• Human Ecology Research
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.93-106
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to understand what we have learnt thus far on the sustainable consumption of natural resources by household in Korea. We propose a two-wing model designating households as the main agent of sustainable living where both the production of human resources and the consumption of natural resources take place. In the current study, we focused on the sustainability of natural resource consumption. Undertaking an empirical study, we selected 10 major journals that represent each area of human ecological research and then, identified 120 relevant studies regarding sustainability published since 2000. First, we classified 381 keywords into three categories: production, consumption, and social environment, and the identified studies were then classified in one of the seven categories created by combinations of the abovementioned three categories: production (P), consumption (C), social environment (S), production-consumption (PC), production-social environment (PS), consumption-social environment (CS), and production-consumption-social environment (PCS). The results showed that the sustainability of natural resources has been mainly investigated in the fields of clothing & textiles and food & nutrition. Further, consumer science research has been conducted in the area of consumption-social environment and consumption-production. The current study indicates that the field of human ecology has created and accumulated knowledge to support sustainable living. In the future, we need to conduct more integrated research across disciplines and methods and promote research interest in the underdeveloped area of sustainability research in human ecology.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.377-389
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• 2011

The object of this study was to analyze the meaning of luxurious consumption, the subjects and the objects of luxurious consumption, the desires that propel luxurious consumption, and the luxurious consumption patterns of the past and the present. The materials and information used for this research were acquired by reviewing literatures from a library. The time frame used to separate the past and the present was the Second World War. The analyzed materials and contents for the research were the subjects and the objects of luxurious consumption, the desires that propel luxurious consumption, and the patterns of luxurious consumption. Comparing the trends of luxurious consumption of the past and present historically, the biggest differentiation between the past and present was the spread of subjects and objects of luxurious consumption. In the past, luxury consumption belonged to the wealthy only, but the accessibility of luxury consumption has increased to the point where anybody can buy what they want at will. Another difference was found in the desires that prompt luxury consumption and the consumption patterns of the past and present. Based on these results, several suggestions about luxury consumption were presented in this paper.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.527-537
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• 2012

Green consumption refers to a variety of activities including use and purchase of eco-friendly products and services and disposing of products in an eco-friendly manner. The goal of this research was to evaluate the effects of a green consumption education and awareness program offered to young children in a university-sponsored daycare. The education and awareness program was designed to improve young children's knowledge and behaviors toward the environment through green consumption education. The program was presented to 22 5-year old children in 15-20 minutes sessions, once a week for 4 weeks. Evaluation of the program was carried out through individual interviews with the children and their mothers. Upon the completion of the green consumption education program, there were noticeable changes in children's knowledge and behavior toward the environment. Mothers of participating children reported that children's environmental behaviors changed significantly, displaying a stronger green consumption attitude. This study suggests that environmental educational program during early childhood educational is an effective way of improving children's perceptions of environmental and conservation practices.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1047-1062
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• 2009

Nowadays, ethical consumers are increasing and they consider social values such as worker's human rights, environment and animal's welfare as key criteria in purchasing products. This study focused on the academic and practical research of ethical consumption, in which the needs and interests are now growing globally. This study addressed the concept, trend and practices of ethical consumption as well as seeking methods to support and promote ethical consumption. It examined the concept and types of ethical consumption from the perspective of the philosophy on ethical consumption. Ethical consumption was defined as a behavior that intended to improve the environment and the welfare of people and animals by purchasing products produced according to sound ethical principles and avoiding products that are made through the exploitation or the damage of people, animals and the environment. It also dealt with the practices of ethical consumption such as the fair trade movement, Clean Clothes Campaign, boycott, local food movement, animal's welfare movement. In conclusion, I suggested that consumers, companies, governments, and NGOs should make an effort to promote ethical consumption.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.825-842
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• 2014

This study is to analyze essays on the practices of consumption happiness which the students who took the class 'consumption and happiness' wrote. To do this, 108 essays which the students submitted in both semesters in 2013 were analyzed qualitatively. As a result, the 4 themes such as 'reflection on the life of consumption', 'practices', 'changes', 'recognized meanings of the class' were extracted. Firstly, some students were reflective on their acts of consumption in everyday life. They have consumed in an undisciplined, unthoughtful manner and have experienced various negative emotions in their consumption, and have the motive of change. Secondly, the study showed the consumption of clothes, eating, house, leisure, body, digital, wedding is variously included in their practices of consumption. In the category of common practices, 'sharing consumption giving a bigger happiness', 'sustainable consumption caring about the earth and the next generation', 'smart consumption through discipline', 'responsible consumption considering community and producer', 'field trips and consumption of experience as learning' are included, and 'meaningful feeling of happiness through practices' are extracted. Thirdly, they have experienced positive changes such as reduction in consumption desire and increased concern with mind, relationship and conscious consumption. Fourthly, students think of the class as a necessary, useful, practical subject, and have a precious opportunity to learn many aspects they don't think about before, and don't practice, and say that they persistently continue to practice. Therefore, to promote the happiness as a consumer and consumer citizen leader in the society, it's necessary to offer a related class in more universities.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.789-802
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Habitual coffee consumption was inversely associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hyperglycemia in observational studies, but the causality of the association remains uncertain. This study tested a causal association of genetically predicted coffee consumption with T2D using the Mendelian randomization (MR) method. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We used five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables (IVs) associated with habitual coffee consumption in a previous genome-wide association study among Koreans. We analyzed the associations between IVs and T2D, fasting blood glucose (FBG), 2h-postprandial glucose (2h-PG), and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C) levels. The MR results were further evaluated by standard sensitivity tests for possible pleiotropism. RESULTS: MR analysis revealed that increased genetically predicted coffee consumption was associated with a reduced prevalence of T2D; ORs per one-unit increment of log-transformed cup per day of coffee consumption ranged from 0.75 (0.62-0.90) for the weighted mode-based method to 0.79 (0.62-0.99) for Wald ratio estimator. We also used the inverse-variance-weighted method, weighted median-based method, MR-Egger method, and MR-PRESSO method. Similarly, genetically predicted coffee consumption was inversely associated with FBG and 2h-PG levels but not with HbA1c. Sensitivity measures gave similar results without evidence of pleiotropy. CONCLUSIONS: A genetic predisposition to habitual coffee consumption was inversely associated with T2D prevalence and lower levels of FBG and 2h-PG profiles. Our study warrants further exploration.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2013

Freshwater fish intake is a critical parameter for deriving water quality criteria and water quality standards for protection of human health based on human health risk assessment. Although the freshwater fish intake parameter should be accurate and representative of Korean fish consumption for the water quality criteria to be reliable, data are limited in Korea and have low reliability. In this study, Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2008-2010 were analyzed to reevaluate freshwater fish consumption. Based on these results, an average consumption rate of 3.0 g/day per person, a $90^{th}$ percentile consumption rate of 0.0 g/day per person, an average consumption rate of 65.7 g/day per fish consumer, and a $90^{th}$ percentile consumption rate of 153.4 g/day per fish consumer were proposed for derivation of water quality criteria using a conservative approach and various exposure scenarios.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1135-1151
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• 2011

This study examined green consumption behavior according to the lifestyles of college students. The data were collected from 314 college students in Yeungnam region by a self-administered questionnaire. Frequencies, Cronbach's alpha, factor analysis, cluster analysis, chi-square tests, one-way analysis of variance, Duncan's multiple range tests, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple regression analyses were conducted by SPSS Windows V.18.0. According to the result of factor analysis, lifestyles were categorized into six factors: thrift-saving type, enthusiastic activity type, brand ostentation type, freedom-seeking type, material oriented type, and practice-seeking type. Cluster analysis showed respondents belonged to one of four groups: thrift practice group, indifference group, freedom-seeking group, and material ostentation group. The levels of green purchase behavior, green usage behavior and green disposal behavior of the respondents was not high. The thrift practice group showed higher levels of green purchase behavior, green usage behavior, and green disposal behavior. Finally, according to multiple regression analyses, environmental consciousness, knowledge about green consumption, lifestyle groups were the significant factors affecting green consumption behaviors. These results imply that green consumption education for college students should be activated to induce green life.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.25-31
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• 1985

Mechanical energy consumption during human running was studied. The subject was modeled by an eleven segment planar open linkage system and analyzed by Newtonian equations of motion from film data with a sampling rate of 50 Hz. The motion data from films were smoothed by lower 7 harmonics before analysis. And this study was tried for a normal male subject running on a concrete floor. The mechanical energy consumption was evaluated from the five different criteria suggested by others and a joint energy consumption criterion newly devised based on the muscle contraction.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2015

This paper focused to classify the consumption stress coping types among married women consumers and to investigate the differences of socio-economic variables, social class, perceived health status, and consumption stress among coping types. Data were collected from 500 married women through online surveys in South Korea. Two factors of consumption stress(consumption stress before purchase, consumption stress after purchase), and three factors of consumption stress coping(Social support coping, problem solving focused coping, Passive avoidance coping) were identified. K-mean cluster analysis classified into 4 coping types with consumption stress coping. 15% of the sample were included to the passive coping type, and 25% were classified into the ambivalent coping type. 26.8% of the sample were identified to the active coping type, and 35.2% were maladaptive coping type. There were significant differences among the consumption stress coping types on education, family income, social class, health status, consumption stress after purchase. Consumer education programs should develop and implement especially for passive coping type and maladaptive coping type to cope effectively with consumption stress.