteristics perceived by the consumers of entertainment programs on general programming channels on watching intention and the data of a survey with 360 adult viewers in the capital area. Research questions were verified as follows: First, as a result of multiple regression to analyze the impacts of the factors of programming characteristics perceived by the consumers on their watching intention, setting personal characteristics as a control variable, programming characteristics as an independent variable and watching intention as a dependent variable, the regression model was significant. Thus, the more positive the perceived factors of programming characteristics, the more significant their watching intention improved. Second, the factors of programming characteristics significantly affecting watching intention had greater positive(+) impacts in the following order: Adjacency > substantiality > weight of genre > social evidence > relative advantage > ease of access.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.378-383
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• 2016

With change in the pattern of disease occurrence and increase in the interest in health, efforts to assess the health status on patients covering their subjective awareness at the same time as clinical and objective evaluation on health are continued. To measure health-related quality of life can be one of these efforts. This study was performed to evaluate the relevance of the quality of overall health-related-life and oral health condition. Also the second year (2014) materials in the 6th the National Health and Nutrition Survey were applied to this study. The factors affecting general health related quality of life measured by EuroQol-5 dimension (EQ-5D) have been confirmed by gender, age, education level, income level, private health insurance, perceived health status, toothache experience during the last 1 year, remaining tooth number. As oral health plays an important role in determining the overall health conditions, objective oral health state influences the whole body health. Hence, it can be regarded that oral health is ultimately related to the general health-related quality of life.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.247-256
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• 2021

With the continuous progress and development of the social economy, the importance of commodity packaging is increasingly manifested. It has become an important form of communication between businesses and consumers, and an important means of competition between businesses. The research scope of the thesis: First, through literature investigation, analyze the function of packaging design and consumers' buying attitude, and analyze the name, color, logo, illustration, etc. for general chocolate packaging and travel souvenir chocolate packaging. Research method: Through questionnaire survey, according to consumers' purchasing attitude and personal value of package design, we have in-depth understanding of consumers' purchasing power and package design's influence on purchasing conditions and research. According to the results of this study, first, from the perspective of general chocolate packaging and travel souvenir chocolate packaging to consumer consumption phenomena, general chocolate is more popular. Second, when consumers buy products, the taste of chocolate is more important than product packaging design. Third, in each product group, consumers value their own value when buying chocolate products. Fourth, due to the two important attributes of packaging design and taste, ordinary chocolate has a higher purchase intention than travel souvenir chocolate.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2022

Background: Plastic waste generates pollutants in the process of incineration or landfilling, and accumulates in water or marine organisms, causing adverse effects on the environment and the human body. Recently, various eco-friendly oral hygiene products (Eco-OHPs) such as bamboo toothbrushes and biodegradable plastic toothbrushes have been developed. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the current level of awareness and purchasing status of eco-OHPs among adults who are interested in eco-friendly products. Methods: This study included adults aged >19 years who regularly visited eco-friendly shops and online sites; the online survey links were distributed during their visits to eco-friendly Internet cafés and companies. Of the 22 questions, seven assessed the participants' general characteristics, three assessed the general oral hygiene care products used, six assessed the level of awareness of Eco-OHPs, and six assessed the purchasing status of Eco-OHPs. Frequency analysis, chi-square test, and regression analysis were performed using SPSS software. Results: Among the respondents, 108 (51.4%) were aware of Eco-OHPs, and 79 (37.6%) had experience purchasing Eco-OHPs. The most common reason for not purchasing was the lack of information about related brands or products (74, 56.5%). The most common platform used in obtaining information was the Internet (general: 31.5%, eco-friendly: 46.3%), such as Social Network Service, Internet cafes, and blogs. The experience in purchasing Eco-OHPs was affected by whether the respondents recognized the possibility of contributing to environmental preservation, availability of vendors, product safety, and the number of eco-friendly products purchased. Conclusion: In order to expand the use of Eco-OHPs, various efforts such as promotion of eco-friendly characteristics, determination of related vendors, reliable analysis of product safety, and expansion of product experience opportunities are required.