• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7117-7120
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• 2013

Background: This study hypothesized living in a poor neighborhood decreased the cause specific survival in individuals suffering from carcinoid carcinomas. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) carcinoid carcinoma data were used to identify potential socioeconomic disparities in outcome. Materials and Methods: This study analyzed socioeconomic, staging and treatment factors available in the SEER database for carcinoid carcinomas. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze time to events and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to compare survival curves. The Cox proportional hazard method was employed for multivariate analysis. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) were computed to screen the predictors for further analysis. Results: There were 38,546 patients diagnosed from 1973 to 2009 included in this study. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 68.1 (70.7) months. SEER stage was the most predictive factor of outcome (ROC area of 0.79). 16.4% of patients were un-staged. Race/ethnicity, rural urban residence and county level family income were significant predictors of cause specific survival on multivariate analysis, these accounting for about 5% of the difference in actuarial cause specific survival at 20 years of follow up. Conclusions: This study found poorer cause specific survival of carcinoid carcinomas of individuals living in poor and rural neighborhoods.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.404-410
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• 2007

Objectives: Due to the assumptions of homogeneity as well as challenges in the socioeconomic position of the elderly, they have been relatively neglected in studies of health inequalities. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the social inequalities in preventive services among elderly men and women. Methods: Data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 342 men and 525 women aged 65 and over collected during the 2001 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Age adjusted proportions and logistic regression were used to identify the social patterning of preventive services among elderly Koreans using various social position indicators. Results: The findings of this study generally supported the presence of social gradients in preventive services among the Korean elderly. The likelihood of using the service becomes progressively higher with social position. Educational level, income, and self-rated living status were significantly associated with increased medical checkups and cancer checks. In addition, logistic regression detected educational inequalities only among older women receiving BP checks. After being stratified based on health status and chronic disease status, social disparities still existed when educational level and self-rated living status were considered. Among unhealthy individuals, place of residence was observed as a barrier to medical checkups. Conclusions: This study demonstrated strong and consistent associations between socioeconomic position and preventive services among the elderly in Korea. The results indicate that public health strategies should be developed to reduce the barriers to preventive services encountered by the elderly.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.381-393
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• 2015

This study is carried out in order to propose a drought risk assessment methodology. This methodology is required to deal with practical questions that a variety of stakeholder often raise in the course of discussions on mitigation measures. With a focus on the socioeconomic aspect of drought, more particularly, residents' hardship from water scarcity, it suggests basic concepts and a system of methods in order to assess hazard, exposure, vulnerability and risk. The case study shows a considerable possibility of the methodology in evaluating potential levels of damages in a certain area, in identifying the boundary of districts where risk is disproportionately concentrated, and also in understanding the underlying risk factors of those districts. The authors think that the proposed methodology is able to offer risk information in terms of socioeconomic damages, and therefore contribute to reducing information gaps that policy-makers are currently encountered with.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.129-135
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• 2008

Purpose : This study was to analyze the demand for emergency ambulance service and to characterize the factors associated with the demand. Method : The basis for the model was from the actual demand for public emergency ambulance and socioeconomic and geographic characteristics. Multiple regression analyses were done for the related characteristics of public ambulance service. Result : The model explained total demand with a high degree of accuracy : the coefficient of determination($R^2=0.96$). For the regression, the set of variables indicative of low socioeconomic status were all significant. It showed the inappropriate use of public ambulance system. Public ambulance demand increased in higher housing density, low income, male unemployment and female labor force. Conclusion : The demand for public ambulances appeared to be highly predictable, using a simple linear model employing socioeconomic variables, quality of service variables, and land use variables. Low-income families tended, to use the public ambulance system more often than higher income. Area having elderly people or children also made many calls. Estimated demand calls were stable and had a tendency to be similar incident types.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.29-38
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Korean women's experience of anxiety & depression and socioeconomic level. We used Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VI-1 data. Study population were consisted of 3,453 female adults, and used a binary logistic regression analysis to identify the relationship between socioeconomic status factors and experience of anxiety & depression after adjusting health factors. It was identified the variables that affect experience symptoms of anxiety & depression is age, marital status, education, income level, economic activity, health condition and stress. Based on the analysis, Korean women's socioeconomic level and anxiety & depression experience concluded to be associated. Thus, the program for low income, unemployed and low educated level women is needed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.219-226
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• 2018

Objectives: This study aimed to explain the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) gap between the poorest and the wealthiest quintiles in the capitals of Kermanshah and Kurdistan Provinces (Kermanshah and Sanandaj), in western Iran. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 1772 adults. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES), lifestyle factors, body mass index, and HRQoL of participants were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The slope and relative indices of inequality (SII and RII, respectively) were employed to examine socioeconomic inequality in poor HRQoL. Blinder-Oaxaca (BO) decomposition was used to quantify the contribution of explanatory variables to the gap in the prevalence of poor HRQoL between the wealthiest and the poorest groups. Results: The overall crude and age-adjusted prevalence of poor HRQoL among adults was 32.0 and 41.8%, respectively. The SII and RII indicated that poor HRQoL was mainly concentrated among individuals with lower SES. The absolute difference (%) in the prevalence of poor HRQoL between the highest and lowest SES groups was 28.4. The BO results indicated that 49.9% of the difference was explained by different distributions of age, smoking behavior, physical inactivity, chronic health conditions, and obesity between the highest and lowest SES groups, while the remaining half of the gap was explained by the response effect. Conclusions: We observed a pro-rich distribution of poor HRQoL among adults in the capitals of Kermanshah and Kurdistan Provinces. Policies and strategies aimed at preventing and reducing smoking, physical inactivity, chronic health conditions, and obesity among the poor may reduce the gap in poor HRQoL between the highest and lowest SES groups in Iran.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2009

Objectives : South Korea has experienced unprecedented ups and downs in the sex ratio at birth(SRB), which has been a unique phenomenon in the last two decades. However, little is known about socioeconomic factors that influence the SRB. Employing the diffusion theory by Rogers, this study was undertaken to examine the trends in social variations in the SRB from 1981 to 2004 in Korea. Methods : The data was taken from Vital Birth Statistics for the period from 1981-2004. We computed the annual male proportion of live births according to the parental education(university, middle/high school, primary) and occupation(non-manual, manual, others). Logistic regression analysis was employed to estimate the odds ratios of male birth according to social position for the equidistant three time periods(1981-1984, 1991-1994, and 2001-2004). Results : An increased SRB was detected among parents with higher social position before the mid 1980s. Since then, however, a greater SRB was found for the less educated and manual jobholders. The inverse social gradient for the SRB was most prominent in early 1990s, but the gap has narrowed since the late 1990s. The mother's socioeconomic position could be a sensitive indicator of the social variations in the sex ratio at birth. Conclusions : Changes in the relationship of parental social position with the SRB were detected during the 1980-2004 in Korea. This Korean experience may well be explained by diffusion theory, suggesting there have been socioeconomic differences in the adoption and spread of sex-detection technology.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.668-679
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• 2024

Background/Aims: This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate biologics treatment disparities in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients based on socioeconomic status (SES). Methods: Data from the KOrean Observational Study Network for Arthritis (KORONA) database were analyzed to assess various factors associated with SES, health behaviors, and biologics use. Logistic regression and structured equation modeling (SEM) were utilized for data analysis. Results: Among 5,077 RA patients included, 393 (7.7%) patients were identified as biologics users. Within the entire cohort, 31.8% of the participants were in the low-income and low-education groups, and 39.3% of the participants were in the high-income and high-education groups. Despite the patients with low income or low education experienced higher disease activity at diagnosis, had more comorbidities, exhibited higher medication compliance, underwent more check-ups, and had more hospital admissions than their counterparts, the odds of patients with low-income receiving biologics were 34% lower (adjusted odds ratio = 0.76, 95% confidence interval: 0.60-0.96, p = 0.021) after adjustment for demographics and comorbidities. SEM and pathway analyses confirmed the negative impact of low SES on biologics use. Conclusions: The findings suggest that SES plays a significant role in biologics use among RA patients, indicating potential healthcare inefficiencies for low SES patients. Moreover, adverse healthcare habits negatively affect biologics use in RA patients. The study highlights the importance of considering socioeconomic factors while discussing biologics use and promoting equitable access to biologics for optimal RA management.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.85-99
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• 1999

Chronic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis is believed to induce a significant psychosocial stressors. The concept of illness intrusiveness-illness induced life style disruptions-was hypothesized to affect psychosocial status. And demographic, socioeconomic, disease and social characteristics were hypotehsized to affect illness intrusiveness. Hierarchial multiple regression analyses were used. As a result, among the demographic factors gender was identified as contributor to directly increase the psychosocial stress and education level was identified to affect the psychosocial stress through illness intrusiveness. Among socioeconomic factors, the burden about the cost of medical treatment was found to indirectly affect the psychosocial stress through the illness intrusiveness. Also income and job were found to affect directly the psychosocial status. Among the disease characteristics, only the pain level was identified to increase the psychosocial stress through the illness intrusiveness. Among the social characteristics, perceived social support is identified to increase the psychosocial stress through the illness intrusiveness. Based upon these results, some suggestions were made for minimizing illness intrusiveness in rheumatoid arthritis and future research.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.129-144
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• 1994

This research is to examine the homogeneity in premarital resources that is exchanged in mate selection and its effect on marital satisfaction among the urban couples in the early period of marriage. Structured questionnaires from 310 urban couples who had been married less than three years were analyzed in this study. First the urban couples tended to seek homogamous selection in age educational level in socioeconomic status of the parents and themselves, Second those who had a spouse from his(her) own religious parental socioeconomic status showed higher level of marital satisfaction than those who had not. The rewards from personal traits such as physical attractiveness gender-role identity personality role-expectation value orientation and perceived reward found to have strong and positive associations with marital satisfaction. Parental approval and semi-arranged marriage were associated with marital satisfaction. Third perceived rewards from these resources and parental approval had significant effects on marital satisfaction; almost half of marital satisfaction was explained by these premarital factors.