• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2013

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between heat-related illnesses developed in the summer of 2012 and temperature. Methods: The study analyzed data generated by a heat wave surveillance system operated by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the summer of 2012. The daily maximum temperature, average temperature, and maximum heat index were compared to identify the most suitable index for this study. A piecewise linear model was used to identify the threshold temperature and the relative risk (RR) above the threshold temperature according to patient characteristics and region. Results: The total number of patients during the 3 months was 975. Of the three temperature indicators, the daily maximum temperature showed the best goodness of fit with the model. The RR of the total patient incidence was 1.691 (1.641 to 1.743) per $1^{\circ}C$ after $31.2^{\circ}C$. The RR above the threshold temperature of women (1.822, 1.716 to 1.934) was greater than that of men (1.643, 1.587 to 1.701). The threshold temperature was the lowest in the age group of 20 to 64 ($30.4^{\circ}C$), and the RR was the highest in the ${\geq}65$ age group (1.863, 1.755 to 1.978). The threshold temperature of the provinces ($30.5^{\circ}C$) was lower than that of the metropolitan cities ($32.2^{\circ}C$). Metropolitan cities at higher latitudes had a greater RR than other cities at lower latitudes. Conclusions: The influences of temperature on heat-related illnesses vary according to gender, age, and region. A surveillance system and public health program should reflect these factors in their implementation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.648-658
• /
• 2014

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between eating habits and health among adolescents in Shanghai and Heze, China. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 on 2,089 adolescents; 1,089 students were from Shanghai and 999 students from Heze region. Eating habits, weight, height, and nutritional knowledge were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Eating habits score was classified into two categories: healthy eating habits and unhealthy eating habits, based on "Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey", for statistical data analysis. Associations between eating habits, BMI, and nutritional knowledge were examined using a general linear model with adjustment of potential confounding factors such as region, gender, age, parents' education level, and pocket money. Statistical analyses were performed using the SAS (version 9.3) program. Proportions of healthy eating habits group were 90.0% for breakfast (3-7 times/wk), 29.1% for fruit (${\geq}once/d$), 12.5% for vegetable (${\geq}3times/d$), 7.3% for milk (${\geq}2times/d$), 90.0% for fast food (<3 times/wk) consumption, respectively. The average BMI score was 20.1 (Shanghai 20.5 Heze 19.6), which is in the range of normal weight. Rates of obesity and overweight were 16.5% and 8.3% in Shanghai and Heze, respectively. There were significant negative correlations between intake frequencies of breakfast, fast food, biscuits, sugar, chocolate, and BMI score. Eating habits and nutritional knowledge score showed a significant positive correlation. These results showed better eating habits regarding eating regularity and consumption of fruits and soft drinks in Chinese adolescents compared with Korean adolescents, although cultural differences were not fully considered. This study demonstrated significant associations of BMI and nutritional knowledge with dietary behavior in Chinese adolescents in two regions of China. Further studies on Chinese adolescents from other regions in China should be considered.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.724-734
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to determine the health behaviors and nutritional status related to dyslipidemia in Korean middle-aged adults (between 50 and 64 years old) from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examinations Survey data (2007~2010). A total of 4,721 subjects were analyzed in this study. The subjects were divided into three groups (normal, borderline, and dyslipidemia) according to serum lipid levels. Parameters included in this study were drinking and smoking, anthropometric parameters, blood and nutritional parameters. The latter parameter included food/nutrients intake. All data was adjusted by sex, region, education level, and age. General linear model and logistic regression model were used for statistical analysis. The dyslipidemia group was comprised of more men than women. By contrast, the borderline group was comprised of more women than men (p<0.001). No significant differences were observed for other general characteristics. There were more smokers and drinkers(drinking per time) in the dyslipidemia group (p<0.05). Anthropometric data showed significant difference, ie, height (p<0.05), weight, body mass index, waist circumference, percent body fat, and blood pressure were higher in the dyslipidemia group (p<0.001). Only blood urea nitrogen showed no significant difference among groups. The HbA1c (p<0.01), fasting blood glucose, GOT, GPT, creatinine levels were higher in the dyslipidemia group (p<0.001). So it is required for the management of obesity in dyslipidemia group. The dyslipidemia group ate less sea food (p<0.05). The nutrients intake of energy and protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus were lower in the dyslipidemia group (p<0.05). Therefore, to lower dyslipidemia prevalence rates, it is necessary to increase the intake of foods containing ${\omega}-3$ fatty acids. We also suggest a meal management program and nutritional education to recognize the risk of dyslipidemia, especially for people such as the individual in the borderline and dyslipidemia study groups.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.341-350
• /
• 2016

Background: Prenatal exposure to infectious and/or inflammatory insults can increase the risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorder such as bipolar disorder, autism, and schizophrenia later in life. We investigated whether Valeriana fauriei (VF) treatment alleviates prepulse inhibition (PPI) deficits and social interaction impairment induced by maternal immune activation (MIA). Methods and Results: Pregnant mice were exposed to polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidilic acid (5 mg/kg, viral infection mimic) on gestational day 9. The adolescent offspring received daily oral treatment with VF (100 mg/kg) and injections of clozapine (5 mg/kg) for 30 days starting on the postnatal day 35. The effects of VF extract treatment on behavioral activity impairment and protein expression were investigated using the PPI analysis, forced swim test (FST), open field test (OFT), social interaction test (SIT), and immunohistochemistry. The MIA-induced offspring showed deficits in the PPI, FST, OFT, and SIT compared to their non MIA-induced counterparts. Treatment with the VF extract significantly recovered the sensorimotor gating deficits and partially recovered the aggressive behavior observed in the SIT. The VF extract also reversed the downregulation of protein expression induced by MIA in the medial prefrontal cortex. Conclusions: Our results provide initial evidence of the fact that the VF extract could reverse MIA-induced behavioral impairment and prevent neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.27-39
• /
• 2019

Agricultural risks are exacerbated by a variety of factors ranging from climatevariability and change, frequent natural disasters, uncertainties in yields and prices, weakrural infrastructure, imperfect markets and lack of financial services including limited spanand design of risk mitigation instruments such as credit and insurance. Indian agriculture has little more than half (53%) of its area still rainfed and this makes it highly sensitive to vagaries of climate causing unstable output. Besides adverse climatic factors, there are man-made disasters such as fire, sale of spurious seeds, adulteration of pesticides and fertilizers etc., and all these severely affect farmers through loss in production and farm income, and are beyond the control of farmers. Hence, crop insurance' is considered to be the promising tool to insulate the farmers from risks faced by them and to sustain them in the agri-business. This paper critically evaluates the performance of recent crop insurance scheme viz., Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY) and its comparative performance with earlier agricultural insurance schemes implemented in the country. It is heartening that, the comparative performance of PMFBY with earlier schemes revealed that, the Government has definitely taken a leap forward in covering more number of farmers and bringing more area under crop insurance with the execution of this new scheme and on this front, it deserves the appreciation in fulfilling the objective for bringing more number of farmers under insurance cover. The use of mobile based technology, reduced number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and smart CCEs, digitization of land record and linking them to farmers' account for faster assessment/settlement of claims are some of the steps that contributed for effective implementation of this new crop insurance scheme. However, inadequate claim payments, errors in loss/yield assessment, delayed claim payment, no direct linkage between insurance companies and farmers are the major shortcomings of this scheme. This calls for revamping the crop insurance program in India from time to time in tune with the dynamic changes in climatic factors on one hand and to provide a safety-net for farmers to mitigate losses arising from climatic shocks on the other. The future research avenues include: insuring the revenue of the farmer (Price × Yield) as in USA and more and more tenant farmers should be brought under insurance by doling out discounts for group coverage of farmers like in Philippines where 20 per cent discount in premium is given for a group of 5-10 farmers, 30 per cent for a group of 10-20 and 40 per cent for a group of >20 farmers.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.513-522
• /
• 2019

Background: South Korea operates a Medical Aid (MA) program targeting selected low-income individuals to ensure medical service delivery to the disadvantaged while enhancing self-sufficiency of work-capable beneficiaries. However, as reasons behind welfare exits are diverse and do not always infer poverty relief or the provision of appropriate levels of health care services, this study aimed to investigate the association between changes in MA status and health care utilization. Methods: This study used the 2006 to 2015 National Health Insurance claims data. The impact of changes in annual MA status on health care utilization (yearly number of outpatient visits, inpatient visits, length of stay, and emergency department [ED] visits) was investigated using the generalized estimating equation model. Results: In 117,943 adult subjects aged 20 to 64, compared to the 'MA to MA' group, the 'MA to MA exit' group showed general decreases in utilization (outpatient visits: β=-3.93, p<0.0001; hospital admissions: relative risk [RR], 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-0.91; length of stay: β=-3.64, p<0.0001; ED visits: RR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.77-0.90). Similar patterns were found in the 'MA exit to MA exit' group (outpatient visits: β=-5.72, p<0.0001; admissions: RR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.94; length of stay: β=-5.87; p<0.0001; ED visits: RR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75-0.88). Likewise, in 74,747 older adult subjects aged 65 or above, the 'MA to MA exit' group showed reduced levels of utilization (outpatient visits: β=-1.51; p=0.0020), as well as the 'MA exit to MA exit' group (admissions: RR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89-0.95; length of stay: β, -5.45; p<0.0001; ED visits: RR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.83-0.97). Conclusion: MA exit was associated with general decreases in health care utilization. Utilization patterns of individuals with experiences of receiving MA benefits should be monitored to promote the ideal use of health care services while preventing potential financial barriers present in accessing medical care.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.251-260
• /
• 1998

The Holter monitoring system is a widely used noninvasive diagnostic tool for ambulatory patient who may be at risk from latent life-threatening cardiac abnormalities. In this paper, we design a high performance intelligent holter monitoring system which is characterized by the small-sized and the low-power consumption. The system hardware consists of one-chip microcontroller(68HC11E9), ECG preprocessing circuit, and flash memory card. ECG preprocessing circuit is made of ECG preamplifier with gain of 250, 500 and 1000, the bandpass filter with bandwidth of 0.05-100Hz, the auto-balancing circuit and the saturation-calibrating circuit to eliminate baseline wandering, ECG signal sampled at 240 samples/sec is converted to the digital signal. We use a linear recursive filter and preprocessing algorithm to detect the ECG parameters which are QRS complex, and Q-R-T points, ST-level, HR, QT interval. The long-term acquired ECG signals and diagnostic parameters are compressed by the MFan(Modified Fan) and the delta modulation method. To easily interface with the PC based analyzer program which is operated in DOS and Windows, the compressed data, that are compatible to FFS(flash file system) format, are stored at the flash memory card with SBF(symmetric block format).

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.14 no.7
• /
• pp.31-38
• /
• 2013

After debris flow caused damage during recent years, many scholars and engineers have thrown their effort into analyzing risk from debris flow in Korea. But it is hard to predict damage by debris flow taken place in wide area. Recently, SINMAP program is widely well used to estimate the amount of debris flow and its' range. In order to make frequent use of it, the most important thing is selection of accurate input parameters. In-situ experiments, which are avaliable in the mountain, is to be suggested to get dependable input parameters for SINMAP. Those are permeability, cohesion, density, friction angle and thickness in SINMAP. To get those, test pit, block sampling, in-situ density test, auger boring, permeability test on ground surface, borehole shear test and dynamic cone test and so forth were selected. In addition, the reliability of the results will be increased through comparing with those by laboratory tests. Hence, the experiments are hard to enter the sites without temporary road and, if possible, licensing and many times are needed, too. Small size experiments are indeed necessary to get accurate parameters.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2012

Short implants are used in parts which have anatomical structures like maxillary sinus, inferior alveolar nerve and limited alveolar height due to severe alveolar bone resorption. In these case, there are no need of additional bone augmentation so there are advantages like reduced entire treatment time, reduced patient's discomfort and protection of important anatomical structures. The aim of this study is, in implants whose length is less than 10mm, to analyze the impact of implant length, diameter, location of implant placement, presence of bone graft, presence of prosthesis splinting on survival rates and marginal bone resorption. The samples used in this study were 227 implants, less than 10mm, placed in 137 patients in Wonkwang university dental hospital implant center. From dental charts the information about implant length, diameter, location of implant placement, presence of bone graft, presence of prosthesis splinting were obtained. Emago advanced v5.6(Oral diagnostic systems, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)program was used to measure the amount of marginal bone resorption. Out of total 227 implants, resulting in 96.5 % of survival rate. There was a tendency toward higher failure rates for the maxilla and bone graft site. No significant difference in marginal bone resorption was found associated with length of implants(p>0.05) and neither with the diameter of implants. Among the risk factors examined, more failure rates of short implants can be attributed to poor bone quality in the maxilla and presence of bone graft. At implants under 10mm, length, diameter, location of implant placement, bone graft and splinting of prosthesis didn't affect marginal bone loss.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.68 no.6
• /
• pp.328-333
• /
• 2010

Background: There are several active tuberculosis (TB) cases in Korean high schools each school year. The risk of transmission in schools is extremely high due to the considerable time spent in closed classrooms. We evaluated the control of latent tuberculosis infection in Korean high schools. Methods: When a student was identified with active TB, tuberculin skin testing was performed on their classmates and on students in their same school grade. When a student had a positive tuberculin skin tests (TST), they underwent follow-up testing with QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT). The manufacturer recommended a cut-off of 0.35 IU/mL to determine QFT positivity was applied. Results: A total of 131 pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients were included based on the criteria for screening TB contacts in the National Tuberculosis Control Program. Seventy-five (57.2%) students tested smear positive. TST were performed on 7,109 students who were classmates of, or in the same grade as, a TB patient. Of the contacts, 1,231 students (17.3%) were TST positive and they were screened with QFT. Six hundred-sixty-six (55.0%) of the tested students returned a positive QFT result and the rate of positivity was significantly associated with the increasing size of TST indurations (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The use of QFT resulted in approximately 45% of TST positive students not being given chemoprophylaxis.