• Title/Summary/Keyword: Korean schoolchildren

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A Study on Schoolchildren's Mercury Exposure and Related Health Effects in High Mercury Exposure Areas in Korea (수은 고노출 지역 초등학생의 수은노출관련 건강영향 연구)

  • Kim, Dae Seon;Ahn, Seung Chul;Chung, Hee-Ung;Kwon, Young Min;CHOI, Kyunghee
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.268-276
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    • 2015
  • Objectives: According to the 2007 Korea National Environmental Health Survey (KNEHS), some areas in the Gyeongsang Provinces showed very high blood mercury levels in adults. We conducted this project to investigate any related health effects in children due to mercury levels in these areas. Methods: In total, 1,097 students between grades 3 and 6 at 19 elementary schools were recruited from four areas with high mercury exposure as identified by the KNEHS. Total mercury levels in biological samples were compared with health check-ups performed on the schoolchildren. Biological monitoring, supported by questionnaires, a computerized neurobehavioral test, a posturography test and a personality test, were applied. Results: Triglycerides showed a significant relation with mercury in blood, urine and hair. Total mercury concentrations were divided into two groups: upper and lower concentration groups based on the median value. In the computerized neurobehavioral test, the upper blood mercury group showed a greater reaction time for color-word vigilance (p<0.05). In the posturography test, the intensity value of the tremor test showd high significant relations with mercury levels (p<0.01). In the personality test, self-consciousness, misdeeds and family relationships showed significant differences between the upper and lower urine mercury groups (p<0.01), and specific reactions, ego resilience and hyperactivity also showed some differences (p<0.1). Conclusion: Some items in the neurobehavioral test, posturography test and personality test showed significant relations with biological mercury levels. Therefore, monitoring and appropriate management of students showing high mercury levels are recommended in order to reduce their mercury exposure.

A Descriptive Study Of School Children's Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Regarding Smoking (중학생들의 흡연에 대한 지식, 태도, 그리고 행동에 관한 기술적 연구)

  • Park, In-Hyae
    • Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.420-436
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    • 1996
  • The goal of this study is to explore different risk factors for smoking and look at the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding smoking among schoolchildren, in order to reduce teenage smoking. To achieve this goal a self-administered questionaire regarding smoking was provided to schoolchildren in the 7th and 8th grades in one junior high school in Jerusalem. The schoolchildren were exposed to 10-12 hours of a smoking prevention intervention program. The questionaire focused primarily on the personal characteristics, social environment, knowledge, attitudes, practices, and behavioral intentions of the children. Crosstabs were performed on each variable to determine if significant associations exist among the different variables. The statistical computer, package, SPSS PC, was used to manipulate the data along with Chi-square test. The findings were as follows : About 11% of the children aged 12-14 have ever smoked or are smoking currently, and about 24.0% of those who ever smoked started smoking at the age of 10. Boys smoke more(p<.01), poorer students(by self-perception of school performance) smoke more, and those who had peers who were smokers were more likely to smoke(p<.05). The percentage of the children who reported that either father or mother smoked was about 30%, but no statistical association was found between parental smoking and children's smoking, although trends were noted in the expected direction, i.e. more smokers among children of smokers. Only 1.1% of the children intended to smoke in the future, and 98.0% of the children indicated that they can or they might be able to withstand social pressure. Seventy percent of the children demonstrated medium to high knowledge about smoking, Males, 8th graders, better students, and those without friends who smoke had higher social pressure showed more negative attitudes(p<.01). Those with non-smoking siblings showed more negative behavioral intentions regarding smoking(p<.01), and better students showed more negative behavioral intentions. Those who had higher knowledge scores showed more negative attitudes towards smoking, but not significantly so. Those who had very negative behavioral intentions showed highly significant negative attitudes towards smoking(p<.01).

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Epidemiological Studies of Clonorchiasis - II. Current Status and Natural Transition of the Endemicity of Clonorchis sinensis in Goyang Gun, a Low Endemic Area in Korea (간흡충증(肝吸虫症) 역학(疫學) - II. 저도유행지(低度流行地) 고양지방(高陽地方)에 있어서의 간흡충감염(肝吸虫感染)의 현황(現況)과 자연추이(自然推移))

  • Kim, D.C.;Lee, O.Y.;Lee, J.S.;Ahn, J.S.;Chang, Y.M.;Son, S.C.;See, S.H.
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.66-80
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    • 1983
  • As a part of the epidemiological studies of clonorchiasis in Korea, this study was conducted to evaluate the current endemicity and the natural transition of the Clonorchis infection in Goyang Gun a low endemic area in recent years, prior to the introduction of praziquantel which will eventually influence to the status of the prevalence. The data obtained in this study in 1983 were evaluated for natural transition of the infection in comparison with those obtained 16 years ago in 1967 by the author (Kim, 1974). The areas of investigation, villages and schools surveyed, methods and techniques used in this study were the same as in 1967, except for the contents of the questionnaire for raw freshwater fish consumption by the local inhabitants. 1) The current prevalence rate of Clonorchis infection among the inhabitants was 7.5% on the average out of a total of 479 persons examined. The prevalence rate was 9.0% in the riverside area and 4.2% in the inland area. Among the schoolchildren, the prevalence rate was 1.1% out of a total of 1 319 examined. By area, it was 1.4% in the riverside area and 0.7% in the inland area. By sex, the prevalence rate was 13.3% in the male and 1.3% in the female in the inhabitants and no difference was seen in the schoolchildren. 2) In the natural transition of the infection, the prevalence rate in the inhabitants has decreased from 22.5% in 1967 to 7.5% in 1983, and in the schoolchildren, from 9.5% in 1967 to 1.1% in 1983. The reduction rate was higher in the riverside area than in the inland area. 3) In the prevalence rate by age, 1.2% was seen in the 10-14 age group and gradually increased to 8.1% in the 30-39 age group and reached peak 18.1% in the 40-49 age group. By sex, in the male, the prevalence rates have increased to 31.9% and 33.3% in the 40-49 and 50-59 age groups, respectively and decreased thereafter. In the female, the prevalence rate less than 5% was seen only in between the 10-14 and 30-39 age groups. 4) In the natural transition of the prevalence rate by age, sharp decrease was seen in the male from around 50% in 1967 between 15-19 and 30-39 age groups. The generation over 40s showed less decrease. In the female, the prevalence rate has decreased from 13% in 1967 to 5% in 1983 in the middle age groups and dropped to 0% in the rest of the age groups. 5) The intensity of the infection among clonorchiasis cases by mean EPmg (number of eggs per mg feces) value was 1.4. In the inhabitants, the value was 2.0 in the riverside area and 0.4 in the inland area. While in the schoolchildren, the value was 0.2 in both riverside and inland areas. 6) In the transition of the intensity of the infection, EPmg among the inhabitants has decreased from 3.9 in 1967 to 2.0 in 1983 in the riverside area, and from 2.9 to 0.4 in the inland area. In the schoolchildren, the reduction was similar in both riverside and inland areas resulting from 1.0-1.1 in 1967 to 0.2 in 1983. 7) In the intensity of the infection by age, EPmg 3.4 was peak at the 40-49 age group and 0.2-1.0 was seen in the rest of the age groups. The mean value was 1.5 in the male and 0.6 in the female. 8) In the natural transition of the intensity of the infection, the EPmg has decreased from 2.7 in 1967 to 1.4 in 1983. By age, reduction was seen in all of the age groups, particularly in the young and the old age groups of 50s and over, except in the 40-49 age group in which reverse phenomenon was seen. By sex, it has decreased from 3.5 in 1967 to 1.5 in 1983 in the male and from 1.0 to 0.6 in the female. 9) In the distribution of the clonorchiasis cases by the range of EPmg value, 70.3% of the cases were placed in the range of 0.1-0.9 as the most and 16.2% in 1.0-4.9 as the next. With such figures, those included in the range less than 0.9 as light infection were 78.4% and under 5.0-9.9 up to moderate infection 99.3% of the cases were covered. The cases were distributed up to 20.0-39.9 in the male and to 1.0-4.9 in the female. 10) In the transition of the distribution of the clonorchiasis cases by EPmg, the highest intensity reached up to 60.0-79.9 in 1967 and to 20.0-39.9 in 1983. In the range of light infection, under 0.1-0.9, the distribution in rate was 64.5% in 1967 and 78.4% in 1983. Up to the range of moderate infection, under 5.0-9.9, 91.7% in 1967 and 97.3% in 1983 were seen respectively. 11) In a survey for raw freshwater fish consumption among the local inhabitants,78.3 of the clonorchiasis cases interviewed admitted their experience of the raw consumption. However, those who practised in the past two years were 34.8% 55.6% of those who have such experience in the past professed that they did not practise raw freshwater fish consumption in the past two years. 12) The major cause of the reduction of the raw freshwater fish consumption among the inhabitants were the wide spread water pollution in the locality. The most common reason professed for stopping raw freshwater fish consumption among the inhabitants was the risk of the fluke infection. 13) In animal survey, 3.1% of dogs were found infected with Clonorchis, decreasing from 21.6% in 1967. 14) The distribution of the first intermediate host, Parafossarulus manchouricus has greatly diminished in this locality and found only in two localized ponds. No Clonorchis infection was found from the snails examined. 15) The second intermediate freshwater fish host has been further limited by extended water pollution. No susceptible fish host could be examined. 16) In conclusion, the endemicity of Clonorchis infection in Croyang Gun, low endemic area, has significantly decreased during the past 16 years. The major cause of the regressive transition of the infection was the water pollution of the freshwater system of this locality. This has upset the ecosystems of the intermediate host of Clonorchis sinensis in many areas of waterbodies and further discouraged to a significant extent the local inhabitants from raw freshwater fish consumption.

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Panel study of daily air pollution and health symptoms among primary schoolchildren in Seoul (서울지역 아동들의 봄철 대기오염물질과 건강자각증상 간의 관련성에 대한 패널연구)

  • Mun, Jeong-Suk;Kim, Yun-Sin;Lee, Jong-Tae;No, Yeong-Man;Lee, So-Dam;Hong, Seung-Cheol
    • Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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    • 2005.11a
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    • pp.126-129
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    • 2005
  • 본 연구는 서울지역 초등학교 학생 4, 5, 6학년 남 ${\cdot}$ 녀 초등학생들을 대상으로 봄철 대기오염농도와 일별 자각증상 과의 관련성에 대한 패널연구를 수행하였다. 로지회귀분석방법 중 일반화 추정 방정식(generalized estimating equations:GEE)모델을 이용하여 통계분석을 실시한 결과로는 서울지역 초등학교 학생들은 호흡기 증상보다는 피부가려움이나 눈의 따가움 등의 자극증상에 호흡성먼지(PM10)와 아황산가스 그리고 이산화질소 등의 대기오염물질 농도와 관련성이 있는 것으로 추정되었다.

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Study to Improve School Catering Service Quality Through Cooking Hardware Upgrade (학교급식의 효율적 개선방안 - 조리설비를 중심으로 -)

  • 장재규;원융희
    • Culinary science and hospitality research
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    • v.3
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    • pp.315-326
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    • 1997
  • The school catering service has gained national attentions and has been expanding unto high schools after offering meals at elementary schools over years. This study is to identify problems and solutions in kitchen hardware areas to provide nutritiously balanced meals to schoolchildren through establishing standard menu planning. The survey analysis shows that 59.2% of dishes except for rice, Kimchi and soup are prepared by oil deep-fired or oil pan broiled. This indicates that school meals are so limited to serve baked or steamed dishes. Main reasons on the limited menu selection is that schools don't have equipment to prepare baking and steaming dishes mainly due to budget issues. All the dietitians who answered the surveys have been requesting to purchase Convotherm Ovens. Improvement solutions to the problems are: Publish the Revised Standard Equipment Layout that may allow to serve baked and steamed dishes. Establish Budget Support Program from the Government.

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Bivariate odd-log-logistic-Weibull regression model for oral health-related quality of life

  • Cruz, Jose N. da;Ortega, Edwin M.M.;Cordeiro, Gauss M.;Suzuki, Adriano K.;Mialhe, Fabio L.
    • Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.271-290
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    • 2017
  • We study a bivariate response regression model with arbitrary marginal distributions and joint distributions using Frank and Clayton's families of copulas. The proposed model is used for fitting dependent bivariate data with explanatory variables using the log-odd log-logistic Weibull distribution. We consider likelihood inferential procedures based on constrained parameters. For different parameter settings and sample sizes, various simulation studies are performed and compared to the performance of the bivariate odd-log-logistic-Weibull regression model. Sensitivity analysis methods (such as local and total influence) are investigated under three perturbation schemes. The methodology is illustrated in a study to assess changes on schoolchildren's oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in a follow-up exam after three years and to evaluate the impact of caries incidence on the OHRQoL of adolescents.

A Research of the Efficient Financial Management of Welfare for Education through Operating Mixed-use of School Facilities (학교시설 복합화 운영개선을 통한 교육복지재정 운용 효율화 방안)

  • Kim, Joo-Cheul
    • The Journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.46-60
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    • 2011
  • Nowadays, the change of the social structure such as the elderly society and the broken traditional family conception is progressing rapidly. The social change produced a lot of problems, and the welfare from among these is the urgent problem. The welfare for the aged is very important problem in an aging society. The changes of industrial and economic structures also caused the increase of double-income families. The numbers of schoolchildren decreased rapidly because of the low birth and elderly society. So, many idle spaces of existing school facilities have emerged, and these left spaces is being blamed for the fiscal waste. If these idle spaces were used for the welfare-facilities, it will be of assistant to solve the problem about welfare and use the school facilities effectively. And then, the big profit from these enterprises can be used for the better welfare for education.

Development of a Mathematical Creativity Test for Bengali Medium School Students

  • Roy, Avijit
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.69-79
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    • 2011
  • Based on the work of Haylock (cf [Haylock, D. W. (1987). A framework for assessing mathematical creativity in schoolchildren. Educ. Stud. Math. 18(1),59-74]) a mathematical creativity test containing items of two categories overcoming fixation and divergent thinking has been developed for Bengali medium school students with sample size 262. The items measuring divergent thinking are found highly internally consistent and there is a significant correlation between overcoming fixation and divergent thinking. Study of the factorial validity of the test by Thursstone's centroid method gives satisfactory result. Validity coefficient of the test with teachers' rating, alpha reliability and test-retest reliability of the test are also found satisfactory.

Urinary albumin excretion rate and puberty in non-diabetic children and adolescents

  • Bangstad H.J.;Jorgensen K. Dahl;Kjaersgaard P.;Mevold K.;Hanssen K.F.
    • 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 1994.02b
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    • pp.158-163
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    • 1994
  • Slightly elevated urinary albumin excretion rate (microalhuminuria) is a marker of early diabectic nephropathy, but it is unclear if the established definition of microalbuminuria ($20-200{\mu}g/min$) is correct for children and adolescents. We investigated th.: albumin excretion rate, albumin/creatinine ratio and urinary albumin concentration in 150 healthy schoolchildren and adolescents to (a) obtain a reterence value for albumin excretion rate, (b) relate albumin excretion to pubertal stages and (c) evaluate albumin/creatinine ratio and morning albumin concentration as screening methods for elevated albumin excretion rate. Albumin concentration was measured by immunoturbidimetry in timed overnight urine samples. The albumin excretion showed a skewed distribution (geometric mean $3.2{\mu}g/min$, 95 percentile ($15.1{\mu}g/min$). In girls. a peak in the albumin excretion rate was found at the pubertal stage 4 (Tanner) and in boys at stage 5. Albumin/creatinine ratio of 2.5 mg/mmol as a screening level for elevated albumin excretion ($15{\mu}g/min$) showed a high positive (0.88) and negative (0.99) predictive value.

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