• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.311-318
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• 2003

The aim of this study was to assess the nutrient intakes of the elderly subjects in Korea. Dietary assessment was carried out using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQFFQ) developed by our laboratory, which included 98 commonly consumed food items selected from 1998 National Health and Nutritional Survey for Korean population. Subjects (n = 2,660) aged 50yr and over were recruited in Seoul, 6 metropolitan cities, and 8 mid-size cities. Calcium and riboflavin intakes of the elderly subjects aged 65 yr and over (n = 1,974) were much lower compared with Korean RDA. Nutrient intakes of the three age group (50-64 yr, 65-74 yr, 75 yr and over) were decreased as age increased in male and female elderly. Nutrient intakes of male elderly, 75 yr and over, were significantly decreased while in female elderly nutrient intakes were gradually decreased as age increased. Over 30% of the elderly subjects did not meet 75% RDA for calcium, iron, vitamin A, and riboflavin. The proportion of the elderly subjects whose intakes were below 75% RDA was much higher than the elderly whose intakes were above 125% RDA, especially among the elderly aged 75 yr and over. This study revealed that the Korean elderly had inadequate intakes for many nutrients. This will cause a serious nutritional problem for the elderly.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.251-259
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• 2009

This study was conducted to measure the concentration of PCBs in pine needles and soil in urban (Seoul, many artificial sources of PCBs), semi-rural (Anseong, small town located below Seoul in wind direction) and rural areas (Jincheon, rarely artificial sources of PCBs) in which the artificial production amount of PCBs are different. The total PCBs concentrations in pine needles, which did not show big difference in three sampling sites, were 107.5 pg/g (urban), 94.8 pg/g (semi-rural) and 78.8 pg/g (rural) respectively. The low chlorinated PCBs were major component in pine needles and the PCBs congener concentration profile of each sampling area were similar each other, and the octanol-air partitioning coefficient, Koa, highly correlated with the PCBs concentrations in pine needles. The total PCBs concentrations in soil which did show big difference in three sampling sites, were 830.0 pg/g (urban), 314.1 pg/g (semi-rural) and 136.5 pg/g (rural) respectively. The high chlorinated PCBs were major component in soil and the PCBs congener concentration profile of each sampling area were similar each other. There was no similarity between the PCBs concentration of pine needles and those of soil at each site, because of the different mechanism of deposition and volatilization processes of PCBs. The total PCBs concentrations of 2009 became 12.9 times lower than those of 2001. The reduce rate of PCB 28 was the greatest.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 2013

Objectives: The study was performed to investigate job-seeking stress for university students who have a major in healthcare. Methods: For the analysis, 10 fourth-year students who are willing to get a job were interviewed. Interviews were conducted from October 2011 to November 2011 for 2 weeks. The data were collected with semi-structured open-ended questions and analysed by the method of Consensual Qualitative Research(CQR). Results: The main reasons for the job-seeking stress for students were insufficient preparation for getting a job, uncertainty, anxiety, pressure, and age. A reinforcing factor for stress was family. Conclusions: Universities should provide educational, psychological, and economic supports to job-seeking students majoring healthcare because of their relatively fewer opportunities for getting a job compared to those who have a major in non-healthcare.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.345-355
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to develop a software program for nutritional counseling by assessment of nutrients intake status and health degree by using semi-quantitative frequency food intake method and the questionnaire of Cornell Medical Index(CMI) and farmers' syndrome. This program is composed with three parts, nutrients intake, health status with body complaints, and nutrition counseling contents for diet therapy of each body condition states. First, nutrient intakes with percentage of Korean Recommended Dietary Allowances, and quantities of other nutrients intake were calculated and presented in an out-put screen. Second, the different body complaints(farmers' syndrome, anemia, hypertension, gastrointestinal problem, and cardiovascular complaints) were divided 3 groups of health status as normal. suspected and ailment. The contents of nutritional counseling with recommended food kinds. intake quantities. and recommended preparation methods were shown by button click of each health state of body complaints. And also this program could serve several times for one person to compare nutrition education and counseling effect by use of pre and post presentation results. This programs would be effect to home extension workers of rural development administration for farmers' nutrition counseling.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.348-357
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to explore and understand the health promoting behaviors of low-income overweight and obese women in Korea. Methods: Data were collected from 10 low-income overweight and obese women working at a community self-sufficiency center through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Individual interviews were conducted and transcribed. Deductive content analysis was done, using the MAXQDA program. Results: The health promoting behaviors practiced by low-income overweight and obese women were affected by intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational/ community factors. Six categories were identified and two category clusters were derived that could best describe their health promoting experiences. As main category clusters, despite "feeling that the body and mind are not healthy" participants noted "difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle." Overall, the participants had poor nutritional status, lacked physical activity, experienced much stress in intrapersonal level, and faced intrapersonal-level barriers to health promoting behaviors. Moreover, participants had a lack of personal will, and lack of specific information to practice health promoting behaviors, a lack of time, and too many overall burdens to earn a living for their family while trying to maintain health promotion behaviors. Conclusion: Lifestyle interventions for nutrition management, encouragement of physical activity, and stress management are needed for overweight and obese low-income women. In addition, social support and policies are needed to improve their living environment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.139-146
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• 2024

Background: This research suggested a method for evaluating health and safety performance as a combination of reactive and active monitoring. Methods: A number of Freedom of Information requests (FoI) were sent to the Health and safety Executive (HSE) and 100 UK universities. Data on the number of reportable incidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences were compiled for UK universities and combined with the Impact Ranking for good health and well-being. A semi-structured survey was used to identify best H&S practices. Subsequently, the effect of workers' involvement in H&S management on RIDDOR and near-miss reports, was investigated using statistical analysis. Results: A ranking of UK universities that perform highly in Health and Safety (H&S) was assembled and selected universities were contacted to identify best practices. Best practices were divided into three categories: team management, roles and responsibilities, and H&S performance monitoring. One of the findings demonstrated a reverse dependence between provision of a refresher training in risk assessments and a number of reported RIDDOR incidents. Conclusion: Health and Safety professionals in the universities may find it useful to reflect on these findings and the identified best practices in order to improve the H&S performance in their own organisations.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.379-393
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• 2020

A terminal event such as death may censor an intermediate event such as relapse, but not vice versa in semi-competing risks data, which is often seen in medicine, public health, and epidemiology. We propose a Weibull regression model with a normal frailty to analyze semi-competing risks data when all three transition times of the illness-death model are possibly interval-censored. We construct the conditional likelihood separately depending on the types of subjects: still alive with or without the intermediate event, dead with or without the intermediate event, and dead with the intermediate event missing. Optimal parameter estimates are obtained from the iterative quasi-Newton algorithm after the marginalization of the full likelihood using the adaptive importance sampling. We illustrate the proposed method with extensive simulation studies and PAQUID (Personnes Agées Quid) data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4883-4889
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• 2013

Background: The most common incident cancer and cause of cancer-related deaths in women is breast cancer. The Myc gene is upregulated in many cancer types including breast cancer, and it is considered as a potential anti-cancer drug target. The present study was conducted to evaluate the Myc (gene and protein) expression pattern in an experimental mammary tumour model in rats. Materials and Methods: Thirty six Sprague Dawley rats were divided into: Experimental group (26 animals), which received the chemical carcinogen N-methyl nitrosourea (MNU) and a control group (10 animals), which received vehicle only. c-Myc oncoprotein and its mRNA expression pattern were evaluated using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively, in normal rat mammary tissue and mammary tumours. The rat glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene was used as internal control for semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Results: Histopathological examination of mammary tissues and tumours from MNU treated animals revealed the presence of premalignant lesions, benign tumours, in situ carcinomas and invasive carcinomas. Immunohistochemical evaluation of tumour tissues showed upregulation and heterogeneous cellular localization of c-Myc oncoprotein. The expression levels of c-Myc oncoprotein were significantly elevated (75-91%) in all the tumours. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed increased expression of c-Myc mRNA in mammary tumours compared to normal mammary tissues. Conclusions: Further large-scale investigation study is needed to adopt this experimental rat mammary tumour model as an in vivo model to study anti-cancer strategies directed against Myc or its downstream partners at the transcriptional or post-transcriptional level.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 2012

Objectives: To describe the time perspective of return to work and the factors that facilitate and hinder return to work in a group of survivors of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods: Retrospective semi-structured telephone survey 2 to 3 years after hospitalization with 84 employed Dutch ACS-patients from one academic medical hospital. Results: Fifty-eight percent of patients returned to work within 3 months, whereas at least 88% returned to work once within 2 years. Two years after hospitalization, 12% of ACS patients had not returned to work at all, and 24% were working, but not at pre-ACS levels. For all ACS-patients, the most mentioned categories of facilitating factors to return to work were having no complaints and not having signs or symptoms of heart disease. Physical incapacity, co-morbidity, and mental incapacity were the top 3 categories of hindering factors against returning to work. Conclusion: Within 2 years, 36% of the patients had not returned to work at their pre-ACS levels. Disease factors, functional capacity, environmental factors, and personal factors were listed as affecting subjects' work ability level.

• Korean Journal of Exercise Nutrition
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2021

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the effect of education based on the health belief model on the physical activity of the staff of the University of Medical Sciences. [Methods] This semi-experimental study was conducted on 130 university staff aged 25-50 years from the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Inclusion criteria were having at least 1 year of work experience, lack of acute and chronic physical and mental illnesses, and not using drugs that affect physical activity. The samples were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group received three training sessions based on the health belief model. Before and 2 months after training, the control and experimental groups were evaluated via the following questionnaires: (1) demographic information questionnaire, (2) Health Belief Model Questionnaire, and (3) International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Finally, data were analyzed statistically. [Results] The training process resulted in a significant increase in the mean scores of the health belief model constructs in the experimental group, but changes in the control group were not significant. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of physical activity. [Conclusion] The health belief model is a useful model for improving individuals' understanding of the benefits of physical activity.