• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.22-33
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• 1989

Rapid socio-cultural and economic changes in the country has brought with it changes in the society's value system. For a traditional society that is increasingly being exposed to modernization but where sex norms are still very restrictive, the adolescent sexual mores takes on added significance. Adolescents are caught between two opposing forces, the changing environment that allows for freer and liberal mores and the traditional society that cannot keep pace with the changing environment and therefore demands resistance to changes. This paper focuses on problems of adolescent sexuality in this country and considers the countermeasures for the existing problems. Amongst the problems are: (a) increasingly younger age of the adolescents who start sexual intercourse (b) non-use of contraception, (c) unwanted pregnancies, (d) increase in the number of induced abortion and (e) increase in the number of unwanted children and unmarried mothers. The Korean adolescent's sexual behavior seems to follow that of the developed countries. In other words, many western modes of life and sexual values seem to bave been copied in Korea and yet Korean adolescents lack in their knowledge of sex related matters such as reproductive physiology and contraception. Among middle and high school students, female students are reported to have less knowledge on sex than male students according to a 1988 survey by KIPH. Even among the unmarried famale factory workers, only 42.5 percent replied they know of the condom, and 25.1 percent and 23.1 percent said they had knowledge of spermicide and menstrual regulation respectively. However, 14.9 percent and 13.9 percent reported that they had a knowledge of the loop and female sterilization respectively according to the 1984 study by KIPH. Among the middle school students 0.8 percent said they had experience in sexual intercourse, while 7.3 percent of the high school students reported having had sexual intercourse. The sexual intercourse experience rate among the unmarried female factory workers is 37.8 percent. Among those female factory workers with sexual experience, 46.7 percent had more than one sex partners. Only 39.1 percent of male students and 18.9 percent of female students among those with sexual intercourse experience have used contraceptives. mostly condoms and oral pills 45.1 percent of female factory workers with sexual intercourse experience used contraceptives such as pills, condoms and rhythm methods. The pregnancy experience rate among the female factory workers who had experience in sexual intercourse is 29.5 percent, which is 11.1 percent among the total respondents. Out of the 102 pregnant female workers, 98 workers(96.1 percent) terminated their pregnancy by induced abortion and 2 workders(2 percent) in natural abortion, while 1 worker(1 percent) was in pregnancy and another 1 worker had normal birth that was subsequently sent to orphanage. In order to cope with the problem of adolescent sexuality, a drastic and strong policy measures should be taken by the government. The most effective countermeasure to the adolescent sexual problems appears to the education. The sex and population education in the school is very much in need. In addition, sex education program through mass media and at the job sit-should be promoted for a healthy development of adolescents' sexual behavior. Also, the existing national family planning program, which has focused on the married couples, should be extended to the unmarried people in its scope and contents of the program.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.56-66
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• 1984

Giardia lamblia is a pathogenic flagellate causing intestinal disorders such as diarrhea, abdominal pain and malabsorption of nutrients. Giardia is mainly infected by the ingestion of contaminated foods per os. Craun (1979) has recently reported that mass infection of this flagellate through the contaminated water supply systems is one of public health hazards. Also, so-called traveller's diarrhea is sometimes caused by Giardia infection (CDC, U.S.A., 1971). However, a few epidemiological studies figuring out the mode of infection or control measures of Giardia infection has been done so far in Korea. The present study was aimed to know the prevalence of Giardia infection in several Korean populations, detectability of this flagellate in water systems and the viability of the cysts against sewages and disinfectants applying to drinking water. In the present study, 388 stool specimens from orphanage children in Chun-joo, Chung-joo, On-yang and Chun-an areas and 538 stool specimens from inhabitants in Woo-do, In-chon, and Chun-joo were examined by formalin-ether concentration technique to detect out Giardia cysts. On the other hand, water samples from 14 sites of Han River and its tributaries were collected in May through July, 1984. Fifty liter of water sample in each sampling site was then filtered through water filtering system deviced by U.S. Environmental Proutection Agency and the sediments rinsed out from the thread rolls, a part of water filtering system, were examined to detect out the Giardia cysts. In order to observe the viability of Giardia cysts in the sewage samples, the cysts were treated in it at $4^{\circ}C$ or $25^{\circ}C$ for 7 through 28 days. For this purpose, the cysts were also exposed to various concentrations of disinfectants such as chlorine, iodine and ozone gas for proper time intervals. After treatment, the viability test of the Giardia cysts were carried out by method of Rice and Schaefer (1981) with minor modification. The results obtained in this study were as follows : 1) The detection rates of G lamblia cysts in the stool specimens were 18.3% in orphans and 4.3% in general examinees. 2) The prevalences of Giardia Infection were higher in the young age groups than in-adults. The highest positive rate was 18.4% in the age group less than 10. 3) Of 14 water specimens sampled from Han River system and its tributaries around the Seoul area, the Giardia cysts were detected from 4 samples, and no cyst was found in the water supply systems. 4) The cysts treated in the sewage survived for 28 days at $4^{\circ}C$ and for 13 days at $25^{\circ}C$. 5) The cysts were completely destroyed within 60 minutes by exposure to 8 mg/l of residual chlorine at 4g and within 30 minutes by exposure to the same concentration of chlorine at $25^{\circ}C$. 6) The cysts were all dead when exposed to 1 mg/1 of iodine for 60 minutes at $4^{\circ}C$ or $25^{\circ}C$. 7) The cysts were destroyed after 10 minute exposure in 0.15 mg to 0.25mg of residual ozone gas per liter. Summarizing the above results, it is considered that Giardia infection is regarded as water-borne disease and the cysts are able to be controlled by the application with the disinfectants in the water supply systems.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2023

Objectives : This study aims to compare the mental health of adolescents living in child care institutions (orphanages) and youth shelters, to provide basic data for appropriate psychiatric interventions for each facilities. Methods : The sample consisted of 157 adolescents in child care institutions and 31 adolescents in Youth Shelters who completed the Korean version of the Youth Self Report (K-YSR). We compared the K-YSR scores between the two groups and also examined factors related to suicidality. Results : Adolescents in youth shelters were older and had higher rates of drinking (p<0.001), smoking (p<0.001), and "abnormal sleep" (p=0.007) than adolescents in child care institutions. They also showed higher 'suicidality' (p=0.004) and K-YSR scores. On the other hand, adolescents in child care institutions have lower 'suicidality', but they have higher 'suicidality' when they have 'abnormal sleep' (OR 4.194; p=0.006), 'abnormal diet' (OR 2.503; p=0.010), and 'concerns about weight gain' (OR 2.503; p=0.010). Additionally, 17.6% of participants in the study showed 'suicidality'. The 'suicidality' group had a higher overall K-YSR score than the non-suicidal group, and had higher 'abnormal sleep' (OR 3.766; p=0.014) and 'concern about weight gain' (OR 2.864; p=0.032). Conclusions : Adolescents in youth shelters appear to have more serious clinical difficulties than adolescents in child care institutions, so prompt psychiatric intervention is needed. Additionally, it is necessary to consider mental health assessments including suicidality when adolescents in child care institutions complain of sleep, eating, or weight gain problems.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.235-244
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• 1991

An epidemiological study and mass treatments of Enterobius vermicularis infection among children near Wonju area of Kangwon province were carried out. The children were divided into 4 groups according to their residing localities; children in the mountainous area, rural area, urban area and in orphanage. They were examined by adhesive cellotape anal swab technique, and egg positive rates were obtained. The rates of egg reduction and re-infection rates after repeated mass treatments were also observed. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The overall egg Positive rate of E. vermicularis in the first screening was 19.9% (251 out of 1, 262 examinees; 19.7% in males and 20.1% in females). The positive rates were 13.0% in the mountainous area, 11 9% in the rural area, 15.1% in the urban (medium-sized) area and 61.9% in orphanages. 2. The highest positive rates were observed in the kindergarten children, and 1st and 2nd grade children of primary schools (26.2~32.2%), and the lowest rate (13.6%) in 6-year grade children of primary schools. 3. Cumulative detection rates from 3 repeated anal swabs at 4~5 days interval were higher (70.8%) than those from single anal swabs (50.0~59.2%). 4. Out of the examinees who showed the highest cumulative positive rate (70.8%), about 39.2% were consecutively positive in 3 anal swabs. Among different groups of children, the higher the total egg detection rates (87.5%), the higher the consecutive positive rates (71.9%) . 5. A total of 2, 609 (male : female=1 : 12.4) worms were collected from 17 egg-positive cases treated with anthelinintics. The mean number of worms per child was 153 (range: 4-824) . 6. The egg-positive cases in several studied groups (180 children) were treated with anthelmintics 6 times at 3-week intervals. In this case, the overall positive rate was decreased from 54.8% to 2.2% at 15 weeks after the treatments, but no complete negative conversion was experienced. However, in a group of children (154 children) including egg Positive and negative cases who were both treated with anthelmintics at 3-week interval, a complete egg-negative conversion was observed in the 9th week after treatments. 7. The egg-detection rate in the brothers or sisters of egg Positive children was 70.0% (28 out of 40 examined), and the egg-positive rate according to the family unit was 69.7%. In summarizing the above results, it is concluded that Enterobius vermicularis infection is still highly prevalent among children in Korea, and that repeated mass treatments of more than 3 times will be effective for control of this infection.