• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.196-202
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• 2014

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the preliminary effects of school-based short term mental health awareness and school bullying prevention programs. Methods : From April to December 2013, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Promotion team of Seoul National Hospital conducted school-based short term social skill training (N=56, 4 sessions), mental health awareness (N=84, 4 sessions) and school bullying prevention programs (N=171, 1 session) in elementary and junior high schools located in Seoul. The changes in the subjects before and after the program were assessed. Results : The social skills training program improved the 'helping' behaviors in boys (t=-2.355, p<.05) and 'sharing' (t=-3.223, p<.01), 'cooperation' (t=-2.235, p<.05), and 'comforting' (t=-2.830, p<.01) behaviors in girls, assessed using the Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire. The mental health awareness program improved 'general health awareness' (t=2.620, p<.05), measured using the Korean General Health Questionnaire. The school bullying prevention program resulted in decreased 'self esteem' (t=3.769, p<.01), measured using the Self Esteem Scale and decreased 'anger' (t=4.198, p<.01), assessed using the Novaco Anger Scale. Conclusion : The results of our preliminary analysis suggest that school-based mental health awareness and school bullying prevention programs may be effective even when conducted for a short term. Future investigation is necessary in order to validate the long term effects of these programs.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.43-73
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• 2016

Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess the presence of core patient safety practices in Korean hospitals and assess the differences in reporting and learning systems of patient safety, infrastructure, and safe practices by hospital characteristics. Methods: The authors developed a questionnaire including 39 items of patient safety staffing, health information system, reporting system, and event-specific prevention practices. The survey was conducted online or e-mail with 407 tertiary, general and specialty hospitals. Results: About 90% of hospitals answered the self-reporting system of patient safety related events is established. More than 90% of hospitals applied incidence monitoring or root cause analysis on healthcare-associated infection, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls, but only 60% did on surgery/procedure related events. More than 50% of the hospitals did not adopted present on admission (POA) indicators. One hundred (80.0%) hospitals had a department of patient safety and/or quality and only 52.8% of hospitals had a patient safety officer (PSO). While 82.4% of hospitals used electronic medical records (EMRs), only 53% of these hospitals adopted clinical decision support function. Infrastructure for patient safety except EMRs was well established in training, high-level and large hospitals. Most hospitals implemented prevention practices of adverse drug events, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls (94.4-100.0%). But prevention practices of surgery/procedure related events had relatively low adoption rate (59.2-92.8%). Majority of prevention practices for patient safety events were also implemented with a relatively modest increase in resources allocated. Conclusion: The hospital-based reporting and learning system, EMRs, and core evidence-based prevention practices were implemented well in high-level and large hospitals. But POA indicator and PSO were not adopted in more than half of surveyed hospitals and implementation of prevention practices for specific event had low. To support and monitor progress in hospital's patient safety effort, national-level safety practices set is needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3849-3854
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• 2016

Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignancy in women worldwide; lack of awareness of symptoms and delay on diagnosis of breast cancer are the main causes of mortality among women. This study was conducted with the purpose of assessing the effect of educational consulting for breast self-examination (BSE) based on the health belief model (HBM) on the knowledge and performance of women over 40 years attending health care centers in Hamadan, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, eligible women admitted to health centers in Hamadan city in 2015 were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups (n=75 in each group). The intervention group received 4 weekly sessions of breast cancer screening consulting based on the HBM. Control group received only routine care. Knowledge, HBM constructs, and BSE practice were compared between the groups before, immediately after and three months after the consultation. Results: Before the intervention, no significant differences were observed in knowledge, health belief and practice between two groups. However, after the intervention a significant difference was observed between two groups in mean scores of perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy and the health motivations (p <0.05). Significant differences were also observed in terms of knowledge and BSE practice (p <0.01). Conclusions: The results indicate the importance of consultation on knowledge and beliefs to improve BSE performance and prevention of breast cancer in Iranian women.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.57-65
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• 2018

A descriptive correlation study was conducted to identify the factors of health promotion behaviors among adolescents. Participants were 643 students in a high school. Data were collected using a self administered questionnaire. Participants' health promotion behaviors were relatively high. Among sub-domains of health promotion behaviors, infectious diseases prevention was the highest domain and accident prevention was the lowest domain. Participants' smoking, self-efficacy, and social support were statistically significant factors to explain their health promotion behaviors and these variables accounted for 38.0% variance of health promotion behaviors among high school students. Among the variables that were statistically significant, social support was the most explanatory. Conclusions: Accident prevention education should be strengthened in health promotion program for adolescents. More attention is needed for health promotion behaviors among smoking group adolescents. Moreover, we confirmed the importance of social support from school, family and community to improve health promotion behaviors among adolescents.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1277-1284
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• 2016

Background: Early detection is a critical part of reducing the burden of breast cancer and breast self-examination (BSE) has been found to be an especially important early detection strategy in low and middle income countries such as Malaysia. Although reports indicate that Malaysian women report an increase in BSE activity in recent years, additional research is needed to explore factors that may help to increase this behavior among Southeastern Asian women. Objective: This study is the first of its kind to explore how the predicting variables of self-efficacy, perceived barriers, and body image factors correlate with self-reports of past BSE, and intention to conduct future breast self-exams among female students in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: Through the analysis of data collected from a prior study of female students from nine Malaysian universities (n=842), this study found that self-efficacy, perceived barriers and specific body image sub-constructs (MBSRQ-Appearance Scales) were correlated with, and at times predicted, both the likelihood of past BSE and the intention to conduct breast self-exams in the future. Results: Self-efficacy (SE) positively predicted the likelihood of past self-exam behavior, and intention to conduct future breast self-exams. Perceived barriers (BR) negatively predicted past behavior and future intention of breast self-exams. The body image sub-constructs of appearance evaluation (AE) and overweight preoccupation (OWP) predicted the likelihood of past behavior but did not predict intention for future behavior. Appearance orientation (AO) had a somewhat opposite effect: AO did not correlate with or predict past behavior but did correlate with intention to conduct breast self-exams in the future. The body image sub-constructs of body area satisfaction (BASS) and self-classified weight (SCW) showed no correlation with the subjects' past breast self-exam behavior nor with their intention to conduct breast self-exams in the future. Conclusions: Findings from this study indicate that both self-efficacy and perceived barriers to BSE are significant psychosocial factors that influence BSE behavior. These results suggest that health promotion interventions that help enhance self-efficacy and reduce perceived barriers have the potential to increase the intentions of Malaysian women to perform breast self-exams, which can promote early detection of breast cancers. Future research should evaluate targeted communication interventions for addressing self-efficacy and perceived barriers to breast self-exams with at-risk Malaysian women. and further explore the relationship between BSE and body image.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

Purpose: This study intends to determine how disaster prevention characteristics of important state-designated wooden cultural properties in Gyeongsangnam-do vary according to the surrounding environments and to examine disaster prevention measures for wooden cultural properties that fit their surrounding environments accordingly. Method: The designation status and characteristics of cultural properties in Gyeongsangnam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do were identified, and the damage status of cultural properties in Gyeongsangnam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do was reviewed based on the history of disasters. Also, the disaster prevention environments for 58 state-designated wooden cultural properties in Gyeongsangnam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do were analyzed separately into mountainous area, rural area and urban area, topographic characteristics were drawn. Results: For cultural properties located in urban areas, it was found that security guards were arranged properly and disaster prevention training was carried out well. In addition, access condition to the cultural properties was adequate; prompt access to such properties was possible. In rural areas, flame retardant works have been undertaken properly and many cultural properties were found to be located on a flat ground. Mountainous areas had highly inadequate access condition to cultural properties and disasters occurred most frequently in these areas in the past. Conclution: First, for wooden cultural properties located in urban areas, it is necessary to secure the self-defense fire service manpower for an initial response and reinforce the disaster prevention education. Second, for wooden cultural properties located in rural areas, prevention projects such as insect control project and disaster prevention insurance should be carried out in order to protect the cultural properties. Third, as for wooden cultural properties located in mountainous areas, it is necessary to prepare establish to reinforce self-response capability.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.243-246
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• 2012

Objective: While the relatively common nature of female breast cancer has resulted in a high level of general awareness, male breast cancer is still comparatively unknown to the general public and to healthcare professionals. The objective of this study is to explore the perceptions and opinions about male breast cancer and male breast self-examination among male university students. Methodology: In-depth interviews were conducted among 36 male university students from the Management and Science University, Malaysia, selected by simple random sampling. The themes of the interview were: knowledge of male breast cancer and male breast self-examination, sources of knowledge and attitudes towards male BSE. The data obtained were classified into various categories and analyzed manually. Results: The majority of participants mentioned that there is a low possibility for males to get breast cancer. They also believed that the cause of breast cancer among men is due to the carcinogens from cigarettes. The majority of participants mentioned that they know about breast self-examination from the mass media and that the presence of a lump in the breast is the main symptom of breast cancer in men. The majority of participants mentioned that they encourage their family members to practice breast self-examination but considered that BSE is not important for men because they have a low probability of getting breast cancer. Conclusions: Misconceptions regarding male breast cancer and breast self-examination among men still exist among male university students. Therefore especial attention should be given to educate men about male breast cancer and male BSE.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7981-7984
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• 2014

Purpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening with fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) has been associated with a reduction in CRC incidence and CRC-related mortality. However, a conventional FOBT requires stool collection and handling, which may be inconvenient for participants. The EZ-Detect$^{TM}$ (Siam Pharmaceutical Thailand) is a FDA-approved chromogen-substrate based FOBT which is basically a self-checked FOBT (no stool handling required). This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of EZ-Detect for CRC detection. Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand between November 2013 and May 2014. Some 96 patients with histologically-proven CRC and 101 patients with normal colonoscopic findings were invited to perform self-checked FOBT according to the manufacturer's instructions. Results were compared with endoscopic and pathologic findings. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for CRC detection were calculated. Results: The present study revealed the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of this self-checked FOBT for CRC detection to be 41% (95% CI: 31-51), 97% (95% CI: 92-99), 93% (95% CI: 81-98) and 63% (95% CI: 55-70), respectively. The overall accuracy of the self-checked FOBT for identifying CRC was 70%. The sensitivity for CRC detection based on 7th AJCC staging was 29% for stage I, 32% for stage II and 50% for stage III/IV (P=0.19). The sensitivity was 33% for proximal colon and 42% for distal colon and rectal cancer (P=0.76). Notably, none of nine infiltrative lesions gave a positive FOBT. Conclusions: The self-checked FOBT had an acceptable accuracy of CRC detection except for infiltrative tumors. This home-administrated or 'DIY' do-it-yourself FOBT could be considered as one non-invasive and convenient tool for CRC screening.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4925-4930
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• 2013

Background: The aim of this study was to determine beliefs concerning breast self-examination in first- and second-degree relatives of patients with breast cancer and evaluate their breast self-examination (BSE) application. Materials and Methods: A survey study was conducted in an oncology polyclinic and general surgery clinic of a hospital in Ankara, the capital of Turkey with a sample of 140 women. Results: It was determined that 60.7% of the participants had conducted BSE and 48.1% had undergone a clinical breast examination. Perceived selfefficacy of the women who performed BSE were significantly higher compared with women who did not practice BSE (p<0.001) Furthermore, perceived barriers were lower among those who had performed BSE (p<0.001). Logistic regression analysis indicated that women who perceived higher self-efficacy (OR: 1.119, 95% CI: 1.056-1.185, p<0.001) and had regular CBE (OR: 8.250, 95% CI: 3.140-21.884, p<0.001) and educational status (OR: 5.287, 95% CI: 1.480-18.880, p<0.01) were more likely to perform BSE. Conclusions: Findings from this study indicated that perceived barriers, perceived self-efficacy, and educational status could be predictors of BSE behavior among the first- and second-degree relatives of patients with breast cancer. Therefore, BSE training programs that emphasize self-efficacy and address perceived barriers are recommended.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1141-1145
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• 2013

Delay in seeking treatment for breast cancer is a barrier to the early diagnosis and management of the disease, resulting in a poorer prognosis. We here estimated the prevalence of delayed presentation for breast cancer and identified possible influential sociodemographic factors in a cross-sectional study of 250 patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer at the Radiotherapy and Oncology Clinic in Kuala Lumpur Hospital. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire and from medical records. We examined associations between delayed presentation (presenting to a physician more than 3 months after self-discovery of a symptom) and sociodemographic characteristics, practice of breast self examination (BSE), history of benign breast disease, family history of breast cancer and type of symptom, symptom disclosure and advice from others to seek treatment using multiple logistic regression. Time from self-discovery of symptom to presentation ranged from tghe same day to 5 years. Prevalence of delayed presentation was 33.1% (95%CI: 27.4, 39.3). A significantly higher proportion of delayers presented with late stages (stage III/IV) (58.3% vs. 26.9%, p<0.001). Divorced or widowed women (OR: 2.23, 95% CI: 1.11, 4.47) had a higher risk of delayed presentation than married women and women who never performed breast self examination were more likely to delay presentation compared to those who regularly performed BSE (OR: 2.74, 95% CI: 1.33, 5.64). Our findings indicate that delayed presentation for breast cancer symptoms among Malaysian women is high and that marital status and breast self examination play major roles in treatment-seeking for breast cancer symptoms.