• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.294-312
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• 1996

Relatively young widows, who are left with young children by a sudden death of their husbands, will be faced with not only psychological troubles such as individual anxiety and frustration but also the dual burden of playing both father and mother roles in a family, Also, family members have difficulty in adapting themselves to new circumstances of the family system, the training and raising of family members, and management of the family economy. In this study, the realistic resources on the experience of middle-aged women who are bereaved of their husbands by accidents were explored. The purpose of this study is to help widows adapt to life in society and live a more positive life by setting a new goals and recovering from a lost and twisted life. 11 women, who have experienced the loss their husbands and live in the Seoul metropolitan area were studied. The research took 116 days from December 15, 1995 to April 8, 1996. The method of research was direct interviews. While having interviews with them, the contents were recorded with their consent. The ground theory was that used by Strauss & Corbin(1990) in the analysis of the data. 81 concepts were analyzed and they were subdirided into 22 subordinate categories through the course of the analysis. These were then classified into 9 general categories. In the course of being categorized, 'absurdity' was showed as a core category. The subordinate categories 'surprise', 'gloom', 'grudge', 'helplessness', 'emptiness', and 'loss' were united in the core category 'absurdity'. Ominous presentiment, belated notice, death, surprise, gloom, grudge, helplessness, emptiness, loss, the situation of the children, lack of support from neighbors, support from neighbors, mulling over ways to live, choosing a job, strengthening, reinforcement, burden, sadness, smoldering, yearning, overcoming these 22 subordinate categories were re-composed into 9 general ones the husband's death, absurdity, presence of children, existence of support, self-support ability, preparation of countermeasures, self-reinforcement, toilsomeness, and overcoming. 'Absurdity' widows experience was shown in the results of 'toilsomeness' and 'overcoming' through reaction, confrontation, and adaptation. According to the analysis the central phenomenon was absurdity, the causal condition of the death of a husband, the presence of children and the existence of support, and the meditated situation of self-support. To solve absurdity, the preparation of countermeasures and self-reinforcements were shown resulting in toilsomeness and overcoming. Through the contrast in the data, the following statements were deduced: (1) If the death of the husband is expected, the more a widow will feel absurdity. (2) The more children she has and the younger she is, the more a widow will feel absurdity. (3) The lower support she is given, the more a widow will feel absurdity. (4) The larger self-ability she has, the more actively she will prepare countermeasures. (5) The smaller self-ability she has, the more passively she will prepare countermeasures. (6) The larger self-ability she has, the weaker self-reinforcement she will preform. (7) The smaller self-ability she has, the stronger self-reinforcement she will perform. (8) The more actively she prepares countermeasures for absurdity, the better she will overcome. (9) The more passively she prepares counter measure for absurdity, the worse she will overcome. (10) The stronger self-reinforcement for absurdity she performs, the better she will overcome. (11) The weaker self-reinforcement for absurdity she performs, the worse she will overcome. Through the results in this study, the following suggested: 1) A study whose object is all family members, and a comparative study on the case of a husband who has lost his wife should be done. These studies can be expected to develop a more refined theory. 2) Because of the collapse of the extended family system and the changes of family culture in Korea, a widow's status and position are apt to be ambiguous between her husband's home and her parent's. Therefore a new study on family culture should be made. 3) A continuous study on growing social Self Help Groups should be requested for the widows of this study to re-establish and recover from their twisted and scattered lives.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.479-488
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate factors affecting low body weight of solitary elderly people by grasping the illness and health behavior of elderly living alone. Using the raw data of the community health survey from 2014, the data of 922 elderly living alone who are 65 years or older were used for the final analysis. Data were analyzed by technical analysis statistics, The Rao Scott $x^2$ test, and logistic regression analysis using the composite analysis module of the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program. The results of this study showed that elderly living alone had a high percentage of chronic diseases as well as poor health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, difficulties in dentistry due to dentures, and poor subjective health status. Result of logistic regression analysis the risk probability of low-weight due to gender of the elderly living alone is as follows. Risk of low body weight because of smoking was 3.004 times among occasional smokers in women and the elderly, while risk of low body weight due to walking amount is less than 3 days the possibility that the person walking is low is 1.420 times significantly higher. When feeling subjective stress, the possibility of low body weight was 2.220 times greater for male elderly and 1.282 times for female elderly. The probability of low body weight for a person with a poor subjective health level was 3.633 times for male elderly and 1.590 times for female elderly. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to establish appropriate nursing intervention and management strategies to improve health behavior of low body weight elderly living alone. It is also necessary to conduct additional studies considering various variables such as physical, psychological, and social characteristics of low-weight elderly individuals.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2018

Objectives : Effects of multiple trauma are complex and extend beyond core PTSD symptoms. However, few psychological instruments for trauma assessment address this issue of symptom complexity. The Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40) is a self-report scale that assesses wide range of symptoms associated with childhood or adult traumatic experience. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the validity of the Korean Version of the TSC-40 in a sample of psychiatric outpatients. Methods : Data of 367 treatment-seeking patients with DSM-IV diagnoses were obtained from an outpatient department of psychiatric unit at a university hospital. The diagnoses were anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, adjustment disorder and others. Included in the psychometric data were the TSC-40, the Life events checklist, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Zung's Self-report Depression Scale, and the Zung's Self-report Anxiety Scale. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ for internal consistency were calculated. Convergent and concurrent validity was approached with correlation between the TSC-40 and other scales (PTSD, anxiety and depression). Results : Exploratory factor analysis of the Korean Version of TSC-40 extracted seven-factor structure accounted for 59.55% of total variance that was contextually similar to a six-factor structure and five-factor structure of the original English version. The Korean Version of TSC-40 demonstrated a high level of internal consistency. (Cronbach's ${\alpha}=0.94$) and good concurrent and convergent validity with another PTSD scale and anxiety and depression scales. Conclusions : Excellent construct validity of The Korean Version of TSC-40 was proved in this study. And subtle difference in the factor structure may reflect the cultural issues and the sample characteristics such as heterogeneous clinical population (including non-trauma related disorders) and outpatient status. Overall, this study demonstrated that the Korean version of TSC-40 is psychometrically sound and can be used for Korean clinical population.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.225-234
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• 2011

Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor of systemic health and also impairs oral health, which is related to development of oral cancers, periodontitis, delayed wound healing, tooth loss, failure of implant, etc. Aside from smoking, many other risk factors can be related to oral health and long-term effects of smoking on salivary flow and taste threshold are still in controversy. Authors considered dental students to be an appropriate group with good oral hygiene for a long-term study to reveal effects of smoking on oral health. This study was performed to compare smoking patterns and current oral health conditions between smokers and nonsmokers in dental students prior to long-term evaluation. 192 volunteers (85.7%) of 224 male dental students in Dankook University were evaluated through questionnaires and clinical examination in 2010. Questionnaires included smoking pattern, alcohol use, nicotine dependence, preventive care, psychological profile and clinical examinations comprised assessment of teeth or periodontal status, nicotine pigmentation, salivary flow, electrical taste thresholds and halitosis. From the study, (current) smokers were older, and drank more frequently with more alcohol intake compared to former smokers and nonsmokers(p<0.05). There was no significant difference among them in salivary flow rate, halitosis and electrical taste threshold. However, there was significant difference in DMFT rate, periodontal treatment need, nicotinic pigmentation between smokers and nonsmokers(p<0.05), irrespective of their levels of preventive care. The smokers in this study, who are young dental students with relatively shorter duration of smoking, less use of cigarettes and low level of nicotine dependence, did not reveal significant impairment of oral health. However, their oral health was found to be relatively impaired compared to nonsmokers', which suggests negative effect of smoking on the oral health and a need of smoking cessation.

• Journal of forensic and investigative science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-22
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• 2007

From the numerous social problems generated by the unbalanced social development and the social trend of belittling life overall, we found the causes of suicide getting worse in its seriousness day by day. In reality, the problem has been approached in a collateral level in contrast with other social problems. There have been an active involvement in studying the definition, causes and ways of prevention of suicide theoretically until now. However, different from other social problems, it is almost impossible to treat or fix the problem of suicide. Only ways to treat or fix the problem is when the suicide has ended in failure. Thus, this study intends to examine the suicide rate among the total accidents during the year 2005, perform the analyses on the actual causes according to the relations such as the means of suicide, occupation, age group, educational background, etc. In order to present a solution to the issue of suicide becoming serious each day. Among the total accidents in 2005, the suicide rate came out to be approximately 52.4%. Among the result, 52.4%, male with 69% resulted higher than female with 31%, which appears to be related to the social functions. While men tends to take more active(80%) means of suicide like jumping off, poison, hanging, etc., women tends to take more passive(60%) means of suicide like sleeping pills, slitting wrist, etc. In terms of the cause, pessimism, illness, denial, mental disorder, etc resulted more than 75%, and there were many cases of suicide after exhibiting the signs of depression. Also there were higher suicide rate of the unemployed engaged in direct labor with educational background lower than college level related to the pessimism regarding the family living cost. We were able to determine the recent increase in the suicidal tendency of the educated people higher than the college level and the retired people with depression caused by the sudden change in social status. Overall there are several reasons for suicide, however, in most cases the signs of depression were exhibited until the final suicide, which tells us the serious psychological problem of suicide. Assuming that the current development of suicide will continue in future, the result of this study will guide the corresponding social policies, be utilized in preparing the insurance or management at the national level dealing with the real social problems that are not just a conflict of an individual, but could spread like a fad and become much bigger than the present by the continuous support at the environmental, social and political levels, and be utilized as the basic data to establish the research plan.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.238-272
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• 2002

This study was intended to find out the factors affecting to the IADL, allowing objective assessment of physical function status of increasing elderly populations. The subjects of 635 elderly persons aged over 65 years old who live in Taejon metropolitan city were interviewed during the two-month period from June to July of 2000. The IADL of Older American Resources and Services(OARS), developed in Duke medical college of USA, was interpreted for use. The study results were statistically processed using SPSSWIN(ver 10.0) and conferred the following results: 1. Among the seven items of IADL, the women showed higher rates of 'yes' in items about using the telephone, getting to the places out of walking distance, going shopping for groceries, taking their own medicine while outnumbered by the men only in the item about managing their own money, without significant differences between them in items about preparing their own meals and doing their own housework. 2. In terms of IADL scores, $82.0\%$ of subjects showed the normal range of scores and $18.0\%$ were under the normal range, meaning dysfunction IADL. Specifications of general characteristics revealed that more dysfunctional were the male subjects, the higher age groups who are more than 75 years old, the higher educated groups, the groups who live in nursing homes, the groups without a spouse. 3. Based on daily activities, lower scores of IADL were found in the subjects who don't go out, who don't have recreational activities, who don't attend elderly gatherings in their neighborhood, who don't hold social meetings. Specifications of psychological traits revealed that more dysfunctional were IADL in the subjects who don't feel satisfied with their lives of the past or the present, who have a deep feeling of isolation, and who don't have the will to live. 4. Among 7 items of health habits, only the subjects who don't regular exercise had lower scores of IADL than those who do. According to HPI, the lower HPI, the more dysfunctional. 5. Based on the factors associated with IADL, the odds ratio of the subjects who don't live together with their families were 1.53 times that of the ones who do, who are educated 3.22 times that of the ones who are not, who don't have spouses 2.09 times that of the ones who do, who don't go out 4.35 times that of the ones who frequently go out, who don't recreational activities for an interest 2.64 times that of the ones who do, who don't attend elderly gatherings in their neighborhood 1.47 times that of the ones who do, who don't hold social meetings 2.23 times that of the ones who do, who don't feel satisfied with their present living 1.43 times that of the ones who do, who have a feeling of isolation 1.53times that of the ones who don'1, who have the weak will to live 3.21 times that of the ones who have the strong one, and who don't regular exercise 2.45 times that of the ones who do. 6. Logistic regression analysis of the study results found that such factors are significantly related as the degree of education, with/without spouse, social meetings, the will to live, and regular exercise, and that higher rates of dysfunctional subjects were in the more educated group, in the group without spouse, in the group who don't frequently go out, who don't have social meetings, who have the weak will to live, and who don't exercise.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.170-179
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• 2016

Purpose: This study examined self-efficacy, self-care behavior, posttraumatic growth, and quality of life in cancer patients and their levels by disease characteristics groups to identify patient groups that require psychosocial intervention. Methods: We surveyed 107 patients using a structured questionnaire about the four factors and analyzed the factors by stratifying the patients by the period after the cancer diagnosis, by stage and by current treatment status. Results: The mean score for self-efficacy was 37.78, and that for self-care behavior 49.96. Patients who were diagnosed less than one year ago scored higher on medication, a sub-category of self-care behavior, than the post-diagnosis period of 1~2 year group. The score was higher in the currently-treated group than the follow-up and distant metastasis groups. For posttraumatic growth, the mean was 56.17, and the factor was higher in the 1~2 year post-diagnosis group after than the less than one year group. The score was higher in the follow-up group than the currently-treated group. With regard to quality of life, the mean score was 25.79, and no significant correlation was found with disease characteristics. Conclusion: A shorter post-diagnosis period increased self-care behavior, and the greatest posttraumatic growth was reported by the 1~2 year post-diagnosis group. It may be necessary to provide cancer patients with an education program and other strategies less than one year after the diagnosis to improve self-efficacy and self-care behavior. To promote post-traumatic growth, it may be helpful to provide patients with psychosocial intervention within two years after the diagnosis.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-34
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• 1994

This study has been done in order to analyze the relationship between climacteric symptoms and the stress of life events. For the purpose of this study. objectives set up were as followings. : 1. Climacteric symptoms complained by middle aged women are studied. 2. The stress of life events experienced by middle aged women is studied. 3. The relationship between climacteric symptoms and the stress of life events is studied. 4. The relationship between climacteric symptoms and general characteristics is studied. and the relationship between the stress of life events and general characteristics is also studied. The sample size of this study was 462 cases. The subjects were middle-aged women. who were from 40 to 60 years old and resided in Seoul. Data were collected by using questionnaires which consisted of 122 questions from Jan. 1 to Feb. 7 in 1992. The questionnaires include questions about general characteristics. climacteric symptoms and life events. The measurement scales for this study were adopted from the climacteric symptoms scale developed by Chi. Sung-Ai and the measurement scale of stress related to life events devised by Lee. Pyoung Sook. The analysis of data collected was done by using SPSS-pc package. Firstly. general characteristics were analyzed by using descriptive statistical methods. Secondly. climacteric symptoms were analyzed by using descriptive statistical methods. the analysis of variance and correlation analysis. Thirdly. the stress of life events was studied by using descriptive statistical methods. the analysis of variance. and tests of independence. The results of this study are as followings. 1. General characteristics of the respondents are as followings: The average age is 49. 13. and the age group from 46 to 50 has $30.5\%$ in the respondents. Christianity is the major religion $(42.6\%)$. and the respondents with a high school diploma are $(43.1\%)$ of the respondents. $60\%$ of all respondents are housewives. and $90.5\%$ are married. The average number of children is 2.71. and the average number of family is 4.24 Monthly income of $39.1\%$ of the respondents is from l,010,000 Won to 2,000,000 Won. The premenopausal group is $4.9\%$. and $45.5\%$ of all respondents are satisfied with marrital life. $43.3\%$ of all feel happy. and $13.9\%$ feel economic frustration. $27.9\%$ of respondents are satisfied with sexual life. and $45\%$ of all report that the amount of recreational activities are more needed. 2. The average score of climacteric symptoms is 1. 8461 (The maximum score is 5.0). The symptoms complained frequently are nervousness. muscle-ache. fatigue. headache and knee-ache. Climacteric symptoms are significantly different in menopausal states. age groups. the number of children, marrital satisfaction. the feeling of life. self-reported health states and sexual satisfaction. 3. The life events occurred frequently were 'discord with husband', 'children's important exams', 'separation from husband related to works' and 'vacation'. When life events are analyzed by factors. the most frequently mentioned factor is 'marrital life'. The stress of life events is significantly different in a few general characteristics (age. the number of children, the number of family, monthly income, menopausal status, the feeling of life. self-reported health states, economic satisfaction). 4. The score of climacteric symptoms complained is significantly different according to the stress of life events (p<0.051, Especially, the difference is the widest in psychological symptoms according to the factor of 'couple. marrital life' among stressful life events. In Summary, climacteric symptoms complained by middle-aged women are related to the amount of the stress of life events. Whether life events are positive of negative is not important. Yet. climacteric symptoms and stressful life events are deeply related to general characteristics. so we can not insist strongly that one be directly related to the other.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.172-180
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• 1997

Objects : This study was carried out to investigate characteristics of patients who need hypnotics on the night before elective surgery as well as contributing variables for the necessity of hypnotics. Methods : After reviewing the clinical charts of patients who were scheduled to receive surgery by general anesthesia the following day, researchers had semi structural interviews with patients. In addition, Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(SSTAI), Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), Zung's Self-Rating Pain and Distress Scale(ZPDS), and Presleep and Postsleep Questionnaires were administered to patients. A total of 167 patients, who gave reliable information, were divided into two groups based on subjective judgement regarding the necessity for hypnotics on the night before surgery; 29 eligibles for hypnotics and 138 non-eligibles for hypnotics. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients, some possible factors affecting sleep, psychological characteristics of patients and daytime status and nighttime sleep before surgery were compared between the two groups. In addition, discriminant function analysis was done to find the variables which would best discriminate among patients who differ in terms of necessity for hypnotics on the night before surgery. Results : There was no difference in demographic and clinical characteristics between the two groups; however, the satisfaction level with ward environment was significantly lower in the eligible group for hypnotics than the non-eligible group. Psychologically, the eligible group for hypnotics, compared to the non-eligible group, showed significantly more severe depression, pain, and distress; whereas anxiety level was not different between the two groups. For nighttime sleep before surgery, the eligible group for hypnotics, compared to the non-eligible group, expected poorer sleep before retiring and in fact, reported poorer sleep the following morning. In discriminant function analysis, 'expectation for sleep' and 'pain and distress' were the most potent contributors to discriminate the necessity of hypnotics. Conclusion : For the improvement of the patient's sleep on the night before elective surgery, giving hypnotics and/or analgesics should be determined by patient's opinion about the necessity of the drugs rather than by the therapist's own judgement or any other objective indices.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 1990

This study was intended to analyse the relation between the psychic traumatic experience and the psychological health of the aged. The authors carried out this study by means of the combined anxiety-depression scale(CADS) and the preadolescence traumatic experience scale(PTES) with 278 aged men and women residing in Taegu from September to October 1988. The results were as follows : 1. Based on the scores avaluated by CADS, the scores of the both groups showed that comparative group was accounted for $40.15{\pm}6.19$, while the experimental group for $57.75{\pm}6.37$, which showed significantly higher score in the experimental group(p<0.001). 2. The experimental group showed significantly higher early experience score than the comparative group in the dietary difficulty, alcoholism among family members, disunion between husband and wife, trouble between mother and children, early mother loss, parent's indifference and unwanted birth(p<0.001). 3. The experimental group showed higher early experience score than the comparative group by sex, age, marital status and grown location(p<0.001). 4. When the subjects were included in the unemployed and in the middle or low classes and their parents were engaged in agriculture and commercial business and believing in buddhism or non-religion, showed higher experience score (p<0.001).