• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.459-473
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• 2021

Purpose: Although numerous systematic reviews or meta-analysis have reported the hypotensive effects of garlic, the application of these results in the area of functional food is limited. This is because the trials used various garlic preparations and patients with differing hypertensive intensities. To validate the use of garlic powder as a blood pressure lowering functional food, we performed the current meta-analysis, focusing on the study of prehypertensive subjects. Methods: Literature search was carried out using various database up to July 2020, including PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect and Korean studies Information Service System, and each study was screened by pre-stated inclusion/exclusion criteria. We identified nine trials that met the eligibility, of which two studies with moderate or high risk of bias were excluded. Results: Meta-analysis of the seven studies revealed that an intake of garlic powder significantly lowered the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by -6.0 mmHg (95% confidence interval [CI], -11.2, -0.8; p = 0.025) and -2.7 mmHg (95% CI, -5.3, -0.1; p = 0.046), respectively. Shapes of the funnel plot for both SBP and DBP seemed symmetrical, and the Egger's regression revealed no publication bias. Moreover, duration of the intervention period was inversely associated with the pooled effects of garlic powder on SBP (p = 0.019) and DBP (p = 0.019), and this result was supported by the subgroup-analysis. The daily dose of garlic powder, baseline value of each biomarker, and subject number, did not moderate the effects on SBP and DBP. Conclusion: Results of the present meta-analysis indicate that garlic powder supplements are superior to placebo for improving the BP in prehypertensive individuals.

• (The)Korea Educational Review
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.57-81
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to summarise the educational meanings of Official Foreign Language Schools(hereafter, OFLS) in Korea, 1895-1906. Especially, I try to find out the foreign language policy of the Joseon Dynasty and the comparative superiority between six foreign language schools - Japanese School, English School, French School, Russian School, Chinese School, and German School - through the traits of teachers and the change of students numbers at the Regulation Period. As a part of Kabo Reforms, the government had abolished the of Civil Service Examination System and status system, and foreign languages worked as a cultural capital to acquire modern civilization and to escalate one's social status. The results were as follows: Firstly, the OFLS have to be regarded as one of the highest educational institute during the Regulation Period. The eligibility of the OFLS was over 15 years old, but most of the incoming students were over 20 years old. Secondly, many of the OFLS's teachers were specialists of military, diplomat and mechanics. Especially, Martel, the teacher of French school played an important role for the neutral diplomacy policy of the Great Korean(Dae-Han) Empire during the Regulation Period. Thirdly, the recruit of new members of the OFLS was affected by the political and social circumstances at that time. Fourthly, the statistics of incoming students during the Regulation Period was concentrated on Chinese school, French school, and English school in due order. Thus, it differed from the commonly accepted ideas of students' statistics which was concentrated on English School and Japanese School. Fifthly, the OFLS were not only for the training of official interpreters(譯官通事), but also the cultivation of civil servants who could become statesman.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review to investigate the socio-economic benefits of the poison control center (PCC) and to assess whether telephone counseling at the poison control center affects the frequency of emergency room visits, hospitalization, and length of stay of patients with acute poisoning. Methods: The authors conducted a medical literature search of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases. Two reviewers evaluated the abstracts for eligibility, extracted the data, and assessed the study quality using a standardized tool. Key results such as the cost-benefit ratio, hospital stay days, unnecessary emergency room visits or hospitalizations, and reduced hospital charges were extracted from the studies. When meta-analysis was possible, it was performed using RevMan software (RevMan version 5.4). Results: Among 299 non-duplicated studies, 19 were relevant to the study questions. The cost-benefit ratios of PCC showed a wide range from 0.76 to 36 (average 6.8) according to the level of the medical expense of each country and whether the study included intentional poisoning. PCC reduced unnecessary visits to healthcare facilities. PCC consultation shortened the length of hospital stay by 1.82 (95% CI, 1.07-2.57) days. Conclusion: The systematic review and meta-analysis support the hypothesis that the PCC operation is cost-beneficial. However, when implementing the PCC concept in Korea in the future, it is necessary to prepare an institutional framework to ensure a costeffective model.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.145-158
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the ownership structure of unlisted firms on KOSDAQ listing. There are few studies analyzing the characteristics of listing success based on ownership structure. For startup executives, there is not enough data to refer to the ownership structure that can increase the possibility of listing. This paper examines the effects of ownership structure on IPO success through comparison between listed successful and failed companies among the companies in application for KOSDAQ listing eligibility review. The major findings are as follows; (1) Venture capital investment and shareholding have a statistically positive effect on the success of KOSDAQ listing. This results indicate that the venture capital's investment alleviate the problem of information asymmetry, and it is a valid signal for market participants. The result means the role of venture capital seems to be important when companies are listed on the KOSDAQ. (2) The largest shareholder's stake has an inverted-U shape relationship with listing success. In other words, the ownership concentration mitigates moral hazard problem, which leads to listing success. However, if the ownership concentration exceeds a certain level, the chances of success in listing will decrease due to concerns over the pursuit of private interests. The result suggests that the largest shareholder's stake reduce agency problem. This study academically contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the ownership structure affects IPOs, and explaining the results based on agent theory and signal theory. Our results provide practical implications for companies preparing for an IPO on the KOSDAQ.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.147-162
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• 2021

Purpose: This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effects of glycine powder air-polishing (GPAP) in patients during supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) compared to hand instrumentation and ultrasonic scaling. Methods: The authors searched for randomized clinical trials in 8 electronic databases for relevant studies through November 15, 2019. The eligibility criteria were as follows: population, patients with chronic periodontitis undergoing SPT; intervention and comparison, patients treated by GPAP with a standard/nozzle type jet or mechanical instrumentation; and outcomes, bleeding on probing (BOP), patient discomfort/pain (assessed by a visual analogue scale [VAS]), probing depth (PD), gingival recession (Rec), plaque index (PI), clinical attachment level (CAL), gingival epithelium score, and subgingival bacteria count. After extracting the data and assessing the risk of bias, the authors performed the meta-analysis. Results: In total, 17 studies were included in this study. The difference of means for BOP in patients who received GPAP was lower (difference of means: -8.02%; 95% confidence interval [CI], -12.10% to -3.95%; P<0.00001; I²=10%) than that in patients treated with hand instrumentation. The results of patient discomfort/pain measured by a VAS (difference of means: -1.48, 95% CI, -1.90 to -1.06; P<0.001; I²=83%) indicated that treatment with GPAP might be less painful than ultrasonic scaling. The results of PD, Rec, PI, and CAL showed that GPAP had no advantage over hand instrumentation or ultrasonic scaling. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that GPAP may alleviate gingival inflammation more effectively and be less painful than traditional methods, which makes it a promising alternative for dental clinical use. With regards to PD, Rec, PI, and CAL, there was insufficient evidence to support a difference among GPAP, hand instrumentation, and ultrasonic scaling. Higher-quality studies are still needed to assess the effects of GPAP.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.460-466
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• 2020

Background: The purpose of this study is to analyze whether there is a change in patterns of medical use among those likely to be converted their health insurance qualifications when the family support rule is alleviated. There is no empirical analysis that converting health insurance qualification will affect the increase in medical use. Methods: For analysis, data were extracted from the national health insurance eligibility and medical care database. To identify analysis targets similar to that of medical aids' characteristics among health insurance coverage, we compared income, property level, and medical use patterns through basic statistical analysis and used a difference-in-difference (DID) analysis to estimate the net effect of changes in medical use following the change of qualifications. Results: The main results are as follows. The results show that those who are under the 5% income group (1st income group) of health insurance coverage are the most similar to the medical aids group. DID analysis shows that changes in the medical use of people who maintain their national insurance qualification and who are not. As a results, the number of hospitalized days of converting group was reduced by 3.5 days while outpatient days were increased by 1.8 days. Conclusion: As a result, there was not much difference in the patterns of medical use for the under 5% income group who are likely to be eligible for expanded medical aids when the family support rule is alleviated. In addition, more than 30% of them are in arrears with their health insurance premiums, causing inconvenience in using medical services. These findings suggest the need of abolishing the criteria obligated to support family, and great efforts should be made to contribute to non-paid poor and remove their medical blind spot.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.567-579
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to find a way to improve the hospice system to increase comfortable home death, which people prefer, by understanding the factors affecting the difference in the rate of home death between South Korea and America within the hospice system. This study employs the Most Similar Systems Design, which is a case study approach. The result of this study is that both countries have public health insurance systems that are identical in terms of the appropriate time for the receipt of hospice services and the application procedure, which requires that two doctors confirm the patient's hospice eligibility. The main difference is that in South Korea, inpatient hospice is prevalent, whereas routine home care is predominant in the United States. Furthermore, in the United States, hospice assistants and housekeepers support at-home daily living care. Additionally, the United States provides inpatient respite care to allow care-giver, such as family to rest and there is no restriction on hospice-eligible diseases. To increase the accessibility of voluntary home death in South Korea, it is necessary to activate and expand the home type hospice service range and provide at-home daily living care, care-giver support services. Furthermore, there should be no restrictions on hospice-eligible diseases.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.617-638
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• 2020

It is important to maintain a healthy dietary habit to enjoy better health and quality of life in later life. However, taking care of one's dietary lifestyle at an older age may be a challenge. Especially, community dwelling low-income older adults are one of the most vulnerable population in regards to holding a well balanced healthy diet. The purpose of this research is to identify the current status of food delivery services for low-income older adults and explore related issues. In order to achieve the aim, this study conduced two sets of focus group interviews with 8 nutritionists and 7 social workers in Seoul. According to the research results, there are issues related to meals on wheels such as vague eligibility, poor operation conditions, work overload, and difficulty in realizing customized meal delivery. Food security for low-income older adults is a prerequisite for aging in place. It is necessary to discuss the ways to create favorable operating conditions to deliver customized meals and manage nutrition and hygiene from the perspective of social work.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.457-468
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• 2022

In aged society, it is important to prevent older people from being disability needing long-term care. The purpose of this study is to develop a prediction model to discover high-risk groups who are likely to be beneficiaries of Long-Term Care Insurance. This study is a retrospective study using database of National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) collected in the past of the study subjects. The study subjects are 7,724,101, the population over 65 years of age registered for medical insurance. To develop the prediction model, we used logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, and multi-layer perceptron neural network. Finally, random forest was selected as the prediction model based on the performances of models obtained through internal and external validation. Random forest could predict about 90% of the older people in need of long-term care using DB without any information from the assessment of eligibility for long-term care. The findings might be useful in evidencebased health management for prevention services and can contribute to preemptively discovering those who need preventive services in older people.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2022

Background: Denosumab (Prolia®) is administered every 6 months for osteoporosis treatment. Co-administration of calcium and vitamin D is required to minimize hypocalcemia risk. We evaluated clinical outcomes based on the administration interval of denosumab and co-prescription with calcium-vitamin D combination products. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using electronic medical records from 668 patients who started denosumab therapy between January 1 and December 31, 2018, at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. Clinical outcomes, as measured by changes in T-score, were evaluated by the intervals and concurrent prescriptions with calcium-vitamin D combination products. Results: Of the 668 patients, 333 patients met the eligibility criteria. These patients were divided into two groups based on appropriateness of the administration interval: "Appropriate" (304 patients, 91.3%) and "Inappropriate" (29 patients, 8.3%). T-score changes were significantly higher in the "Appropriate" than in the "Inappropriate" group (0.30±0.44 vs. 0.13±0.37, p=0.048). At the beginning of the treatment, 221 patients (66.4%) were prescribed calcium-vitamin D combination products, but the changes in T-scores were not significantly different by the prescription status of the product (0.29±0.46 vs. 0.28±0.38, p=0.919). Conclusion: T-scores were significantly improved in patients with appropriate administration intervals. No significant changes in T-scores were observed by the prescription status with calcium-vitamin D combination products. For optimal treatment outcomes, prescribers should encourage adherence to the approved prescription information on dosage and administration, and pharmacists should provide medication counseling for patients.