• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.336-347
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• 2011

Objectives: In Korea, an average of 258 workers claim compensation for their noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) on an annual basis. Indeed, hearing disorder ranks first in the number of diagnoses made by occupational medical check-ups. Against this backdrop, this study analyzed the impact of 19 types of noise-generating machines and equipment on the sound pressure levels in workplaces and NIHL occurrence based on a 2009 national survey on work environments. Methods: Through this analysis, a series of statistical models were built to determine posterior probabilities for each worksite with an aim to present risk ratings for noise levels at work. Results: It was found that air compressors and grinding machines came in first and second, respectively in the number of installed noise-generating machines and equipment. However, there was no direct relationship between workplace noise and NIHL among workers since noise-control equipment and protective gear had been in place. By building a logistic regression model and neural network, statistical models were set to identify the influence of the noise-generating machines and equipment on workplace noise levels and NIHL occurrence. Conclusion: This study offered NIHL prevention measures which are fit for the worksites in each risk grade.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.603-611
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the SART(Situation Awareness Rating Technique) tool to measure the situational awareness of patients with acute coronary syndrome. The translated SART was tested on 118 hospitalized patients with acute coronary syndrome to verify the reliability and validity of the tool. The analysis was conducted with Cronbach's alpha, exploratory & confirmatory factor analysis. Study findings found that the tool's reliability and model fit index improved when the two problematic items, namely, Situation Awareness 1 (Instability of Situation) and Situation Awareness 7 (Spare Mental Capacity) were removed. According to the results, the revised K-SART is deemed to be an appropriate method for assessing the degree of situational awareness of patients with acute coronary syndrome in decision making about treatment-seeking.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.331-337
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• 2022

Smart learning is augmented with digital, context-aware, and adaptable technologies to encourage students to learn better and faster. To ensure that digital learning is successful and that implementation is efficient, it is critical that the dimensions of digital learning are arranged correctly and that interactions between the various elements are merged in an efficient and optimal manner. This paper builds and discusses a basic framework for smart learning in the digital age, aimed to improve students' abilities and performance in learning. The proposed framework consists of five dimensions: Teacher, Technology, Learner, Digital content, and Evaluation. The Teacher and Learner dimensions operate on two levels: (a) an abstract level to fit in knowledge and skills or interpersonal characteristics and (b) a concrete level in the form of digital devices used by teachers and learners. Moreover, this paper proposes asynchronous online course delivery model. An Arabic smart learning platform has been developed, based on these smart learning core dimensions and the asynchronous online course delivery model, because despite the official status of this language in many countries, there is a lack of Arabic platforms to teach Arabic. Moreover, many non-native Arabic speakers around the world have expressed an interest in learning it. The Arabic digital platform consists of over 70 lessons classified into three competence levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, delivered by Arabic experts and Arabic linguists from various Arab countries. The five dimensions are described for the Arabic platform in this paper. Learner dimension is the Arabic and non-Arabic speakers, Teacher dimension is Arabic experts and Arabic linguistics, Technology dimension consists of technology for Arabic platform that includes web design, cloud computing, big data, etc. The digital contents dimension consists of web-based video, records, etc. The evaluation dimension consists of Teachers rating, comments, and surveys.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2023

Background: Equating is a statistical procedure used to create a common measurement scale across two instruments. Item-level information should be taken into consideration so that scores can communicate interchangeably across the instruments. Objects: To investigate a common measurement scale across two health-related quality of life questionnaires (HRQOL) applied to various cancer survivors who underwent palliative care in healthcare institutions. Methods: A total of 139 cancer survivors who underwent palliative care were recruited from two rehabilitation hospitals and an oriental medicine hospital. Participants consisted of various cancer survivors who presented to the sites for palliative care. They were asked to fill out Korean versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and EuroQOL-5 dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaires following the palliative care. For the item level comparison, the Rasch rating scale model was used to investigate how participants regarded individual test items of two instruments in relation to item difficulty calibrations. Results: All items except the three items fit the Rasch model. One item (anxiety/depression) of the EQ-5D and two items (dependence on medical aids and negative feelings) of the WHOQOL-BREF are misfit. The WHOQOL-BREF targets the survivors well, while the EQ-5D is able to target the survivors with lower HRQOL levels with some ceiling effects. By inspecting the item difficulty calibrations of the two instruments, five items of the WHOQOL-BREF are selected as common items in relation to the EQ-5D. These five items are considered compatible with each other. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis reveals that the healthcare item of the WHOQOL-BREF vs the self-care item of the EQ-5D exhibits significant DIF. Conclusion: Findings suggest that one paired item should be taken into consideration when equating the WHOQOL-BREF and the EQ-5D applied to cancer survivors who underwent palliative care.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.8776-8790
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• 2015

As a follow-up research of a qualitative study conducted by Lee(2015), this study needed to carry out a quantitative research targeting not a group of experts but of working-level staff and verify the validity of the assessment scales. As far as the study learned from an exploratory factor analysis of the preliminary research, these 12 questions that were incorrectly categorized or that presented outliers had to be removed and as a consequence, the researcher of the study was led to an outcome(75 Items) that would correspond to this factor structure which one had temporarily set up. For the next step, in order to carry out a confirmatory factor analysis, the study worked on verification on a four-stage structural equation model with each of the factors which the researcher had established applied by stage. In the end, a result to confirm how the model's goodness of fit eventually increases with the factors which the researcher had set up added was gained and lastly, another outcome to agree to the hair designers' expertise practice model which the researcher had created was obtained. In the meantime, in terms of the assessment scales which this study has discussed, the study assumes that since the scales accepted a self-rating method, it may lead not only to increase in expertise through self-reflection but also to establishment of a rational class system based on results of objective expertise measuring but not of subjective judgment by superiors.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.845-855
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the category function, the item structure, and the model-data fit of the Copenhagen neck functional disability scale (CNFDS) with neck pain subjects using Rasch rating scale analysis. The data was obtained from the assessments of 71 college students with neck pain. The 'concentration' item showed misfit and fourteen items were founds to be fits for self-reporting of disability due to neck pain. The most difficult item of the remaining 14 items was 'help' and the easiest item was 'social contact'. The subjects and items reliability of separation reliability were 0.85 and 0.97. The CNFDS for self-reporting of disability due to mild neck pain has been proved valid and reliable. This study is suggested that individuals with mild neck pain may be used the modified CNFDS that were not included 'concentration' item and were adjusted the 2 response levels.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.483-497
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the Teacher's Scale for Gifted Preschool Children(TSGPC). Participation of this study were 357 preschool children and their parents and teachers from Seoul, Ulsan, Daegy, Gwangiu & Daejeon. Data were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, Pearson's r, t-test and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$. Results are as follows. (1) exploratory factor analysis of TSGPC revealed that a 5-factor solution (academic ability, creativity, task commitment, artistic talent, and leadership) was the best fit. (2) Correlations between TSGPC and parental rating scale for young children's giftedness were significant. (3) Scores of TSGPC between gifted children and general children were significantly different (4) Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ ranged from .82 and .91 for subscale of TSGPC and .93 for the total scale. These results show that the Teacher's Scale for Gifted Preschool Children is quite reliable and valid measure.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.345-356
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• 2023

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of physical therapy combined with a virtual reality (VR) game on pain, quality of life (QOL), engagement, and knee function in post-knee-surgery patients. Methods: Twenty-four patients who had undergone knee surgery four weeks or more before the study were recruited. Two withdrew from the study during the four-week experimental period, and a total of 22 patients were included in the final analysis. Routine physical therapy consisting of electrostimulation (10 min.) and therapeutic massage (10 min.) was the base intervention for all groups. The experimental group (n = 10) was additionally exposed to a VR game intervention, while the control group (n = 12) underwent an intervention involving similar motions as the experimental intervention but with no VR. The intervention for the experimental group used the game Rig Fit Adventure on Nintendo switch. Both groups underwent their respective interventions 3 times a week (35 min. per session) for 4 weeks. Pain was assessed using the numeric rating scale (NRS), and QOL was assessed using the EuroQol five-dimensional five-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L). Engagement was assessed using the Korea flow state scale (K-FSS). Finally, knee movement and function were assessed based on knee flexion and extension, range of motion (ROM), and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC). Results: After the four-week physical therapy, both groups showed significant reductions in pain (on the NRS), increased knee ROM (flexion), better WOMAC scores, and increased EQ-5D-5L scores (p < 0.05), with the experimental group showing significantly better improvements in EQ-5D-5L and K-FSS scores (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study confirm that a VR-game-integrated intervention is effective for improving pain, QOL, engagement, and knee function in post-knee surgery patients and that VR-game-integrated interventions could be therapeutic alternatives for patients bedridden for prolonged periods with little motivation for rehabilitation.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.531-550
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• 2023

Purpose: The unique nature of life-and-death healthcare services sets them apart from other service industries. While many studies exist on the relationship between healthcare services and customer satisfaction, most of them focus on mildly ill patients, ignoring the differences between critically ill and non-seriously ill patients. This study discusses the actual quality of healthcare services for patients who are facing life-threatening illnesses and are on life support, as well as their right to protection and dignity. Methods: The survey conducted to 149 patients with the four major illnesses: cancer, heart disease, brain disease and rare and incurable disease, those who have experiences with senior general hospitals. Results: The basic statistics of this study are adequate to represent the four major critical illnesses, and the reliability and validity of this study's hypotheses, which were measured by multiple items, were analyzed, and the internal consistency was judged to be high. In addition, it was found that the convergent validity was good and the discriminant validity was also secured. When examining the goodness of fit of the hypotheses, the SRMR, which is the standardized root mean square of residuals that measures the difference between the covariance matrix of the data variables and the theoretical covariance matrix structure of the model, met the optimal criteria. Conclusion: The academic implications of this study are differentiated from other studies by moving away from evaluating the quality of healthcare services for mildly ill patients and focusing on the rights and dignity of patients with life-threatening illnesses in four senior general hospitals. In terms of academic implications, this study enriches the depth of related studies by demonstrating the right to protection and dignity as a factor of patient-centeredness based on physical environment quality, interaction quality, and outcome quality, which are presented as sub-factors of healthcare quality. We found that the three quality factors classified by Brady and Cronin (2001) are optimized for healthcare quality assessment and management, and that the results of patients' interaction quality assessment can be used to provide a comprehensive quality rating for hospitals. Health and human rights are inextricably linked, so assessing the degree to which rights and dignity are protected can be a superior and more comprehensive measurement tool than traditional health level measures for healthcare organizations. Practical implications: Improving the quality of the physical environment and the quality of outcomes is an important challenge for hospital managers who attract patients with life and death conditions, but given the scale and economics of time, money, and human inputs, improving the quality of interactions and defining them as performance indicators in hospital quality management is an efficient way to create maximum value in the short term.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 2023

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent validity of the self- and proxy-report versions of the KIDSCREEN-10 quality of life questionnaire. Methods : A total of nine children and nine parents were selected to represent a cohort registered for a school-based wellness program. Two versions of the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire (self- and proxy reports) were administered to the children and their parents. The Rasch rating scale model was applied to determine the dimensionality and item difficulty of the two versions of the questionnaire. Moreover, the item-person matching map and Spearman's rho were compared to confirm the concurrent validity of the two versions. Results : All items, except four items (i.e., autonomy, home life, concentration/learning, and peers/social support), fit the Rasch rating scale model of the children's self-report version of the questionnaire. With regard to the parent's proxy-report version, two items misfit the model. While the items of the self- and proxy-report versions showed similar item difficulties, the parents had a tendency to be more severe in their ratings than the children. The correlation between the two versions was relatively low (Spearman's rho = .533, p > .05). The scatterplots between the two versions showed differences in the item difficulties of the physical and psychological well-being and self-perception items. Conclusion : These findings suggest that the three identified items should be taken into consideration when measuring children's health-related quality of life using the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire.