• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.143-149
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• 2020

The study examined the seasonal pattern of larvae, nymph, and adult life stages for Haemaphysalis longicornis and the rate of infection with severe fever from the thrombocytopenia syndrome virus in ticks collected from 12 sections (Jichukdong), 14 sections (Uldaeri), and 18 sections (Howondong) in Bukhansan dullegil for April-October 2019. Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks have been considered the main vector for severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS). Haemaphysalis flava and Ixodes nipponensis were collected using the dragging and flagging method. The ratios of Haemaphysalis longicornis of the collected ticks were 91% (Jichukdong), 94% (Uldaeri), and 98% (Howondong). Monthly distributional studies of Haemaphysalis longicornis based on the developmental stage showed that the adults peaked in September while nymphs were collected more frequently from April through June. The larvae peaked in September and October. SFTS virus detection was performed using 2 × OneStep RT-PCR and nested PCR. On the other hand, no SFTS virus-specific gene was detected in 1,158 ticks of Haemaphysalis longicornis. This result provides estimates of the population densities for the life stages of Haemaphysalis longicornis and the associated disease risk in Bukhansan dullegil, where many people have visited since opening in 2010.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.190-203
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• 2003

Background: Dental hygienists are at risk of acquiring infections through exposure to infectious agents. This study explores the frequency of exposure to infectious agents and infection control practices among dental hygienists. Methods: We undertook a cross-sectional survey to examine the exposure to infectious agents and infection control practices among dental hygienists through questionnaire. Data were obtained from 124 dental hygienists attending educational conferences. A multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the factors that effect infection control practices in relation to age, completion of infection control education, recognition of their own serum hepatitis Ag/Ab status, the number of one day patients, location of clinics, type of clinics, and career years. Result: Of the 124 dental hygienists, 91.7% were exposed to at least one accident such as needle stick injuries during their practices periods. The health screening coverage rate in dental hygienists was 16.5%. The number of one day patients and career years were important in relation to infection control practices among dental hygienists. The adjusted odds ratio estimates for career years were 5.049 times greater(95% Cl 1.238-20.597) for groups with over 4 career years than under 2 career years. That for the number of one day patients were 0.261(95% Cl 0.071-0.955) lower for through 20 up to 30 patients, 0.531(95% Cl 0.102-2.78) lower for through 30 up to 40 patients and 0.498(95% Cl 0.123-2.017) lower for more than 40 patients than under 20 patients. Conclusion: From these results, prevalence of infection control practices among dental hygienists is related to the number of one day patients and career years. Prevention of cross infection and reduction of future transmission should be a priority to dental hygienists for promotion of infection control and further efforts to educate newcomers on infection prevention should be made.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1525-1531
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• 2012

Cigarette smoking is one of the most important public health concerns in Korea and worldwide. A number of studies have been conducted to measure the health and economic burden of smoking, but these did not reflect recent changes such as the decrease in smoking rate and the increase in the incidence of cancer. The purpose of this study was to provide up-to-date estimates of the health and economic burden of cancer caused by smoking and to compare the results with those of previous studies. Cancer-related burden was assessed with nationally representative data such as claims data from the National Health Insurance Corporation, and cause of death records from the National Statistical Office and the Korea Health Panel. We determined the smoking-attributable burden by multiplying the smoking-attributable fraction by the total burden. As a result, the burden of major cancers due to smoking was found to be substantial despite a recent sharp decrease in smoking by the Korean population. The total economic cost reaches $2,234.0 million in males and $870.0 million in females. Also, the health burden of cancers due to smoking is 2,038.9 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per 100,000 individuals in men and 732.2 DALYs per 100,000 individuals in women. Among all cancers, cancers of the trachea, lungs and bronchus are the leading causes of health and economic burden. The huge burden caused by cancers linked to smoking makes it imperative that adequate policies to decrease the prevalence of smoking be developed, particularly considering the recent increase in smoking rate among women.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.492-501
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• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of self-reported cigarette smoking status and investigate factors associated with the accuracy self-reported and measured urinary cotinine in Korean adults. Methods: We used data from the $1^{st}$ Korean National Environmental Health Survey (2009-2011) among adults aged ${\geq}19$ years (N=6,246). The survey examined self-reported smoking status, and urinary cotinine was regarded as the biomarker of exposure to tobacco smoke. Urinary cotinine was analyzed using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS version 20.0, which uses the sample weight and calculates variance estimates to adjust for the unequal probability of selection into the survey. Results: We calculated a cut-off point (53.3 ug/L) by using a ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve. The smoking prevalence was 24.6% based on self-reported data and 28.2% based on urinary cotinine concentrations. When we assessed the agreement between self-reported and urinary cotinine, we found an average agreement of 97.7% among self-reported smokers and 94.5% among self-reported non-smokers. Among self-reported smokers, factors affected the discrepancy were age, household economic status and average number of cigarettes smoked per day. On the other hand, gender, former smoking experience, and exposure to SHS (second hand smoke) were associated with discrepancies among self-reported non-smokers. Conclusion: These results suggest that self-reported data on smoking status provide a valid estimate of actual smoking status. In future research, we will conduct a continuous monitoring study for reliability verification of the data to reduce potential interpretation errors.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.1-30
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• 2003

The recent experience about self-employment shows three main trends: first, its share out of the total workers has steadily increased, recording 37.6% in 2001, implying its prevalence and importance; second, its share out of male workers has caught up female workers', implying its importance to males as well as females; and finally, during the recent Economic Crisis when there was mass layoff and large scale bankruptcy, its share rapidly increased, reflecting its role of a buffer to economic fluctuation. However, there have been few studies on self-employment, mainly focusing on what makes someone choose it as an alternative to being employed. This study analyzes the determinants of the duration to terminate self-employment, by applying the proportional hazard model to the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey(KLIPS) by the Korea Labor Institute. The KLIPS started the first wave in 1998 with the 5,000 household sample (and about 12,000 individual sample of household members aged 15 and more). In this study, the first four waves are used for analysis. The average duration of 5,357 spells of self-employment is 130 months. It shows slight difference between males(124 months) and females(138 months) while it widely ranges over industries (296 months for agriculture industry while 50 months for restaurant and hotel industry). Estimates of the proportional hazard model of the self-employment duration show that females are more likely to terminate self-employment while it is not statistically significant. The effect of age at starting self-employment on the hazard shows the inverse V-shape, which implies that, until a certain age(47 years), the hazard become higher as aging while, since then, it become lower as aging. The level of education has a positive effect on the hazard, implying that more education is related to the higher probability to be employed. The measures of economic performances, annual sales and earnings, are positively related to continuing self-employment while hardship at the start of self-employment measured by several ways has a negative effect. Training before opening business has a positive effect on keeping on self-employment and its effects are different over its providers, significantly positive for public providers while insignificant for private providers. More and further research on self-employment is urgent in the rapidly ageing society. To help workers to be self-employed, more public assistance is necessary for education, training, financing, marketing, management, and human resource management in order to make the olders consider self-employment as a good alternative rather than an inevitable one.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2002

Objective : To estimate the socioeconomic costs of obesity in Korea,1998. Methods : The 1998 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(1998 NHNES) data was used and 10,880 persons who had taken health examinations were selected for study. Essential hypertension, NIDDM(non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus), dyslipidemia, osteoarthritis, coronary heart disease, stroke were included as obesity related disease. The data of direct costs of obesity was obtained from the National Federation of Medical Insurance. The category of indirect costs was the loss of productivity caused by premature death and admission, time costs, traffic costs, nursing fees due to obesity. Multiple logistic regression model was developed to estimate prevalence odds ratio by obesity class adjusted demographic and socio-ecnomic factors and calculate PAF(Population Attributable Fraction) of obesity on obesity related disease. And we finally calculated the socioeconomic costs of obesity in relation to BMI with PAF. Results : The direct costs of obesity were 2,126 billion${\sim}965$ billion Won in considering out of pocket payment to uninsured services, and the indirect costs of obesity were 2,099 billion${\sim}1,086$ billion Won. Consequently, in considering out of pocket payment to uninsured services, the socioeconomic costs of obesity were 4.225 billion${\sim}2,050$ billion Won, which corresponded to about $0.094%{\sim}0.046%$ of GDP and $1.88%{\sim}0.91$ of total health care costs in Korea. Conclusions : Obesity represents a major health problem with significant economic implications for the society. This results are conservative estimates as far as all obesity related disease and all health care and indirect costs were not included due to missing information. further studies are needed to caculate socioeconomic costs of obesity more exactly.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2015

The seasonal pattern of larvae, nymph and adult life stages for three tick species were studied for April-October, 2014. Haemaphysalis longicornis (610), Haemaphysalis flava (296) and Ixodes nipponensis (15) were collected from Pocheon by the dragging and flagging method. H.longicornis (254), H.flava (345) and I.nipponensis (15) were collected from Cheolwon in the same way. H.longicornis adults peaked in June while nymphs were more frequently collected from April through June. In contrast, H.longicornis larvae were collected only in September and October. H.flava adults were collected in April, September, and October while nymphs were collected from April through October. The nymphs peaked in April in Pocheon while May was the peak in Cheolwon. Larvae of H.longicornis and H.flava were collected only in September and October. I.nipponensis adults and nymphs were more frequently collected in April, while the larvae were not collected during that period. Collecting ticks by the dragging and flagging method provides estimates of population densities for life stages of the selected species and the associated disease risk. These results can be used to predict seasonal population densities of ticks and the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.450-457
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• 1991

The iron status of 57 female college students was evaluated by measurements of hemoglobinCHb). hematocritCHct) and serum ferritin(Ferritin). Mean values for Hb, Hct and Ferritin were $13.9\pm$ 0.96g/dl, $41.4\pm$ 2.85% and $20.7\pm$ l5.5ng/mL respectively. Ferritin as well as Hb. Hct were not statistically different from normal distribution. although ferritin were skewed to the right. The prevalence of anemia defined by Hb < 12g/dI. Hct ~36 % and Ferritin <12ng/ml were found to be 5.3, 10.3 and 36.8%, respectively. By using Hb as a screening tool at a cutoff point of 12g/dI. 2.8% of healthy subjects will be incorrectly classified as anemic and 90.5 % of anemic as healthy. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated at various cutoff points of Hb and Hct. The estimates of sensitivity and specificity allow Hb 14.0g/dl as cutoff point for good predictor of anemia.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.45-56
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• 2012

Objective : This study was done to investigate the correlation between general quality of life(QOL) and disease specific QOL of tinnitus patients. Methods : 2009 National health and nutrition survey(NHNS) data were employed for analyzing the mean estimates of total population and tinnitus sub-group patients, and predicting the regression equation of mapping between EQ-5D and disease severity. Baseline statistical analyses and normality tests were done by using Student t-test, Chi-square test, Shapiro-Wilk test and ladder test. Hierarchial regression analyses were performed using related variables and predicted the optimal regression equations. Statistical significance was achieved if the probability was less than 5%. Results : Firstly, the standardized prevalence of tinnitus patient in South Korea was 18.69% and over 90th age-group was relatively higher than other groups. Mean value of domestic QOL measured by EQ-5D was estimated as 0.9486 and QOL of tinnitus subgroup(0.9169) was lower than the non-tinnitus subgroup(0.9559), significantly. Stratified by age and sex, QOLs of all sub-groups with tinnitus were lower than without tinnitus sub-groups significantly. Regression equations from 2009 NHNS data were developed using hierarchial regression analysis which is as follows. $$Y_{EQ-5D}=0.9224-0.0079{\times}T1-0.0261{\times}T2-0.0951{\times}T3+\sum_{i=1}^{n}{\beta}_i{\times}X_i\\{\hspace{95}}(0.0106){\hspace{3}}(0.0037){\hspace{30}}(0.0072){\hspace{30}}(0.0038)$$ ($X_i$=Other explanatory variables except Tinnitus QOL1, 2, 3, ${\beta}$= Regression Coefficient of Model 4) Conclusion : We confirmed the correlation among THI and EQ-5D and HUI-III, and developed the inference for regression equation of EQ-5D.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.272-281
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• 2023

Chigger mites are the vector of scrub typhus. This study estimates the infestation status and ecological characteristics of chiggers on the chestnut white-bellied rat Niviventer fulvescens in Southwest China between 2001 and 2019. Chiggers were identified under the microscope, and infestation indices were calculated. The Preston's log-normal model was used to fit the curve of species abundance distribution. A total of 6,557 chiggers were collected in 136 of 342 N. fulvescens rats, showing high overall infestation indices (prevalence=39.8%, mean abundance=19.2, mean intensity=48.2) and high species diversity (S=100, H'=3.0). Leptotrombidium cangjiangense, Neotrombicula japonica, and Ascoschoengastia sifanga were the three dominant chigger species (constituent ratio=42.9%; 2,736/6,384) and exhibited an aggregated distribution among different rat individuals. We identified 100 chigger species, with 3 of them (Leptotrombidium scutellare, Leptotrombidium wenense, and Leptotrombidium deliense) as the main vectors of scrub typhus in China and nine species as potential vectors of this disease. Disease vector occurrence on N. fulvescens may increase the risk of spreading scrub typhus from rats to humans. Chigger infestation on N. fulvescens varied significantly in different environments. The species abundance distribution showed a log-normal distribution pattern. The estimated number of chigger species on N. fulvescens was 126 species.