• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.73-82
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• 2011

Objectives: This study is to gain an understanding of the characteristics of suicides committed by university students in Korea by assessing news reports. Methods: A total of 97 news reports on university student suicides on daily newspapers and TV newscasts from 2000 to 2011 are included in this study. Analyses were performed on sociodemographic characteristics of suicided university students and temporal and other characteristics of the suicides. Results: Suicide rate was higher among males than females. The most frequently used method of suicide was jumping off while the most common place was the students’ residence. Issues related to academic and financial problems topped as the reasons for suicide. There were no differences in the reasons for committing suicide by school year and enrollment, but the location and season of committing suicide differed by reasons for suicide. Conclusions: Implication of this study, discussion on the results and suggestions for suicide prevention are discussed.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.59
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• pp.207-275
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• 2019

This archiving project of the survivors of suicide was done with the survivor supporting team of the Seoul Suicide Prevention Center. The survivor supporting team was operating a Self-help Support Group for the emotional support of the survivors of suicide. A Self-help Support Group is a place for the survivors of suicide to regularly meet and share their suffering by talking of topics hard to discuss elsewhere. As the Self-help Support Group progressed members who acted as the leader of the group appeared. They formed an essay group that writes together. Two fathers who lost their sons, two mothers who lost their daughters, a mother who lost her son, a wife who lost his husband. The essay group met each week in a place facing Sajik Park. Through the windows that took up the whole side of the room, evening was coming in. The things that happened during the day went away towards Inwang mountain following the setting sun. Ten people (six members of the essay group, three from the survivor support team, a historian for unique conversation) sat around a table, facing each other. "Now, what shall we do?" History for unique conversation is a time that archives life by sharing conversations. At times a complete stranger, and other times people who share their ordinary lives sit around together (3-9 people, sometimes about 15). On the table there is coffee, bread, fruits and salads, and sometimes a dish someone heartily prepared. When a bottle of wine is placed on the table, each takes a glass. Morning, afternoon, the time the evening is welcomed in, late night. It does not matter which. For six months, 3 hours when meeting every week, 6 hours when at every other week. A room where the ambience is like that of a kitchen where sunlight enters, or a cozy living room is the best location. However, there are many times when it is held in a multipurpose room in the suburbs where many meetings are held, or in a classroom of a school. The meeting place is decided according to different situations of the time. There are no participation requirements as it is said to be for themselves to write down according to archiving form while looking back their lives thoroughly, and they are the only ones to stop themselves. The archives landscape from far away would seem like trying to do some talking. However, when going into a microscopic situation one must leave themselves to the emotional dynamics. It is because it archives the frustration and failures one experienced through life. A participator of history for unique conversation must face the sufferings of their life. The archiving project took place in 2013 to 2014. Many years have passed. Has the objective distance for archiving the situation of that time been secured? That may be uncertain, but I will speak of a few stray thoughts on archiving while depicting the process and method of operation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.296-303
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depression and suicidal ideation in elders with dementia and to identify factors influencing their suicidal ideation. Methods: A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted from February to March, 2011. The participants were 298 older adults whose MMSE-KC score was 15 to 23. Collected Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: According to the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) classification criteria, 86.2% of the elders in this study exhibited depression (GDS=5), and 31.5% manifested severe depression. The mean score of suicidal ideation was 5.70 (range 0-20). The risk factors for suicidal ideation were depression, suicidal attempt experience, present location for care, and activities of daily living. Conclusion: The results of this study can be utilized in the development of suicide prevention programs for older adults with dementia. In particular, depression should be screened and managed to reduce suicidal ideation of older adults with dementia.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 2007

Purpose: There have been relatively few reports of chlorophenoxy herbicide poisoning. The purpose of this study is to analyze the general characteristics and clinical aspects of the chlorophenoxy herbicide intoxicated patients in Korea. Methods: We prospectively evaluated the chlorophenoxy herbicide intoxicated patients visiting to the 38 emergency medical centers in Korea from the 1 August 2005 to the 31 July 2006. Results: 24 patients were enrolled during the study periods. Their mean age was 55.7 years old. The median amount of the chlorophenoxy herbicide intoxicated is 150 mL. The most frequent location where the patients obtained and took the chlorophenoxy herbicide was their home. Frequent compounds involving chlorophenoxy herbicide poisoning were dicamba(66.7%), MCPP(16.7%), and 2,4-D(12.5%). The most common symptom of the patients was confusion and vomiting. 16 patients(66.7%) intended to suicide. 3 patients out of 24 patients(13.0%) were died. Conclusion: There were 24 patients intoxicated by the chlorophenoxy herbicide during the study periods. The mortality rate was 13.0%. The suicidal attempts and the numbers of death involving chlorophenoxy herbicide were high in Korea.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.226-237
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• 2019

Purpose: This study investigated the characteristics of adult patients who had fallen from a height and presented to an emergency room (ER) according to gender and intentionality, with the goal of reducing the harm caused by these injuries. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of fall-from-height patients aged ≥19 years from the in-depth surveillance study of injured patients visiting ERs conducted under the supervision of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2011 to 2016. Patterns were analyzed according to gender and intentionality. Results: There were 29,838 men (68.5%) and 13,734 women (31.5%), with mean ages of 50.3±15.7 years and 57.2±19.9 years, respectively. The most common height of the fall was ≥1 m to 4 m in men (n=15,863; 53.2%) and <1 m in women (n=7,293; 53.1%). The most common location where the fall occurred was the workplace for men (n=10,500 male; 35.2%) and residential facilities for women (n=7,755; 56.5%). Most falls from height were unintentional (n=41,765; 97.1% vs. n=1,264; 2.9% for intentional falls). Suicide was the most frequent reason for intentional falls, and the age group of 19-30 years predominated in this category (n=377; 29.9%). For intentional falls, the most common interval before presentation to the ER was 0-6 hours (n=370; 29.3%) and the most common height was ≥4 m (n=872; 69.0%). Conclusions: Among men, falls from height most often occurred from ≥1 m to 4 m, at the workplace, and during the course of paid work, whereas among women, they were most common from <1 m, in residential facilities, and during daily activities. Intentional falls most often occurred with the purpose of suicide, in the age group of 19-30 years, with an interval of 0-6 hours until treatment, from ≥4 m, and in residential facilities. Alcohol consumption was more common in intentional falls.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.215-240
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• 2009

This paper focuses on how Younghill Kang internalizes whiteness ideology through interracial romance to build himself as an oriental Yankee and recover his masculinity in his autobiographical novel East Goes West. This paper also focuses on Kang's strategy of racial and cultural hybridity presented in this novel. The theoretical basis of my argument is a mixture of Fanon's psychoanalysis in his Black Skin, White Masks, Bhabha's notion of mimicry in The Location of Culture, and notions related to race and gender of some Asian critics such as Patricia Chu, Jinqi Ling, and Lisa Lowe. In East Goes West, white women appear as "ladder of success" of successful assimilation and serve as cultural mediators and instructors and sometimes adversaries who Korean male immigrants have to win to establish identities in which Americanness, ethnicity, and masculinity are integrated. However, three Korean men, Chungpa Han, To Wan Kim, George Jum, who fall in love with white women fail to win their beloveds in marriage. George Jum fails to sustain a white dancer, Jun' interest. Kim wins the affection of Helen Hancock, a New England lady, but Kim commits suicide when he knows Helen killed herself because her family doesn't approve their relationship. Han's love for Trip remains vague, but Kang implies Han will continue his quest for "the spiritual home" as the name of "Trip." In East Goes West, Kang also attempts to challenge the imagining of a pure, monolithic, and naturalized white dominant U.S. Culture by exploring the cultural and racial hybridity shown by June and the various scenes of Halem in the 1920s. June who works for a Harlem cabaret is a white woman but she wears dark makeup. Kang questions the white face of America's self-understanding and racial constitution of a unified white American culture through June's racial masquerade. Kang shows that like Asian and black Americans, the white American also has an ambivalent racial identity through June's black mimicry and there is no natural and unchanging essence behind one's gender and race identity constitution.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the changes in the characteristics of patients with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, as well as the distinctive differences in intentionally exposed patients. Methods: The medical records of CO poisoning patients, who visited nine emergency departments between January 2010 and December 2011, were reviewed retrospectively. The clinical information including age, gender, hospitalization, type of discharge, cause and location of exposure, site of onset, concentration of initial blood carboxyhemoglobin (COHb), methods of treatment and presence of neurological complications was examined. The subjects were divided into an intentional and non-intentional group and the differences between them was compared. Results: A total 209 subjects were recruited. The median age was 38 years (29~49.5 years). They frequently complained of nausea and vomiting, and the most common exposures occurred in winter, normally in the home. The cause of exposure was usually fire, followed by incomplete combustion of fuels. The median initial blood COHb was 13.15%. The proportion of intentionally exposed patients was 21%. They were significantly younger, more frequently discharged against medical advice, and showed a higher initial blood COHb level (22.85%) than the non-intentional group. Conclusion: This study suggests that those with intentional CO poisoning are normally discharged against medical advice even when they have a higher initial COHb level. An adequate explanation of the delayed neurologic sequelae and short term follow-up observation is recommended for those patients with intentional exposure.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2009

Purpose: Many studies have addressed a psychiatric analysis of self-injury patients who have self-injurious behavior and who have attempted suicide. Few studies on the injury characteristics of self-injury related trauma patients have been conducted. We analyzed the injury characteristics of self-injury patients. Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records extracted from the injury surveillance system of Wonju Christian Hospital for the period from August 2006 to February 2008 was conducted. Of the 121 cases extracted, 103 were included in this study. We analyzed the sex ratio, age group, place of injury, injury mechanism, location of injury, management results, injury severity, and relation with drinking. Results: One hundred three cases were included (sex ratio: 1.06), and the mean age was $33.9{\pm}14.2$ years old. Fifty-six patients (54.4%) were discharged from the emergency department (ED) on the day of injury after primary care, and 9 patients (8.7%) were discharged, because they refused treatment. Seven patients (6.8%) died. Of these, 4 patients (3.9%) died after attempted cardio-pulmonary resuscitation in the ED, 1 patient (1%) was dead on arrival, and 2 patients (1.9%) died after admission. Sixteen patients (15.5%) were admitted to the hospital, including 2 patients (1.9%) needing emergency surgery. Sixteen patients (15.5%) were transferred to other hospitals. Sixty-one cases (59.2%) involved drinking, and 31 (30.1%) did not; for 11 cases (10.7%), the involvement of drinking was unknown. The mean revised trauma score (RTS) was $11.26{\pm}2.52$, and 88 cases (85.4%) hat a RTS of 12. The mean injury severity score (ISS) was $5.80{\pm}14.56$, and 9 (8.7%) severely injured patients had scores of more than 15. Conclusion: Most self-injuries were mild traumas related to drinking and occurred at a young age. Most cases were not so severe, and the patients were discharged from the ED, but some patients needed hospitalization. Other patients had injuries so severe that they died.