• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.346-354
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• 2014

Objectives: Although a number of epidemiologic studies have examined the association between air pollution and mortality, data limitations have resulted in fewer studies of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ${\leq}2.5{\mu}m$ ($PM_{2.5}$). We conducted a time-series study of the acute effects of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ${\leq}10{\mu}m$($PM_{10}$) and $PM_{2.5}$ on the increased risk of death for all causes and cardiovascular mortality in Seoul, Korea from 2006 to 2010. Methods: We applied the generalized additive model (GAM) with penalized splines, adjusting for time, day of week, holiday, temperature, and relative humidity in order to investigate the association between risk of mortality and particulate matter. Results: We found that $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ were associated with an increased risk of mortality for all causes and of cardiovascular mortality in Seoul. A $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in the concentration of $PM_{10}$ corresponded to 0.44% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.25-0.63%), and 0.95% (95% CI: 0.16-1.73%) increase of all causes and of cardiovascular mortality. A $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in the concentration of $PM_{2.5}$ corresponded to 0.76% (95% CI: 0.40-1.12%), and 1.63% (95% CI: 0.89-2.37%) increase of all causes and cardiovascular mortality. Conclusion: We conclude that $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ have an adverse effect on population health and that this strengthens the rationale for further limiting levels of $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ in Seoul.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.81-86
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• 2006

Background: A number of studies have reported associations between the ambient air pollution concentrations and various health outcomes. Especially, ozone is well known for primary risk factor of asthma attacks. The results of a recent study indicate that the size of the effect on health outcomes due to air pollution varied according to several conditions, including age, gender, race and the socioeconomic status. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the associations of ozone with the childhood asthma hospitalizations as stratified by the socioeconomic status (SES) at the community level in Seoul, Korea, 2002. Methods: SES at aggregated levels was measured on the basis of average regional health-insurance rate per citizen in the area. We applied the generalized additive model to analyze the effect of ozone on asthma after controlling for the potential confounding variables that were capable of influencing the results. Results: Our analysis showed that the number of children who were hospitalized for asthma increased as the SES of the residence area decreased. The estimated relative risks of hospitalization for asthma, as stratified by the SES of the community level, were 1.12 (95% confidence interval 1.00-1.25) in districts with the highest SES levels, 1.24 (95% CI=1.08-1.43) within the moderate SES levels, and 1.32 (95% CI=1.11-1.58) in the districts with the lowest SES levels. Conclusions: Our analysis showed that exposure to air pollution did not equally affect the health status of individuals. This suggests that not only the biological-sensitivity markers, but also the SES of the subjects should be considered as potentially confounding factors.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.329-341
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• 2016

Objectives: The goal of this study was to investigate the short-term effect of ambient air pollution on emergency department (ED) visits in Seoul for asthma according to patients' prior history of allergic diseases. Methods: Data on ED visits from 2005 to 2009 were obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. To evaluate the risk of ED visits for asthma related to ambient air pollutants (carbon monoxide [CO], nitrogen dioxide [$NO_2$], ozone [$O_3$], sulfur dioxide [$SO_2$], and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <$10{\mu}m$ [$PM_{10}$]), a generalized additive model with a Poisson distribution was used; a single-lag model and a cumulative-effect model (average concentration over the previous 1-7 days) were also explored. The percent increase and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for each interquartile range (IQR) increment in the concentration of each air pollutant. Subgroup analyses were done by age, gender, the presence of allergic disease, and season. Results: A total of 33 751 asthma attack cases were observed during the study period. The strongest association was a 9.6% increase (95% CI, 6.9% to 12.3%) in the risk of ED visits for asthma per IQR increase in $O_3$ concentration. IQR changes in $NO_2$ and $PM_{10}$ concentrations were also significantly associated with ED visits in the cumulative lag 7 model. Among patients with a prior history of allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis, the risk of ED visits for asthma per IQR increase in $PM_{10}$ concentration was higher (3.9%; 95% CI, 1.2% to 6.7%) than in patients with no such history. Conclusions: Ambient air pollutants were positively associated with ED visits for asthma, especially among subjects with a prior history of allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 2017

Over 5 million people participate in cycle racing betting and its revenue is more than 2 trillion won. This study predicts the ranking of cycle racing using various statistical analyses and identifies important variables which have influence on ranking. We propose competitive ranking prediction models using various classification and regression methods. Our model can predict rankings with low misclassification rates most of the time. We found that the ranking increases as the grade of a racer decreases and as overall scores increase. Inversely, we can observe that the ranking decreases when the grade of a racer increases, race number four is given, and the ranking of the last race of a racer decreases. We also found that prediction accuracy can be improved when we use centered data per race instead of raw data. However, the real profit from the future data was not high when we applied our prediction model because our model can predict only low-return events well.

• Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.227-232
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• 2018

Purpose: Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common type of seizure in children between 6 months to 5 years of age. A family history of febrile seizures can increase the risk a child will have a FS. Yet, prevalence of FS regarding external environment has not been clearly proved. This study attempts to determine the association between prevalence of FS and weather. Methods: This study included medical records from the Korea National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Data were collected from 29,240 children, born after 2004, diagnosed with FS who were admitted to one of the hospitals in Seoul, Korea, between January 2009 and December 2013. During the corresponding time period, data from the Korea Meteorological Administration on daily monitoring of four meteorological factors (sea-level pressure, amount of precipitation, humidity and temperature) were collected. The relationships of FS prevalence and each meteorological factor will be designed using Poisson generalized additive model (GAM). Also, the contributory effect of viral infections on FS prevalence and weather will be discussed. Results: The amount of precipitation was divided into two groups for comparison: one with less than 5 mm and the other with equal to or more than 5 mm. As a result of Poisson GAM, higher prevalence of FS showed a correlation with smaller amount of precipitation. Smoothing function was used to classify the relationships between three variables (sea-level pressure, humidity, and temperature) and prevalence of FS. FS prevalence was correlated with lower sea-level pressure and lower humidity. FS prevalence was high in two temperature ranges (-7 to $-1^{\circ}C$ and $18-21^{\circ}C$). Conclusion: Low sea-level pressure, small amount of precipitation, and low relative air humidity may increase FS prevalence risk.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.554-563
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• 2006

Numerous epidemiological studies have shown stronger associations between $PM_{2.5}$ and both mortality and morbidity than $PM_{10}$. The association of $PM_{2.5}$ with respiratory mortality was examined in Seoul, during the period of $1996{\sim}2002$. Because $PM_{2.5}$ data were available for only 10% of this time period, a prediction regression model was developed to estimate $PM_{2.5}$ concentration. Death count due to respiratory-related diseases(total respiratory mortality; ICD-10, J00-J98) and death counts(cause-specific mortality) due to pneumonia(ICD-10, J12-J18), COPD(ICD-10, J40-J44) and asthma(ICD-10, J45-J46) were considered in this study. Averaged daily mortality was 5.6 for total respiratory mortality and 1.1 to 1.6 for cause-specific mortality. Generalized additive Poisson models controlling for confounders were used to evaluate the acute effects of particle exposures on total respiratory mortality and cause-specific mortality. An IQR increase in 5-day moving average of $PM_{2.5}(22.6{\mu}g/m^3)$ was associated with an 8.2%(95% CI: 4.5 to 12.1%) increase in total respiratory mortality The association of $PM_{2.5}$ was stronger for the elderly ($\geq$65 years old, 10.1%, 95% CI: 5.8 to 14.5%) and for males(8.9%, 95% CI: 2.1 to 11.3%). A $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in 5-day moving average of $PM_{2.5}$ was strongly associated with total respiratory mortality in winter(9.5%, 95% CI: 6.6 to 12.4%), followed by spring(3.1%, 95% CI: -1.2 to 7.5%), which was a different pattern with the finding in North American cities. However, our results are generally consistent with those observed in recent epidemiological studies, and suggest that $PM_{2.5}$ has a stronger effect on respiratory mortality in Seoul.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.564-573
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• 2006

This study was performed to examine the effect of particulate matter less than 10 ${\mu}m$ in diameter($PM_{10}$) on respiratory-related admission in Seoul, 1999. Daily counts of respiratory-related admission were analyzed by generalized additive model with adjustment for effects of air temperature, humidity, and day of the week as confounders in a nonparametric approach. The results follow associations between $PM_{10}$ and asthma, acute upper respiratory disease, acute lower respiratory disease, pneumonia, and chronic respiratory disease. The relative risks were 1.30(95% CI=1.14$\sim$1.50) for pneumonia, 1.18(95% CI=1.01$\sim$1.37) for acute lower respiratory disease in less than 15 years, respectively. The relative risks were 1.85(95% CI=1.22$\sim$2.81) for acute lower respiratory disease, 1.28(95% CI=1.04$\sim$1.57) for asthma, 1.25(95% CI=1.01$\sim$1.54) for pneumonia and 1.19(95% CI=1.01$\sim$1.41) for acute upper respiratory disease in 15 to 64 years, respectively The relative risks were 1.54(95% CI=1.15$\sim$2.08) for asthma, 1.38(95% CI=1.06$\sim$l.80) for chronic respiratory disease in more than 65 years, respectively. The study showed that $PM_{10}$ was considerably affects daily counts of respiratory-related admission in Seoul, 1999 Statistically significant associations were mostly found in the adult group like If to 64 years. The highly relative risks come out in the elderly.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.35-50
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• 2017

The aims of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of firms financial status quo and the scale of financial support on SMEs overall performance. We have gathered the financial guarantee data from 1998 to 2013, provided by Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT), to analyze the effectiveness of Financial policy. To classify both financial status quo and scale of financial support, we utilized the following variables; Interest Coverage Ratio (ICR) and newly guaranteed amount ratio. To take the measurement of the overall performance, we employed profitability, growth ratio and activity index. To minimize the effect of repeated financial support (redundancy benefits), firms were selected based on the following criteria: firms that receive no financial support prior to implementing such policy over the last 3 years and no new financial support over the last 2 years. Results suggest that firms with higher ICR and large newly guaranteed amount influence on financial performance in terms of profitability index. Firms with lower ICR and large scale financial support showed a better performance compare to firms with small-scale financial support. Firms with large-scale financial support, irrespective of ICR inclined to have better performance to those of small-scale financial support in terms of growth index. For activity index, however, firms with large scale support led to higher performance in the short term. In turn, our analysis presents objective perspective with respect to the effectiveness of financial policy through credit guarantee on overall performance of SMEs. This study, therefore, implies that well-balanced SMEs supporting policy may lead to better directions.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.120-128
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• 2003

Purpose: Recently, while the authors were experiencing that the epidemic period of rotaviral infection happened more in the early spring, we tried to find out how the outbreaks of rotaviral infection are changing in detail depending on the weather condition since it has something to do with the climate factors and PM10. Methods: Fourteen hundreds seventy nine patients who were proved to be positive to rotavirus were chosen among children less than 5 years old from January 1995 to June 2003. Among various climate factors, monthly average temperature, humidity, rainfall and PM10 were selected. Results: Rotaviral infection was most active in 2002 as 309 (20.9%) patients. It has been the spring that is the most active period of rotaviral infection since 2000. The temperature (RR=0.9423, CI=0.933424~0.951163), rainfall (RR=1.0024, CI=1.001523~1.003228) and PM10 (RR=1.0123, CI=1.009385~1.015248) were significantly associated with the monthly distribution of rotaviral infection. Conclusion: Through this study we determined that the epidemic period of rotaviral infection is changed to spring, which is different from the usual seasonal periods such as late fall or winter as reported in previous articles. As increased PM10 which could give serious influence to the human body, and changing pattern of climate factors such as monthly average temperature and rainfall have something to do with the rotaviral infection, we suppose that further study concerning this result is required in the aspects of epidemiology, biology and atmospheric science.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.161-167
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• 2020

Objectives : Although the seasonality of suicide is a well-known phenomenon, little is reported about the seasonality of non-suicidal self-injury. The purpose of this study was to identify the seasonality of wristcutting behavior and to examine its relationship with meteorological factors. Methods : To identify the presence of seasonality, we investigated whether there was a difference in the average number of visits per month to an emergency room (ER) of an urban hospital for 226 patients with wrist-cutting behavior enrolled between December 2014 and May 2019. To ascertain significant meteorological factors, we used the multiple Poisson regression using generalized additive model with time, monthly temperature, monthly sunshine hour, and atmospheric pressure in the prior month as explanatory variables. Results : In males, the average number of monthly visits to the ER for wrist cutting behavior differed by month and was the highest in September (male : p=0.048, female : p=0.21, total : p=0.28). As a result of multiple regression analysis, the average number of patients admitted to the ER for wrist cutting behavior was related to the interaction between atmospheric pressure in the prior month and temperature in males (p=0.010), and showed a positive correlation with sunlight in females [p=0.044, β=4.70×10-3, 95% CI=(1.19×10-4, 9.27×10-3)]. Conclusions : Wrist cutting behavior shows seasonality in male, which is associated with changes in meteorological variables.