• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2012

This paper attempts to measure the economic benefits of tap water quality improvement using a specific case study of Ulsan, one of the large cities in Korea. To this end, we apply the contingent valuation (CV) method by employing a one-and-one-half bounded spike dichotomous choice question format. We surveyed a randomly selected sample of 400 households in Ulsan and asked respondents questions in person-toperson interviews about how they would willing to pay for the program. Respondents overall accepted the contingent market and were willing to contribute a significant amount (1,611 won), on average, per household per month. This willingness varies according to individual characteristics such as education level and income. The aggregate value of the program in Ulsan amounts to approximately 8 billion won per year.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.374-380
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• 2012

Objectives: Stress is considered a causal factor in many diseases, allergic disease being one of them. The prevalence of allergic disease is increasing in Korea, but the relationship between allergic symptoms and stress is not empirically well known. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between allergy-related symptoms and stress in children and adolescents. Methods: We investigated 698 children and adolescents living in Gwangyang Bay, Korea, using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. Using the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood and the Psychosocial Well-being Index, these subjects were surveyed on allergy-related symptoms and psychosocial stressors in their lives, respectively. We used a multivariate logistic analysis for odds ratios for the complaint rate of allergic symptoms, after adjusting for age, gender, household income, body mass index, and residence. Results: After adjustments, lifetime rhinitis (odds ratio [OR], 1.024), rhinoconjunctivitis (OR, 1.090), diagnosis of itchy eczema (OR, 1.040), treatment of itchy eczema (OR, 1.049), 12-month allergic conjunctivitis (OR, 1.026), diagnosis of allergic conjunctivitis (OR, 1.031), and treatment of allergic conjunctivitis (OR, 1.034) were found to be significantly associated with stress. Conclusions: Our results support the notion that there is a relationship between stress and allergic symptoms in children and adolescents. Further research into any causal relationship between stress and allergies, as well as preventative public health plans for decreasing stress in children and adolescents are needed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.43-54
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• 2008

Objectives: To identify the willingness of laypersons to perform the cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR), we analyzed their characteristics of socio-economic status and health-medical conditions associated with their willingness. Methods: Based on a health survey of Incheon Metropolitan City adults(N=5,114), tests of the differences between a group with willingness to perform CPR(=1,531) and a group with non-willingness to perform CPR(=3,583), and a logistic regression analysis of two groups were executed on socio-economic status-gender, age, marital stats, education level, jobs, and monthly household income-and health-medical conditions-CPR-related self-confidence, CPR education, chronic diseases, accident experience, EMS(emergency medical service) experience, and health status. Results: The rate of the willingness group was 29.9%, which was relatively lower than other developed countries. There were statistically significant differences between the willingness group with the non-willingness group on gender, age, jobs, CPR-related self-confidence, CPR education, and so on. Furthermore, Gender, age, students or armed forces among jobs, CPR-related self-confidence, and CPR education were statistically significant influential factors on the willingness to perform CPR. Conclusion: This study indicated that there was considerable variation in socio-economic status and health-medical conditions associated with willingness to perform CPR in Incheon. The CPR education aimed at increasing CPR-related self-confidence and correcting inaccurate perceptions of CPR attitudes would promote its use in response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.109-120
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was to examine the associations between obesity level and major chronic diseases in older population in Korea, using different obesity indicators. Methods: Data was from the 2008 KloSA Biomarker pilot, a nationwide sample of 514 non-institutionalized subjects (age $63.6{\pm}9.8$ years; women 57.2%). Anthropometric information was collected by home visiting nurses. Portable bioimpedence devices(Omran HBF359) were used for measuring fat mass. Obesity cut-offs used the Asian criteria of $BMI{\geq}25$, $WC{\geq}90/85cm$, and $fat%{\geq}25/35$ for men and women. Chronic disease prevalence was defined by physician-diagnosed history of 8 specified diseases. Results: Prevalence of chronic diseases significantly increased with increment of obesity level by BMI, WC and fat %. Odds ratios of acquiring chronic diseases remained significant in the obese group (BMI OR 2.76, 95%CI 1.82-4.19; WC OR 2.73, 95%CI 1.81-4.11; Fat OR 1.87 95%CI 1.26-2.78), after adjusting for age, sex, marital status, education, work participation, household income, smoking, drinking, and exercise. Conclusions: Obesity measured by all three indicators, BMI, WC, and fat mass cannot be disregarded, accentuating the significant effect on increases in disease risks among older population. BMI and WC measure appeared better to assess the risks of chronic diseases.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.107-119
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• 2012

This study examined the mediating effect of maternal abuse and neglect on the relationship between socioeconomic status and preschoolers' social behavior. A total of 702 mothers with 3-year-olds(353 boys and 349 girls) and the children's teachers, all of whom reside in Seoul, participated in the study. Socioeconomic status was measured by maternal educational level and monthly household income. Maternal abuse and neglect were assessed by asking mothers to complete the Parent-to-Child Version of the Conflict Tactics Scales. Both mothers and teachers completed the Preschool Social Behavior Scale in order to evaluate prosocial behavior and aggression. The results indicated that both socioeconomic status and maternal abuse and neglect were significantly associated with preschool children's prosocial behavior, and socioeconomic status was significantly and negatively related to aggression. Furthermore, a structural equation model confirmed the mediating effect of maternal abuse and neglect on the relationship between socioeconomic status and preschool children's prosocial behavior, suggesting the need for interventions focusing on improving positive parenting and decreasing negative parenting to promote prosocial behavior.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.49-57
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting perceived oral health status according to socioeconomic status and community periodontal index(CPI) and decayed, missing, and filled teeth(DMFT) using the 6th Korean national health and nutritional examination survey(KNHANES VI) and provide a basic data for plan of policy. The higher the age, the lower the household income and education level, the worse the subjective oral health had better oral health and there was a tendency that the respondents who had no oral exam within 1 year and experienced CPI or DMFT estimated their own health as worse. It is needed to make policy development to resolve the inequality of oral health.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.109-135
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• 2010

This study estimated the social benefits of establishment 01 the Taehwa Field Ecology Park in Ulsan Metropolitan City, using CVM(Contingent Valuation Method) with multiple choices in consideration of respondent's uncertainty. The estimation results 01 lour logit models show that the probability of willingness-to-pay increases significantly with higher income, higher evaluation on the relevancy of establishment of the Park, and male gender, and decreases significantly with the bidding price. Truncated mean household WTP is estimated as 2,409.4 KRW in the MBYES model with the most efficient estimates of WTP among four models. On the basis of the WTP estimates, the present values of total social benefits in Ulsan Metropolitan City are estimated as 236.5 bill ion KRW when applying the 5% discount rate. This result shows that the present values of total social benefits are greater than the total costs in all models, and thus may prove the economic relevancy of the investment for the ecology park establishment.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.433-445
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• 2015

This study develops normative scores of the Infant/Toddler version of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (IT-HOME) inventory for Korean infants and toddlers. We selected 482 0- to 36-month-old infants and families by a stratified sampling procedure that considered residency, age, and gender of children. The pass rate, discrimination rate, and internal consistency were analyzed for the item analysis. Statistical validity included intercorrelation among the IT-HOME subscales, correlation between IT-HOME scores and environmental status variables, and correlation between IT-HOME and Korean Bayley Scales of Infant Development second edition (K-BSID-II) scores. Normative scores were prepared by percentile ranks. The results of this study were as follows: First, 45 items were acceptable for Korean subjects with few exceptions. IT-HOME was developed to screen unfavorable environmental factors during infancy; therefore, items such as 12, 17, 23, 39, 44 need to be retained even though they had low discriminating power. Second, IT-HOME subscales were correlated, and IT-HOME was significantly related to parents' education level, household income level, and infant' developmental levels. Third, percentile scores and the median of each IT-HOME subscales were suggested as normative scores. We discussed the normative scores of the IT-HOME to screen the quality of home environments for children aged 0-36 months in Korea, and provide the intervention basis for the at-risk population.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.307-319
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• 2013

The purposes of this study are to examine the differences of gender role identity according to general characteristics, parenting behavior, and family function, and to find out the main predictors of gender role identity, in order to further test the mediating effects of family function between parenting behavior and gender role identity among middle school students. Six hundred-fifty 3rd graders from three middle schools in Busan participated in this study. The results showed that the significant variables for predicting the masculinity of gender role identity include family cohesion, and parenting behaviors (father's reasoning, mother's over-expectation) and monthly household income, respectively. The significant variables for predicting femininity were family cohesion, and father's intrusive parenting behaviors, father's educational background and the mother's affection, respectively. The results indicated that for masculinity, family cohesion played the full mediator with the father's monitoring behavior and the partial mediator with the father's reasoning behavior. Similarly, for the mother's reasoning and affection, family cohesion played a full mediator. For femininity, the family cohesion played the full mediator with the father's affection and the partial mediator with the mother's affection. Similarly, for androgyny, the family cohesion played a role of full mediator with the father's monitoring, reasoning, affection and mother's reasoning and affection. In other words, the parents'positive parenting behaviors affected the family cohesion, and in turn, had an impact on the formation of the gender role identity.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.571-580
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• 2011

Objectives : This study focused on examine the relevance between behavioral changes of customers and re-use intention on medical institution after experiencing infection control through external stimuli. Methods : This research was based on self-standing survey conducted from August to November 2010, 214 people who randomly selected from five dental clinics located in Busan were analyzed as the final group. Collected data were performed using SPSS 12.0 for Window. Results : 1. 82.8% of those surveyed who experienced external stimulation have changed their behavior on hospital environments and facilities, and 80.5% of them answered the stimuli influenced their re-use intention on medical institution. 2. There were no significant differences between participants by general characteristics on 'The reason why medical team wear sanitary appliances'. In age group 30~39, 85.4% of participants chose the answer so the difference were statistically significant(p<.001). Result by household income showed significant difference in group over $1,000 to $2,000 as 82.7% response(p<.05). 3. 94.4% of participants chose 'Required' for both surgical suits and gloves in research of 'The necessity level of personal sanitary appliances' which medical teams wear for treatment and 79.4% agreed that medical teams need to change their medical gloves whenever treating each patients. 4. The survey revealed that the most important appliance in patient's awareness were surgical gloves and protective goggles has chosen as the least important one. Conclusions : Patients as medical consumer were highly noticed of importance of the infection control in dental clinic and necessity of personal sanitary appliances. The patients who has accessed dental infection control information by external stimuli in advance showed objectival changes of their visit and behavioral changes with bringing medical environments together. This aspects influenced those patient's re-use intention in conclusion.