• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.31.1-31.11
• /
• 2024

Objectives: The present study investigated the prevalence of mechanical allodynia (MA) in healthy teeth adjacent and contralateral to endodontically diseased teeth. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 114 patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis and apical periodontitis in permanent mandibular first molars who possessed healthy teeth adjacent and contralateral to the endodontically diseased tooth. The mechanical sensitivity of the teeth was determined by percussion testing. The presence or absence of pain on percussion in the teeth adjacent and contralateral to the endodontically diseased tooth and the tooth distal to the contralateral symmetrical tooth was recorded according to coding criteria. The prevalence of MA was computed as a percentage, and binary logistic regression analysis was done. The Fisher exact test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for binary and ordinal data. Results: Age and sex did not influence the prevalence of MA. An increased prevalence of MA was found in patients with higher levels of spontaneous pain (p < 0.001). The prevalence of allodynia was 57% in teeth adjacent to endodontically diseased teeth and 10.5% in teeth contralateral to endodontically diseased teeth. In addition, on the ipsilateral side, there were more painful sensations distal to the diseased tooth than mesially. Conclusions: Despite being disease-free, teeth adjacent and contralateral to endodontically diseased teeth exhibited pain on percussion. There was a direct association between the severity of the patient's pain and the presence of MA.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.17
• /
• pp.7975-7979
• /
• 2015

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the value of IHC4 in predicting pathological response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with hormonal receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer (BC). Materials and Methods: In this retrospective exploratory study, data for 68 HR-positive BC patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy were recorded. IHC4 scores were calculated based on estrogen receptors/progesterone receptors, Ki-67 and HER2 status. Logistic and ordinal regression analyses in addition to likelihood ratio test were used to explore associations of IHC4 scores and other clinico-pathological parameters with pathological complete response (pCR) and pathological stage. Results: Taking the 25th percentile as the cut-off, a lower IHC4 score was associated with an increased probability of pCR (low; 52.9% vs. High; 21.6%, OR=4.1, 95% CI=1.28-13.16, p=0.018) and a lower pathological stage (OR=3.9, 95% CI=1.34-11.33, p=0.012). When the IHC4 score was treated as a continuous variable, a lower score was again associated with an increased probability of pCR (OR=1.010, 95% CI=1.001-1.018, p=0.025) and lower pathological stage (OR=1.009, 95% CI=1.002-1.017, P=0.008). Lower clinical stage was associated with a better pCR rate that was of borderline significance (P=0.056). When clinical stage and IHC4 score were incorporated together in a logistic model, the likelihood ratio test gave a P-value of 0.004 after removal of the IHC4 score and 0.011 after removal of the stage, indicating a more significant predictive value of the IHC4 score for pCR. Conclusions: This study suggests that the IHC4 score can predict pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in HR-positive BC patients. This finding now needs to be validated in a larger cohort of patients.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.475-486
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to propose a policy direction to improve the service of public bicycles in Seoul by identifying the physical characteristics that affect the satisfaction level in the Seoul Metropolitan Government's public bicycle use environment. To this end, a survey was conducted on users regarding their experiences using public bicycles in Seoul, and the responses of 567 people were analyzed. IPA analysis and ordinal logistic analysis were used. An analysis of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's public bicycle IPA showed that the satisfaction level was lower than that of importance in all categories. Among them, the most urgent need for improvement was the installation of bicycle roads, improved connectivity of bicycle roads, improved road management, classification of roads and bicycle roads, improved safety during night driving, and low satisfaction levels. Second, an analysis of the factors affecting the satisfaction in the public bicycle use environment showed that the model's explanatory power increased significantly from 0.062 to 0.437 after incorporating perceived variables, confirming that the perceived neighborhood environment characteristics are an important variable for determining the satisfaction level in the public bicycle use environment, among the perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics, accessibility, convenience, manageability.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.9 no.9
• /
• pp.285-292
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the association of smoking cessation attempts and the perceived stress level and to identify the factors affecting the perceived stress level of quit smoking. The study utilized the 2015 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and was applied an Ordinal Logistic Regression to examine the association of smoking cessation attempts and perceived stress level. The current smoker those who experience failure in smoking cessation, were more stressful than those who experience success in smoking cessation (OR=1.72, CI;1.41-2.08). This study identified smoking cessation failure as a major psychiatric factor associated with high perceived stress level, and suggests high stress after smoking cessation failure as one of the reasons why smokers do not reach complete smoking cessation. Also, in order to promote smoking cessation, it is needed to have political approach in reducing the psychiatric hurdle like high stress after smoking cessation failure.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.324-329
• /
• 2015

The primary aim of this study was to investigate biosecurity practices in pig farms and to determine the major risk factors associated with PCV2 infection for a sampled swine population in Korea. To this end, we analyzed data from a cross-sectional study of 296 farrow-to-finish farms, which was conducted between March and September 2014 to explore the prevalence of swine disease at farm level. Face-to-face interviews by on-site visit of trained veterinarians were conducted with the farm owners or managers using a standardized questionnaires with information about basic demographical data and management practices. Farms were classified as negative or positive through the use of infection profiles that combined data on serological testing including PCR antigen test result, antibody titer and sero-conversion pattern at each age category taking into account vaccination status. Data were analyzed using multivariate ordinal logistic regression. Results from this study indicated that biosecurity level of the farms was considered not good given low compliance of the biosecurity programs and facilities in the farm: off-site removal of dead stocks (7%), off-site location of storage facility for incoming feeds (12.6%), off-site pick-up location for finishers (19.3%), restrictions on feed supplier vehicles for farm entrance (19.6%), restriction of finisher trucks entering the farm (22.4%), and restriction on manure disposal trucks entering the farm (26.4%). In the final model (n = 255), allowance of finisher truck driver to the pig unit had increased risk of infection (OR = 2.4, 95% CI 1.22-4.67) whereas farms with a sign forbidding the entrance had decreased risk of infection (OR = 0.19, 95% CI 0.10-0.58). Further comprehensive research with larger sample size is required to better understand the multifactorial characteristic that some predisposing risk factors that were not available in this study. To the best knowledge of the authors, this was the first study to use empirical data to report risk factors associated with PCV2 infection in the Korean pig farms. Results from the current study could be used to decide optimal biosecurity measures to reduce the impact of PCV2 infection to farmers and policy makers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.22-32
• /
• 2021

Purpose: Discrimination experienced in the early stages of life among ethnic minority adolescents is known to affect depression and also adversely affect health throughout adulthood and old age. The purpose of this study was to identify whether discrimination experienced by ethnic minority adolescents and their mothers and depression among mothers affect depression in ethnic minority adolescents according to gender. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using the data of 2018 National Multicultural Family Survey in Korea. The study sample comprised 2,446 ethnic minority adolescents aged 11~18 and their mothers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, pearson correlation analysis, and ordinal logistic regression with SPSS/WIN 25.0 and STATA IC 16. Results: 18.4% of the adolescents (boys: 15.1%, girls: 20.5 %) felt sad or frustrated sometimes or more often for at least two weeks during the past year. Also, 8.3% of the adolescents and 29.6% of their mothers experienced discrimination during the past year. Boys were influenced more than girls by bullying at school (OR=5.17, 95% CI: 2.85~9.38), academic performance (very bad's OR=5.79, 95% CI: 1.54~21.63) and mother's depression (often's OR=2.31, 95% CI: 1.14~4.64). Girls were influenced more than boys by experience of discrimination (OR=2.72, 95% CI: 1.69~4.39). Conclusion: The findings showed that discrimination experienced by ethnic minority adolescents and their mothers in Korean society increases depression in ethnic minority adolescents and has different effects by gender. Therefore, a gender-specific and mother-inclusive intervention is recommended to prevent depression in ethnic minority adolescents.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.265-272
• /
• 2022

This study is a descriptive study to identify the factors affecting breast cancer screening behavior in women of childbearing age. The participants were 2,000 women between the ages of 19 and 40, and data collection was conducted through online and mobile surveys from September 2020 to August 2021. As a result of multivariable ordinal logistic regression analysis, age 20-29 (OR=2.145, CI=1.219-3.777), over 30 (OR=5.663, CI=2.784-11.521), annual income less than 10 million won (OR=1.606, CI=1.070-2.413), over 30 million won (OR=2.422, CI=1.550-3.785), family history of breast cancer (OR=2.421, CI=1.154-5.080), family history of ovarian cancer (OR=4.321, CI=1.382-13.516), subjective perception of health status was 'moderate' (OR=1.466, CI=1.064-2.020), and 'not healthy' (OR=1.854, CI=1.188-2.895) increased the breast cancer screening behavior. Therefore, based on this study, adequate policy should be adopted to strengthen the breast cancer screening behavior of young women of childbearing age.

• Clinical Endoscopy
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.215-225
• /
• 2022

Background/Aims: The Thai Association for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy published recommendations on safe endoscopy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to assess the practicality and applicability of the recommendations and the perceptions of endoscopy personnel on them. Methods: A validated questionnaire was sent to 1290 endoscopy personnel globally. Of these, the data of all 330 responders (25.6%) from 15 countries, related to the current recommendations on proper personal protective equipment (PPE), case selection, scope cleaning, and safety perception, were analyzed. Ordinal logistic regression was used to determine the relationships between the variables. Results: Despite an overwhelming agreement with the recommendations on PPE (94.5%) and case selection (95.5%), their practicality and applicability on PPE recommendations and case selection were significantly lower (p=0.001, p=0.047, p<0.001, and p=0.032, respectively). Factors that were associated with lower sense of safety in endoscopy units were younger age (p=0.004), less working experience (p=0.008), in-training status (p=0.04), and higher national prevalence of COVID-19 (p=0.003). High prevalent countries also had more difficulty implementing the guidelines (p<0.001) and they considered the PPE recommendations less practical and showed lower agreement with them (p<0.001 and p=0.008, respectively). A higher number of in-hospital COVID-19 patients was associated with less agreement with PPE recommendations (p=0.039). Conclusions: Using appropriate PPE and case selection in endoscopic practice during a pandemic remains a challenge. Resource availability and local prevalence are critical factors influencing the adoption of the current guidelines.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.477-500
• /
• 1999

Korean labor market has showed remarkable change of the increase in the amount of unemployment and contingent employment since IMF bailout agreement. There is a theoretical position to explain this increase in contingent employment at hospitals with the notion of flexibility. The high flexibility of employment due to the increase of contingent employees is becoming very important part in new business strategy of hospitals. The types of contingent employment of the nurse are part-time employment temporary employment, fixed-term employment, and internship which was introduced in early 1999. Recently, Korean health care industry managers have paid attention to the customer oriented service, rationalization of business administration, service quality control so that they can adjust their business to outer environment. Especially their efforts concentrate on the wage reduction through efficient and scientific control of man power because wage shares about 40% of total cost. This dissertation aims at verifying the phenomena of the contingent employment of the nurse and analyzing the related factors and problems. To rephrase these aims in ordinal: First, verifying the phenomena of contingent employment of the nurse. Second, verifying the problems of that phenomena. Third, analyzing the related factors of the contingent employment of the nurse. To accomplish these research goals, a statistical survey was executed. in which 384 questionnaires-66 for manager nurses, 318 for contingent nurses - were given to nurses working at 66 hospitals-which have at least 100 beds-in Seoul. Among them, 187 questionnaires-38 from manager nurses, 149 from contingent nurses'- 'were returned. Then, the data coded and submitted to T-test, $X^2$ -test, variance analysis(ANOVA), correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, Logistic Regression with SAS program. The research results of the contingent nurses are followings: 1. The average career term at the present hospital 8.4 months: duty-on days per month are 24.2 days: working time per day is 7.9 hours. These results showed little difference from regular nurses. 2. Their wage level is about 70% of regular nurses except for internship nurses whose wage level is 41% of regular nurses. To break down the wage composition, part-time nurses and internship nurses get few allowance and bonus. And contingent nurses get very low level of additional pay except for fixed-term nurses who are under similar condition of employment to regular nurses. These results show that hospital managers are trying to reduce the labor cost not only through the direct way of wage reduction but through differential treatment of bonus, retirement allowance, and other additional pay. 3. The problem of contingent employment: low level of pay; high level of turn-over rate: weakening of union; low level of working condition: heavy burden of work; inhuman treatment. The contingent nurses consider these problems more seriously than manager nurses do. What manager nurses regard problematic is the absence of feeling-belonged and responsibility of the contingent nurses. 4. The factors strongly related with the rate of the number of contingent nurses for the number of regular nurses; gross turn-over nurses; average in-patients per day; staring wage of graduate from professional college: the type of hospital ownership; the number of beds; the gap between gross newcomer nurses and gross turn-over nurses. The factors related with their gross wage per month; the number of beds; applying of health insurance; applying of industrial casualty insurance; applying of yearly-paid leave; the type of hospital ownership; average out-patients per day; gross turn-over nurses. The meaningful factors which make difference by employment type: monthly-paid leave; physiological leave. The logistic regression analysis using these two factors shows that monthly-paid leave is related with the type of hospital ownership; the number of beds; average out-patient per day, and physiological leave is related with the gross newcomer nurses; gross turn-over nurses; the number of beds.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.28-40
• /
• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the level of self-assessment of life satisfaction and various factors related to the life satisfaction of Korean physicians. Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis using the 2016 Korean physician survey Korean Physician Survey(KPS) data collected by the Research Institute for Healthcare Policy of the Korean Medical Association. The member database(DB) of the Korean Medical Association was used for sampling and the target population was formed and surveyed by using stratified quota sampling. A questionnaire was sent by E-mail as an online survey method and was conducted for a total of 7 weeks from November 21, 2016 to January 8, 2017. The final number of respondents was 8,564 (response rate 13.8%). In this study, a total of 7,228 physicians, excluding residents and public health doctors who are currently treating patients directly, were studied. Factors affecting the life satisfaction of physicians were analyzed using ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results: The physical factors positively related to the life satisfaction of physicians were those who were in their 60s, female, and thought they had good health status. As for psychological factors, stress was low. As for economic factors, satisfaction with income was high. As for social factors, the physicians lived with their families and were satisfied with the time they could spend with them. Also, the physicians were satisfied with the social respect they received as a doctors. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it is thought that a multifaceted approach is needed to increase the life satisfaction of physicians.