• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.309-320
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• 2019

Objectives: This study was undertaken to compare dietary life of the elderly living alone and in a family, and to compare differences based on gender, for the 2013-2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Methods: The subjects included 2,612 elderly people aged over 65 years who participated in the health survey, health examination and nutrition survey. Subjects on a diet therapy were excluded. This study analyzed the general characteristics, dietary habits, daily energy and nutrient intakes, CPF ratio, estimated average requirement (EAR), nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR), index of nutrient quality (INQ), and food consumption of the elderly living alone and in a family. We also compared the differences based on gender. Results: Daily intake of food, water, dietary fiber, potassium, retinol, and riboflavin were low in the male elderly subjects living alone. The elderly living with family revealed higher NAR and MAR as compared to the elderly living alone. Although all MAR values were <1, the elderly living alone had lower values. Considering the intake of food, the consumption of seaweed, fish and shellfish, and oils (animal) was higher in elderly men living with families, whereas women living with families consumed more vegetables, fruits, seaweeds and seafood, as compared to their counterparts living alone. Furthermore, analyzing the foods consumed by the elderly people living alone, female subjects consumed more seaweed, milk and animal oil as compared to male subjects. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the elderly living alone have poor nutrient intake as compared to the elderly living with families. Based on this research data, we recommend that it is necessary to improve the health and nutritional status of the elderly living alone.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.473-487
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• 2011

We attempted to define the sources of sodium intake for the Korean population at prepared dish level to provide a basis for developing sustainable nutrition policies and feasible programs for sodium intake reduction. Dietary intake data from 2008 and 2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used in the analysis for sodium intake sources. Sodium intake from individual dish consumed by each subject was calculated and used in delineating major sodium sources at dish and dish group level for sub-populations of different sex and age. Also, sodium intake was compared between eaters and non-eaters of some specific dish groups with considerable contribution to total sodium intake. The number of subjects included in the analysis was 18,022 and mean sodium intake was 4,600 mg/capita/day. Major sources of sodium intake at dish group level were in the following order: kimchi (1125 mg, 24.5%), noodles (572 mg, 12.4%), soups (488 mg, 10.6%), stews (399 mg, 8.7%), and cooked rice (284 mg, 6.2%). The magnitude of contribution to total sodium intake by soups and stews was different by age group. Sodium intake difference between eaters and non-eaters was much larger for kimchi group (2,343 mg for male, 1,452 mg for female) than for soups or stews. Interaction between consumption of aforementioned specific dish groups and age was highly significant (p < 0.0005) for both sexes. This study revealed an importance of having not only the control over sodium content of foods/dishes, but also the customized approach for different groups of population to accomplish an appreciable reduction in sodium intake.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.537-545
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Dietary sugar intake, particularly added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages, has received worldwide attention recently. Investigation of dietary behaviors may facilitate understanding of dietary sugar intakes of children and adolescents. However, the relationship between dietary sugar intake and dietary behaviors in the Korean population has not been investigated. Thus, this study aimed to estimate dietary sugar intake and food sources according to sex as well as examine the relationship of dietary sugar intake with frequent snacking and dietary patterns among Korean children and adolescents. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We pooled data from five studies involving Korean children and adolescents conducted from 2002 to 2011. A total of 2,599 subjects aged 9-14 years were included in this study. Each subject completed more than 3 days of dietary records. RESULTS: Mean daily total sugar intake was 46.6 g for boys and 54.3 g for girls. Compared with boys, girls showed higher sugar intakes from fruits (7.5 g for boys and 8.8 g for girls; P = 0.0081) and processed foods (27.9 g for boys and 34.9 g for girls; P < 0.0001). On average, 95.4% of boys and 98.8% of girls consumed snacks during the study period, and total sugar intake showed a significantly increasing trend with increasing energy intake from snacks (P < 0.0001 for both sexes). Two dietary patterns were identified by cluster analysis: Traditional and Westernized patterns. Total sugar intake was higher in the Westernized pattern (56.2 g for boys and 57.2 g for girls) than in the Traditional pattern (46.5 g for boys and 46.3 g for girls). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that multilateral and practical development of a nutrition education and intervention program that considers dietary behaviors as well as absolute sugar intake is required to prevent excessive sugar intake in Korean children and adolescents.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.245-250
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• 2023

Objectives: This study was conducted to analyze the factors related to unmet dental care needs in Korean adults who needed dental treatment. Methods: This study analyzed data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2018). Among the adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2,723 dental treatment who performed oral examinations were the final subjects. General characteristics and oral health characteristics were analyzed with complex sample chi-square test using the IBM SPSS program. Factors related to unmet dental care were analyzed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: As for unmet dental care needs related factors, bad oral health was 3.383 times higher, and usually was 1.736 times higher. In the use of dental clinic unmet dental care needs was 0.121 times lower. Unmet dental care needs was high, 1.366 times for those with the experience of tooth pain and 2.736 times for those with chewing difficulty. Conclusions: Based on the above results, it can be seen that oral health status or oral discomfort is related to unmet dental care needs. It is necessary to set goals to improve unmet dental care, recognize that one's oral health condition is very important, and continuously educate about oral health for each life cycle.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.444-455
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• 2018

Objectives: The current survey environment is changing and participation rates in national nutrition surveys are decreasing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop strategies for improving the nutrition survey system in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Methods: To develop an alternative system for conducting the KNHANES nutritional survey, we conducted focus group interviews with stakeholders of the survey, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, and expert reviews. In addition, spatial analysis of potential sites for conducting surveys instead of relying on household visits was performed, and the perception of nutritional surveys in the population eligible for KNHANES was evaluated. Results: Based on the results of the focus group interviews, SWOT analysis, and expert reviews, we propose two options for survey sites: vehicles specifically prepared for nutritional surveys and public facilities such as community service centers or public health centers. Among public facilities, community service centers were found to be more appropriate sites than public health centers because they were considered more accessible. About 90% of respondents would participate in the survey in public facilities and about 74% would in vehicles. Conclusions: Conducting national nutrition surveys in specially designed vehicles and public facilities could be a viable alternative to home visits. Next, the validity of these newly proposed nutrition survey methods needs to be compared to the results of the current national nutrition survey.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.237-248
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the extent of income-related inequity in health care utilization and expenditures to compare the extent in 2005 and 2010 in Korea. Methods: We employed the concentration indices and the horizontal inequity index proposed by Wagstaff and van Doorslaer based on one- and two-part models. This study was conducted using data from the 2005 and 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We examined health care utilization and expenditures for different types of health care providers, including health centers, physician clinics, hospitals, general hospitals, dental care, and licensed traditional medical practitioners. Results: The results show the equitable distribution of overall health care utilization with pro-poor tendencies and modest pro-rich inequity in the amount of medical expenditures in 2010. For the decomposition analysis, non-need variables such as income, education, private insurance, and occupational status have contributed considerably to pro-rich inequality in health care over the period between 2005 and 2010. Conclusions: We found that health care utilization in Korea in 2010 was fairly equitable, but the poor still have some barriers to accessing primary care and continuing to receive medical care.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.369-377
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• 2006

Data from the 2001 Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey, were analyzed to assess prevalence of health intended food use overall and in relation to socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Health intended food were classified into four broadly defined categories: vitamin and mineral supplements, health aid food, animal protein based restorative food and medicinal plants. Thirty three percent of adults aged 20 years or older reported taking health intended food in the past year : twenty four percent took vitamin or mineral supplements and medicinal plants were taken by 17 % of adults, health aid food by 15% and animal protein based restorative food by 6%. In multivariate logistic regression, female gender, older age, more education, regular exercise and non smoking were associated with greater use of vitamin or mineral supplements. Dietary quality was significantly associated with use of vitamin or mineral supplements or health aid food but not with use of medicinal plants or animal protein based restorative foods. Obese persons were less likely to take vitamin or mineral supplements. These findings suggest that epidemiologic studies of diet, demographic or lifestyle and health take health intended food use into account because of high prevalence of use of the food by the population and differential use of the food by socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.679-690
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• 2020

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Concerns about regional disparities in heathy eating and nutritional status among South Korean adults are increasing. This study aims to identify the magnitude of regional disparities in diet and nutritional status among Korean adults who completed the 2017 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). SUBJECTS/METHODS: The participants were a nationally representative sample of Korean adults aged 19 years and older from the 2017 KNHANES (n = 6,126). We employed the svy commands in STATA to accommodate the complex survey design. The relative concentration index (RCI), absolute concentration index (ACI) and index of disparity were used to measure regional nutritional inequalities. RESULTS: Overweight and obese adults were more prevalent among the poor than among the rich in urban areas (RCI = -0.041; P < 0.05), while overweight and obese adults were more prevalent among the rich than among the poor in rural areas of South Korea (RCI = 0.084; P < 0.05). Economic inequality in fruit and vegetable intake ≥ 500 g per day was greater in rural areas than in urban areas in both relative size (RCI = 0.228 vs. 0.091, difference in equality = 0.137; P < 0.05) and absolute size (ACI = 0.055 vs. 0.023, difference in equality = 0.032; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides useful information identifying opposite directions in the relative concentration curves between urban and rural areas. Adult overweight/obesity was more prevalent among the poor in urban areas, while adult overweight/obesity was more prevalent among the rich in rural areas. Public health nutrition systems should be implemented to identify nutritional inequalities that should be targeted across regions in South Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aims to examine hypertension patients' quality of life by using the data of the 7^th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1^st year, 2016), identify the factors related to this, and utilize the results as basic data for intervention that can improve hypertension patients' quality of life. Methods: For the research subjects, this study extracted 1,531 patients who were diagnosed with hypertension by a doctor from the total sample of 8,150 participants of the 7^th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and selected 1,072 patients with no missing value in the variables to be analyzed as the final research subjects. The SPSS(version25.0) program was used for the analysis of the collected data. Then, this study used a backward elimination multiple regression analysis method that applied complex sample, to examine the factors related with the finally estimated quality of life. Results: The results of this study revealed that hypertension patients' quality of life was related with age, occupation, spouse, household income, weight gain, restriction of activity, subjected health status, perceived stress, and presence of comorbidity. The final model explained 37.0% of the variance (Wald F=30.012 p<.001). Conclusions: When an intervention program is implemented for the improvement of hypertension patients' quality of life in the future, it will be effective to construct the program according to age group, employment, marital status and household income. As for the program operation, patients should get help therefrom to control weight, facilitate activities and relieve their stress, and they should be also motivated to feel healthy. Furthermore, education should be offered so that they appropriately manage their underlying disease at an early stage.

• Clinical Nutrition Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.138-153
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• 2023

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its cost are increasing due to lifestyle changes and aging. This study aimed to develop a deep neural network model for prediction and classification of MetS according to nutrient intake and other MetS-related factors. This study included 17,848 individuals aged 40-69 years from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013-2018). We set MetS (3-5 risk factors present) as the dependent variable and 52 MetS-related factors and nutrient intake variables as independent variables in a regression analysis. The analysis compared and analyzed model accuracy, precision and recall by conventional logistic regression, machine learning-based logistic regression and deep learning. The accuracy of train data was 81.2089, and the accuracy of test data was 81.1485 in a MetS classification and prediction model developed in this study. These accuracies were higher than those obtained by conventional logistic regression or machine learning-based logistic regression. Precision, recall, and F1-score also showed the high accuracy in the deep learning model. Blood alanine aminotransferase (β = 12.2035) level showed the highest regression coefficient followed by blood aspartate aminotransferase (β = 11.771) level, waist circumference (β = 10.8555), body mass index (β = 10.3842), and blood glycated hemoglobin (β = 10.1802) level. Fats (cholesterol [β = -2.0545] and saturated fatty acid [β = -2.0483]) showed high regression coefficients among nutrient intakes. The deep learning model for classification and prediction on MetS showed a higher accuracy than conventional logistic regression or machine learning-based logistic regression.