• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.10
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• pp.1042-1049
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• 2006

Purpose : This study was conducted to survey the preliminary data on risk behaviors and to identify the factors that prevent risk-behaviors in late adolescence. Methods : Freshmen(n=1,297) beginning the first semester in Korea University, Seoul, Korea completed self-administered risk behavior questionnaires, comprising 5 domains : demographics, smoking, drinking, drug abuse and sexual behavior. Results : The rate of smoking experience was higher in people having friends who smoke and the predictors of transition to current smoking were male gender, urban residence, friends' smoking, and nicotine dependence. The rate of high risk drinking was higher among students who are male and who had experience of heavy episodic drinking. The study group showed a low prevalence of narcotic users, but two-thirds of students could get medicine easily without prescriptions. The prevalence of sexual experience was 6.5 percent, and the sexual education was not a predictor of contraceptive behavior. The prevalence of homosexuality was 1.6 percent, and the rate of mostly heterosexuality was higher in female students. Conclusion : The main targets of youth health education should be campaigns aimed at atcessation of reinforcing risk behaviors and the development of a surveillance system for the prevention of chronic disease. These results can be used to find risk factors of health-risk behaviors among late adolescents.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.4699-4704
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• 2015

Medical diagnostic X-ray workers are one occupational group that expose to the long-term low-dose external radiation over their working lifetime, and they may under risk of different cancers. This study aims to determine the relationship between the occupational X-ray radiation exposure and cancer risk among these workers in Jiangsu, China. We conducted Nested case-control study to investigate the occupational X-ray radiation exposure and cancer risk. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaire, which includes but not limits to demographic data, personal behaviors and family history of cancer. Retrospective dose reconstruction was conducted to estimate the cumulative doses of the x-ray workers. Inferential statistics, t-test and 2 tests were used to compare the differences between each group. We used the logistic regression model to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of cancer by adjusting the age, gender. All 34 breast cancer cases and 45 esophageal cancer cases that detected in a cohort conducted among health workers between 1950~2011 were included in this presented study, and 158 cancer-free controls were selected by frequency-matched (1:2). Our study found that the occupational radiation exposure was associated with a significantly increased cancer risk compared with the control, especially in breast cancer and esophageal cancer (adjusted OR=2.90, 95% CI: 1.19-7.04 for breast cancer; OR=4.19, 95% CI: 1.87-9.38 for esophageal cancer, and OR=3.43, 95% CI: 1.92-6.12 for total cancer, respectively). The occupational X-ray radiation exposure was associated with increasing cancer risk, which indicates that proper intervention and prevention strategies may be needed in order to bring down the occupational cancer risk.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.118-124
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• 2011

Objectives: Although cigarette smoking is known to be related to the exacerbation of asthma symptoms, several studies have indicated that the prevalence of cigarette smoking among asthmatic adolescents is similar to or even higher than that among non-asthmatic adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between asthma and cigarette use behaviors and whether or not the presence of suicidal ideation modifies this relationship among Korean adolescents. Methods: We analyzed data from the 2008 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, which included a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students. Multiple logistic regression models were used to calculate odd ratios and 95% confidence intervals of cigarette use behaviors among current asthmatics, former asthmatics, and nonasthmatics, after adjusting for gender, grade, school records, socioeconomic status, current alcohol use, and suicidal ideation. Results: Of 75 238 study participants, 3.5% were current asthmatics and 4.5% were former asthmatics. Compared with non-asthmatics, asthmatics were more likely to report current cigarette use, frequent and heavy cigarette use, and cigarette use before 13 years of age. There were statistically significant interactions between asthma and suicidal ideation in cigarette use behaviors. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that asthmatic adolescents are more likely than non-asthmatic adolescents to engage in cigarette use behaviors and the presence of suicidal ideation is an effect modifier of the relationship between asthma and cigarette use behaviors. Particular attention should be paid to the awareness of health risks of cigarette smoking and mental health problems among asthmatic adolescents.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.208-212
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• 2016

Background: Outdoor workers are at risk of high ultraviolet radiation exposure, and may have difficulty using sun protection. The objectives were to determine the prevalence of sun protection behaviors in a sample of outdoor construction workers, and to assess which factors predict better sun protection practices. Methods: Participants were recruited via construction unions. Workers answered a questionnaire on demographics, skin cancer risk, sun protection behaviors, and job. Sun protection behavior scores (from questions on sunscreen use, sleeved shirt, hat, shade seeking, sunglasses) were calculated by converting Likert-scale answers to scores from 0 to 4, and taking the mean (separately for work and leisure). Determinants of sun protection behavior scores were examined for work and leisure using generalized linear models. Results: Seventy-seven workers had complete questionnaire data (participation 98%). Sun protection behaviors used most often were hats (79% often/always) and sleeved shirts (82% often/always); least prevalent were shade-seeking (8% often/always) and sunscreen (29% often/always). For both work and leisure scores, the strongest predictor was skin type, with fairer-skinned individuals having higher sun protection behavior scores. Workers had higher scores at work than on weekends. Workplaces that required hats and sleeved shirts for safety purposes had higher protection behavior scores. Conclusion: This high-participation rate cohort helps characterize sun protection behaviors among outdoor workers. Workers practiced better sun protection at work than on weekends, suggesting that workplace policies supportive of sun protection could be useful for skin cancer prevention in the construction industry.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.341-350
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe high-risk health behaviors in middle school adolescents and to identify factors related to this behavior. Method: This survey study employed a self administered questionnaire given to 621 students enrolled in one middle school located in Gyeonggi province. Using the cluster sampling method, 4 classes from the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades were selected. The survey was done between April 20 and May 19, 2004. Data were analyzed using SAS. Result: The results showed that 19.1% of adolescents smoked cigarettes and 8.4 % drank regularly. The mean score for resilience was 6.92 (range:0-10) and for depression, 23.62 (range:0-50). The adolescents in higher grades reported significantly more experience with pornography. Also, adolescents who reported have fewer conversations with their parents had significantly more experience with pornography. Depression was significantly higher for those students who had better academic skills and higher family income. Resilience level was significantly higher for the students who reported better schools records and higher family income. The most important factor related to the high risk behaviors, depression, and resilience was conversations with parents. Conclusion: This study suggests that to develop an effective high-risk health behavior prevention program for adolescents, it is necessary to include communication skills with the parents.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1606-1614
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• 2014

This study aimed to identify the influencing factors of suicidal ideation, suicidal plan and suicidal attempt. The data of 2012 Youth Health Risk Behavior web-based Survey Collected by the Korea Center Disease Control was analyzed by using the SPSS program. The influencing factors of suicidal ideation, suicidal plan and suicidal attempt by general characteristics were gender, grade, school record, socioeconomic status, living with both parents, and subjective health status. The influencing factors of suicidal ideation, suicidal plan and suicidal attempt by health behaviors and emotional characteristics were smoking, drinking, effort for weight, sleep satisfaction, perceived stress and depression. This study suggested that suicidal prevention programs should be developed in preventing and reducing health risk behaviors and depression.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.79-93
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• 2003

Childhood injuries are the primary cause of death and disability among children aged 5 to 14. Consistent practice of learned safety behaviors can reduce the occurrence of severe injuries among children. However, safety behavior concern is low among Korean-American children specifically and American children, in general. The objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of an unintentional injury prevention curriculum, Risk Watch among Korean-American children. A quasi-experimental design with a nonequivalent control group was used for the designed of the study. Two intervention and two control Korean schools in Atlanta participated in this study. The intervention consisted of weekly lessons in traffic, bicycle, pedestrian, and fire safety. One hundred and two students completed a pre-test and a post-test. The main outcomes were safety behaviors (seat belt use or helmet use), behavioral intentions, and safety knowledge. Analysis of covariance was used for the statistical analyses. Strong intervention effects were found for increasing knowledge of all safety topics in the intervention group. Additionally, statistically significant intervention effects were detected for increasing seat belt and helmet use, as well as behavioral intentions of wearing a seat belt and wearing a helmet, among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. For students in grades 1 and 2, intervention effects were found for increasing helmet use. Among students in grades 3 to 8, the intervention group showed statistically significant increases for seat belt use. Limitations of the study and recommendations for modifying and supporting unintentional injury prevention programs for school children are discussed.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.669-676
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the related factors of scaling experience of multi-cultural adolescents in Korea. Methods: The subjects were 698 multi-cultural adolescents from web-based survey of the 11th(2015) Korean Youth Risk Behavior. Multi-cultural adolescents are defined as the children of marriage migrant women. The study instruments included demographical characteristics of the subjects, oral health behaviors, daily tooth brushing times, health behaviors, and experience of smoking and alcohol consumption. Data were analyzed using PASW statistics 18.0. Results: The experience rate of scaling was 18.8%. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that experience of scaling were related with experiences of sealant and fruit consumption. Conclusions: It is very important to provide the continuing oral health prevention program for the adolescents and investigate the cost-benefit effectiveness of oral health care program.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.362-372
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• 2016

Purpose: This study intended to grasp real context of Cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related factors of Korean blue-collar workers, especially CVD-related knowledge, perception, beliefs, benefits and barriers of behaviors according to the health belief model. Methods: We interviewed twenty two workers working in two small-sized companies and performed two series of focus group interviews. Data were analyzed by deductive content analysis approach based on Elo & $Kyng{\ddot{a}}s$. Results: Excepting participants who have CVD risk factors, most participants had lower level of CVD risk perception. The level of CVD knowledge was low but there was difference by gender. CVD-related beliefs were 'fatal disease', 'caused by lifestyle' and 'difficult to prevent by themselves'. The risk reduction behaviors were motivated by current or family history of hypertension. But there were barriers to interfere practice of preventive behaviors such as poor quality of food provided by cafeteria in the workplace, frequent overtime, victim mentality as one of vulnerable social group, housework and financial burden, lack of facilities for rest and physical activity in the workplace. Conclusion: To develop intervention for reducing CVD risks in Korean blue-collar workers, we need to focus on improving CVD knowledge and perception and modifying work-related environments such as low quality of food and lack of facilities for rest and physical activity in the workplace.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.82-88
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• 2016

The current risk assessment system do not reflect workers' various opinion. However, the worker actually are in the center of work field and are exposed to accidents. In this regard, this study suggests enhanced risk assessment by 'safety circle discussion' on workers' hand. The self-administered surveys on supervisors and workers were done for the effect analysis of the safety circle discussion. According to the question investigation, even though the current risk assessment causes difficulties in preventing accidents by unsafe behaviors, the worker-oriented safety circle discussion establishing measures for risk factors of each work type will be able to prevent accidents more effectively. Also, it can positively contribute to safety health awareness, industrial accident prevention, accurate recognition on risk factors, improving safety facilities/work conditions, workers' compliance to safety health rules. Lastly, most respondents agreed that it is necessary to form organic relationship through circle discussion and deriving safety inspections that workers participate.