• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.62-75
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• 2018

Purpose: The objective of this study was to publicly report the hospital-level surgical volume for 7 types of surgery including gastrectomy. Also, to investigate the changes in patient behaviors after the public reporting among patients with gastrectomy. Methods: This study used data from the National Health Insurance Service Cohort. The data comprised of 2,214 patients who were diagnosed with gastric cancer and underwent gastrectomy during 2004-2012. An interrupted time series analysis was performed to investigate the association between patients' choice and public reporting. Results: 79.27% of the patients visited a hospital with high surgical volume. The time trend after introduction of public reporting was positively associated with visiting a high volume hospital (per 1 month, RR: 1.004, p=0.0329). However, after adjusting the health policies by reducing copayment, public reporting on surgical volume was not associated with visiting a high volume hospital. Sub-group analyses had also similar results. Conclusion: Patients were more affected by policies on economic support than on public reporting, and the changes in treatment options may have been affected by the increasing preference for large size hospitals. Thus, public reporting did not significantly improve the options available for patients and their decision making on health care utilization.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.379-388
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• 2006

Objectives: This study assessed the influences of various factors that are related to youth smoking such as gender, age and type of school, and we wanted to provide supporting data for tailored and effective policy initiatives to reduce adolescent smoking. Methods: A self-report survey was conducted on 14,910 teen-age students who were selected based on the nationwide distribution of students in large and small cities and counties, the gender ratio of the students and the ratio of students attending various type of school at 38 middle and high schools in six representative areas of each province. The survey was handled and managed by a health education teacher at each school. Binary and multinomial logistic regression was used in the analyses. Results: Smoking by adolescents was associated with gender, age and even height. Male high school students tended to smoke more than female high school students, but this differences was not significant for middle school students. The older the adolescents were, the more likely that they smoked, except for the female high school students. Height was meaningful for all adolescents, except for the boys at the vocational high schools. Monthly allowance was significant for all adolescents. School factors such as type of school and the students' school performance were also crucial factors. Attending a vocational high school was strongly related to smoking, especially for girls. Students' school performance and the perceived level of stress were strongly associated with smoking, especially for boys. Home factors such as the relationship with parents and conversation time with family members were closely related to smoking behavior. Knowledge about the health hazard of smoking was also found to be strongly related to adolescent smoking. Conclusions: In conclusion, demographic factors, school factors, home surroundings and the perception on the harmfulness of smoking are strongly related to adolescent smoking behavior, but these differ from gender and type of school.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-5
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• 1994

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.381-388
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• 2016

Background: Relationships among portable scanning mobility particle sizer (P-SMPS), condensation particle counter (CPC), and surface area monitor (SAM), which are different metric measurement devices, were investigated, and two widely used research grade (RG)-SMPSs were compared to harmonize the measurement protocols. Methods: Pearson correlation analysis was performed to compare the relation between P-SMPS, CPC, and SAM and two common RG-SMPS. Results: For laboratory and engineered nanoparticle (ENP) workplaces, correlation among devices showed good relationships. Correlation among devices was fair in unintended nanoparticle (UNP)-emitting workplaces. This is partly explained by the fact that shape of particles was not spherical, although calibration of sampling instruments was performed using spherical particles and the concentration was very high at the UNP workplaces to allow them to aggregate more easily. Chain-like particles were found by scanning electron microscope in UNP workplaces. The CPC or SAM could be used as an alternative instrument instead of SMPS at the ENP-handling workplaces. At the UNP workplaces, where concentration is high, real-time instruments should be used with caution. There are significant differences between the two SMPSs tested. TSI SMPS showed about 20% higher concentration than the Grimm SMPS in all workplaces. Conclusions: For nanoparticle measurement, CPC and SAM might be useful to find source of emission at laboratory and ENP workplaces instead of P-SMPS in the first stage. An SMPS is required to measure with high accuracy. Caution is necessary when comparing data from different nanoparticle measurement devices and RG-SMPSs.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.411-423
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was to form a healthy smartphone culture and serve as basic materials for developing smartphone addiction intervention program by understanding mental health and physical health of college students caused by smartphone addiction. Methods: The data collected from 261 college students at G and S city universities who understood the purpose of this study and consented to take part in the study were analyzed on mean, standard deviation, frequency, Chi square test and t-test using SPSS 20.0. Results: The result showed that the level of smartphone addiction was significantly different according to gender, age, type of college, satisfaction with college life and satisfaction with family life. The smartphone addiction risk group showed higher score in life stress, depression, social avoidance and distress than the general user group and the physical health was also higher in the risk group than the general user group. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop and apply customized intervention plan per each person's characteristics and level of addiction to prevent addiction and improve health condition from overuse of smartphone.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.323-328
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• 2007

SOX (Sry-related HMG box) family proteins, which have an evolutionarily conserved DNA binding domain, have crucial roles in cell differentiation. However, their target genes remain enigmatic. Some members of the SOX family may have roles in regulation of cell proliferation. We established stable NT2/D1 cell lines overexpressing SOX15 (SOX15-NT2/D1), and a modified 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed that the SOX15-NT2/D1 cells exhibited significantly slower growth than the controls. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that an increased fraction of the SOX15-NT2/D1 cells were in G1-G0. In addition, a microarray analysis identified 26 genes that were up-regulated in the SOX15-NT2/D1 cells, but none that were down-regulated genes. Among the up-regulated genes, IGFBP5, S100A4, ID2, FABP5, MTSS1, PDCD4 have been shown to be related to cell proliferation and/or the cell cycle.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.317-322
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• 2022

Background: Limited access to medical services causes problems in patients' health and life. Also, hospital closures cause concentration towards general hospitals, which leads to worsening National Health Insurance finance. Therefore, hospital closure is an important topic to be analyzed. Methods: This paper analyzed the factors that affect hospital closures using survival analysis with the data of 970 hospitals opened between 2010 and 2019 in Korea. The number of medical personnel, hospital rooms, sickbeds, and medical departments were used as explanatory variables. Results: The number of medical personnel and hospital rooms increased the survival probability while the number of sickbeds and medical departments decrease the survival probability. Conclusion: The results suggest that hospitals have economies of scale and diseconomies of scope in management.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.211-227
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare health literacy levels of Asian immigrant women and factors associated with health literacy focusing on Korean-Chinese and other Asian immigrants in Korea. Methods: Data were drawn from 258 immigrant women, comprising 56 Korean-Chinese and 202 other immigrants from the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, and Han-Chinese. The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF) was used to assess health literacy, which consisted of seven medical words in Korean (behavior, exercise, menopause, rectal, antibiotics, anemia, and jaundice). Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA with $Sch{\acute{e}}ffe$ post hoc test, and hierarchical regression. Results: Korean-Chinese women showed significantly higher levels of health literacy ($M=6.41{\pm}1.07$), compared to their other immigrant counterparts ($M=4.55{\pm}2.15$). While Korean-Chinese women with longer time since immigration (p=.048) reported higher health literacy, for other immigrants, those living with children (p<.001), longer time since immigration (p=.011), and greater Korean language proficiency (p=.004) showed an association with higher health literacy. Conclusion: When providing health care services and health education, health care professionals should consider differences in levels of health literacy and factors associated with health literacy among Korean Chinese and other immigrants.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was performed for the effective management of nursing organization as surveyed choice motives and job satisfaction about nurses who changed to public hospitals. Methods: This study is a descriptive study. This study surveyed 214 nurses who changed jobs to public hospital in six Gyeonggi-do hospitals from October 23 to November 20, 2015. The collected data were analyzed for descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, sheffe test, multiple linear regression analysis using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: Most of the nurses chose public hospitals due to benefits correspond to public officials. They had worked in general hospitals located on provinces and changed jobs due to a heavy workload and low benefits. Of the participants 84.1% were satisfied with changing jobs to public hospitals and the advantages of public hospitals of their choice were job stability and good employee benefits(guaranteed maternity and paternity leave, etc). On the other hand there were complaints about low salaries compared to the workload after changing jobs to public hospitals. Conclusion: Hospitals need to enhance job stability and provide nurses with good employee benefits to reduce turnover rate.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.119-123
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• 2011

In this study, performances of culture methods using two selective media and real-time PCR were evaluated for detection of Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) in various food samples. Sausage, ground beef, and radish sprouts inoculated with C. jejuni were enriched in Hunt broth and then streaked onto modified cefoperazone charcoal deoxycholate agar and Preston agar, followed by incubation under microaerobic conditions. The enriched Hunt broth (1 mL) was used in real-time PCR assay. No statistical differences were observed in sensitivity among the two selective media and real-time PCR for sausage and ground beef. However, the number of positives by real-time PCR in radish sprouts was much higher than the two selective media (p<0.05). It appears that real-time PCR could be used as an effective screening tool to detect C. jejuni, particularly in foods with a high number of background microflora such as fresh vegetables.