• Title/Summary/Keyword: Upper level program

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A Study on the Relationships between the Oral Health Activities and Oral Health Conditions of the Elderly (노인의 구강보건행위와 구강건강상태와의 관련성 조사 연구)

  • Gwon, Mi-Young;Young, Jin-Young
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.271-276
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    • 2006
  • This study set out to analyze the relationships between the senior citizens' dental health activities and dental health conditions, to provide basic data to develop a program for their better dental health, and finally to search for the ways to improve their life quality through dental health care. The subjects were 142 senior citizens(58 were male and 84 were female) who were 65 years old or older and visited a dental hospital or clinic in the Seoul metropolitan area from April 17 to April 28, 2006. With the cooperation from the dentists, the investigators examined their dental conditions and conducted one-on-one interviews to collect the information about their demographic characteristics, dental health activities, and subjective dental health conditions. The collected data were analyzed with T-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficient using the SPSS WIN 11.5 program. The analysis results were summarized as follows: First, 58 men(40.8%) and 84 women(59.2%) consisted of the subject group, where percentage of the female participants was bigger Those who were aged from 65 to 69 made the biggest age group in the subjects, accounting for 58.5% with 83. Second, those who had three dental caries or less and then didn't treat them or treated them(F) accounted for the biggest percentage with 117(82.4%) and 72(50.7%) respectively. As for the remaining teeth, the biggest number of them(40 subjects, 28.2%) had three or less remaining. Third, it turned out the female subjects had a higher level of dental health activities than their male counterparts(P = 0.00). As for living expenses, those who were paid salary or earned income themselves carried out their dental health activities in a higher level than those who lived on the benefit from the government(p = 0.02). Fourth, the subjects' subjective dental health conditions had negative correlations with their dental caries not treated. And there were positive correlations between their dental caries not treated and dental caries lost and between their dental caries treated and remaining teeth. Fifth, those subjects who earned their living expenses themselves had the most dental caries treated at 5.4(p = 0.02), and there was statistically significant difference with the numbers. Sixth, those subjects who brushed their teeth in their own manner had 11.8 teeth lost(p = 0.05), which was more than the number of those who brushed their teeth in other methods. And there was statistically significant difference among them. The remaining teeth were found most at 17.3(p = 0.00) among those who brushed their upper and lower teeth separately. In addition, those who visited the public health center often had significantly more teeth treated(4.3) than others(p = 0.00).

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A study on the menarche of middle school girls in Seoul (여학생의 초경에 관한 조사 연구 (서울시내 여자중학생을 대상으로))

  • Kim, Mi-Hwa
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.21-36
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    • 1983
  • It is assumed that menarche is affected not only by the biological factors such as nutrition and genetic heritage, but also it is affected by other socio-cultural environmental factors including weather, geographic location, education and level of modernization. Also recent trend of menarche in Korea indicates that a lot of discussion are being generated to the need of sex education as a part of formal school education. The purpose of this study is to develop the school health education program by determine the age of menarche, the factors relavant to time of menarche and psycho-mental state of students at the time in menarche and investigate the present state of school health education relate to menarche of adolescents. The total number of 732 girls was drown from first, second and third grades of 4 middle schools in Seoul. For the data collection the survey was conducted during the period from May 1 to May 20, 1982 by using prepared questionair. The major results are summarized as follow; 1. Mean age at menarche and the percent distribution of menarche experienced. It was observed that about 68.7% of sampled students have been experienced menarche at the time interviewed. For the each group, age at menarche is revealed that among the students about 37.8% are experienced menarche for under 12 years old group, 62.1% for 13 year-old group, 80.6% for 14 year-old group and 95.5% for over 15 years old. In sum it was found that the mean age at menarche was 12.3 years old, ranged from age at 10 as earlist the age at 15 as latest. 2. Variables associated with age at menarche. 1) There was tendency those student who belong to upper class economic status have had menarche earlier than those student who belong to lower class. Therefore, economic status is closely related to age at menarche. 2) In time of mother's education level, it is also found that those students whose mother's education levels from high school and college are experienced menarche earlier than those students whose mother's education levels from primary school and no-education. 3) However, in connection with home discipline, there was no significant relationship between age at menarche and home disciplines which are being treated "Rigid", "Moderated ", "Indifferent". 4) Degree of communication between parents and daughter about sex matters was found to be associated each others in determination of age at menarche. 5) It was found that high association between mother's menarche age and their daughter's menarche age was observed. Mother's age at menarche earlier trend to be shown also as earlier of their daughters. 6) Those students belong to "D & E" of physical substantiality index are trend to be earlier in menarche than those students in the index "A & B". 3. Psycho-mental state at the time of menarche. Out of the total students 68.2% had at least one or more than one of subjective symptoms. Shyness was shown as most higher prevalent symptom and others are fear, emotional instability, unpleasant feeling, depression, radical behavior, inferior complex and satisfaction appeared. Very few cases are appeared be guilty and stealing feeling. 4. The present status of school health education program related to menarche. As to the source of information about menarche, teacher was a main source with average index 5.88 and the other informants were mother & family member, friends, books and magagines, movies, television, and radio. For the problem solving at menarche, mother & family members were subject to discussion with an average index 6.02 as high. The others for discuss and knowledge about menarche were books, magagine, friends, teachers, and self-learning based on own experienced. The time of learning about menarche, it was learned as highest percentage with 43.2% at a 6 grades of primary school, middle school with 34.4%, 5 grade of primary school with 18.2%, and 4 grade of primary school with 4.0% respectively.

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The Current State of Wife Abuse and Related Variables in Seosan City, Chungnam Province (아내폭력의 실태와 관련변인들 - 충남 서산 지역의 사례를 중심으로 -)

  • Lee, Jong-Won;Ok, Sun-Wha;Nam, Young-Joo
    • Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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    • v.43 no.8 s.210
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    • pp.141-159
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    • 2005
  • The aim of this study was to investigate the current state of wife abuse in Seosan and the relationships between wife abuse and the related variables. A total of 132 couples took part in this study. All couples live in Seosan city, range in age from their 20s to 50s and each couple has at least one child. Stratification sampling method was used to select the couples. They were asked to complete self-report questionnaires. Subjects completed a Korean version of the self- esteem scale, marital conflict scale, communication style scale, family history of violence scale, alcohol dringking, and wife abuse scale. In order to examine the current state of wife abuse, such as, frequency, mean, standard deviation and paired t-test, t-test were calculated and analyzed. Next, to identify differences in wife abuse between the upper group and the lower group, t-test was peformed. Finally, to investigate the relative influences of independent variables upon wife-abuse, multiple regression analysis was peformed. All these analyses were conducted using SPSS 10.0 program. The results were as follows; 1) In terms of the current state of wife abuse, there are three main observations. First, $23\%$ of respondents answered that they had beat their spouse or been beaten by their spouse before and after their marriage. Second, compared with physical violence($2{\~}16\%$), other types of violence such as verbal($7{\~}4\%$), emotional($41{\~}64\%$), economical($3{\~}29\%$) and sexual violence($4{\~}38\%$) were reported to occur more often in these relationships. Third, following the abuse most wives tend to tolerate the situation instead of taking an active action like reporting the abuse to police. 2) As for the husbands, subjects that drank a high level of alcohol, blaming and super-reasonable communication style, and family history of violence reported more frequent cases of wife abuse. As for the wives, subjects with high levels of self-esteem, irrelevant communication style, marital conflict, and family history of violence reported having more cases of that abuse. 3) In the case of husbands, alcohol, communication style and family history of violence explained $40\%$ of wife abuse. In the case of wives, marital conflict and family history of violence explained $77\%$ of their experiences with abuse. This study makes the contribution to aims to develop education programs and family therapy relevant to prevent wife abuse and to reconsider the existing laws governing domestic violence in Korea.

Work Characteristics and Health Status of Shift Workers based on the Results of the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey (교대근로자의 업무특성과 건강상태에 대한 연구: 제5차 근로환경조사를 중심으로)

  • Baek, Kyunghee;Ha, Kwonchul
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.29 no.4
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    • pp.550-561
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    • 2019
  • Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for the improvement of the working environment for health prevention and related countermeasures for shift workers. This study was conducted based on the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS), which analyzed the health effects of shift work forces and compared them with preceding studies. Methods: By analyzing secondary rates using raw data from the 5th KWCS, 4,870 (9.7%) of the 50,184 total study subjects were divided into shift work and 45,314 (90.3%) non-shift work groups based on the response to shift status. Variables that could affect work health issues were identified and corrected. A cross-analysis was conducted to examine demographic characteristics (gender, age, and education level) of the workers and occupation characteristics (monthly net earnings, employment type, occupation, working period up to now, workplace scale, type of work system, and weekly working hours). In order to find the work health issue ratio between the shift and non-shift work groups, logistic regression was analyzed and the association with health problems according to shift type by gender was looked at through cross-analysis. Results: According to the surveys conducted from the 1st KWCS (2006) to the 5th KWCS (2017), the proportion of shift workers continued to increase. Also, muscular pains in the lower limbs (hips, legs, knees, feet, etc.) (OR=1.135, 95%CI 1.031-1.251), headaches, eyestrain (OR=1.580, 95% CI 1.428-1.748), anxiety (OR=1.715, 95% CI 1.402-2.099), difficulty falling asleep (OR=1.391), and other problems (OR=7.392) were reported. In addition, back pain, muscular pains in shoulders, neck and/or upper limbs, muscular pains in lower limbs (hips, legs, knees, feet, etc.), headaches, eyestrain, depression, anxiety, overall fatigue resulted in significant results for both male and female shift workers. Depression and anxiety were higher in female shift/circulation compared to males. Conclusions: The social nets for the health and safety of shift workers should be explored in a variety of ways, including management and supervision of shift sites, attempts to reorganize and improve the shift system, development of workers' health recovery programs, promotion, systematic treatment, and compensation systems.

Parents' concern for child oral health (부모의 자녀에 대한 구강건강 관심도 조사)

  • Kim, Kyung-Seon;Kim, Sun-Ju;Kim, Chang-Hee
    • Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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    • v.7 no.4
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    • pp.405-418
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the interest level of mothers in oral health. The subjects in this study were 184 mothers whose children attended daycare centers in the city of K. A survey was conducted from March 15 through April 30, 2007, and SPSS WIN 11.5 program was employed to analyze their answer sheets. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. A group of mothers whose children brushed their teeth three times a day on the average made up 55.7 percent of those who were at the age of 35 and under. Among the mothers having three or more children, those mothers accounted for 59.1 percent. The daily mean toothbrushing frequency of children was higher among the better-educated mothers. 2. Concerning dietary and oral guidance, the mothers whose academic background was better curbed their children's excessive sugar intake more often, and the gap between them and the others was statistically significant(pE.05). As to the importance of oral health by the number of child and academic credential, those who had two children(36.0%) taught them the importance of oral health frequently(pE.01), and the better-educated mothers taught about it often(pE.05). The gap between the groups and the others was significant. 3. As for experience of visiting dental institutions, the working mothers visited dental institutions more often than the stay-at-home mothers, and the gap between them was statistically significant(pE.05). Regarding purpose of the visit, the largest group aimed to get treatment(64.6%), followed by having a dental checkup(14.6%) and receiving preventive treatment(13.5%). As to any inconveniences in using dental institutions, those who were working and who were in the upper income bracket found it more inconvenient to do that because of a long distance or time constraints. The gap between them and the others was significant. 4. In regard to concern for dental care, the mothers who were better educated(pE.001) and whose family income was 3 million won or more had their teeth scaled more often, and the gap between them and the others was statistically significant(pE.01). The rate of the regular visitors of dental institutions stood at 32.7 percent of the junior-college graduates, 31.0 percent of the mothers receiving college or higher education and 10.1 percent of the high-school graduates(pE.01). And those who earned larger income paid a visit to dental institutions more often and on a regular basis. The gap between them and the others was statistically significant(pE.05).

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Development and Validation of Korean-version of Classism Attitude Scale(K-CAS) for College Students (대학생용 계층차별주의 태도 척도 개발 및 타당화)

  • Shin, Yun-Jeong;Kim, Eunha;Lee, Eun Sul
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.605-621
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    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Korean version of the Classism Attitude Scale for college students (K-CAS) that measures stereotypes and prejudices about socioeconomic class(SES). In study 1, preliminary items were developed through reviewing classism related theories and literatures, analyzing qualitative data by using Consensus Qualitative Method-modified(CQR-M) and getting experts' consultation. With 440 college students data, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were conducted with 14 items in study 1. In study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis and validity analysis were conducted with 400 college students. As a result, two factor structures, upper classism attitude and downward classism attitude, were confirmed. With the higher level of test-retest reliability, the criterion validity was confirmed by the significant correlations among age, subjective SES, the general belief in a just world, negative affects (depression and anxiety), hostility, and K-CAS. The incremental validity was also confirmed that K-CAS scores significantly accounted for 5% of total variation in scores of negative affects(depression and anxiety) in addition to the variables, such as age, subjective SES, house income, and the general belief in the just world. The result of this study is significant in that the developed and validated K-CAS in this study can be a useful tool for further research and prevention and intervention program development related to classism.

A Study of Community Residents' Consciousness of Taking Herb Medicine (지역사회 주민의 한약복용에 대한 의식 조사 연구)

  • Kim Sung-Jin;Nam Chul-Hyun
    • Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.25-53
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    • 1999
  • This study was conducted to provide basic data for policy of Oriental medicine by analyzing community residents' consciousness of taking herb medicine and its related factors. Data were collected from 1478 residents from March 2, 1999 to May 31, 1999. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1. According to general characteristics of the subjects, 52.3% of the subjects was 'female'; 25.0% 'fifties of age'; 21.4% 'forties of age'; 20.9% 'thirties of ages'; 69.1% 'married'; 60.1% 'resident in a big city'; 12.1% 'residents in a small town or village'; 39.0% 'highschool graduate'; 35.9% 'above college graduate'; 23.4% 'housewife'; 23.4% 'professional' 34.1% 'Buddhist'; 81.1% 'middle class'. 2. The rate of experience of taking herb medicine was 85.2%(88.2% of 'male'; 82.5% of 'female'). It appeared to be significantly higher in the groups of 'the married', 'housewife', and 'Buddhist'. As the age increased, so the rate of experience of taking herb medicine was significantly high. 3. In case of purpose of taking herb medicine, taking herb medicine as a restorative(66.8%) was much higher than taking it as a curative medicine. Taking herb medicine as a curative medicine appeared to be significantly higher in the groups of 'male', 'thirties of age', 'resident in a town or village', 'above college graduate', 'professional technician', 'Christian', and 'the upper class'. 4. 52.1% of the respondents satisfied with the effect of herb medicine. The groups of 'male', 'older age', 'residents in a big city', 'insurant in company', and 'the employed' showed significantly high rate in satisfying with herb medicine than the other groups. 5. According to the reason for preferring herb medicine, 36.7% of the respondents preferred herb medicine because the herb medicine was effective, while 27.8% preferred it because its side effect was low. 16.7% preferred it. because persons around them recommended it. The preference for the herb medicine displayed significantly higher rate in the groups 'sixties of age', 'the unmarried', 'resident in a big city', 'office clerk', and 'the lower class'. 6. 42.6% of the respondents did not want to take the herb medicine because the price of the herb medicine was high. Also 20.6% of the respondents did not want to take herb medicine because it is uneasy to take herb medicine. 15.8% did not want to take it because certain foods should not be taken during the period of taking it. 9.4% did not want to take it because it tasted bitter. 7. In case of opinions on side effects of herb medicine, 40.8% of the respondents thinks that herb medicine is free from side effects, while 37.5% thinks that it causes side effects. There were significant difference in the opinions on side effects by sex, age, marital status, resident area, education level, occupation, and type of health insurance. 8. 60.7% of the respondents thinks the price of herb medicine is not resonable, while only 10.9% thinks it is resonable. 9. 14.2% of the respondents thinks health foods which contain herbs are good, while 16.8% thinks it is bad. 76.7% thinks that medicinal herbs in packages must be included in health insurance coverage, while only 3.0% thinks it needs not be included in health insurance coverage. 10. 45.2% of the respondents uses packs of decocted herbs although they think the packs of decocted herb are a little low effective because decocting herbs in home is bothersome. 45.2% uses packs of decocted herbs because they are convenient, being not related to the effect. 7.6% takes medicinal herbs after decocting them in a clay pot because they think the packs of decocted herbs have low effect. 11. According to the level of satisfaction with Oriental medical care, the respondents marked $3.47{\pm}0.64$ points on the base of 5 points. It was significantly higher in the groups of 'male', 'the married, resident in a big city', 'highschool graduate', 'the unemployed', 'office clerk', 'growing up in a big city', 'insurant in region', and 'the middle class'. 12. According to the result of a regression analysis of factors influencing preference for herb medicine, the factors displayed significant difference by sex, age, education level, health status, and times of receiving Oriental medical care. As shown in the above results, the community residents satisfy with the effect of herb medicine. Therefore, the method of taking herb medicine without difficulty must be devised. The medicinal herbs in packages need to be included in health insurance coverage and resonable price of herb medicine must be set. Also, education program for community residents must be developed in order to provide right information in herb medicine. Therefore, related public authority, associations, and professionals must make efforts, forming organic cooperative system.

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A Study on the Relationship between the Experience of Sanhujori, the Traditional Postpartal Care in Korea and Present Health Status of Chronic Arthritis Female Patient (만성관절염 여성 환자의 산후조리 경험과 건강상태와의 관계)

  • Yoo, Eun-Kwang;Lee, Sun-Hyae;Kim, Myoung-Hee
    • Women's Health Nursing
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.217-230
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    • 1998
  • The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to define the relationship between the experience of Sanhuujori, Korean traditional non-professional postpartal care after delivery and abortion and present health status of chronic arthritis female patient who visited to outpatient clinic of rheumatic internal medicine at a hospital located in Seoul, Korea. A convenience sample of 64 women who orally agreed to be a participant and data were collected form October 1996 to May, 1997 for sis months by way of interview with semistructured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by the SPSS pc program using t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe test as a post hoc and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of the study were as follows ; Mean age of participants was 53.2 years and mean number of children was 3.1. Mean frequency of abortion was 2.1 times per woman. Seventy four percentage of respondents did not have Sanhujori after abortion. The mean period of Sanhujori after delivery was 17.7, 15.2, 13.8 days from the first child to third child and shorter than that of general woman such as 20.0, 19.0, 17.3 days in the previous study. On the subjective evaluation of whether the women did Sanhujori well or not, the rate of 'did Sanhujori wrongly' was the highest rank in each child where as general woman 'did Sanhujori well' at the first child, 'moderate' at the second and third child and 'did Sanhujori wrongly' at the 4th and fifth child. The health status implies both subjective health status women perceived and the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress women are experiencing presently. The respondents of 82.5% perceived them as unhealthy or sick and 68.9% of women complained more than two symptoms. Mean number of physical symptom distress women complained was 2.33. The main sites of physical symptom distress were upper & lower extremities 69.1% including knee and hand, whole body 19.1%, neck 3.7%, waist & shoulders 2.7% respectively. The characteristics of the symptoms were mostly pain 60%, swelling 19.8%, rigidity & deformity 7.9% respectively, sensation of heat 6.8% and weakness 1.7%. Women perceived the etiology of the chronic arthritis as stress 25.8%, 'did Sanhujori wrongly' & overwork 23.4% respectively, genetic 12.9%, malnutrition, 4.8%, and aging process 3.2%. There were significant positive correlation between subjective health status and the period of Sanhujori after delivery of the second child(r=-0.22) and negative correlation with the number of child at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=0.27). There were significant negative correlation between the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress and the subjective evaluation whether she did Sanhujori well or not at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=-0.23). And the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress in the group of women who experienced abortion was significantly higher than that of women who did not experience it at the level of 5% significance statistically(t=2.00) In conclusion, this finding reconfirmed the possible relationship between health status of chronic arthritis female patient and the experience of Sanhujori after delivery & abortion. It provides a challenge to the professional care givers to research further on the effects of Sanhujori on the health status, health recovery after abortion or delivery from the various aspects through the crosssectional and longitudinal research for the refinement of the reality of not only as cultural phenomenon but as conceptual model for the appropriateness of intervention and quality of care for desirable health outcomes.

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Effects of Stress Perception Level on Dietary Habits and Oral Health Behaviors in Adolescents (청소년의 스트레스 인지수준이 식습관 및 구강건강행태에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Ji-Young;Kim, Sun-Mi
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.111-117
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    • 2016
  • The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship that adolescent stress perception level has with dietary habits and oral health behaviors in high school students. A survey of high school students in some areas of the Jeollabuk-do province of South Korea was conducted. Five hundred fourteen survey responses were used in the final analysis. As a result of the questionnaire survey, the following conclusions were obtained. The highest stress type was indicated to be academic stress (mean${\pm}$standard deviation [SD], $3.09{\pm}0.89$). The next was shown to be home (family) stress (mean${\pm}$SD, $2.85{\pm}0.84$). The possibility of using a dental clinic was indicated to be less in girls than boys (p<0.001). Regarding subjective oral health behavior, the possibility of visiting a dental clinic was low in those who thought that their own oral health condition was not good or moderate (p<0.05). Also, it was shown that the higher stress led to the higher possibility of visiting a dental clinic (p<0.01). Students with higher grades had a in the upper ranks were indicated to have high possibility of having a regular meal (p<0.01). Higher stress led to the significantly higher possibility of eating cariogenic food (p<0.01). Students with median grades had a high possibility of eating cariogenic food (p<0.01), while students with higher grades had a low possibility of eating cariogenic food (p<0.05). These resultss show that stress perception level influences dietary habits and oral health behaviors. Thus, there is a need to develop a program in high scholls to promote the physical and mental health of students to relieve stress. Substantial and systematic oral health education is thought to be likely needed to develop desirable dietary habits.

Contrast Media in Abdominal Computed Tomography: Optimization of Delivery Methods

  • Joon Koo Han;Byung Ihn Choi;Ah Young Kim;Soo Jung Kim
    • Korean Journal of Radiology
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.28-36
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    • 2001
  • Objective: To provide a systematic overview of the effects of various parameters on contrast enhancement within the same population, an animal experiment as well as a computer-aided simulation study was performed. Materials and Methods: In an animal experiment, single-level dynamic CT through the liver was performed at 5-second intervals just after the injection of contrast medium for 3 minutes. Combinations of three different amounts (1, 2, 3 mL/kg), concentrations (150, 200, 300 mgI/mL), and injection rates (0.5, 1, 2 mL/sec) were used. The CT number of the aorta (A), portal vein (P) and liver (L) was measured in each image, and time-attenuation curves for A, P and L were thus obtained. The degree of maximum enhancement (Imax) and time to reach peak enhancement (Tmax) of A, P and L were determined, and times to equilibrium (Teq) were analyzed. In the computed-aided simulation model, a program based on the amount, flow, and diffusion coefficient of body fluid in various compartments of the human body was designed. The input variables were the concentrations, volumes and injection rates of the contrast media used. The program generated the time-attenuation curves of A, P and L, as well as liver-to-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) contrast curves. On each curve, we calculated and plotted the optimal temporal window (time period above the lower threshold, which in this experiment was 10 Hounsfield units), the total area under the curve above the lower threshold, and the area within the optimal range. Results: A. Animal Experiment: At a given concentration and injection rate, an increased volume of contrast medium led to increases in Imax A, P and L. In addition, Tmax A, P, L and Teq were prolonged in parallel with increases in injection time The time-attenuation curve shifted upward and to the right. For a given volume and injection rate, an increased concentration of contrast medium increased the degree of aortic, portal and hepatic enhancement, though Tmax A, P and L remained the same. The time-attenuation curve shifted upward. For a given volume and concentration of contrast medium, changes in the injection rate had a prominent effect on aortic enhancement, and that of the portal vein and hepatic parenchyma also showed some increase, though the effect was less prominent. A increased in the rate of contrast injection led to shifting of the time enhancement curve to the left and upward. B. Computer Simulation: At a faster injection rate, there was minimal change in the degree of hepatic attenuation, though the duration of the optimal temporal window decreased. The area between 10 and 30 HU was greatest when contrast media was delivered at a rate of 2 3 mL/sec. Although the total area under the curve increased in proportion to the injection rate, most of this increase was above the upper threshould and thus the temporal window was narrow and the optimal area decreased. Conclusion: Increases in volume, concentration and injection rate all resulted in improved arterial enhancement. If cost was disregarded, increasing the injection volume was the most reliable way of obtaining good quality enhancement. The optimal way of delivering a given amount of contrast medium can be calculated using a computer-based mathematical model.

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