• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.500-509
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• 2021

This study investigated the characteristics of a macrobenthos community and sediment environment and assessed the health of tidal flats along the west coast of Korea. A survey was conducted from Ganghwa-do to Mokpo, Jeollanam-do in April (spring) and August (summer) 2017, and April (spring) 2018. The sediment grain sizes in the Chungcheongnam-do region were coarser, and the sediment in the Gyeonggi-do·Incheon, Jeollanam-do, and Jeollabuk-do regions were finer. A total of 140 macrobenthic species were collected from this study and using a cluster similarity analysis of the macrobenthos community, they were divided into four groups. Group2 was associated with Manila clam farm stations, and Ruditapes phillipinarum, Nephtys polybranchia and Lumbrineris nipponica were dominant. Group4 included some sites with finer sediment composed relatively, and Eteone longa and Nemertea unid. appeared at a high frequency. From the health assessment of the western tidal flat, the ISEP and BHI indices had a "High status," and the AMBI index had a "Good status." In conclusion, the tidal flats along the west coast of Korea have good ecological health. However, pollution indicator species such as Theora lata and Capitella capitata have appeared in some areas. Therefore, periodic administration and interventions are necessary to prevent deterioration of the tidal flat environment.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-28
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• 2024

Background: Oral health has a significant impact on systemic health, and the close association between oral and systemic diseases has been continuously reported. To prevent oral diseases, the role of oral hygiene products such as dental floss and interdental brushes, in addition to tooth brushing, is becoming increasingly important. This study aims to analyze the effect of using oral hygiene products on the lifetime prevalence of systemic diseases among Korean adults. Methods: This study utilized data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2018). The study population consisted of 13,199 adults aged 19 years and older. The independent variable was the use of oral hygiene products, and the dependent variable was the prevalence of systemic diseases diagnosed by a physician. Demographic variables, health status, and behavioral variables were included as covariates, and multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: The use of dental floss showed no significant association with the prevalence of systemic diseases. However, those who did not use interdental brushes had a 22% lower likelihood of dyslipidemia (OR 0.777, 95% CI 0.660-0.913). Among participants with periodontal disease, those who did not use dental floss had a significantly higher risk of myocardial infarction (OR 11.488, 95% CI 1.438-91.772). Conversely, those who did not use interdental brushes had lower risks of dyslipidemia, myocardial infarction, and angina, particularly among women and individuals under 65 years of age. Conclusion: This study found a low overall association between the use of oral hygiene products and the prevalence of systemic diseases, but there was a notable association with cardiovascular diseases. To reduce the risk of myocardial infarction, the prevention and treatment of periodontal disease, along with proper oral hygiene management, are crucial. Future prospective studies are needed to clearly establish the causal relationship between oral hygiene and systemic diseases.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2009

Objectives: Cattle slaughterhouse workers are known as the high risk group for the zoonoses. We surveyed the awareness of zoonoses among cattle slaughterhouse workers to suggest direction of education and public relations. Methods: We evaluated the epidemiological characteristics of zoonoses and the process of cattle slaughtering. We designed different questionnaires for the workers involved in slaughtering, the handlers of residual products, the inspectors and their assistants, and the grading testers and their assistants respectively. We visited 73 cattle slaughterhouses and 62 residual products handle houses across the country and conducted a questionnaire survey of the general characteristics and the awareness of zoonoses. The data collected was evaluated using the SPSS 17.0 statistical package. Results: The awareness rate of brucellosis, Q fever and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) were 83.9%, 18.5%, 62.7% among cattle slaughterhouse workers. The awareness rate of zoonoses among the workers involved in slaughtering and the handlers of residual products was lower than other workers. The awareness rate of zoonoses tended to increase as the school career. In the correct awareness rate of the transmission of zoonoses, 'transmission by tick bite', 'person to person' and 'air transmission' were lower than other transmission items. The most common reason why cattle slaughterhouse workers think that it is difficult to prevent zoonoses was the ignorance of how to prevent. Conclusions: An educational program is needed for the cattle slaughterhouse workers on zoonoses especially Q fever. And publicity activities about prevention of infection are needed for high risk groups.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.227-252
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• 2015

This study was intended to examine child abuse experience, response to child abuse, perception of the cause of child abuse, and need for counseling to prevent and eliminate child abuse among 514 day care center teachers across the country. First, 17.9% (92) of the teachers had experience of witnessing child abuse at day care centers. After such witness, the teachers mostly "paid attention to abused children and provided them with warm treatment" when they were abused by other teachers and "took no actions" when they were abused by directors of the day care centers. The biggest reason of not taking any actions was: they "had no authority to intervene in child care of other teachers" in case of child abuse by other teachers and "were afraid of responsibilities or roles that could be placed on them after reporting" in case of child abuse by day care center directors. Second, the biggest reason of child abuse by teachers was job stress followed by excessive work and mental health of teachers. Third, necessary actions when child abuse cases were found and confirmed were suspension of involved teachers and psychological evaluation for involved children and parents. Fourth, 88.9% (457) of the teachers responded that they would use an organization specialized in child abuse if such organization was built and that the organization would help them to decide on whether to report child abuse and prevention of and intervention in child abuse. They also said that such organization should be installed in the Counseling Center in the Comprehensive Child Care Support Center. Fifth, 95.3% (490) of the teachers answered professional counselors specialized in development and counseling of infants and toddlers were needed to address child abuse at day care centers. They demanded that such counselors should be able to administer psychological evaluation for young children and assess child abuse cases. Qualification of the counselors was at least college graduates who majored in psychology and child care, three to five years of experience in the field, and appropriate certificates or licenses. Finally, the teachers said that training and professional counseling about child abuse were required to prevent and eliminate child abuse at day care centers. Implications and follow-up studies were provided and suggested based on these findings.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.133-170
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• 2022

Supreme Court 2018Da228486, on July 29, 2021, ruled Article 750 of the Civil Act as the basis for liability for damages due to the violation of the supervisory duty of the responsible mental patient. This judgment recognizes that the legal guardian is liable for tort due to neglect of the responsibility of supervision under Article 750 of the Civil Act because the duty of protection bears the duty of supervision over the mental patient under the law. However, unlike the case of Article 755 Paragraph 1, which explicitly requires a legal obligation to supervise, Article 750 only stipulates general tort liability. Thus, to admit tort liability under Article 750, it is not necessary that the basis of the supervisory duty by the law. In this case, the supervisory duty may also be acknowledged according to customary law or sound reasoning. The duty of supervision of a legal guardian is not a general duty to prevent all consequences of the behavior of a mental patient but a duty within a reasonably limited scope. Therefore, the responsibility of the burden of care should be acknowledged only when the objective circumstances in which it is appropriate to hold the legal guardian for the acts of the mental patient are admitted. Under the Act on the improvement of mental health and the support for welfare services for mental patients, a legal guardian cannot even be granted the supervisory duty to prevent the mental patient from harming others.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.349-355
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• 2016

This study was performed to investigate food safety of 18,446 distribution foods in the northern Gyeongii area from 2010 to 2014 year. Food safety analysis was conducted by using Korean food code and food additives code. Fail determination about standards and specifications was 184 cases of 18,446 distribution foods, which represented about 1.00% fail rate of total cases. In the case of collected by food sanitation inspector, fail determination was 124 cases of 13,706 foods and showed about 0.90% fail rate. In the case of requested for food safety inspection, fail determination was 42 cases of 3,419 foods and showed about 1.23% fail rate. Results of fail determination by years, 61 cases (about 1.66%) detected fail among 3,683 foods in 2010 year, 37 cases (about 0.96%) detected fail among 3,863 foods in 2011 year, 44 cases (about 1.18%) detected fail among 3,721 foods in 2012 year, 25 cases (about 0.68%) detected fail among 3,669 foods in 2013 year, and 17 cases (about 0.48%) detected fail among 3,510 foods in 2014 year. In distribution of fail rate by month, september was showed the highest fail rate at 2.54% compared with other months. Fail determination by type of foods showed that 23 cases of perilla oil detected fail in 204 foods (about 11.27%), 32 cases of sesame oil detected fail in 394 foods (about 8.12%), 9 cases of pickles detected fail in 177 foods (about 5.08%), and 10 cases of red pepper powder detected fail in 283 foods (about 3.53%). For analysis of fail determination by examination items, microorganism was 28 fail cases (15.22%) and that was the highest level among examination items, linolenic acid and acid value were 27 fail cases (14.67%), iodine value was 19 fail cases (10.33%), content amount was 16 fail cases (8.70%), and sulfur dioxide was 9 fail cases (4.89%). In conclusion, the result of this study indicate that various fail determination items were detected of distribution foods on the market during the past five years and it was showed to higher hazard occurrence potential due to food. Therefore, more strict food safety control will be need for improving human health by prevent food health problem and ensure food safety.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.37-56
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• 2001

This study was conducted to analyze the degree of changes in knowledge and attitude toward smoking and to examine the factors affecting knowledge and attitude for smoking after providing a smoking prevention program based on social influence model for a year to middle school students. Study population consists of 665 subjects of middle school students(aged 14 years) in Gumi city in Kyeongsangbukdo Province. Among them three-hundred sixty-seven students(intervention group) were educated to a smoking prevention program for 1 year from April 1999 to April 2000. School-based four-class program to prevent smoking was developed. The program provides instruction about short and long-term negative physiologic and social consequences of smoking and also discussed the health hazards of smoking, social pressure to smoke, peer norms regarding tobacco use, and refusal skill. A 45-item self-administered structured questionnaire was designed to evaluate the change of knowledge, attitude, smoking rate and the amount of smoking. The instrument was comprised of 11 knowledge items, thirteen attitude item and demographic items. Each scales were created by summing responses to each items within each scales and high scores on the knowledge, attitude, and smoking behavioral intention scales indicated positive responses. Based on the changes before and after the implementation of smoking prevention program between intervention and control group, the change of scores on knowledge were significantly different between the control group and the intervention group(p<0.05) and the change of scores on the attitude toward smoking was significantly different between intervention and control group. The change of smoking rate were not showing a significant difference between two groups but the amount of smoking were significantly reduced in intervention group than control group. In multiple regression analysis on changes of knowledge about smoking, the variables of smoking prevention program education, previous knowledge on smoking and students' school performance were selected the significant variables. In multiple regression to analysis of the factors influencing changes in attitude toward smoking, the variables of smoking prevention program education, previous knowledge on smoking were shown to be significant. The smoking prevention program was effective on change of knowledge and attitude of middle school students. In considering that the policy should be needed to extent of implementation of school-based health education curricula based on social influence model and it would contribute to reduce smoking of students.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.817-832
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• 2011

It is said that the reason Bulgarians enjoy longevity is that they have a lot of yogurt, whose $Lactobacillus$ controls intestinal poison-producing germs. In young individuals, the number of bifidobacteria exceeds 10 billion per 1 g of intestinal content, but this number decreases for older or senile individuals, who have a larger number of harmful microorganisms such as $Clostridium$. In addition, it is well known that artificially increasing intestinal bifidobacteria can help control harmful microorganisms and thus facilitate a healthier and longer life. The microorganisms used for artificial spawn are referred to as probiotic microorganisms, and in general, lactic acid bacteria(LAB) are used. Unlike antibiotics, which kill harmful microorganisms, probiotic microorganisms coexist with and control them, while improving the health of the individual, that is, they can improve and invigorate host cells. Because probiotic microorganisms and its products based on LAB are known to help prevent and treat constipation, diarrhea, intestinal inflammation, and blood cholesterol and generally improve health through the purification of intestines, its market has been continuously expanding. Korea imports approximately 90% of spawn and uses them. It is likely that they are not appropriate for Korean's physical condition. Thus, considering this problem into account, Entecbio, a biotech firm in Korea, has produced various products by using its proprietary microorganisms. In this paper, the effects, characteristics, and kinds of products from based on proprietary microorganisms, with its prospect for market, etc., are generally examined.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2016

This study explored epidemiological trends in trichomoniasis in Daegu, South Korea. Wet mount microscopy, PCR, and multiplex PCR were used to test for Trichomonas vaginalis in vaginal swab samples obtained from 621 women visiting 2 clinics in Daegu. Of the 621 women tested, microscopy detected T. vaginalis in 4 (0.6%) patients, PCR detected T. vaginalis in 19 (3.0%) patients, and multiplex PCR detected T. vaginalis in 12 (1.9%) patients. Testing via PCR demonstrated high sensitivity and high negative predictive value for T. vaginalis. Among the 19 women who tested positive for T. vaginalis according to PCR, 94.7% (18/19) reported vaginal signs and symptoms. Notably, more than 50% of T. vaginalis infections occurred in females younger than 30 years old, and 58% were unmarried. Multiplex PCR, which simultaneously detects pathogens from various sexually transmitted infections, revealed that 91.7% (11/12) of patients were infected with 2 or more pathogens. Mycoplasma hominis was the most prevalent co-infection pathogen with T. vaginalis, followed by Ureaplasma urealyticum and Chlamydia trachomatis. Our results indicate that PCR and multiplex PCR are the most sensitive tools for T. vaginalis diagnosis, rather than microscopy which has been routinely used to detect T. vaginalis infections in South Korea. Therefore, clinicians should take note of the high prevalence of T. vaginalis infections among adolescent and young women in order to prevent persistent infection and transmission of this disease.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.168-174
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• 2010

South Korea's industrial injuries are decreasing overall in the last 32 years. Nevertheless, the fatal occupational injury rate is still higher than in developed countries. This study was conducted to help prevention strategies of occupational injuries for the Republic of Korea. Fatal occupational injury rates were obtained from "Industrial Accident Analysis"of the Korean Ministry of Labor. Poisson regression was used to assess time trends. Socioeconomic indicators were obtained from the Korea Labor Institute and the Statistics Korea. Fatal occupational injury rates were adjusted by year, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between the socio-economic indicators and occupational injuries. In 1975, fatal occupational injury rate was 54.8 per 100,000 workers. With somewhat up and down, it was decreased to 21.0 in 2006. An annual rate of change for the years 1975-2006 was - 1.83%, and for the years 2002-2006 was -5.02%. As economic growth rate, paricipation rate for the age less than 25 and hours of work per week or year increased, fatal occupational injury rate also increased. Conversely, as GDP per capita, paricipation rate or employment rate for female, paricipation rate for the age 25 or more, hourly compensation costs for production workers and services output as percent of GDP increased, fatal occupational injury rate decreased. By the development of safety techniques and the adoption of more legislative constraints, developed economy reduce occupational injuries. Conversely, economic growth may raise occupational injuries. Therefore, prevention strategies are needed to manage both of them. We need to make an effort to prevent occupational injuries due to not only sexual differences, but also job differences between male and female. Preventive strategies are needed to consider the characteristics of younger workers. Addition to wage, other appropriate variables for work condition should be considered together. Extending work hours is need to be regulated with systemic methods.