• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.353-363
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• 2012

Methylmercury is a hazardous substance that is of interest with regard to environmental health, as inorganic mercury circulating in the general environment is dissolved into freshwater and seawater, condensed through the food chain, ingested by humans, and consequently affects human health. Recently, there has been much interest and discussion regarding the toxicity of methylmercury, the correlation with fish and shellfish intake, and methods of long-term management of the human health effects of methylmercury. What effects chronic exposure to a low concentration of methylmercury has on human health remains controversial. Although the possibility of methylmercury poisoning the heart and blood vessel system, the reproductive system, and the immune system is continuously raised and discussed, and the carcinogenicity of methylmercury is also under discussion, a clear conclusion regarding the human health effects according to exposure level has not yet been drawn. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives proposed to prepare additional fish and shellfish intake recommendations for consumers based on the quantified evaluation of the hazardousness of methylmercury contained in fish and shellfish, methylmercury management in the Korea has not yet caught up with this international trend. Currently, the methylmercury exposure level of Koreans is known to be very high. The starting point of methylmercury exposure management is inorganic mercury in the general environment, but food intake through methylation is the main exposure source. Along with efforts to reduce mercury in the general environment, food intake management should be undertaken to reduce the human exposure to methylmercury in Korea.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.37-54
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this preliminary study was to identify the nurses' perception regarding disclosure of patient safety incidents (DPSI) and to evaluate the effectiveness of education for DPSI. Methods: DPSI education was conducted for nurses majoring in clinical nurse specialist at an university. Before and after the education, the nurses made a questionnaire to evaluate the perception of DPSI. The questionnaires were divided into four categories: first, overall perception of the DPSI; second, recognition evaluation of the DPSI using hypothetical case, third, opinion on legal and nonlegal measures for facilitating the DPSI; and fourth, socio-demographic factors. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was performed on the DPSI questionnaire response to compare the perceptions before and after the education. Results: A total of 10 nurses participated in the education. DPSI education showed the possibility of improving the overall perception, necessity, effect, obstacle, and promotion method of DPSI, although there were also several responses where there was no statistical significance. In particular, DPSI education led to statistically significance change in the perception of obstacles for DPSI. For example, the number of respondents who agreed to the item "DPSI will increase the incidence of medical lawsuits." was 7 before education but decreased to 3 after education (P-value: .025) Furthermore, nurses' perception of DPSI from this study was generally positive regardless of education. Conclusion:In the future, it will be necessary to carry out DPSI education and training and to evaluate its effectiveness for more nurses.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.165-170
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• 2006

Objectives : The determination of oxalate in urine is required for the diagnosis and treatment of primary hyperoxaluria, idiopathic stone disease and various intestinal diseases. We examined the possibility of using Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy analysis to quantitate urinary oxalate. The practical advantages of this method include ease of the sample preparation and operation technique, the absence of sample pre-treatments, rapid determination and noninvasiveness. Methods : The range of oxalate concentration in standard urine solutions was $0-221mg/{\ell}$. These 80 different samples were scanned in the region of 780-1,300 nm with a 0.5 nm data interval by a Spectrum One NTS FT-NIR spectrometer. PCR, PLSR and MLR regression models were used to calculate and evaluate the calibration equation. Results : The PCR and PLSR calibration models were obtained from the spectral data and they are exactly same. The standard error of estimation (SEE) and the % variance were $10.34mg/{\ell}$ and 97.86%, respectively. After full cross validation of this model, the standard error of estimation was $5,287mg/{\ell}$, which was much smaller than that of the pre-validation. Furthermore, the MCC (multiple correlation coefficient) was 0.998, which was compatible with the 0.923 or 0.999 obtained from the previous enzymatic methods. Conclusions : These results showed that FT-NIR spectroscopy can be used for rapid determination of the concentration of oxalate in human urine samples.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2001

Objectives : To explore the possible effect of an interaction between summertime heat waves and ozone on cardiopulmonary mortality during the 1994 heat wave in Korea. Methods : The unusually hot summer of 1994 in Korea was defined as the heat wave in this study. We examined the associations of air pollutants with daily cardiopulmonary deaths between 1991-1995, considering the product term of the heat wave and each pollutant, weather and time trends. Results : During the heat wave, while temperatures were uniformly higher than those of other summers, the within-heat-wave difference in mortality paralleled that in the regional ozone levels. In terms of the influence of the heat wave, the results of ozone were different to those of total suspended particles (TSP) and sulfur dioxide $(SO_2)$. The ozone association (relative risk (RR) : 1.036; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.018-1.054) was observed only under heat wave conditions, while the TSP (RR : 1.006, 95% CI = 0.999-1.012) and the $SO_2$ (RR = 1.018, 95% CI : 1.011-1.024) associations were found under normal weather conditions (per interquartile increase of each pollutant; results of three pollutants model). The ozone association under heat wave was attributable to the statistical interaction between the heat wave and ozone. Conclusions : These results support the possibility of a biological synergy between the heat wave and ozone, one that is not evident between the heat wave and other major pollutants like particles or $SO_2$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 2006

This study was performed to deduct the extension possibility of the standards establishment for $NO_2$, $O_3$, Asbestos, Radon, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) excluded in the indoor air part of Industrial Safety Acts in Korea. The air pollutants were sampled for 30 office buildings from August to September, 2005 in the metropolitan area. The airborne concentrations of $NO_2$, $O_3$, Radon and TVOC were 0.0092 ppm, 0.0035 ppm, 0.57 pCi/L and $423{\mu}g/m^3$, respectively. The management plan and reduction methods is required in the aspect of indoor air quality(IAQ) because the emission sources of those also exist in indoor as well as outdoor even though those were not exceeded the standards of the Ministry of Environment in Korea. The standard for TVOC in the new and remodeling office has to be established based on the risk assessment when hazard index exceeded "1" in the worst case scenario. In the state of art, the management of each volatile organic compounds has a difficulty due to not enough data for toxicological reference. Therefore, it is suggested that first of all, the standard for TVOC be established and then expanded to each materials for decision-making of improvement of IAQ in office.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.233-243
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• 2013

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the individual and community level factors which were influencing the severe injury patients' death and transfer at discharge. Methods: Analysis data is based on Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Survey Data released by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2006 to 2008. Study subjects was 11,026 inpatients with of severe injury. For multi-level analysis, socio-demographic characteristics, injury related characteristics, hospitalization related characteristics were used as individual level factors, and socio-environmental characteristics and health care resource characteristics were used as community level factors. Results: As to community level factors affecting mortality of severe injury, the possibility of death was also high in cases of less numbers of surgeons per a population of 100,000 and more number of operation beds. As to community level factors affecting transfer of severe injury, vulnerable areas with higher social deprivation index and low population density had higher possibility of transfer. Conclusion: Both individual level factors and community level factors affected clinical outcomes of treatment for severe injury. In particular, since there happened higher death and transfer of severe injury in socioeconomic and medical vulnerable areas, special efforts for establishing preventive policy and care system for injury in national and area level should be directed toward such areas.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.190-197
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• 2015

In this study, we tried to offer the possibility of White Hibiscus syriacus L. (WHS) flower extracts as a preventive and improving agent of osteoporosis that bone mass reduction is induced by an decrease of osteoblast involved in bone formation and increase of bone resorption by osteoclast activity. As a results, it was found to have antioxidant activity and contain a flavonoid contents ($47.74 mg/g) of the WHS flower. There was cytotoxicity at more than $250{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ concentration of WHS flower extract of RANKL-induced osteoclast in RAW264.7. There were no significant inhibited TRAP activity in the WHS leaf and stem. However, it was confirmed that it is significantly inhibited the differentiation activity of osteoclasts in 50 and $100{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ concentration of cells of stability levels of only WHS flower extracts (p < 0.01). The WHS flower prominently inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation activity by decreased calcitonin receptor and TRAP mRNA (p < 0.01). These results indicate that of osteoclasts differentiation activity is inhibited by protection of oxidative stress due to the antioxidant activity of the WHS flower. Therefore, suggesting the WHS flower may be a presents the possibility as a preventive and therapeutic agents for osteoporosis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.346-352
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• 2013

Objectives: To estimate the effect of medical conditions in the population of Korea on breast cancer risk in a case-control study. Methods: The cases were 3242 women with incident, histologically confirmed breast cancer in two major hospitals interviewed between 2001 and 2007. The controls were 1818 women each admitted to either of those two hospitals for a variety of non-neoplastic conditions. Information on each disease was obtained from a standardized questionnaire by trained personnel. Odds ratios (ORs) for each disease were derived from multiple logistic regression adjusted for age, age of menarche, pregnancy, age of first pregnancy, and family history of breast cancer. Results: Among all of the incident breast cancer patients, pre-existing diabetes (OR, 1.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.99 to 1.78), hypertension (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.18 to 1.83), thyroid diseases (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.58), and ovarian diseases (OR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.23 to 2.35) were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer when other factors were adjusted for. In a stratified analysis by menopausal status, pre-existing hypertension (pre-menopause OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.48 to 1.34 vs. post-menopause OR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.44 to 2.43; p-heterogeneity <0.01) and ovarian disease (pre-menopause OR, 4.20; 95% CI, 1.91 to 9.24 vs. post-menopause OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.91; p-heterogeneity 0.01) showed significantly different risks of breast cancer. Conclusions: Our results suggest the possibility that medical conditions such as hypertension affect breast cancer development, and that this can differ by menopausal status. Our study also indicates a possible correlation between ovarian diseases and breast cancer risk.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.969-981
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• 2017

Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the preventive effects of exposure to liquid fermented milk containing various concentrations of added calcium on dental erosion, and to investigate the optimal concentration of calcium effective in reducing dental erosion. Methods: The present study consisted of a total of 6 experimental groups: a mineral water group, a fermented milk with no added calcium (0%) group, and four fermented milk with various concentrations of added calcium (0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, and 2%) groups. Twelve specimens were immersed for 1, 3, 5 and 10 minutes in each experimental drink and the change in surface microhardness was measured. Additionally, the surface was observed using a scanning electron microscope. Results: The difference in surface microhardness before and after 10 minutes of immersion in the experimental drink was the highest in the Ca 0% group, followed by the Ca 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 2% group and the mineral water group, in that order. The groups with a calcium concentration of more than 0.5% showed statistically significant differences in surface microhardness compared to the Ca 0% group. In addition, when the surface morphology of enamel was observed under a scanning electron microscope, the results showed that the highest level of surface damage was observed in the Ca 0% group, followed by the Ca 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 2% group, in that order. Conclusions:The present study confirms that a higher calcium concentration in fermented milk is associated with a higher possibility of preventing dental erosion. The addition of 0.5% calcium, which is a relatively low concentration, did not completely prevent dental erosion, but significantly inhibited dental erosion compared to fermented milk without any added calcium. Therefore, it is suggested that consumers should be educated and provided with guidance to consider the calcium content when choosing fermented milk.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.91-102
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• 2015

Objective : The purpose of this study is to find out the possibility of application to herbal medicine's report form for adverse drug reaction (ADR) by reviewing and analyzing Asian countries's ADR report forms. Method : We investigated, compared, and analyzed ADR report forms (ADR-RF) of Asian countries's ADR institutions (ACAI), such as, Korea institute of drug safety & risk management and Dongguk university Ilsan oriental hospital (DUIOH) in Korea, national center for ADR monintoring (NCAM) in China, pharmaceuticals and medical devices agency (PMDA) in Japan, Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) in Taiwan, and drug office, department of health, the government of the Hong Kong special administrative region (GHKSAR) in Hong Kong. Results : ADR-RF for ACAI included common contents, such as, patients information (name(initial), gender, age, weight), adverse event (AE)'s report information (Recognition and report for AE occurrence, first or follow up report, Severe AE), the detailed information of AE (the title of AE, onset & closing date of AE symptoms, the progress & results detailed test of AE), the information of AE's medicine (the types of medicine, product name, ingredient name, suspected or combination drug, single dose & frequency, dosage form, administration route, dealing for AE-suspected medicine), and AE reporter's information (reporter's information, institution's information). Taiwan had ADR-RF and the department exclusively for herbal medicine (HM), but others (except DUIOH) had not only no ADR report form but also contents for HM. Conclusion : ADR-RF for HM have to include the common contents of ACAI at least, as well as HM information related to ADR, such as the title, composition and types of HM, history related to HM's ADR, and the contents of drug-induced liver injury and so on. In addition, the main department of government for HM's ADR will be needed.