• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.773-784
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• 2001

The study was conducted to test the effectiveness of thermotherapy for high school girls who suffered from disruption in school activities through dysmenorrhea, and to study the extent of its availability in school infirmaries as one of the nursing methods. The test for the study was designed to make a contrast between half of the subjects (20) who did not receive the thermotherapy, and the rest (20) who did during the period from February 15th to April 14th, 2001. Measurements were taken of the subjects who complained of painful menstruation by a set of variables. The variables that were established and complemented by Hur, Mung-heang (1985) consist of 29 items that assess the dysmenorrhea and vitality through the symptoms of primary menstruation visually. Spsswin was used to analyze the data. The Cronbach-${\alpha}$ method was used for statistic confidence, and the test effect of both the subjects and the contrary ones was analyzed by way of T-test. The conclusions are as follow. (1) The hypothesis 1 states that the subjects with themotherapy have a lower degree of dysmenorrhea rather than the contrary ones without it. By the above assessment, there was a quantitative difference between the subjects at 39.40, and the contrary ones at 22.0. After the themotherapy, the degree of dysmenorrhea in the subjects was low indicating that there is a still 5% chance of statistic meaningful difference (t= 2.651. P= .012). As a result, the first hypothesis was accepted. (2) The hypothesis 2 states that the subjects with themotherapy have a different primary menstruation than those without. Data indicate that there was a difference of -5.95 and -4.80. The subjects showed low degrees. Since it was statistically insignificant (t=-1.398, P=.170), the second hypothesis was rejected. (3) The hypothesis 3 states that the subjects with themotherapy have a different vitality. The vitality was measured in three aspects. (1) pulse rate (/min) The hypothesis 3' states that the subjects with themotherapy have the different pulse rate from those without. Data indicate that there was no statistically meaningful difference between the two groups (t=.237, P=. 814). Therefore, the third 1st hypothesis was rejected. (2) Respiration rate The hypothesis 3' states that the subjects with themotherapy have a different respiration rate between pre-thermotherapy and post-thermotherapy. in contrast with the ones without it. The data show that there was no statistically meaningful difference (t=.133. P=.895). A little respiration rate difference was shown between pre-and post-. Likewise. the third 2nd hypothesis was rejected. (3) Blood pressure In the 3rd sub-hypothesis that there would be a difference between experimental and controlled groups was also rejected. because there was no statistically significant difference between the contracting blood pressure and the relaxing blood pressure. In terms of vitality. the pulse rate, respiration rate and blood pressure have no statistical meaning but the first two ones show the decreasing in the rate. In short, though exclusive studies focused on thermo therapy have not been conducted and the comparison can not be made, this study shows not only that the thermotherapy is very effective to dysmenorrhea, but also that it can be available in school infirmaries as one of the nursing methods.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.319-334
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• 1995

To investigate the risk factors of low back pain, an epidemiological study was carried out among male workers aged 20-55 employed in an automobile industry in Korea during the time period from February 1993 to October 1995. Workers participated to this study were divided into low back pain group(LBP) and control group, according to the self-reports by written questionnaires. General characteristics, medical history, work related factors, fatigue, and MMPI were compared between two groups. To clarify the relationship between job related low back pain and radiologic features of lumbar spine, radiographic study was carried out. The resultant data were processed for $x^2-test$, t-test, and stepwise logistic regression to confirm the adjusted odds ratios. The results were as follows: 1. History of back disease, lifting and carrying work, excessive physical fatigue, and weakend back strength of individual workers were directly associated with low back pain. Odd ratios of these 4 risk factors of low back pain were 5.07, 3.34, 1.49, and 1.22 respectively. 2. The frequency of low back pain history was significantly higher in LBP group. 3. Back muscle strength of lumbar spine of LBP group were significantly lower than control group. 4. The workers in LBP group revealed high fatigue symptoms. 5. In MMPI test LBP group showed higher scales in hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviate, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, and hypomania. 6. LBP group were more frequently involved in lifting and carrying, working in awkward position, bending, twisting and using lower extremities. 7. LBP group were exposed more to vibration during working. 8. In the Analysis of radiographs of lumbar spine, Jacob's line not crossing fourth lumhar disc space, transitional vertebrae and lumbar displacement more than 4.4mm in standing lateral view were more frequently observed in LBP group than control group. Through these results, it is concluded that identification of previous history of back problem, change of work or working environment for workers with previous back problem and measures to relieve both physical and psychological fatigue of the workers are required for optimal management of work-related back problems among workers. In the present study, several results were different from the previous reports: Jacob's line not corssing fourth lumbar disc space, lumbarization, and vertebral slipping (spondylolisthesis) more than 4.4mm are related to backache. Meticulous studies are required to elucidate the difference.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2005

This study is aimed at analyzing the relationship between personal factors of radiological technologists and their job stressors. For this aim, a survey was conducted by means of 890 questionnaires from the middle of July to the end of August 2003 to the subjects of radiological technologists who are working for 44 general hospitals in 16 cities and provinces across the country. The results of the survey could be summed up as follows: 1. The biggest stressor that affects a radiological technologist personally under the working situation turned out to be position, job satisfaction and physical symptom(p<0.001), while job satisfaction and physical symptom also played an important role in personal relationship(p<0.001). 2. In terms of job conflicts, colleagues, immediate seniors, job satisfaction and physical symptoms appeared to exercise great impact(p<0.001), As for job autonomy, age, position and job satisfaction were known to be heavily influential(p<0.001). 3. With regard to job load, job satisfaction and behavioral symptom turned out to have great influence while, in job stability, position and job satisfaction seemed to be immensely influential(p<0.001). The present study has a limit in that it covers only radiological technologists who are working at the 3rd reference hospitals but excludes those who are working at the first and second reference hospitals. The findings, however, are surely believed to be able to serve as basic data to improve the medical service quality as they will help reduce the stressors of and enhance mental and physical health for radiological technologists who play important roles as teammates with expertise in the medical field. These outcomes could also be referred to in future studies in this area.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.153-172
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• 2009

Background : The safety of Korean herbal Medicine (KHM: prescribed herbal medicine by doctors of traditional Korean medicine) is an important issue in Korea. Although both fields. western medicine and traditional Korean medicine. have been studied on the safety of herbs and KHM, their results were not concordance with each other. Objectives : This study aims to review the influence of KHM on liver function in Korean literature systematically. Additionally, we tried to estimate the change of data of liver function test (LFT) and the incidence of liver injury (LI) after the use of KHM. Methods : Systematic literature searches were performed on 4 major databases of Korea from their inception to May 2008. Screening and selection of the studies and the extraction of data were performed independently by two authors. There were no restrictions on the types of publication including grey literatures. Results : Forty studies were included. Only sixteen studies were performed prospectively and fifteen studies collected data from outpatients. Only 8 studies reported the occurrence of LI after the use of KHM. Nineteen cases of LI showed no or mild symptoms and the elevation of LFT was not high. All of LI patients used conventional western drug and KHM concomitantly. and causality of LI was not assessed properly. The incidence of LI related to the use of KHM was estimated as 0.59%-0.76% from all data of these studies. The conflicting results were shown on the change of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and total bilirubin (TB) after the use of KHM. Conclusions : KHM might be a minor cause of LI in Korea. However the results are not strongly supported as enough to make the safety issue clear because of the limitations of original studies. More rigorous studies are required for answering the safety issue of KHM with the cooperative investigation of both fields of Korean traditional medicine and western medicine.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.136-142
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• 2015

The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (KSPID) has participated in the task force team consisting of government authorities as well as civil medical experts and facilities to block the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015. KSPID posted the "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Pop-up" in the homepage of The Korean Pediatric Society and The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. KSPID also released the "Guidelines for testing for MERS in children and adolescents" and the "Instructions for the Operation of National Safe Hospital" for children and adolescents in a timely manner. Such actions were aimed to prevent unnecessary anxieties, studies and isolation of pediatric patients with respiratory symptoms and signs caused by other common microbial etiologies as being suspected for MERS patients. This strategy relieved the doctors and parents from unnecessary fear and prevented the loss of unnecessary health care costs, and has proven to be a well-judged guideline and management protocol as evaluated after the final end of MERS outbreak. KSPID and its members should support the presence of pediatric infectious disease (PID) specialists in every medium size hospitals in Korea by developing the need for consultation fees for PID consultation in the hospital based practice and promoting the potential for cost savings related to prevention of health care associated infections and optimal prescription of antimicrobial agents. KSPID and its members need to approach and develop a communication plan to political decision makers to demonstrate and convince them of the importance of a PID specialist service.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.19 no.2 s.20
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• pp.203-212
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• 1986

Hypertension is one of the most well known risk factors for cerebrovascular or coronary heart disease and is a major public health problem. Early detection and treatment of hypertension are essential, but the compliance of treatment on hypertension is not easy to achive. Hypertensive workers are being detected by the annual screening under the Labour Standard Law in Korea but the solidified control system for them is not existing. This study about workers 'Motive-Belief-Action in non-drug and drug treatment of their hypertension would be worthwhile to interpret how the workers actually behave in coping with hypertension, and also would be advisable to construct the follow-up program in Korea. In the field research process two criteria were used to select sample group. The first criterion included the workers who were screened to be hypertensive with their blood pressure above 160/95 in this survey. The second one was used to classify study-group respondents who had known their hypertension by successive annual screening. From such criteria a total of 156 male workers were sampled in 21 industries, the author interviewed them using the structured questionnaire which consisted of Belief-Motive-Action items about non-drug and drug treatment for hypertension with open-ended question on symptom of hypertension. The summary is as follows: 1) Sixty-one percent of respondents had ever checked their blood pressure somewhere besides the annual screening. 2) Most respondents(97.2%) complained no symptoms of hypertension at all. 3) Belief level of non-drug treatment was relatively high (82.1%-64.7%), but motive(55.1%-28.2%) and action(38.5%-16.7%) levels were low. 4) Belief level of drug treatment was relatively lower than that of non-drug treatment, blue collar workers showed higher artier level of drug treatment than white collar workers, and correlation coefficient between belief and motive on drug treatment was lower in group of not-recognizing their family history of hypertension than recognized group. Such findings indicated that belief on drug treatment of hypertensive workers would be problematic. 5) White collar workers showed significant lower correlation coefficients between Motive and Action of salt restriction, restriction of fatty diet and relaxation than blue collar workers. 6) Mild hypertension group showed low levels of Motive and Action of non-drug treatment(salt restriction, restriction of fatty diet and relaxation) and also showed low correlation coefficient between Belief and Motive of above non-drug treatment.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.4 s.55
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• pp.863-875
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• 1996

In order to prepare the fundamental data for the health promotion by assessing the exposure level of styrene, the author determined the concentration of mandelic acid and phenylglyoxylic acid in urine of 42 workers who were exposed to styrene by high performance liquid chromatography and surveyed 16 symptoms, by questionnaire and also tested neurobehavioral test(digit symbol, benton visual retention) in 2 FRP plants of Kyung Nam area from July to September, 1995. Control was sampled by age sex matching method. The concentration of styrene in air was determined by gas chromatography. The results were as follows; 1. Geometric mean concentration of styrene in air was 17.4ppm, geometric mean concentration of mandelic acid(MA) in urine were 404.3mg/g creatinine for exposure group, 46.4mg/g creatinine for control group, geometric mean concentration of phenylglyoxylic acid(PGA) in urine were 57.5mg/g creatinine for exposure group, 9.5mg/g creatinine for control group. Mean concentration of MA and PGA showed statistically significant difference between exposure group and control group(p<0.01). 2. Number of symptom were 2.9 for exposure group, 3.3 for control group, number of digit symbol were 24.1 for exposure group, 32.5 for control group, number of Benton visual retention test were 6.1 for exposure group, 6.0 for control group, respectively. As result of adjusting the education year, number of Benton visual retention test showed statistically significant difference between exposure group and control group(p<0.05). 3. Excellent correlation were observed between environmental styrene exposure and urinary MA(r=0.80), PGA(r=0.73), and MA+PGA(r=0.81).

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.181-209
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• 2018

This study aims to examine the relationship between physical environment and depression symptoms of middle-aged and older adults in metro city. To verify correlates of community environment and depression, mediating effect model structured by social capital and sense of coherence(SOC) were used. For the purpose, a survey was conducted aged 48 - 70 from the local community centers and senior welfare centers in Seoul, and the total collected cases were 331. After data cleaning, total 309 cases were used. The structured equation modeling applied to analyse the direct and indirect effects. The findings were followed : First, the community environment did not directly affect level of depression. Second, in the indirect effect analysis, social capital was not statistically significant, thus indirect effect was confirmed only through the SOC. To be specific, the higher the satisfaction of the physical environment increased SOC, and decreased the level of depression. The results of this study shed lights on practical interventions to promote mental health of the middle-aged and older adults those who are exposed to poor community environment.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.15-32
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• 2017

The current study aims to identify the heterogeneous changes of functional disabilities in old age rather than to identify an average longitudinal pattern and to explore the effect of health status and social status as risk factors in functional disability trajectories. The sample consisted of a representative sample of community dwellers aged 65 and older from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2006 - 2012) was the focus of the study. Latent Class Growth Analysis was used to identify the functional disability trajectory groups. Variables regarding health status and social status changes by class were identified using multinomial logistic regression. The results showed various change patterns in functional disability, which include independent (78%), stable high (4.4%), steeply increasing (7.1%), slightly increasing (5.5%), and moderate to low (4.7%). Aggravation in depressive symptoms and cognitive functions as well as decline in social participations and social engagements were significant predictors of membership in increasing group of functional disability. The findings provide important initial empirical information to target clinical practice and have implications in the importance of conducting research on groups with different characteristics.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.137-144
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the perception of dying with dignity and the quality of life based on the opinions of the Korean populations. The participants were selected using a stratified proportional allocation method and 1,000 adults aged between 19 and 74 years from 17 municipalities and provinces in Korea. The questionnaire consisted of 2 demographic items; 26 items on the quality of life scale; and 57 items on the perception of dying with dignity. The statistical methods used included frequency analyses, independent sample t-tests, and correlation analyses. The results showed that the quality of life was highest for the social life quality item, and that the participants who had experienced a death in the family were more likely to have statistically lower quality of life in physical, psychological, environmental, and social areas. In terms of the participants' perception on dying with dignity, the score for death preparation was the highest; specifically, the score for psychological/economic burden reduction was the highest. The quality of life of the participants showed a positive correlation in all aspects of the perception of dying with dignity: physical symptoms and control, death preparation, death environment, family and social relations, hospital treatment, psychological dignity, and spirituality. Other studies conducted with middle-aged populations showed that their quality of life was higher when they perceived the acceptance of death is important and were willing to participate in death preparation education. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of life and have a positive influence on the participants, educational programs on death preparation and dying with dignity considering all the areas of the perception of dying with dignity should be provided.