• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7981-7986
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• 2015

Background: As coverage of public insurance is not sufficient to cover diagnosis or treatment of cancer, having private health insurance is important to prepare for unexpected expenses of cancer. The purpose of this study was to assess factors associated with having private cancer insurance, considering gender among the socio-demographic factors and health behavior. Materials and Methods: We used data from the 2011 Korea Health Panel, which included 10,871 participants aged 20 years and older. Socio-demographics, health behavior, and perceived cancer risk were the independent variables and having private cancer insurance was the dependent variable. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with having private cancer insurance. Results: The variables relating to middle age, higher education, higher household income, married men, and the perceived cancer risk groups of 1-10% and 11-30% were significantly associated with having private cancer insurance. Additionally, females who had private non-cancer health insurance were positively associated with the dependent variables (OR=1.36; 95% CI=1.17-1.57). Education, smoking status, exercise, and perceived cancer risk possibility were significantly associated with having private cancer insurance only among women. The men lowered the overall percentages of those having private cancer insurance (OR=0.53, 95% CI=0.45-0.63). Conclusions: We found that there were significant differences between men and women who had private cancer insurance. Women with private cancer insurance are more likely to follow precautionary health behavior than men. This could be interpreted as resulting from masculine ideologies. It is important to make males recognize the seriousness of the cancer risk. In general, household income was highly associated with private cancer insurance. These results reveal an inequity among the buyers of private cancer insurance in terms of economic status level, education level, and health condition.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.332-344
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• 2000

The subjects of this study were 100 elderly people who were over 60 years of age and had chronic pain. The study examined the matter of quality of life and self-efficacy of elderly patients with chronic pain including the influence of related factors on these variables. Also, by examining their relation, it provides basic data for the development of efficient nursing interventions for the elderly patients with chronic pain. The tools were the general self-efficacy scale by Sherer & Maddux(1982) and a specific self-efficacy Scale(Lorig et al, 1989) modified to better suit the subjects of this study. The quality of life scale by You-Ja Ro(1988) modified to better suit the subjects of this study was used. The data were collected from August to October 1999. Four researchers and two research assistants developed a data collection protocol subjected to a pilot study for confirmation of validity. In this study, the research assistants read the questionaire to the subjects and recorded the responses themselves. The interviews lasted 40-50 minutes on an average. The data thus collected were analyzed in terms of t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, using the SAS PC program. The major findings are as follows: 1) For self-efficacy it was found that males had higher self-efficacy than females for specific self-efficacy. But for general efficacy, males and females showed similar results. The the quality of life was found to be higher for males than females. 2) A positive correlation was identified between the specific self-efficacy, general self-efficacy and quality of life. 3) The general characteristics affecting the self-efficacy of elderly patients with chronic pain were employment, age, level of education, spouse, economic status and income. Self-efficacy was higher among those who were employed, aged between 66-70, well-educated, married and rich or having their own income. 4) The general characteristics affecting the quality of life of elderly patients with chronic pain were lodging with children, religion, level of education and economic status. The quality of life was higher among those who lived with their children and were Buddhists, were well-educated and rich.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.195-211
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• 2004

Stress is a primary health promotion issue in worksite research because psychological distress is closely related not only to workers' health status but also to their job performance. This study identified the significant health behaviors affecting workers' job-related stress in Korean manufacturing industry with the national survey data conducted by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency in 2003. A total of 7,818 factory workers in 1,562 manufacturing companies participated in the Korean nation-wide occupational health survey and 3,390 workers answered that they had any stressors in their workplace among the 7,818 workers finally participated in the analysis. Participants were selected by the stratified proportional sampling process by manufacturing industry classification, company size, and company locations (8 metropolitan and 8 non-metropolitan regions) in Korea. Trained interviewers visited the target companies and interviewed the factory workers randomly selected in each company. Smoking, drinking, weight control, exercise, sleeping, break time at work, and perceived fatigue were included in the health behavior construct. Stress symptoms was consisted of physical and psychological stress with 8 items. All survey responses were anonymously coded into the SPSS statistical program and testified using stepwise multiple regression analysis. Male workers were 73.5% and the 30s were 40.0% among the age groups. The married and the high school graduate were majority with 52.1% and 61.8% each. Current smokers were 44.7% and More than 50% of the participants drank alcohol sometimes. No exercise group was 59.3% and the participants who dissatisfied with their daily sleeping hours were 43.5%. In t-test and analysis of variance, the significant general characteristics associated with physical and psychological job stress were young age (p<0.001), single marital status (p<0.001), and short working period at the present company (p<0.001). The health behaviors related to physical job stress were current smoking, weight change during the past one year (p<0.001), weight control effort (p<0.001), exercise (p<0.001), daily sleeping dissatisfaction (p<0.001), break time, and perceived fatigue (p<0.001). All 10 health behavior factors were significantly associated with psychological job stress (p<0.05). Weight change, weight control effort, exercise, daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, and high perceived fatigue were significant factors affecting job stress. Daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, little exercise, weight change for the past one year and young age were selected as the significant health behavior and general factors affecting physical job stress symptoms in stepwise multiple regression analysis. The five factors explained 18.9% of the physical stress score variance. Six factors were selected as the significant health behaviors affecting psychological job stress: daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little exercise, frequent drinking alcohol, high perceived fatigue, little break at work, and little weight control effort. The six factors explained 10.6% of the psychological stress score variance.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5525-5529
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• 2015

Background: Currently it is believed that human papillomaviruses (HPV) are associated with the development of some oral/oropharyngeal cancers. It has been suggested that these viruses influence carcinogenesis in both smokers and non-smokers. Data on the prevalence of HPV in healthy adults are thus needed to estimate the risk of oral/oropharyngeal cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of oral HPV in healthy female adults in Indonesia and Thailand. Materials and Methods: Healthy female students from the Faculties of Dentistry of Universitas Indonesia and Chiang Mai University were asked to participate in this pilot study. DNA was extracted from saliva specimens and screened for HPV16 and HPV18 using PCR. Results: The age, marital status and sexual experience of the subjects between the two countries were not significantly different. Eight (4%) and 4 (2%) samples were positive for HPV16 and HPV18, respectively. Fisher's Exact test found a significant difference between HPV16 positivity in subjects who were married and had sexual intercourse but not for HPV18. Conclusions: This study successfully detected presence of HPV16 and HPV18 DNA in a number of saliva samples from female dental school students. Marital status, experience of sexual intercourse and safe sexual practice are related to the possibility of finding HPV DNA finding in saliva. Dentists, physicians and other health care professionals may gain significant value from the findings of this study, which provide an understanding of the nature of HPV infection and its risk to patient health and disease.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.4502-4512
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• 2011

This study was performed to determine the job satisfaction and its association with sociodemographic and health related characteristics, job-related factors, perception on socioeconomic status, professional job perception, job stress and social support among nursing officers. The survey was administered to 542 nursing officers working at military hospitals of the ROK Armed Forces, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30. The structured self-administered questionnaires were delivered and they were collected without respondents' personal information. As a results, The job satisfaction of respondents turned out to be significantly higher in the following groups: an elder, married, subjective sleep quality is good, feels they are healthy, higher positional status, a longer job career, satisfied with their work, without consider quitting the job, their physical burden of work is adequate. The survey results showed that respondents' job satisfaction is positively correlated with the professional job perception and social support. while it is negatively correlated with job stress. When analyzed by Covariance Structure, it turned out that the professional job perception is more influential on job satisfaction than job stress and social support. The study found the professional job perception, high social support, and low job stress tends to improve job satisfaction. Meanwhile, the study also found that the professional job perception and high social support reduces job stress.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.190-204
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• 2010

This study firstly examined the socioeconomic and health factors associated with infiltration of private health insurance. Secondly, we compared health behavior, outpatient and inpatient use of private health insured with uninsured. The method of this study is that secondary analysis of the 2008 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey was conducted for 7178 respondents aged 19 over. We use the logistic regression and t-test for data analysis. The first dependent variable was dichotomy which is divided to private health insured or uninsured and the second dependent variable was the presence and frequency of outpatient and inpatient use. The descriptive variables was gender, age, marital status, income, education, occupation, type of national health insurance, residential area, self confidence of health, prevalence rate of common disease, activity limitation, drinking and smoking status. The result of the major findings are as follows. First, 59 under aged person, married person, people in the higher brackets of income, national employee insured were more likely to infiltrate private health insurance. The poor self confidence of health, activity limitation, person with hypertension or allergic rhinitis and smoker were negatively related in infiltrating private health insurance. Second, private health insured did more preventive behavior such as self-paid health examination, cancer screening, regular exercise than uninsured. Third, private health insured was positively related with the presence of outpatient use and frequency of inpatient use

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2015

Objectives: To identify the importance of preventing tuberculosis for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infectees and to monitor their management of health, we investigated the proportion of HIV-TB (Tuberculosis) deaths among the HIV deaths and its related factors. Methods: Data for HIV deaths from 2002 to 2010 was acquired from Statistics Korea, after which the HIV deaths were reclassified into HIV-TB deaths or other deaths according to the KCD (Korean Classification of Diseases). We analyzed the proportion of HIV-TB deaths among HIV disease deaths and the relationship between HIV-TB deaths and related variables such as sex, age, educational level, marital status, etc. Results: There were 774 HIV deaths in South Korea between 2002 and 2010. TB was the main cause of death in 10.1% of all HIV deaths. The total proportion of HIV-TB deaths was 10.1% but its proportion reached 16.3% between 2005-2007 and then decreased to 4% in 2010. Also, the proportion of HIV-TB deaths was significantly high in the young age groups, but its proportion was significantly low in married groups and well educated groups (p<0.05). Conclusions: The result implies that the policy that takes care of HIV infectee regarding TB prevention has been getting systemized on a national scale. Also, HIV-TB deaths have been affected by social factors such as education and marriage status.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.781-793
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• 2003

This study was performed to investigate the stress level and health-related behaviors of nurses and to provide basic information for developing educational programs in the health care field. The subjects of this study were 197 nurses and 94 nursing assistants working at hospitals in the Kyung-nam area. A survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire in November, 2002. The results were as follows : The average age and work experience of the subjects were 26.9 and 5.6 years, respectively. The number of respondents in the shift and non-shift operations was equally distributed. The mean height and weight were 161.2 cm and 52.7 kg, respectively. Even though the average body mass index (BMI) and obesity index were normal in the subjects, 9.2% of the subjects were overweight/obese, while 28.9% of the subjects were under weight, according to the obesity index. The mean score of stress was 27.5 \pm$\pm$ 4.6 out of 50 points. Most of the subjects were highly stressed about the amount of their work, problems regarding their future, and relationships with their superiors. With regard to changes in food intake due to stress, 44.1% showed an increased intake, while 32.3% showed a reduced intake. The degree of health consciousness of the married nurses, those over 36 years of age, and those with over 10 years of nursing experience was significantly higher than that of the unmarried nurses, those under 35 years of age, and those with under 10 years of nursing experience (p<0.01). Fifty-one point three percent of the subjects thought their health status was unhealthy. Fifty-seven percent of the subjects had tried weight control. Their main reason for trying weight control was to have a slender figure (62.3%), and their methods of weight control were moderation in intake(45.6%), exercise and dieting (36.9%). TV/radio (49.5%) and newspaper/magazines (47.1%) were the primary sources of nutritional and health information for the subjects, and professional (25.1%) and the internet (13.4%) were ranked relatively highly. The food components of most concern to the subjects during meal time were (in order of importance) fats (51.9%), calories (40.2%) and salt (35.1%). The subjects considered 'taking a rest' (73.5%) as the most important factor in maintaining an optimal health status, followed by self-relaxation (56.4%), moderation in diet (39.5), bathing or using a sauna (25.7%) and exercising (22.7%).

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.151-166
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• 1999

The purposes of this study were to measure the degree of perceived uncertainty, social support & powerlessness, to examine the relationship between the perceived uncertainty, social support & powerlessness and then to find the predictors of powerlessness in mother's of handicapped children. The subjects of this study consist of 102 mothers of handicapped children, registered at rehabilitation & handicapped children school. Data was collected from September 1998 to March 1999. The tools used in this study were Mishel's the Parents' Perception of Uncertainty Scale (28 item, 4 likert scale), Miller's Powerlessness measurement Scale(28 itewt 4 likert scale) & Cohen's Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (40 items, 4 likert scale). Data was analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Duncan comparison, Pearson Correlation coefficient & Stepwise multiple regression Results of this study are summarized as follows : 1. Mothers perceived their uncertainty to be slightly high(Mn 2.50). The degree of perceived uncertainty by the four components were followed as : lack of clarity(2.69), unpredictability(2.56), ambiguity(2.56) & lack of information(2.46). The degree of perceived uncertainty of the mothers of handicapped children revealed to be influenced significantly by age of children, admission experience, disability types of children. 2. The degree of mothers' powerlessness was measured to be slightly high(Mn 2.14). The degree of perceived powerlessness of the mothers with handicapped children revealed to be influenced significantly by age of children, duration of illness admission experience,8E marital status of the mothers. 3. Mothers perceived their social support to be slightly high(Mn 2.71). The degree of perceived social support revealed to be influenced significantly by sex of children, married state of mothers. 4. Mothers' uncertainty was related positively to the mothers' powerlessness(r=.33, p=.0008). And also mothers' powerlessness was related inversely to social support(r=-.50, p=.0001). But, mothers' uncertainty was not related to social support significantly. 5. To analyze the variables which affect powerlessness, stepwise regression was implemented. As a result, about 61% of the powerlessness were explained by social support, marital status of the mothers and perceived uncertainty. Based upon these results, it is recommended that the nurses, who are caring handicapped children and their families, provide various support programs for them to overcome their difficulties. Also programs which decrease the uncertainty & powerlessness used social support multidimensionally & individually are recommended to be developed.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.75-85
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• 2007

Objectives: The aim of this study was to find out the attitude of Korean women towards IVF surrogacy which is not yet regulated by the law. Methods: We evaluated with a questionnaire, in how far IVF surrogacy was accepted in different groups of Korean women. Total 300 questionnaires were sent out to women who visited our infertility clinic, and to the nurses and office workers of our hospital. Among them, 246 questionnaires were returned, and 211 of them (85.7%) were complete and analyzed. The responders were 58 unmarried women and 153 married women including 60 infertile patients. Results: Only 17 (8.1%) women believed that IVF surrogacy was an acceptable treatment for infertile women without uterus (eg. MRKH or hysterectomized patients), and 125 (59.2%) women chose the adoption. There were no significant differences in response amongst different age group, marital status, or in relation to income level or educational level, or infertility status. A significantly higher level of acceptance was noted only in religious groups, especially in Christians. Most of responders (66.5%) chose unrelated and unknown women as a desirable host, and 28.4% of responders chose the sister or sister-in-law. Conclusions: Overall the different groups were critical towards IVF Surrogacy in Korea, irrespective of the infertile patient group. Despite the established clinical ability to have her own genetic child in women without uterus, this survey reveals that only minority supports the IVF surrogacy. So we need the survey with large, randomized population and then make a regulation about the IVF surrogacy in law.