• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.77-90
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• 2007

Purpose : This study identified the patterns of smoking of students attending middle schools and high schools, and analyzed its related health risk behaviors. Methods: The data was based on the survey of 1,517 middle students and 911 high students residing in Kyung-Gi district. Results: The current smoking rates of male and female middle students are 5.3%, and 3.1% respectively. The rates of experiences in smoking are 21.4% and 16.0%(male/female). The current smoking rates of male and female high students are 17.9% and 8.5%, whereas the rates of experiences in smoking are 34.2% and 23.3% respectively. On the other hands, 14.1% of middle students and 12.0% of high students were exposed to smoking for at least 2 hours per day. The majority of middle and high school smokers started smoking when they were in middle or high school. And the most popular places to smoke were children's playgrounds, public open area., parks, and so on. Whether having a smoker as a friend or not and students' own perception towards smoking influenced the decisions to smoke for middle and high students. Both middle and high students, regardless of their gender, who have higher rates of drinking experiences and the hours of computer usage were found to have higher rates of smoking experiences. Meanwhile, the sleeping hours is in reverse proportion to the rate of smoking experiences. There was statistically significant difference in smoking experiences related to the degree of obesity only in the female high students: underweight and overweight students showed higher rates of smoking experiences than those falling in the normal weight range. Conclusion: For the effective prevention of adolescence smoking, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive approach, which classifies the target population according to their age and sex and cover all health risk behaviors.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-18
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• 2003

This study was conducted to evaluate factors related to the recogniton and behavioral intention for smoking cessation programs. Five effective smoking cessation programs were considered： acupuncture, nicotine patch, clinic program, mass education, and alliance programs. To explain the health behavior for smoking and smoking cessation programs, a five-stage behavioral intention model was built, and 500 questionnaires were completed through a telephone survey. Stages of the model included recogniton of the programs, past experiences, present smoking status, intention for smoking, and behavioral intention for smoking cessation programs. The results showed that the recogniton rate of the programs were low in general, therefore strategies of education, public relations, and advertisement need to be pursued. Nicotine dependency resulted in the fact that success rates were low although trial rates of smoking cessation were high among smokers. The necessity for smoking cessation programs was suggested. And the significant factors related to the intention for smoking cessation were individual attitude and reluctancy to pay time and money. Others' attitude was insignificant to subjects' smoking cessation. Purchase rates for nicotine patches were 11.3％ for male and 27.3％ for female, those for acupunture were 7.6％ for male and 10.0％ for female. There were very low purchase rates for clinic, mass education, and alliance programs. In conclusion, evidence-based and effective smoking cessation programs need to be promoted by medical doctors. Strategies in education, public relations, and advertisement also need development. In addition, continuing legal and systematic support for smoking cessation would lower the smoking rate and ultimately contribute to the nation's health.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.85-106
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• 2023

Background: The Korean government has established Health Plan and reinforced tobacco control policies step by step according to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This study aims to investigate yearly smoking and secondhand smoking (SHS) exposure rates adjusted by demographic and socioeconomic factors. Methods: Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted about the smoking experience, current smoking, and exposure to SHS at home, at work, and in public places using data from the 6th to 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2015-2020). Results: Comparing 2015 with other years, smoking experience rates significantly decreased from 2015 to 2018 in men and significantly increased from 2018 to 2020 in women. Compared to 2015, current smoking rates significantly decreased only in 2020 for men and significantly increased in 2018 and 2019 for women. The rate of exposure to SHS at home significantly decreased until 2018. Rates of exposure to SHS in the workplace and public places were significant all year. Conclusion: There were a slowly decreasing trend in men and an increasing trend in women at current smoking rates. It was found that there were significant decreasing trends at exposure to SHS. There is a need to set policies that reduce current smoking rates and especially to set a customized program to lower women's smoking rates.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.365-370
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• 2006

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in smoking rates according to the major occupational categories in South Korea. Methods: The study subjects were a weighted sample of 24,495 men and 26,121 women aged 25-64 from the 2003 Social Statistics Survey, which was conducted by the Korea National Statistical Office. Occupation was classified according to the Korean Standard Occupation Classification. We computed the age-standardized smoking rates according to gender and occupations after adjusting for the education level, marital status, and self-rated health. Results: For men, the smoking rate in elementary occupations was two times higher than that of clerks (OR=1.98, 95% CI=1.74-2.26). In general, a more prestigious job(professionals) correlated with lower smoking rates, and less prestigious jobs correlated with higher smoking rates, except for legislators, senior officials and managers. For women, smoking among service workers was 4.1 times higher than among clerical workers (OR=4.11, 95% CI=2.87-5.88). For women, their occupations, except elementary workers, and the unemployed, the retired and the armed forces, failed to show significant differences in smoking compared with the clerical workers. After adjusting for education, occupational differences in the smoking rate for men were attenuated in most occupations, except for legislators, professionals, and technicians. Further adjustment for marital status and self-rated health had a minimal effect on the occupational differences in the smoking rate for men. For women workers with service or elementary occupations, the ORs of smoking were attenuated with adjustment of the educational levels. However, the ORs of smoking were increased in workers with service, sales or elementary occupations, as well as for legislators, and the unemployed, the retired and the armed forces, after additionally adjusting for marital status. Conclusions: More prestigious jobs generally correlated with lower smoking rates in both sexes. The anti-tobacco policy should consider smoking rate differentials by occupations.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2009

Objectives: Although Asian immigrants have lower rates of smoking and binge drinking than other ethnics in the US, Korean Americans have the highest rate of Asian immigrants. This study, therefore, compared with the rates and examined the predictors of smoking and binge drinking by gender and ethnicity among Asian immigrants in California. Methods: In 2001 and 2003, California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) were conducted in English and their original languages with Asian immigrants residing in 58 Counties and 3 Cities, California. We performed analysis to find out the differences of smoking and binge drinking rates using the secondary data, CHIS 2001 and 2003. Multiple logistic regression analysis for survey data identified predictors of smoking and binge drinking behaviors by gender and ethnicity. Results: Korean American males (35.4%) and Japanese American females (15.4%) had higher rates of smoking prevalence compared with other Asian immigrants in California. In binge drinking, 26.5% of male and 8.1% of female among Korean Americans were binge drinker, and the rates were the top with Asian Americans who had lived in California. It showed the remarkable gap between gender of smoking and binge drinking among Vietnamese immigrants, whereas not the striking difference among Japanese Americans. In multiple regression models, age, educational level, occupation, marital status, English proficiency, and health insurance coverage remained significant for smoking and binge drinking behaviors(P<0.05). Even though the time in the US was not significant, it seemed to be related to educational level and English proficiency. In particular among female, smoking and binge drinking behaviors were associated with acculturation. Conclusion: Although Asian Americans had shared with American culture since they had immigrated in the US, they had significantly different prevalence rates of smoking and binge drinking based on gender and ethnicity. Therefore, future efforts should be focused on understanding differences by ethnicity and target at high-risk subgroups. To achieve this, it needs to develop the educational materials in Korean and their original languages.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.24-36
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• 2023

Purposes: The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors associated with current smoking status in Wonju-si and Chuncheon-si, and to study the cause of difference in smoking rates between these two regions. Methodology: Data was from the National Health Insurance Service database from 2019 to 2020. Current smoking status was based on the response to the health examination questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with current smoking status. The study included 207,307 individuals from Wonju-si and 173,698 individuals from Chuncheon-si. Findings: The smoking rate of Wonju-si was 19.83%, and Chuncheon-si was 18.20%, showing a difference in the smoking rates between the two regions. Logistic regression analysis found that men, those aged 40-49, being a self-employed insured, a medical-aid beneficiary, having a lower income, working in construction, transport, storage, communication, or manufacturing industries, having a high-risk drinking level and being underweight were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of smoking(p<0.05). Additionally, having a chronic disease was associated with a lower likelihood of smoking in the case of Chuncheon-si(p<0.05). Practical Implication: This study found the differences of factors associated with smoking rates between the two regions and could provide implications for establishing intervention programs or policies that could contribute to lowering the smoking rate in areas with high smoking rates.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 2013

Purpose: The study was done to explore relationships between residential areas and smoking rates and to identify related factors contributing to smoking in Korea adolescents. Methods: An analysis was done of smoking rates and socioeconomic position indicators by city size based on a 2012 cross-sectional nationwide online survey conducted with 74,186 Korean middle and high school students aged 12-18 years old. Data were analyzed using x2-test and multiple logistic regression with the SPSS/WIN18.0 program. Results: Analyses revealed that rural boys were more likely to be current smokers compared to metropolitan boys (odds ratio 1.18, 95%-confidence interval 1.01; 1.38) but residential areas and smoking rates among girls were not related. After adjusting for covariates, results showed that city size, Family affluence score, economic status, parents' education level, living with parents, school type, and school achievement were related to increased an proportion of adolescents who smoked. Conclusion: In conclusion, rural living is a determinant of smoking among boys. Tobacco control programs should recognize differences in living conditions between rural and urban areas.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2013

Objectives: In this study, a multilevel analysis model has been designed to investigate the effect of personal characteristics associated with smoking cessation on anti-smoking determinants with a goal of finding out the factors which have influence on smoking cessation among the entrants of smoking cessation clinic in a public health center. Methods: A total of 253,136 male smokers who received smoking cessation services for more than six(6) months in a smoking cessation clinic of public health center from July 16, 2007 to July 15, 2008 were examined. For technical analysis, SPSS Version 2.0 has been used. For multilevel analysis on smoking cessation determinants, in addition, HLM 7.0 has been adopted. Results: According to the unconditional model of multilevel analysis, the success rates of smoking cessation among the entrants of a smoking cessation clinic were 47.3%. In an unconditional slope model test to which regional variables were added, a negative effect was observed in average smoking amount, total smoking period, nicotine dependence and services while a positive effect was found in age, stress and type of social security in terms of the log of the odds of smoking cessation. In a conditional model test, a positive effect was observed in Non-Smoking Campaigns (NSC) and Frequency of Counseling (FC) in terms of the log of the odds of smoking cessation in regional variables. Conclusions: It is important to approach smokers individually and, at the same time, build healthy environment for a local community to increase smoking cessation rates among the entrants of smoking cessation clinic in a public health center.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2006

Objectives: We examined whether the neighborhood socioeconomic position predicts the smoking rates after adjusting for individual socioeconomic position indicators. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2001 Seoul Health Indicators Survey. The neighborhood socioeconomic position was the residential distribution of the high class (power elites), as measured by the location quotients (LQ) for each administrative dong (district). A high LQ denotes a high neighborhood socioeconomic status. The individual socioeconomic position included education, occupation and income. Age-adjusted smoking rates according to the LQ level were computed with the direct method. The total number of subjects in this study (26,022 men and 28,007 women) was the reference. A multilevel logistic regression analysis was conducted with the individuals at the first level and the neighborhoods at the second level to estimate the odds ratios of smoking with 95% confidence intervals. Results: For men, the age-adjusted smoking rates increased with a decrease in the LQ. For women, the relationship between the age-adjusted smoking rate and the LQ was not clear. The odds of smoking for both genders were greater among those subjects with lower incomes and lower education. The manual occupational class had greater odds of smoking than the non-manual class for the males, while the odds ratio of smoking among females with a manual occupation tended to be lower than those females with a non-manual occupation. For the males, the LQ levels independently predicted smoking after adjustment for individual income. However, this relation between the LQ and smoking in males was explained by full adjustment for the individual socioeconomic position indicators (education, occupation and income). Conclusions: A low level of neighborhood socioeconomic position was associated with higher smoking rates among the men residing in Seoul. This association between the neighborhood socioeconomic position and smoking in men was explained by the individual socioeconomic position. Anti-smoking efforts to reduce geographical inequality in smoking should be directed at reducing the smoking rates between the individuals with different socioeconomic backgrounds in the metropolitan city of Seoul, South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.111-127
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• 2003

The government of Korea enacted the National Health Promotion Act in 1995, and set aside funds for national health promotion, endeavoring to reduce the smoking rate of its citizens. Consequently, smoking rates in all age groups of both sexes were lowered during the period of 1999-2003 when legal backing and financial support for no-smoking policies from the national health promotion funds were provided. The decrease in the smoking rate is attributed to the combined effort of the fact that enactment of related acts, their implementation, financial support, and education and publicity 'campaigns on no smoking. However, at the current pace of decreasing the smoking rates, it will be difficult to achieve the Health and Welfare Ministry's smoking rate goal of30％ among adult males by 2013. Thus, related acts should be reshaped, corresponding support should be increased, and financial support should also be provided to implement comprehensive no-smoking policies. Also, budgets should also be alloted to establish a system of providing feedback on the monitoring and evaluation of both short-term and long-term no-smoking business planning and implementation.