• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.141-149
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• 2004

Objectives : To evaluate the cost and proportion of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in the total healthcare costs among the elderly in the last 6 months of life. Methods : The care-giving families of 301 persons older than 65 years, who died between July 1st and December 31st of 2001, and were also registered in Self-Employed Health Insurance Programs in Seoul, were interviewed. Results : The cost of CAM was 1.09 million Won, which as a proportion of the total healthcare cost was 38.1%. The elderly aged between 65 and 69 year-old, male, living with their spouse, Buddhist and having cancers had higher CAM costs in an ANOVA and simple regression analysis. After controlling of various factors, age was the only significant factor associated with the cost of CAM. The elderly above 80 years old, female, bereaved and Buddhist had higher proportional CAM costs, and the elderly having cancers or cardiovascular diseases had lower proportional CAM costs in an ANOVA and simple regression analysis. After adjusting for various factors, the elderly above 85 years old, female and Buddhist had higher proportional CAM costs, and the elderly having cancers had lower proportional CAM costs. Conclusion : The very old and Buddhist, and/or the ill with no clear diagnosis, may depend more on CAM. Further research will be needed on the meaning and impact of CAM and their costs to public health and the total healthcare system.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.546-555
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• 1999

Objectives : To determine the prevalence, pattern. and out-of-pocket expenditure of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) utilization in Korean adult population. Methods : We conducted a representative telephone survey of 2,042 persons aged 18 or older. Data about any health problem, details of their use of medical doctors(MDs) offices/hospitals/pharmacies services and CAM during the preceding 12 months were collected with structured questionnaire. Results : The utilization rate of CAM among Korean adults was 29% in one year. A total of 231 kinds of CAM was identified from this survey. Annual out-of-pocket expenditure associated with CAM use in 1998 amounted to ${\xi}{\S}1.88$ billion and was comparable to 40.8% of out-of-pocket expenditure paid for MDs offices/hospitals/pharmacies services. Among those(N=424) who paid for both MDs offices/hospitals/pharmacies services an d CAM, 35.8% paid more for CAM. CAM gave more satisfaction than western medicine to those who had experience of both types of therapy. About half of CAM users were willing to recommend CAM to others. Disclosure rate to physician among CAM users was not high(40.6%). Conclusion : CAM became a popular source of health care in Korea, Korean spent a substantial amount of out-of-pocket money on CAM without any public control. Because CAM use is likely to be increased rapidly through lay referral system, health policy makers and health professionals should pay more attention to CAM for making appropriate utilization of CAM.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.3-13
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• 2011

The Korean society is recently becoming the aging society at an unprecedentedly rapid speed. Following the increase of the older population, their needs for special care is also rocketing. However, due to the increase of working women, nuclear-families, and old persons living alone, new facilities for the elderly such as nursing home are urgently needed. Thus, many nursing homes for the elderly are also rapidly providing. It is needed to examine if such nursing homes are properly designed for the dependent elderly to live. This study was carried out by the field observation using a checking sheet with measuring and taking photograph. The subjects were 12 nursing homes which gave positive responses for walking through their facilities. The items for observing and measuring were made based on the regulation on improving the facilities for the disabled, the elderly, and the pregnant. Whether each item fits the regulation or not was examined. The 9 areas in each nursing home were examined : entrance, hallway and corridor, stair, elevator, ramp, bed room, shower and locker room, bathroom, and rest room. It was founded that many accessible-related items were met. However, many supportive-related items such as ones for the visual disabled, and many supportive-related and accessible-related ones for bathroom, shower room, and restroom were unmet. In the process of this research, it was founded that the tool for evaluating the design of nursing home in terms of universal design should be developed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.438-448
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• 2010

The social activities of the elderly have been increasing as our society progresses toward an aging society. As their activities are increased, the occurrence of falls that could lead to fractures are increased. Falls are serious health hazards to the elderly and we need more thorough understanding of falls including the progress of falls and the impact area in various fall directions. Many of the traditional methods of falls research dealt with voluntary falls by younger subject since older subject can easily get fracture from voluntary falls. So, it has been difficult to get exact data about falls of the elderly. Here, we tried to capture the characteristics of the movements of major joints using three dimensional motion capture system during falls experiments using a moving mattress that can safely induce unexpected falls. Healthy younger subjects participated in the actual falls experiment and the moving mattress was actuated by a pneumatic system. The kinematic parameters such as velocities of major segments were imported to a computer simulation environment and falls to hard surfaces were simulated in a computational environment using a realistic human model of aged persons. The simulation was able to give approximations to contact forces which can occur during actual falls. And we designed impact absorption system to reduce the impact during falls. We can adapt this system to fracture prevention system that we are going to study.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.315-322
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• 2008

Objectives : This study was performed to explore customer royalty and the related factors. Methods : 900 households(a 1% sample) were randomly selected from the total population of K city located in Kangwon province. An interview survey was performed with using a structured questionnaire for the subjects(923 persons) who had used medical service during the year before the survey, and the survey was done September, 2002. Results : When comparing the relating factors related with customer royalty according to the sociodemographic characteristics, the older group showed a significantly higher level of recognition for service quality, service reputation, internal customers' attitudes and switching cost. The lower income group showed a higher level of recognition for service quality, service image and switching cost. The lower educated group showed a higher level of recognition for service reputation, service image and internal customers' attitudes. The higher educated group showed a higher level of recognition for perceived risk, and seeking variety. In addition, the expert group or the service and manufacturing workers group showed a higher level of recognition for service involvement. On multiple regression analysis, internal customers' attitudes, service image, service reputation, service quality, switching cost, and substitutability showed significant relations with customer loyalty. Conclusions : This study showed that customer loyalty was significantly influenced by service factors like internal customers' attitudes, service image, service reputation, and service quality, and by market factors like switching cost, and substitutability. The results of this study can be used as a baseline for developing strategies to create and keep customers with high loyalty.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.467-479
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• 1999

The mortality and morbidity caused by injury and poisoning has been major public health problem in Korea. This study was carried out to get information indispensable in developing prevention srategies peculiar to korean rural area. In this study 1.499 people of 496 households. who are living in five rural villages of Chooncheon City. Kang-Won Province. were interviewed in accordance with structured questionaire in 1996. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. The age-standardized annual incidence rates of injury and poisoning per 100 persons surveyed were 4.2 in males and 1.9 in females. The difference between sex was statistically significant. 2. The places where most of injuries and poisonings occurred were road 66.7% among males. road 31.6% among females. 3. The occurrence of the injuries and poisonings were clustered in intensive farming season in both males and females. 4. The laceration and stab wound were the most frequent nature of injuries in males and the fracture was the most frequent nature of injuries in females. The fracture. sprain were more frequent among males but sprain and contusion were more frequent among females. 5. Incidence rates of injuries and poisoning by cause were higher in traffic accidents among males. though falls among females. The cause specific incidence rate by age was high in traffic accident for 30-59 year age group. and for the aged people older than 60 years. 6. In the management pattern, 78.8% of the injuries and poisoning were received medical care in hospitals and clinics, and the duration of the treatment over 4 weeks in 37.0%. The results obtained indicate that organized community effort is urgently required to prevent injuries and poisonings in rural area.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.273-280
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• 1984

The blood components of diabetic patients who visited S- hospital in seoul from January 1982 to June 1983 were compared with the reference levels. Hemoglobin and hematocrit levels of diabetic patients were significantly lower than the reference. The diabetic patients showed 2-3 times higher levels of fasting blood glucose and postprandial -2 hours blood sugar. Levels of blood urine nitrogen and creatine were also significantly higher in the diabetes mellitus and the levels of potassium sodium and chlorine showed no differences although these were decreased gradually in older patients. Lower serum calcium levels were seen in the diabetic patients and this change was more significant at the ages higher than 40. The effect of an active vitamin D on serum-Ca level in diabetic patients was studied in comparison to that of non- diabetic persons. The serum calcium levels were slightly increased in control and insulin- dependent diabetic patients after a week- intake of 1,000mg calcium a day, while the intake of 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol ( 1,000 IU per day ) did not increase the serum calcium levels of these groups. Insulin - independent diabetic patients showed the rather lower serum calcium levels after a week- intake of 1,000mg calcium per day. However, the levels were increased after 2-weeks intake of the calcium and a week-in-take of the active vitamin D(1,000 IU/day ). This effect of vitamin D was seen in the groups with lower intake of calcium(500mg/day ) but not in the groups with 1,000mg calcium intake a day.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.258-265
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• 2017

Although excessive intake of sodium is known to cause various diseases and threaten public health and policies for reducing overconsumption of sodium are being implemented, the theoretical research on sodium intake is incomplete. This study attempted to provide a policy basis by examining whether or not planned behavior theory, which is a typical health communication theory used to describe health-related behaviors, can be applied to explain sodium intake behavior. Especially, sodium ingestion behaviors were compared using the theory of actions planned for men and women as well as young people, middle-aged, and elderly persons, who are predicted to show differences in eating habits. In this study, questionnaires were prepared to measure the daily eating habits of subjects and subordinate factors of planned behavior theory: behavioral beliefs, outcome expectations, normative beliefs, compliance motivation, and control beliefs. Questionnaires were given to 93 college students and their families. As a result of the difference analysis and path analysis of the questionnaire responses, the following suggestions were obtained. First, age difference is more obvious than sex difference in terms of low salt intentions. For example, older people are healthier than younger people in terms of eating habits and health concerns. Second, the elderly are more likely to practice the low-salt formula when they are provided information on the benefits and effects of the low-salt formula compared to younger ones. Third, systematic efforts are needed to promote a culture that emphasizes the health benefits of a low salt diet rather than providing piecemeal information on the advantages and effects of a low salt diet.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1246-1254
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• 2012

The South Korea has the highest overall smoking rates of male among the thirty member-countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This study was performed to determine the association between amount of smoking and self-reported voice problem in Korean adult population using national survey data. Data were drawn from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2008. Subjects were 3,600 persons (1,501 male, 2,099 female) aged 19 years and older living in the community. Adjusting for covariates (age, sex, education, income, longest occupation, alcohol drinking, pain and discomfort during the last 2 weeks), Severe smoke (>40.5-55.5 pack year), more than 20 cigarettes per day were independent risk factors for self-reported voice problem. It was found that the number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) the proportional increased in risk of voice disorders. These findings suggest that the investigation of CPD are required for effective screening of voice disorder.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.655-660
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• 2016

Smoking is accountable for the fatality of a substantial number of persons and increases the likelihood of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Although data have shown high prevalence rates of cigarette smoking in Saudi Arabia, relatively little is known about the broader scope. The objectives of this study were to investigate socio-demographic factors, patterns of use and cessation behavior associated with smoking in Saudi Arabia (KSA). The study utilized a cross-sectional, multi-step design of sampling. Residents (N=1,497; aged 15 years and older) were recruited from seven administrative areas in Southwest Saudi Arabia. A pretested questionnaire was utilized to obtain data on participant cigarette smoking, including their daily use, age, education, income, marital status and employment status. The current study is the first of its kind to gather data cessation behavior of Saudi subjects. With the exception of 1.5% females, all the respondents were male. The majority of the respondents were married, had a university level of education, were employed, and were younger than 34 years old. The same trends were also observed among smokers' samples. The current prevalence of cigarette smoking was 49.2% and 65.7% of smokers had smoking at less than 18 years of age. The mean daily use amongst smokers was 7.98 cigarettes (SD=4.587). More than 50% of the study sample had tried at least once to quit smoking. However, 42% of the smokers participating had never. On the other hand, about 25% of the respondents were willing to consider quitting smoking in the future. Modeling of cigarette smoking suggested that the most significant independent predictors of smoking behavior were geographic area, gender, marital status, education, job and age. Considerable variation in smoking prevalence was noted related with participant sociodemographics. Findings recommend the necessity for control and intervention programs in Saudi community.