• Korean Security Journal
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• no.62
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• pp.113-134
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• 2020

This study was conducted to examine the influence of the psychological health of the released offenders on their adaptation to community. Researchers analyzed the survey data of 216 participants who received joint marriage support from the Korea Legal Protection and Welfare Corporation. The results showed that the education level, marriage status, and monthly income were having a positive influence on the community adaptation of the released offenders, and the higher the depression and inter-personality among the risk factors of psychological health, the more negative the community adaptation. A higher sense of self-esteem, a psychological health protection factor, has a positive effect on community adaptation while reducing the influence of risk factors, depression and inter-personality. In sum, high self-esteem can contribute to increasing social life satisfaction after release from prison, promote risk factors to positive life changes, suppress negative situations and increase the possibility of successful community adaptation. Although this study confirmed that self-esteem is the most important factor among psychological factors for successful community adaptation of inmates, it will require relevant follow-up research and multi-disciplinary support because psychological factors alone cannot solve the problem.

• Clinical Nutrition Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.199-217
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• 2023

People with higher genetic predisposition to obesity are more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and healthy plant-based foods may be associated with reduced risks of obesity and other metabolic markers. We investigated whether healthy plant-foods-rich dietary patterns might have inverse associations with cardiometabolic risk factors in participants at genetically elevated risk of obesity. For this cross-sectional study, 377 obese and overweight women were chosen from health centers in Tehran, Iran. We calculated a healthy plant-based diet index (h-PDI) in which healthy plant foods received positive scores, and unhealthy plant and animal foods received reversed scores. A genetic risk score (GRS) was developed based on 3 polymorphisms. The interaction between GRS and h-PDI on cardiometabolic traits was analyzed using a generalized linear model (GLM). We found significant interactions between GRS and h-PDI on body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.02), body fat mass (p = 0.04), and waist circumference (p = 0.056). There were significant gene-diet interactions for healthful plant-derived diets and BMI-GRS on high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (p = 0.03), aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.04), alanine transaminase (p = 0.05), insulin (p = 0.04), and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (p = 0.002). Adherence to h-PDI was more strongly related to decreased levels of the aforementioned markers among participants in the second or top tertile of GRS than those with low GRS. These results highlight that following a plant-based dietary pattern considering genetics appears to be a protective factor against the risks of cardiometabolic abnormalities.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4945-4948
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• 2015

Background: Adiponectin is a protein, synthesized by adipose tissue, which has a questionable role in breast cancer pathogenesis. This study focused on serum levels of adiponectin among cases and controls, and its possible association with breast cancer risk. Materials and Methods: This case-control study covered 175 diagnosed breast cancer patients with positive histopathology from Breast Clinic, surgical unit-1, Civil Hospital, Karachi and 175 healthy controls from various screening programs. Blood samples were obtained after an overnight fast and later analyzed. Results: Fasting blood glucose was significantly raised, while serum adiponectin was significantly decreased in breast cancer cases when compared to control subjects. To find the precise influence of serum adiponectin on the risk of breast cancer, subjects were divided in to quartiles based on serum levels of adiponectin. It is observed that risk of breast cancer decreased with rising quartile. Q2 (25th-50th) had the highest OR=1.76 (CI: 0.93- 3.34), Q3 (50th-75th) has OR= 0.89 (CI: 0.48-1.64), while subjects in the highest quartile Q4 (>75th) had significantly (p< 0.05) decreased risk of breast cancer having OR=0.06 (CI: 0.02-0.15), when compared to the lowest quartile. Conclusions: We demonstrated a statistically significant association of elevated serum adiponectin with decreased risk of breast cancer. This signifies a protective role of adiponectin via an intricate mechanism of masking mitogenic growth factors in breast carcinogenesis.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.475-481
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• 2022

Background: This study investigated the association between fair and supportive leadership and symptoms of burnout and insomnia in police employees. Burnout and insomnia can have negative consequences for health, performance, and safety among employees in the police profession, and risk and protective factors should be thoroughly investigated. Methods: Data were collected in a police district in Norway through questionnaires administered in October 2018 and May 2019. The sample consisted of 206 police employees (52% males), with an average age of 42 years and 16 years of experience in the police occupation. Results: The results showed that a high degree of fair and supportive leadership was associated with lower levels of burnout and insomnia six months later. Fair and supportive leadership explained a greater amount of variance in burnout compared to insomnia. This finding indicates that fair and supportive leadership is a more important buffer factor against burnout than it is against insomnia. Stress was positively associated with burnout and insomnia, whereas quantitative job demands had no significant association with the concepts. Conclusion: Fair and supportive leadership can help protect employees from adverse consequences of stress and contribute to improved occupational health, whereas a low degree of support and fair treatment from leaders can both represent a stressor by itself and contribute to poorer coping of stressful events at work. The important role of leadership should be incorporated in measures aimed at preventing and reducing burnout and sleep problems.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.63-81
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• 2021

Joint financial network of Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, which is an essential facility with a natural monopoly, maintained its closedness as monopoly/public utility model, but it has evolved in the form of open banking in order to obtain domestic fintech competitiveness in the rapidly changing digital financial ecosystem such as the acceleration of Big Blur. In accordance with digital transformation strategy of financial institutions, various ICT companies are actively participating in the financial industries, which has been exclusive to banks, through the link technology called Open API. For this reason, there has been a significant change in the financial service supply chain in which ICT companies participate as users. The level of security in the financial service supply chain is determined based on the weakest part of the individual components according to the law of minimum. In addition, there is a perceived risk of personal information and financial information leakage among the main factors that affect users' intention to accept services, and appropriate protective measures against perceived security risks can be a catalyst, which increases the acceptance of open banking. Therefore, this is a study on factors affecting the introduction of open banking to achieve financial innovation by developing an open banking security control model for financial institutions, as a protective measures to user organizations, from the perspectives of cyber financial security and customer information protection, respectively, and surveying financial security experts. It is expected, from this study, that effective information protection measures will be derived to protect the rights and interests of financial customers and will help promote open banking.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.307-319
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• 2016

This study examined the influences of both peer and parent-child relationships on suicidal ideation in adolescents with a focus on interpersonal relationships in adolescence that can act as risks as well as protective factors for youth suicide. This study analyzed 5,440 middle and high school students drawn from data, the seventh Happy Planet Index of children-adolescent in Korea, and conducted a series of logistic regressions. The results are as follows. First, both direct and indirect involvement in the school violence affects suicidal ideation as a risk factor in peer relationships. However, the quality and quantity of close friends of adolescents do not represent a protective role against suicidal ideation insofar as they are exposed to school violence. Second, adolescents who live apart from one of their parents are vulnerable to suicidal ideation than those who live with two parents. Third, very poor parent-child relationships in adolescence are not necessarily associated with suicidal ideation in adolescents. Fourth, shared time or activities between parents and adolescents in terms of family meal times are more likely to reduce suicidal ideation in adolescents than the emotional characteristics (trustworthiness or a close relationship) of parents and adolescents. The findings provide implications that frequent contact and shared activities in terms of family dining may contribute to the prevention of adolescent suicide.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2022

Objectives : Suicide is a global social problem. Social burden caused by suicide is gradually increasing. Various efforts have been made to prevent suicide. Lifestyle changes to western style, especially diet changes, have increased the risk for suicide. Therefore, in this study, we discussed diet as an adjuvant treatment for suicide. Methods : In this review, we summarized the biochemical mechanism of suicide, and diet as a risk factor for suicide and diet as a protective factor through a web search. Results : In this study, biochemical mechanisms for suicide were reviewed and diet as a risk factor and diet as a protective factor for suicide were investigated. It was confirmed that neurotoxic effects such as oxidative stress and inflammation in the neural system could increase the risk of suicide. Based on results of previous studies on the relationship between suicide and diet, it was found that heavy use of alcohol, coffee, carbonated soft drink, and fast food were risk factors for suicide. Protective factors for suicide included antioxidants such as vitamin C, carotene, and anti-inflammatory agents such as omega-3 fatty acids found in seafood in large amounts. Conclusions : The only treatment for suicide is prevention. In this context, effectiveness, accessibility, and safety are important for preventing for suicide. Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents that are relatively safe and readily available to the public could be effective adjuvant treatments to decrease the risk of suicide. In addition, it is necessary to educate the public on reducing diets that could increase the risk of suicide

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3431-3436
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• 2012

Objective: X-ray cross-complementing group 4 (XRCC4) is a major repair gene for DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) in the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway. Several potentially functional polymorphisms of the XRCC4 gene have been implicated in breast cancer risk, but individually published studies showed inconclusive results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between XRCC4 polymorphisms and the risk of breast cancer. Methods: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of science and CBM databases were searched for all relevant articles published up to June 20, 2012. Potential associations were assessed with comparisons of the total mutation rate (TMR), complete mutation rate (CMR) and partial mutation rate (PMR) in cases and controls. Statistical analyses were performed using RevMan 5.1.6 and STATA 12.0 software. Results: Five studies were included with a total of 5,165 breast cancer cases and 4,839 healthy controls. Meta-analysis results showed that mutations of rs2075686 (C>T) and rs6869366 (G>T) in the XRCC4 gene were associated with increased risk of breast cancer, while rs2075685 (G>T) and rs10057194 (A>G) might decrease the risk of breast cancer. However, rs1805377 (A>G), rs1056503 (G>T), rs28360317 (ins>del) and rs3734091 (A>G) polymorphisms of XRCC4 gene did not appear to have an influence on breast cancer susceptibility. Conclusion: Results from the current meta-analysis suggest that the rs2075685 (G>T) and rs6869366 (G>T) polymorphisms of the XRCC4 gene might increase the risk of breast cancer, whereas rs2075685 (G>T) and rs10057194 (A>G) might be protective factors.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.791-804
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• 1997

Irritable bowel syndrome(IBS) is one of the common health problem that has been considered as stress-induced. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between life style and the level of stress and IBS by structured questionnaire which included questions on life style, the self-esteemed gastrointestinal symptoms, and Psychosocial Well-being Index(PWI). Subjects were 1,498 male white collars who get the regular health check and participated in survey at Inje University Health Promotion Center from January to ,December, 1996. The overall prevalence of IBS was 37.5%(561 cases), and the level of stress by PWI score was higher in IBS group$(41.8{\pm}14.2)$ than symptom-free group$(34.6{\pm}12.6)$. As the result of comparison between the two groups, heavier smoking (adjusted O.R=2.48, 95% C.I 1.81-3.41), longer daily working time (adjusted O.R=5.19, 95% C.I 3.59-7.56), stimulatory food materials-mainly hot or salty (adjusted O.R=1.87, 95% C.I 1.44-2.45), higher body mass index (adjusted O.R=1.80, 95% C.I 1.27-2.57), and higher level of stress (adjusted O.R=2.81, 95% C.I 1.80-4.43) were estimated as risk factors of IBS. On the contrary, 6-8 hours sleeping per day (adjusted O.R=0.38 95% C.I 0.21-0.70), 3-4 times exercise per week (adjusted O.R=0.57 95% C.I 0.39-0.83), and tenure more than 20 years (adjusted O.R=0.25 95% C.I 0.16-0.35) were considered as protective factors to IBS. In summary, the assessment of the stress level might be placed in the first priority to control IBS, at least by some degree, which suggested that IBS could be controlled by avoiding such risk factors and by encouraging such protective factors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.723-726
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is worldwide the most common cancer in women and is a major public health problem. Genes with high or low penetrance are now clearly implicated in the onset of breast cancer, mostly the BRCA genes. All women in families at high risk of breast cancer do not develop tumours, even when they carry the familial mutation, suggesting the existence of genetic and environmental protective factors. Several studies have shown that consanguinity is linked to a decreased or an increased risk of breast cancer, but to the best of our knowledge, there is no study concerning the association between consanguinity and the occurrence of tumours in women with high risk of breast cancer. The objective of this study was to examine whether parental consanguinity in families with genetic predisposition to breast cancer affect the risk of siblings for having this cancer. Materials and Methods: Over a six-year period, 72 different patients with a histological diagnosis of breast or ovarian cancer from 42 families were recruited for genetic counselling to the Department of Medical Genetics, Rabat. Consanguinity rate was determined in cases and compared to the consanguinity rate in the Moroccan general population. Results: Consanguinity rates were 9.72% in patients and 15.3% in controls, but the difference was statistically not significant (p>0.001) and the mean coefficient of consanguinity was lower in breast cancer patients (0.0034) than in controls (0.0065). Conclusions: Despite the relatively small sample size of the current study, our results suggest that parental consanguinity in Moroccan women might not be associated with an altered risk of breast cancer. Large scale studies should be carried out to confirm our results and to develop public health programs.