• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.677-688
• /
• 2022

Precarious employment is negatively associated with mental health including depression. The aim of the study is to suggest the multidimensional definition of precarious employment and examine its impacts on depression. Using the fifth save of the Korean Working Condition Survey, we first measured six different dimensions of employment precariousness: temporariness, disempowerment, vulnerability, difficulty exercising rights, unpredictability of working times, and low wage. All of six precariousness indicators consisted of a scale from 0 to 100. Then, we conducted logistic regression to examine the association between employment precariousness and depression. For men, the risk of depression increased by 3.1%, 1%, and 0.5%, respectively, for each one point increase in vulnerability, difficulty in exercising rights, and unpredictability of working times. For women, the risk increased by 0.5%, 2.3%, and 0.8%, respectively, for each one point increase in temporariness, vulnerability, and difficulty in exercising rights. Our findings suggest that not only a secure employment contract, but also their substantive labor rights should be guaranteed for health for workers.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• v.22 no.9
• /
• pp.195-207
• /
• 2022

COVID-19 has remained one of the most serious health crises in recent history, resulting in the tragic loss of lives and significant economic impacts on the entire world. The difficulty of controlling COVID-19 poses a threat to the global health sector. Considering that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has contributed to improving research methods and solving problems facing diverse fields of study, AI algorithms have also proven effective in disease detection and early diagnosis. Specifically, acoustic features offer a promising prospect for the early detection of respiratory diseases. Motivated by these observations, this study conceptualized a speech-based diagnostic model to aid in COVID-19 diagnosis. The proposed methodology uses speech signals from confirmed positive and negative cases of COVID-19 to extract features through the pre-trained Visual Geometry Group (VGG-16) model based on Mel spectrogram images. This is used in addition to the K-means algorithm that determines effective features, followed by a Genetic Algorithm-Support Vector Machine (GA-SVM) classifier to classify cases. The experimental findings indicate the proposed methodology's capability to classify COVID-19 and NOT COVID-19 of varying ages and speaking different languages, as demonstrated in the simulations. The proposed methodology depends on deep features, followed by the dimension reduction technique for features to detect COVID-19. As a result, it produces better and more consistent performance than handcrafted features used in previous studies.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.43-52
• /
• 2021

Purpose : Chronic neck pain negatively impacts the quality of life and causes various problems in daily life due to pain, insomnia, and sleep disturbances in patients with this condition. Therapeutic interventions to solve these problems in rehabilitation and physical therapy are being introduced; however, the evidence of the efficacy of myofascial release (MFR) is still insufficient. This study aimed to investigate the effects of applying MFR on pain, insomnia, and sleep disturbances in patients with chronic neck pain. Methods : Ten patients with chronic neck pain were randomly selected and grouped into the experimental group (n₁ = 10) and control group (n₂ = 10) by cross-over design. Pain was measured before and after MFR intervention. Moreover, insomnia was measured only after MFR intervention. Polysomnography was performed after MFR intervention. Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for the visual analog scale (VAS). Independent sample t-test was separately performed to measure insomnia and sleep. Results : After MFR intervention, the VAS score of the experimental group (p = 0.005) significantly decreased than that of the control group (p = 0.002). The insomnia score of the experimental group significantly decreased than that of the control group (p = 0.001). The total sleep time (p = 0.001), sleep efficiency (p = 0.001), and sleep latency (p = 0.001) of the experimental group significantly increased than those of the control group in the polysomnographic measurement. Conclusion : The application of MFR of the neck and upper trunk may have a positive effect on pain, insomnia, and sleep disturbances in patients with chronic neck pain. It was also suggested that an objective and quantitative polysomnography can be used more often in the field of rehabilitation and physical therapy.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2023

The alarming global prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) has catalyzed an urgent need for robust, early diagnostic methodologies. This study unveils a pioneering approach to predicting T2DM, employing the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm, renowned for its predictive accuracy and computational efficiency. The investigation harnesses a meticulously curated dataset of 4303 samples, extracted from a comprehensive Chinese research study, scrupulously aligned with the World Health Organization's indicators and standards. The dataset encapsulates a multifaceted spectrum of clinical, demographic, and lifestyle attributes. Through an intricate process of hyperparameter optimization, the XGBoost model exhibited an unparalleled best score, elucidating a distinctive combination of parameters such as a learning rate of 0.1, max depth of 3, 150 estimators, and specific colsample strategies. The model's validation accuracy of 0.957, coupled with a sensitivity of 0.9898 and specificity of 0.8897, underlines its robustness in classifying T2DM. A detailed analysis of the confusion matrix further substantiated the model's diagnostic prowess, with an F1-score of 0.9308, illustrating its balanced performance in true positive and negative classifications. The precision and recall metrics provided nuanced insights into the model's ability to minimize false predictions, thereby enhancing its clinical applicability. The research findings not only underline the remarkable efficacy of XGBoost in T2DM prediction but also contribute to the burgeoning field of machine learning applications in personalized healthcare. By elucidating a novel paradigm that accentuates the synergistic integration of multifaceted clinical parameters, this study fosters a promising avenue for precise early detection, risk stratification, and patient-centric intervention in diabetes care. The research serves as a beacon, inspiring further exploration and innovation in leveraging advanced analytical techniques for transformative impacts on predictive diagnostics and chronic disease management.

• Women's Health Nursing
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.20-31
• /
• 2023

Purpose: As more newborns have received expanded newborn screening (NBS) for metabolic disorders, the overall number of false-positive results has increased. The purpose of this study was to explore the psychological impacts experienced by mothers related to the NBS process. Methods: An online parenting community in Korea was selected, and questions regarding NBS were collected using web crawling for the period from October 2018 to August 2021. In total, 634 posts were analyzed. The collected unstructured text data were preprocessed, and keyword analysis, topic modeling, and visualization were performed. Results: Of 1,057 words extracted from posts, the top keyword based on 'term frequency-inverse document frequency' values was "hypothyroidism," followed by "discharge," "close examination," "thyroid-stimulating hormone levels," and "jaundice." The top keyword based on the simple frequency of appearance was "XXX hospital," followed by "close examination," "discharge," "breastfeeding," "hypothyroidism," and "professor." As a result of LDA topic modeling, posts related to inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) were classified into four main themes: "confirmatory tests of IEMs," "mother and newborn with thyroid function problems," "retests of IEMs," and "feeding related to IEMs." Mothers experienced substantial frustration, stress, and anxiety when they received positive NBS results. Conclusion: The online parenting community played an important role in acquiring and sharing information, as well as psychological support related to NBS in newborn mothers. Nurses can use this study's findings to develop timely and evidence-based information for parents whose children receive positive NBS results to reduce the negative psychological impact.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.247-250
• /
• 2023

This case report aims to introduce the safety campaign activities for preventing chemical accidents that were cooperatively conducted by an environmental office and chemical-handling workplaces located in the Ulsan area. A chemical safety campaign was initiated to examine and manage chemical-handling facilities at high risk for chemical accidents, specifically valves, flanges, and switches (VFS) from October 2020 to December 2022. The VFS safety check campaign was conducted to raise workers' safety consciousness based on a campaign of advertisements in the workplace from October 2020 to December 2021. In addition, a VFS plus [+] campaign was initiated to encourage actual management activities for chemical-handling facilities at high risk of chemical accidents in 2022. A total of 49 corporations participated in the VFS plus [+] campaign. In contrast to the VFS safety check campaign, which simply focused on publicity and resulted in changes in worker awareness, practicable safety management activities focusing on the handling facilities were carried out. Although notable short-term impacts have yet to be discerned from the campaigns, it is expected that they will eventually serve as a starting point for developing a proper safety culture and environment.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.208-213
• /
• 2024

Depression is one of the greatest health concerns in the world. Symptoms include emotion disorders, loss of appetite, reduction in interest, and insomnia. The prevalence of depression is increasing rapidly around the world and in South Korea. Elderly people are vulnerable to depression, resulting in serious socioeconomic problems. Depression in the elderly can cause sleep disorders, cognitive impairment, memory impairment, and many other diseases. Additionally, depression can cause frailty, which is associated with increased falls, chronic diseases, and mortality. Therefore, this study empirically analyzed sleep disorders in relation to depression, the link between exercise and the hippocampus in mitigating depression, and physical activity and exercise in the management of depression for successful aging.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.163-180
• /
• 2023

Based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) model, this study proposed a research model that explains the continuance intention of users in the with Covid-19 era considering the technical, organizational, and environmental aspects of Remote Work Solution (RWS). To verify the research model and hypothesis, an online survey was conducted on domestic RWS users. Partial least squares (PLS) were utilized to analyze the collected 411 data. As a result of the analysis, it was found that functionality and security level had positive impacts on both productivity improvement and satisfaction. However, it was also confirmed that organizational readiness had a positive effect on productivity improvement but did not affect satisfaction. Furthermore, the results revealed that government support had a positive relationship with continuance intention, but the health concerns did not. Finally, the correlations between productivity improvement, satisfaction, and continuous intention were confirmed to be significant. Therefore, 9 out of a total of 11 hypotheses were supported.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.147-175
• /
• 2006

This paper attempts to incorporate three important factors-perceptions, behavior and valuation-in analysing consumers' responses to health risks from environmental pollutants. Using a survey sample of 500 consumers in the Chonbuk province area, this paper empirically investigated determinants of risk perceptions from using tap water as drinking water. Most consumers were considerably concerned about health risks from drinking tap water. Moreover, those subjective concerns were not random, but were systematically related to individuals' demographic variables such as age, gender, and family size. Those subjective beliefs also influenced respondents' purchase intentions on safer water bottles, in response to a contingent behavior question of presenting two types of water bottles. The technical risk information provided in the survey had significant effects on purchase intentions only when it was interacted with respondents' actual averting practice. In addition, the sample selection effects were present by eliminating respondents who decided not to purchase either of two types of water bottles. The potential selection bias had impacts on the coefficients of the price difference variable, and subsequently the estimates of the price increments for health risk reductions.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.435-440
• /
• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women in Malaysia. A diagnosis is very stressful for women, affecting all aspects of their being and quality of life. As such, there is little information on quality of life of women with breast cancer across the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of life in Malay and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study involved 58 Malays and 15 Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer prior to treatment. Quality of life was measured using the Malay version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast-specific module (QLQ-BR23). Socio-demographic and clinical data were also collected. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Most of the women were married with at least a secondary education and were in late stages of breast cancer. The Malay women had lower incomes (p=0.046) and more children (p=0.001) when compared to the Chinese women. Generally, both the Malay and Chinese women had good functioning quality-of-life scores [mean score range: 60.3-84.8 (Malays); 65.0-91.1 (Chinese)] and global quality of life [mean score 60.3, SD 22.2 (Malays); mean score 65.0, SD 26.6 (Chinese)]. The Malay women experienced more symptoms such as nausea and vomiting (p=0.002), dyspnoea (p=0.004), constipation (p<0.001) and breast-specific symptoms (p=0.041) when compared to the Chinese. Conclusions: Quality of life was satisfactory in both Malays and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. However, Malay women had a lower quality of life due to high general as well as breast-specific symptoms. This study finding underlined the importance of measuring quality of life in the newly diagnosed breast cancer patient, as it will provide a broader picture on how a cancer diagnosis impacts multi-ethnic patients. Once health care professionals understand this, they might then be able to determine how to best support and improve the quality of life of these women during the difficult times of their disease and on-going cancer treatments.