• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.6-15
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• 2017

Process safety management(PSM) system was implemented in Korea since 1996. It helps reduce and prevent the occurrence of chemical accidents. There has been no review on the feasibility of the threshold quantities of the existing 21 species and the newly added toxic substances such as hydrogen bromide in the PSM system. The threshold quantities of the target toxic substances(25 species) of PSM were compared with domestic and foreign PSM systems similar to those of Korea. Also, we proposed the toxic harmfulness and hazard equation consisted of inhalation toxicity, NFPA index and others. According to this equation, high risk, medium risk and low risk are classified and reflected in the adjustment of threshold quantities. From the above research, It is expected to help to reduce confusion and burden of the workplaces due to the difference from other PSM system and improve in the threshold quantities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.206-215
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• 2014

Objectives: The hospital standardized mortality ratio (HSMR) has been widely used because it allows for robust risk adjustment using administrative data and is important for improving the quality of patient care. Methods: All inpatients discharged from hospitals with more than 700 beds (66 hospitals) in 2008 were eligible for inclusion. Using the claims data, 29 most responsible diagnosis (MRDx), accounting for 80% of all inpatient deaths among these hospitals, were identified, and inpatients with those MRDx were selected. The final study population included 703 571 inpatients including 27 718 (3.9% of all inpatients) in-hospital deaths. Using logistic regression, risk-adjusted models for predicting in-hospital mortality were created for each MRDx. The HSMR of individual hospitals was calculated for each MRDx using the model coefficients. The models included age, gender, income level, urgency of admission, diagnosis codes, disease-specific risk factors, and comorbidities. The Elixhauser comorbidity index was used to adjust for comorbidities. Results: For 26 out of 29 MRDx, the c-statistics of these mortality prediction models were higher than 0.8 indicating excellent discriminative power. The HSMR greatly varied across hospitals and disease groups. The academic status of the hospital was the only factor significantly associated with the HSMR. Conclusions: We found a large variation in HSMR among hospitals; therefore, efforts to reduce these variations including continuous monitoring and regular disclosure of the HSMR are required.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-20
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• 2004

This study is to examine relationships of several socioeconomic position indicators with mortality risk in a nationwide longitudinal study of South Korea. The Korea Labor & Income Panel Study, conducted on a probability sample of urban South Korean households by Korea Labor Institute, contains date of death information for the decedents which were used to estimate relative risks of mortality and their $95\%$ confidence intervals (CI) with Cox regression analysis. A total of 125 men and women among 8,415 subjects died between 1998 and 2002. Socioeconomic differentials in mortality were observed after adjustment for sex and age. Those with less than 12-year education had 1.90 times $(95\%\;CI=1.25-2.91)$ greater mortality risk than those with 12-year education or more. Greater mortality risks were also found among those with low occupational class and manual occupation. The magnitude of differentials in mortality risks between occupational class were similar in two different approaches to measuring women's occupational class: (1) approach 1 where women, married or not, retain their own occupational class, and (2) approach 2 where married women are assigned their husbands' occupational class. Relative risks of dying among those with low household Income were 1.62 $(95\%\; CI=1.08-2.42)$ compared with the counterparts. Those who reported economic hardship at the time of survey in 1998 had greater risk of mortality $(RR=1.83,\;95\%\;CI=1.21-2.78)$ than those who did not. In conclusion, increased social discourse and policy discussions about these health inequalities are needed in Korean society. Future studies should explore the causes and mechanisms of socioeconomic mortality inequalities.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.525-533
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to verify the relationship among depression, school adjustment, parent-child bonding, parental control and smartphone addiction, and to identify factors which influence smartphone addiction in adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used, with a convenience sample of 183 middle school students from 3 middle schools. Data collection was conducted through self-report questionnaires from April to May, 2017. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$ test, Fisher's exact test, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation coefficient analysis, and binary logistic regression with SPSS Ver. 21.0. Results: The mean score for smartphone addiction was 29.40. Of the adolescents, 21.3% were in the smartphone addiction risk group. Logistic regression analysis showed that gender (OR=7.09, 95% Cl: 2.57~19.52), school life (OR=0.86, 95% Cl: 0.79~0.93), smartphone usage time (OR=1.32, 95% Cl: 1.04~1.66), and parental control (OR=4.70, 95% Cl: 1.04~21.29) were effect factors for the smartphone addiction risk group. Conclusion: Findings indicate that school satisfaction was an important factor in adolescents' smartphone addiction. Control oriented parent management of adolescents' smartphone use did not reduce the risk of smartphone addiction and may have worsen the addiction. Future research is needed to improve understanding of how teachers and parents will manage their adolescents' use of smartphones.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.339-344
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• 2015

Epidemiologic findings concerning the association between the hsa-mir-499 rs3746444 A>G polymorphism and cancer risk have yielded mixed results. We aimed to investigate the association by performing a meta-analysis of all available studies. We searched PubMed and EMBASE for studies published up to November 2014, using odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to assess the strength of any association. The Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) method was used to correct the p values for multiple comparisons. We included 39 studies, including 14,136 cases and 16,937 controls. The results of overall meta-analysis suggested a borderline association between hsa-mir-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and cancer susceptibility (AG+GG vs. AA: OR=1.15, 95% CI=1.04-1.26, corrected p value=0.04). After removing studies not conforming to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), however, this association disappeared (AG+GG vs AA: OR=1.18, 95% CI=1.03-1.34, corrected p value=0.21). When stratified analysis by ethnicity, cancer type or HWE in controls, although some associations between hsa-mir-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and cancer susceptibility were detected, these associations no longer existed after adjustment using BH method. In conclusion, our meta-analysis suggests that hsa-mir-499 rs3746444 A>G polymorphism is not associated with risk of cancer based on current evidence.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3635-3640
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• 2014

Aim: To determine whether induced abortion (IA) increases breast cancer (BC) risk. Materials and Methods: A population-based case-control study was performed from Dec, 2000 to November, 2004 in Shanghai, China, where IA could be verified through the family planning network and client medical records. Structured questionnaires were completed by 1,517 cases with primary invasive epithelial breast cancer and 1,573 controls frequency-matched to cases for age group. The information was supplemented and verified by the family planning records. Statistical analysis was conducted with SAS 9.0. Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, induced abortions were not found to be associated with breast cancer with OR=0.94 (95%CI= 0.79-1.11). Compared to parous women without induced abortion, parous women with 3 or more times induced abortion (OR=0.66, 95%CI=0.46 to 0.95) and women with 3 or more times induced abortion after the first live birth (OR=0.66, 95%CI =0.45 to 0.97) showed a lower risk of breast cancer, after adjustment for age, level of education, annual income per capita, age at menarche, menopause, parity times, spontaneous abortion, age at first live birth, breast-feeding, oral contraceptives, hormones drug, breast disease, BMI, drinking alcohol, drinking tea, taking vitamin/calcium tablet, physical activity, vocation, history of breast cancer, eating the bean. Conclusions: The results suggest that a history of induced abortions may not increase the risk of breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5171-5174
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• 2013

Background: This study aimed to explore potential associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the x-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) and cleft lip and palate transmembrane protein 1-like (CLPTM1L) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) susceptibility in non-smoker Chinese patients. Methods: A total of 200 NSCLC patients and 200 healthy controls with matched age and gender were recruited for genotyping of XRCC1 SNPs (rs2256507 and rs1001581) and CLPTM1L SNPs (rs401681 and rs4975616). Association of these SNPs with NSCLC risk was evaluated by computing the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) from multivariate unconditional logistic regression analyses with adjustment for gender and age. Results: The frequencies of genotype and allele in these four loci (rs2256507, rs1001581, rs401681, and rs4975616) were not significantly different between the cases and controls, or between either of the histological subgroups (adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma) and controls. Conclusions: Although these SNPs are associated with NSCLC risk in patients with a tobacco-smoking habit, this study demonstrated that XRCC1 and CLPTM1L gene SPNs are not linked with NSCLC risk in non-smoking patients, indicating that molecular mechanisms of NSCLC betwee tobacco smokers and non-smokers may be different. Future studies are needed to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms for NSCLC in non-smokers.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.246-259
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• 2010

The incidence of chronic disease is continuously increasing in Korea. Especially, office workers have higher risk of chronic disease because of their dietary habit and lifestyle. The study aimed to investigate the effect of tailored nutrition counseling on improving chronic disease risk factors. Ninety-nine male workers (age $46.9{\pm}7.0$ yrs) volunteered for 12 weeks of nutrition program containing dietary intake and physical activity adjustment. Five individualized programs were performed with the main theme of weight loss (WL, n = 16), blood pressure lowering (BL, n = 34), normalizing blood glucose (GL, n = 21), lipid lowering (LL, n = 13) and reducing MS risk factors (ML, n = 15). Anthropometric data, blood-pressure, self-reported questionnaire, blood profiles were measured before and after 12weeks of nutrition education. The education program included 5 times of 1：1 interview. Compared to 0 week, anthropometric data (weight, BMI, fat, visceral fat, waist, SBP, DBP) were significantly decreased after 12 weeks (p < 0.001). Fasting blood glucose and total cholesterol were decreased (p < 0.05). The primary outcomes with individually tailored programs showed to be more effective than one general nutrition program.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.233-241
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• 2009

Purpose: Alcohol is a major risk factor for injuries, but little is known about the relationship between chronic drinking pattern and injuries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of alcohol-related injuries and the differences in the characteristics of the injuries between Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) categories. Methods: Among a representative sample of the third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 7,697 adults answered questions about injuries, drinking patterns, and socioeconomic status. Incidences of alcohol-related injuries and of non-alcohol-related injuries were calculated, and the relative ratio of injuries between AUDIT categories was analyzed. Results: The incidences of all injuries and alcohol-related injuries were 69.2 and 6.8 per 1000 person-year. After adjustment, the incidences of non-alcohol-related injuries showed no differences between AUDIT categories. But the adjusted relative ratios (RRs) of alcohol-related injuries were 3.73 (95% CI: 1.54~8.99) and 7.70 (95% CI: 3.61~16.44) for risk drinkers and for alcohol-dependent drinkers respectively. No specific body part could be identified as being frequently injured in cases of risk drinkers and alcohol-dependent drinkers. In contrast, the adjusted RRs of fractures, bruises, and open wounds were 1.76 (95% CI: 1.03~3.02), 1.73 (95% CI: 1.15~2.61), and 1.85 (95% CI: 1.17~2.93) for alcohol-dependent drinkers. Assaults occurred 4.66 times more frequently in alcohol-dependent drinkers. Conclusion: Alcohol-related injuries occur more frequently as the person becomes more dependent on alcohol. Fractures, Bruises, open wounds, and assaults occur more frequently in alcohol-dependent drinker. This study suggests that efforts should be carried out in the ED to screen and treat alcohol-use disorders associated with patients injured after drinking.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.71-79
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• 2019

Purpose : Several studies suggest that smoking and vitamin D level is a risk factor of metabolic syndrome. The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between smoking status, vitamin D levels and the Korean adult male and female metabolic syndrome. Methods : We assessed 3796 participants aged 19 years and older from the Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2013, 2014. Smoking statuses were collected from self-reported questionnaires. Subjects were divided into three categories: non-smokers, former smokers, and current smokers. Vitamin D was tested by Radioimmunoassay method and the value of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is an index of vitamin D status in the body, was used. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was made using criteria modified NCEP-ATP III. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios between smoking status, vitamin D levels, and metabolic syndrome. Results : The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 23.0 % in men and 15.4 % in women. After adjusting for smoking, the odds ratio for men's metabolic syndrome in current smokers was 1.77 (95 % CI, 1.30~2.41), while for former smokers OR was 1.63 (95 % CI, 1.15~2.31) compared with nonsmokers. After adjustment vitamin D, the odds ratio for women's metabolic syndrome in vitamin D deficiency was 1.44 (95 % CI, 1.11~1.87) compared with normal. Conclusion : Smoking status was associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adult males and decreased vitamin D level was associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adult females.